One-tank road trips: June 2009 Archives

On June 20, as part of the Gettysburg Festival, Gettysburg National Military Park will host the Wildcat Regiment Band and the 8th Regimental Band of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry for free public concerts at the park's Museum and Visitor Center.

For the first time at Gettysburg, the 8th Regimental Band of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry will perform at 11 a.m. in front of the Museum and Visitor Center and from 6 p.m. until sundown at the Pennsylvania Memorial.

The Harrisburg and Hershey Civil War Roundtables have scheduled a field trip to the battlefields of Petersburg, Virginia on October 3 and 4, 2009. Only twenty-five miles south of Richmond, Petersburg was the crucial communications center for the Confederate capital. For more than nine months, the city endured a Union siege, the longest in American warfare.

The Round Table tour will focus on the fighting in September and October of 1864, both north and south of the James River, visiting Fort Harrison, New Market Heights, Darbytown Road, and Second Fair Oaks on the Richmond sector and Poplar Spring Church, Squirrel Level Road, and First Hatcher's Run on the Petersburg sector. These operations gave the Federals excellent chances to capture one or both cities.

The historian guide will be Dr. Richard Sommers. He is currently Senior Historian at the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle. Dr. Sommers has numerous publications to his credit, including "Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg," a book that received the Bell I. Wiley Prize from the National Historical Society. years. He will speak at the Harrisburg Round Table's dinner-meeting in September on "Petersburg: The Strategic Siege" as a prelude to the field trip.

The price of the tour is $250 single occupancy, $200 double, $190 triple and $180 for quad. That includes deluxe bus transportation from pick-up points in Hershey and Harrisburg; a box lunch and dinner on Saturday; and continental breakfast on Sunday. To register contact Jim Negler, 141 Blacksmith Road, CampHill, PA 17011. Phone 717-761-6832 or email hjamesnegler@comcast.net.

Veteran National Park Service Ranger and author Troy Harman speaks to an enthusiastic crowd during his outstanding 2008 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. Photo by Scott Mingus for Cannonball.

The 2009 schedule has been announced by Katie Lawhon of the National Park Service.

Civil War reenacting and/or living history can be a rewarding (and expensive) hobby. I have known many reenactors and living historians over the past years who have spent more than $1000 on their gear, and that does not even count their weapon(s), which can run hundreds of dollars more. Throw in tents, camp supplies, and other possible expenditures, as well as participation fees, travel, food, etc. and the costs climb. I was lucky enough that someone gave me a living historian Union uniform, belt, forage hat, etc. that was no longer needed or wanted.

Perhaps the best thing of reenactments and living history presentations are the kids who attend, many of which (like my grandson) are wide-eyed at the chance to see (and talk with) the "soldiers," whether in blue, gray, or butternut.