The entrance way to the new multi-million dollar Visitors Center at the Gettysburg National Military Park was lined with hundreds of small American flags.

Background post - Restored Gettysburg Cyclorama to Reopen.

My oldest son and grandson spent Saturday afternoon, September 27, with me in Gettysburg at the new Gettysburg Visitors Center. We got tickets from the 3:15 showing of the "A New Birth of Freedom" movie (featuring the voices of Morgan Freeman and Sam Waterston, among others) and the restored Cyclorama. We took a few photographs to share with Cannonball readers.

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Author, editor and Licensed Battlefield Guide, Diana Loski, will speak to the Lancaster Civil War Round Table about the life and military career of Confederate General William Dorsey Pender at 7:00pm on Thursday, October 9th.

William Dorsey Pender was one of the youngest, and most promising, generals fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Pender commanded a division of the 3rd Corps under A.P. Hill at Gettysburg where he received shrapnel in his leg. His leg was amputated but he died on July 18, 1863.

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After an expensive renovation, the Gettysburg Cyclorama will be reopened for public viewing in its new custom-engineering theater within the new Gettysburg Visitors Center at Gettysburg National Military Park. I plan to see it in a couple of weeks, but don't plan to fight the crowds this Saturday (I will be at Dutch Wonderland with my grandson instead).

Many of you may not be aware that this particular painting is one of four very similar Gettysburg Cyclorama paintings done by the same overall artist and his team of assistants. There are also other Civil War cycloramas that were created in the same time period, including one depicting the Battle of Atlanta.

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The replanted Peach Orchard as seen from across the tree-lined swale on the George Rose farm at Gettysburg.

A few years ago, the National Park Service had all the trees cut down in the historic Sherfy Peach Orchard along Emmitsburg Road in the Gettysburg National Military Park. They applied nutrients to the soil and allowed the field to lay fallow for a couple of years before replanting fresh saplings. They also dramatically expanded the area covered by peach trees to more closely resemble the dimensions of the 1863 peach orchard that was defended by elements of Daniel Sickles' III Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac. The trees are maturing well, and nearly all have survived the Pennsylvania winter and the spring rains. In addition, the NPS has replanted nearly a dozen other historic orchards, including several along Emmitsburg Road (such as the Rose Farm just south of the Peach Orchard). This is part of the overall battlefield rehabilitation project that has drawn so much praise and criticism, depending upon one's environmental versus historical preservation mindset).

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Entrances to the new Gettysburg Visitors Center are now framed by wildflowers, making a colorful late summer scenic.

I spend most of a cloudy Saturday in Gettysburg, first stopping by several borough bookstores and souvenir shops to inscribe newly restocked supplies of my three human interest stories books. I then had a formal book signing at the Museum Gift Shop of the new Gettysburg Visitors Center. We sold 57 copies in a little more than four hours on a day when attendance was considerably lower than in the prime summer tourist season, so I was quite pleased with the results.

I took a few photos of the day to share...

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The Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Civil War Round Table is, once again, pleased to welcome historian and actor Patrick Falci to our Thursday, September 18, 2008 program., which will be held at 7:00 PM at the Lititz Public Library on Thursday, September 18th. Lancaster Civil War Round Table is free and open to the public. Anyone with an interest in the Civil War is welcome!

Come out and enjoy an evening with Patrick Falci! Registration for this free event is suggested by emailing your name, phone number and number attending to srihn@lititzlibrary.org or call the library at 626-2255. For more information, contact Micky Kraft at 392-4976, email lancastercivilwarroundtable@gmail.com.

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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.

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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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Background post: Stuart's Ride reenactment

Just a reminder that this event is coming up later this week! For more information, or to request "will call" tickets, please see their website.

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Background post: One-tank trips: Belle Grove Plantation.

Recently, author and blogger Eric J. Wittenberg posted an article about a sell-out by a previously well respected historical preservation group that traded the rights to mine historical property in exchange for a token piece of land that abuts their holdings (the original article follows). The sad tale reminded me of the ill-fated and illogical swap the National Park Service did with Gettysburg College a few years ago that forever ruined a key portion of the first day's battlefield at Gettysburg. Short-sighted, short-term thinking often clouds longer-term judgement, and we are left with a scarred landscape that can never be restored properly.

Here in York County, similar preservation efforts have been underway for years to try to save the Camp Security prisoner-of-war site from the American Revolution. Recently, the skirmish field at Wrightsville has been compromised by new construction, and other sites of interest to the historian are long gone in the name of "progress." I was in Kernstown, Virginia, last weekend and heartily applaud the efforts of the locals there in the last five years to band together to save, preserve, and interpret a key part of the three Kernstown battlefields, although much has already been lost.

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Background posts: Shenandoah battlefields, Winchester battlefields.

During my recent trip to the Shenandoah Valley, I stopped by the Cedar Creek Battlefield, site of the 1864 thrashing Phil Sheridan placed upon the forces of Jubal Early (which including a large number of regiments that had sojourned in York the previous summer during the Gettysburg Campaign). Early was initially winning the fight, highlighted by John B. Gordon's hard-hitting attack on Union camps on the Belle Grove plantation. Early was unable to capitalize on the morning's progress, and, after a stirring ride down the Valley Pike from Winchester, Phil Sheridan arrived and stabilized the Union line before launching a decisive counterattack.

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Pennsylvania monument on the eastern side of the New Market battlefield, just off of U.S. Route 11 (the Valley Pike)

Debi and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia. These are definitely the most spectacular caves I have ever toured! Very impressive indeed! They were discovered in the decade after the Civil War and were exploited to help draw tourists' dollars to the war-torn Luray Valley.

We drove back to our hotel in Winchester on U.S. Route 11, pausing at a few places to take in the Civil War scenery and various wayside markers. Among our early stops was the Battlefield of New Market, where I briefly took a few photos of a section of the battlefield I had not been to before. The New Market battlefield is well preserved, and is about three hours from York. There, the VMI cadets gained fame for their charge on Sigel's Yankees.

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Courtesy of Winchester-Frederick County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Used by permission.

Debi and I are spending the weekend in historic Winchester, Virginia, a town that changed hands during the Civil War more than seventy times. This area is rife with Civil War history and old battlefields, although few have been well preserved. First, Second, and Third Winchester are poorly preserved, although there are some nice parts such as Fort Collier and the Star Fort. Better preserved are the nearby First and Second Kernstown battlefields, parts of which are quite pristine.

Winchester is about two-and-a-half hours south of York in the scenic Shenandoah Valley just off of I-81. It's an easy drive, and there are many good hotels in the area for an overnight stay.

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