Dignitaries, politicians, reporters, and soldiers all appear in this November 1863 photograph (courtesy of the Library of Congress). Taken facing north at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, it shows a part of the crowd that have arrived with Governor Andrew Curtin (R-PA) as the delegation changed trains at Hanover Junction to head west for Gettysburg and the dedication ceremonies for the new National Cemetery.
Among the people at Hanover Junction that day was a northern Ohio infantry captain named Azor H. Nickerson. Badly wounded on Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg, the 8th Ohio officer had spent four months in various field hospitals and Camp Letterman before being allowed to travel back home to recuperate. November found him in Washington D.C. awaiting a medical decision on when he could return to active duty. Nickerson decided to go to Gettysburg for the dedication of the cemetery, so he took a train to Baltimore, switched there to the Northern Central Railway, and then rode up to Hanover Junction, where he managed to get onto Governor Curtin's train and kibbitz with him and other leading politicians of the day.
The future Wild West Indian fighter left one of the few descriptions of his brief time at Hanover Junction and the ensuing train ride through Hanover to Gettysburg. Here is a portion of his out-of-print account from the popular 19th century magazine, Scribner's.
