Micky Kraft sent me a press release today. She encourages area Civil War buffs to Join the Lancaster Civil War Round Table on October 4, 2008, for a full day of exploration in Gettysburg, featuring several well known guides and tour leaders.
It was the hot summer of 1968. My parents decided to take a family vacation to Pennsylvania, a state I had never visited. We packed our suitcases in my Dad's cream-colored Ford Falcon and headed across Ohio through Wheeling WV and into the Keystone State. After hours of driving, we stopped at Chambersburg's Travelodge for the night. I could barely sleep, knowing that tomorrow I would see fabled Gettysburg for the first time! Vision of statues and monuments danced in my head, and I had prepared for this almost spiritual experience by reading and re-reading all my copies of Civil War Times Illustrated and every ACW book in the local East Fultonham, Ohio, branch of John McIntyre Library.
In the morning, Dad drove eastward from Chambersburg across South Mountain and approached Gettysburg in the early morning fog. My heart leaped...
Several descendants of Michigan Brigade soldiers and other interested persons donated money to acquire a small piece of land at Hunterstown and erect one of the country's newest Civil War monuments. This marble slab and bronze relief is dedicated to Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who led the Michigan Brigade (the "Michigan Wolverines") into action at Hunterstown against the troops of Wade Hampton III of the Confederate cavalry during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Veteran National Park Service Ranger and author Troy Harman speaks to an enthusiastic crowd during his outstanding battlewalk of the seldom visited, seldom discussed fight on Brinkerhoff's Ridge along Hanover Road (Route 116) between the main Gettysburg Battlefield and East Cavalry Field.
Huge crowds attended today's first two battlewalks on this the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. National Park Service Ranger Eric Campbell leads a two-hour walking tour of Cemetery Ridge examining the actions and movements of Union Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock during the second day of the battle.
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