2013 Civil War Travelogues — Chambersburg Seminar & Savas–Beatie Author Conclave

Welcome to my 2013 travelogue pages, commemorating the third year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial! This report covers my July trip to the Chambersburg (PA) Chamber of Commerce Seminar, Gettysburg and Beyond, and the follow-on Savas–Beatie "Author Conclave" in Gettysburg and Antietam. To see the entire list of my 2013 trips, go here.

Here is a reminder about the reason I write these pages the way I do. They record my experiences and impressions of Civil War trips primarily for my future use. Thus, they sometimes make assumptions about things I already know and focus on insights that I receive. They are not general-purpose descriptions for people unfamiliar with the Civil War, although I do link to various Wikipedia articles throughout. Apologies about the quality of interior photographs—I don't take fancy cameras with big flashes to these events. If you would like to be notified of new travelogues, connect to me via Facebook.

Monday, July 22

This is my 15th trip to Gettysburg since 2004 and my third Chambersburg seminar. (Reports of the other two are here and here.)

An excellent early-morning flight on United Airlines to Dulles, then I drove to Chambersburg via Gettysburg. (The mapping services showed big tieups on Interstate 70 before Hagerstown, so I decided on the slightly longer scenic route.) The group is staying at the Four Points Sheraton, which is moderately nice, although I found that the WiFi coverage in my room is really lousy.

Tuesday, July 23

The first day started with an optional bus tour. I usually do sign up for these. Today's went to Winchester, Virginia, with Ed Bearss and Jerry Holsworth. It is about 60 miles from Chambersburg, down Interstate 81. We met Jerry at the visitor center, where I got to see a copy of Scott Patchan's new book about Third Winchester, and I was pleased to see that the maps I did for him printed out very nicely. Jerry took us on a walking tour of downtown, pointing out historic houses, particularly those of women who kept extensive diaries. (He also gave us his opinion on each of their appearances. Based on his judgment, there were one heck of a lot of hot women in Winchester during the war.) The downtown pedestrian street was recently spruced up and it is noticeably more attractive than on previous visits. Construction work is going on at the old Taylor hotel, which is finally being renovated, to be used as condominiums or something.

We visited the Courthouse Museum, which I think I have visited at least three times previously, so there is nothing new to say about that. We drove to the town cemetery, Mount Hebron, and visited the subsection that is designated for Confederates, with about 3000 graves, most of them unknown soldiers. The famous people that I recognized were Turner Ashby and a joint grave for the two Patton brothers, George S. Patton I and Taz. (The latter brother was played as a brief cameo by Ted Turner in the movie Gettysburg. He gave a hammy performance that showed him being shot in the chest and killed during Pickett's Charge, whereas Ed told us that he actually had his tongue shot out of his mouth and he died of starvation.) There is a separate federal cemetery for the Union soldiers and later veterans, which we passed by on the bus later in the day.

Lunch at Golden Corral, which is a decent buffet restaurant with a very large selection. I was pleased to be joined at lunch by Ed, who is still going strong at age 90. The afternoon was dedicated to the second battle of Winchester, an early battle in the Gettysburg campaign, and we started at Opequon Church in Kernstown. This did not have any role in the battle, but Ed used it as a location to talk about the approach of Confederates under Richard S. Ewell. Someone asked about Richard Garnett, who of course had nothing to do with this battle, but Ed replied by going over a good deal of the first battle of Kernstown from 1862.

Next we went to Bowers Hill. Despite at least three trips to Winchester, I had never visited this hill and I was impressed with the great view. Ewell observed part of the battle from here. Then we followed most of the course that Jubal Early's division took in his flanking march. We started on the Cedar Creek Grade and I was impressed with some of the magnificent properties that are in the shadow of Little North Mountain. We eventually ended up at a high school that overlooks the Pughtown Road (Route 522), from where we were able to see where the Confederate artillery was placed to bombard West Fort. We also had a good view of the location for the main fort, Fort Milroy, although Ed says there is nothing to see at either of those two locations. We did visit Star Fort, which has been nicely preserved on private property as low earthwork mounds. I think this part of the tour was just an extra because Star Fort played virtually no role in the second battle.

A personal highlight for me was visiting Stephenson's Depot, where my gallant ancestor, Cpl. Lucian Medbury of Company G, 18th Connecticut, was captured along with his whole regiment, and sent off to be POWs. (He was later exchanged and had no further combat action of which I am aware.) We followed Allegany Johnson's route to approach the depot and took a walk to the railroad-overpass bridge on Old Charleston Road. It is now a modern bridge, but it is in the same location. We finished up the tour by visiting the monument to Richard Snowden Andrew, a Confederate artillery officer who gallantly defended the bridge, an action that Robert E. Lee described as the Confederacy's Thermopylae.

We returned to the hotel about 6 PM and had dinner on our own. We convened in the hotel conference room at 8 PM for a dessert buffet, book sale/raffle, and presentation, introduced by Ted Alexander. The talk was The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg, given by Cooper Wingert. This guy is the author of multiple books about the Civil War in southeastern Pennsylvania and he is only 14 years old. I was simply astonished at how well spoken and professional his presentation was. (I would say that he is better than I am, even though I have almost 50 years more practice in public speaking of one type or another.) His presentation was well illustrated, thorough, and sprinkled with good-natured humor that kept the audience completely focused for an hour. He covered the call up of the militia forces, defenses of Harrisburg at Bridgeport Heights (Forts Washington and Couch), the Confederate plans, Albert Jenkins's cavalry foray, and the actions at Oysters Point, Sporting Hill, and Carlisle. I was very, very impressed with Cooper.

Wednesday, July 24

(The late hours of this conference are starting to catch up with me and I will not be uploading the photographs tonight. I will attempt to catch up over the course of the week.)

Today was a full day bus tour, Early's Advance to the Susquehanna, led by Scott Mingus and Ed Bearss. Scott, who is a friend of mine and one of my cartography clients, is the author of the definitive book on the subject, Flames beyond Gettysburg. Our first stop was at Caledonia Furnace, which was the ironworks built in 1837 by Thaddeus Stevens, the radical Republican. On June 26, 1863, Jubal Early destroyed many of the buildings in this large complex, primarily out of spite for Stevens's politics. This was despite Robert E. Lee's orders to avoid damage to civilian property. The complex employed 200 free black men, the largest concentration in Pennsylvania, whom Stevens retained on the payroll and looked after their basic needs. On June 23, advanced guard of the 14th Virginia Cavalry came within a couple of hours of capturing Stevens himself.

We drove to the NPS cabin on the Chambersburg Pike, where Scott gave us an overview of the militia call up in Pennsylvania. He highlighted the Union officer Granville Haller, who was subordinate to the department commander, Darius Couch, and who later became famous as one of the founders of the city of Seattle. His reluctance to accompany his men to the front raised accusations of cowardice, but his later political clout erased all of those and he received decades of back pay from his Army position. Scott described the 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia regiment as being composed of college students, boys, and old men. Company A was recruited from Gettysburg College. Scott told lots of interesting anecdotes during the day, and one of them was about how Louisiana Tigers brigade was forced to camp outside of Gettysburg on June 26 because Jubal Early did not trust them near civilians. There were stories that they went into town and beat up old men at the Wagon Hotel, and since the famous civilian John Burns was a regular at that hotel, Scott inferred that Burns's motivation on July 1 to pick up a weapon and fight was based in part on being beat up by the Louisianans.

From this point on, we followed Early's march to the Susquehanna, primarily along US 30. We took a detour to visit Hanover Junction, which is the rail junction and depot at which the railroad to Gettysburg splits off from the Northern Central Railroad. The latter railroad heads off to Harrisburg and goes as far north as Elmira, New York. This was not only a critical railroad junction for the transport of troops and supplies, but the third floor of the depot building was also used as a military telegraph school. The big event here was that Abraham Lincoln came through on his way to the Gettysburg address, and we spent some time talking about that and the photographs that have been taken that purportedly show him, but he never did get out of the train car, so they are mistaken. On June 27 there was an attack by the 35th Virginia Battalion against the defensive force of the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia. The militia men ran away and the Confederates burned everything around. After the battle of Gettysburg, 11,000 wounded men were cared for here briefly on their way to military hospitals.

In the town of York, we ate lunch at the Country Buffet, similar to the Golden Corral. Then we stopped in Penn Common and Scott gave us information about the history of the town, which goes back to Revolutionary times and was the location for the signing of the Articles of Confederation. This park was the site of a U.S. Army hospital and also served as an overflow for Camp Curtin, the big state recruiting depot. The 6th New York Cavalry also trained here, under Thomas Devin. Unlike Gettysburg, York was rather Copperhead in political sentiment. Scott told us about Henry Palmer, the military doctor who ran the hospital and was captured by John Gordon when he entered the town. Also, Arthur Briggs Farquhar, who was the young man who initially approached the Confederates about offering the town for surrender (and was an entrepreneur who later became a millionaire).

Then it was onto Wrightsville. By this time we were all in awe of the feat of marching that the Confederates achieved. Not only was it over 60 miles from Chambersburg to Wrightsville, the ground was very undulating and they were constantly marching up and down hills. (Scott dissed my favorite Civil War cartographer, Jedediah Hotchkiss, for neglecting to put contour lines on his map!) Then they had to march back, all in the space of five days, and jump right into the battle of Gettysburg. We saw the site of the famous covered bridge—the longest in the world—that crossed the Susquehanna over to the town of Columbia. The stone piers or footings are still there and the modern highway bridges right next to them. Oddly, Jubal Early had been burning his way across Pennsylvania, but although his orders from General Lee were to burn the bridge (to prevent any reinforcements from reaching the Union Army from Philadelphia), he chose to violate those orders and planned to cross over. If he had done so, the state capital of Harrisburg would have been doomed because there were no defensive units to speak of on the east side of the river. But when John Gordon's brigade shelled the Union defensive works, the primarily militia forces withdrew over the bridge and burned it behind them themselves.

A very ironic incident occurred. It seems that Frederick Douglass had recruited some of the African Americans from Wrightsville to join the famous 54th Massachusetts. (I had not known that this was not composed entirely of Massachusetts men.) Earlier in the month, that regiment had burned the town of Darien, Georgia. Here in Wrightsville, at least three regiments from that area of Georgia were among the Confederates who helped the black residents of the town put out the fires that might have destroyed their houses. They later lamented, "if only we had known..." After our session at the bridge, we drove across the river to Columbia and visited a tiny cemetery that had tombstones for a half dozen members of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts, all from this area.

We drove back on roughly the course that Jubal Early's division took on the way back to Gettysburg, following them all the way to Barlow's Knoll. We had one stop that was sort of odd. In Heidlersburg, we visited the spot that O'Neal's brigade of Rodes's division camped on the night of June 30. There is a small plot of land there that was deeded by the owner to the state of Alabama, and Scott maintains that this gives it special legal status as if they were actually part of that state for some purposes, like dying there. Then it was back to Chambersburg and we reached the hotel at six o'clock, tired but satisfied after a very interesting day.

After dinner, Ted Alexander led us in singing happy 90th birthday to Ed Bearss. Then Lance Herdegen gave a presentation on the Iron Brigade. He did not attempt to do any tactical descriptions, focusing primarily on photographs of the soldiers, the organization of the units, and their commanders, as well as a little bit about their reunions after the war. I did the maps for Lance's recent book on the brigade, so I'm sorry he did not display any of them on his PowerPoint slides. I was very pleased to see six or seven books for which I have done maps recently were on display for sale in meeting room.

Thursday, July 25

Today we were on the bus to Gettysburg. This is my 15th trip to my favorite destination. I joined a relatively small group to accompany Rick Eiserman, following the course of Hood's Texas brigade assault on July 2. Rick is a retired Army officer and the only thing I know about his background is that he had a senior position at the Military History Institute in Carlisle. He is working on a book about the Texas brigade with Susannah Ural, a professor whose work I have admired. The bus let us off at the picnic site near the Longstreet Tower and we discussed an overview of the brigade, including its order of battle, its history through the war, and its plan for July 2. Its commander at Gettysburg was Jerome Robertson—John Bell Hood was the division commander. We walked past the Bushman Farm and headed toward the Slyder Farm, where we discussed the actions of the 2nd US Sharpshooters in disrupting the coherent advance of the brigade. And then the terrain started to be a little rougher. Rick had warned us more than once about how difficult it was going to be, with wet grass, streams, rocks, ticks, etc. But I found the going to be rather trivial. I was smart enough to wear my hiking boots and long pants, and had no difficulty at all. There were some places where the grass was about 3 feet high. No sweat. Along the way we admired the results of some of the NPS tree removal projects, making it much easier to envision what the soldiers saw.

As we advanced in the direction of the triangle field, it became apparent that we were really following only one regiment of the brigade—the 1st Texas. (The 3rd Arkansas was in the Rose Woods off to our left, and the 4th and 5th TX were diverted to eventually hit Little Round Top.) Rick read us a number of accounts from soldiers and we discussed the fight against the 124th New York and Smith's 4th New York battery on Houck's Ridge. Then we met up with another tour group, which had been examining the 20th Maine on Little Round Top, and since both had finished a bit early, we jumped on the bus and drove to the Peach Orchard, where Ed Bearss and Jeff Wert described the assaults of Barksdale's Mississippians. Extra credit, I guess.

We were free for the afternoon to roam around Gettysburg (on foot). I had lunch at my favorite Italian/pizza restaurant, Bella Italia, and wandered around a number of the used bookstores and memorabilia shops on Baltimore Street and Steinwehr Ave. Then I hiked over to Ziegler's Grove to see the site where the old Cyclorama building had been demolished. It was amazing to see how pristine the site looks now—you would never know a large building had been there just a few months ago.

After dinner on our own, we had more sessions in the hotel meeting room. First was Scott Hartwig, “In my opinion the army will never be made up of such material again” - The Army of Northern Virginia and the Battle of Gettysburg. Scott examined whether Gettysburg was a decisive battle and/or a turning point. He gave us a lot of data about casualties and the telling summary was that Lee went into the battle with 80,000 men and on July 31, he had 41,000 present for duty. And those men were deserting or going AWOL in distressing numbers. He looked at the comments about the battle by Lee, Jefferson Davis, various Confederate officers, and the letters of regular soldiers to determine the Confederate reaction. (Gary Gallagher has written that the Confederate Army was generally positive about the battle, but Scott thinks he relied too much on the writing of officers, who have an innate disposition to look on the sunny side of things.) Scott's bottom line is summarized by saying that Lee and the Army recovered from his loss, but he never really got out from underneath the shadow of Gettysburg. Although the battle was a turning point, it was not the turning point, except for Lee personally. One thing I found particularly interesting was Scott's statement that he considers the Busey and Martin work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, to be definitive. I have fought many a battle in Wikipedia where people have challenged the use of this source.

There were two more sessions, but I bowed out at 8:30 PM. (These 13/14-hour days are really long, particularly when there is a lot of bus riding and battlefield tramping involved.) They were J.D. Petruzzi, General John Buford: Hero of Gettysburg, and an insomniac session with Ed Bearss and friends, Gettysburg: What if? I hope that Friday's later start time will allow me to retain a bit more stamina.

Friday, July 26

We spent the day in lectures at Wilson College, which is a beautiful little campus started in 1869 and has lots of interesting Victorian stone buildings. I was told it is a women's college, but it will soon be turning coed. We had to select from a large menu of choices, each an hour, and I was able to go to six of these. Here is the full list, from the conference program (with my six highlighted):

• “Gettysburg in 3–D” - Bob Zeller. This is a fascinating program by one of the leading authorities on Civil War photography.
• “Confederate and Union Uniforms, Weapons and Equipment at Gettysburg” K.C. Kirkman and Keven Walker. Find out about material culture of both sides by two experts in the field.
• “Pickett’s Charge: Beyond the Myths”– Matt Atkinson. Our speaker will discuss the myths and realities of one of the worst tactical debacles of the Civil War.
• “Lincoln at Gettysburg, 24 Hours That Made History” - Elwood Christ. Our speaker will describe how Lincoln’s address left its mark on both U.S. and world history.
• “Lee at Gettysburg” – Jeffry Wert. A Pulitzer-Prize nominee examines the role of the “Marble Man” in that fateful summer of 1863.
• “Gettysburg at Arlington” – Rich Kohr. Explore the many connections between Gettysburg and Arlington National Cemetery; the obvious, the obscure and some surprises.
• “Gettysburg’s Forgotten Corps Commander: General George Sykes and the Fifth Corps” – John Hoptak. The author of a new book on the battle presents his research on an often overlooked hero and his command.
• “Gettysburg Monuments” - Steve Recker. A great visual presentation from the producer of “Virtual Gettysburg.”
• “Reading Gettysburg: The Battle Literature” - panel discussion with various speakers.
• “Longstreet at Gettysburg” - Richard DiNardo. A look at the great general who was viewed as a scapegoat for Confederate defeat.
• “Lincoln in 1863” - Mark Neely. Lincoln faced many challenges in 1863, including implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation, finding a general who could win and more. Listen as one of the nation’s top Lincoln scholars explains those challenges.
• “The Evolution of Medical Battlefield Evacuation: Antietam – Gettysburg” – Gordon Damman. Find out how the Union “Letterman Plan” evolved during the ten months from Antietam, through Fredericksburg andChancellorsville to the culmination at Gettysburg.
• "Who is Georgianna Stauffer? Why Should We Care?" – Louise-Arnold-Friend. Jacob and Georgianna Stauffer lived in Gettysburg. They had married immediately before the Civil War. By 1863, he was in the field as a soldier and she a young mother caring for two children at home. Their lives were inexorably altered by the battle at Gettysburg. Do not miss this intriguing story.
• “Extra Billy Smith: From Virginia's Statehouse to Gettysburg Scapegoat... And Back Again” - Scott Mingus. William "Extra Billy" Smith was one of the South's most colorful characters. He made and spent several fortunes, spent 5 terms in the U.S. Congress and one in the Confederate Congress, and was the oldest CSA general at Gettysburg. His controversial actions on July 1 influenced Confederate fortunes that day.
• “Railroad Operations During the Gettysburg Campaign” – Daniel Carroll Toomey. Before, during, and after the three-day battle at Gettysburg, railroads were a key element in General Robert E. Lee’s offensive operations and the Union’s counter measures. Don’t miss fresh insights by author of the newly published book, “The War Came by Train.”
• "First Risk. Last Risk: Lee as a River Gambler" – Dennis Frye. The Potomac River figured significantly in General Lee's second invasion of the North. Discover how he gambled with the Potomac - both going to and returning from Pennsylvania.
• "Meade's Main Men: Federal Corps and Wing Commanders in the Gettysburg Campaign" - Richard Sommers. This presentation will summarize the careers and analyze the generalship of sixteen officers who commanded corps or wings in the Union Army during the Gettysburg Campaign.
• “Train Ride to the River of Death: Hood's Brigade and Chickamauga” - Rick Eiserman. Just two months after Gettysburg, two divisions of Longstreet's Corps - including Hood's Texas Brigade - boarded trains in Richmond and rode 950 miles over an outdated Southern rail system to fight in the bloody battle of Chickamauga. Hear the story of the planning and execution of the largest rail movement of troops at its time.

My first session was Matt Atkinson on Pickett's Charge. Although it was billed as dealing with myths, he didn't really cover any. He discussed a number of aspects related to the charge, other than the charge itself. He talked about the planning process, how it should have occurred at 10 AM in conjunction with Ewell's attack, and how General Lee originally wanted the divisions of McLaws and Hood to attack along with Pickett, generally along the same axis that was used on July 2. He was relatively critical of James Longstreet's inadequate tactical planning, and of course his attitude, which made clear to everyone that he did not support the plan. However, criticism was leveled at Lee as well, because he bore overall responsibility and did not provide adequate control over Longstreet. Matt is a rather humorous guy and his presentation was enjoyable.

Next was Jeff Wert on Longstreet. He talked about the reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia after the battle of Chancellorsville and Lee's objectives in Pennsylvania. He supported Lee's decision to attack on July 2. He addressed the faulty reconnaissance of Samuel Johnston, giving his personal opinion that Johnston had actually reached Bushman Hill, rather than Little Round Top, so it is understandable that he saw no Union troops. He said that Lee did not defeat the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville—he defeated its commander. So Lee's belief that his army could do anything he asked of it was not justifiable. On the subject of Lee's health, he indicated that stories of diarrhea and heart conditions are not directly documented, although he said that doctors who heard about Lee's behavior had recently told him that Lee had probably had a massive heart attack a few months earlier. He also talked about the artillery barrage before Pickett's Charge and why it was ineffective.

John Hoptak gave a biography of George Sykes, the V Corps commander at Gettysburg. I was interested to meet John because I did maps for his recent book about Gettysburg, published by the History Press. (These were actually black and white conversions of my free Wikipedia maps, so not my finest work nowadays.) Sykes is the only corps commander who does not have a statue at Gettysburg. No one has written a biography of him and he left no memoirs and only a few letters. He was a strict disciplinarian, popular with the regulars, but not the volunteer soldiers. His nickname was Tardy George, but this was awarded to him at West Point and was not related to his conduct at Gettysburg. Nevertheless, there are those who have insinuated that at Gettysburg he was in over his head and too slow to respond on July 2. Some accused him of allowing his soldiers to brew coffee before they went in relief of Little Round Top, but Sykes strongly refuted those claims. After the reorganization of the army in March of 1864, he lost his corps command and was sent to Kansas, although there is a possibility this was related to health concerns. His lack of a strong legacy may be related to his association earlier in the war with George B. McClellan and the court-martialed Fitz John Porter.

The panel discussion on Gettysburg books was conducted by Lance, Jeff, JD, Ed, Ted, and Matt. Although a lot of book titles were thrown around, there were a few common threads. On the most influential, general-purpose books about Gettysburg, the two most frequently cited were Edwin Coddington's Gettysburg Campaign (which Ed Bearss considers his Bible) and Michael Schaara's The Killer Angels. Ed said that when the paperback edition of the latter was published, there was a dramatic increase in interest in Gettysburg, the average age of tourists on the battlefield went down about 15 years, and the number of female visitors rose over 50%. In the category of more specialized or microtactical books, multiple people mentioned Greg Coco's A Strange and Blighted Land, all of Harry Pfanz's books, Jay Jorgensen's Bloody Wheatfield, and Gettysburg Magazine, particularly the series by Edwin Fischel on intelligence in the Union Army. (There is a rumor going around the conference that the magazine has gone out of business, but even Ed does not know for sure. He did say that he has not received any articles for review recently.) Someone in the audience asked about the worst Gettysburg books, and the strong panel favorite here was the book by Tom Carhart on Custer at Gettysburg.

Rick DiNardo gave a relatively brief presentation about James Longstreet. One of Old Pete's good qualities was that he was able to profit from experience. Rick thought that his attitude problems at Gettysburg were part of the customary practice of questioning decisions from the commander until the final order is given.

Scott Mingus had a boatload of material about William "Extra Billy" Smith, based on his biography, for which I drew the maps. Scott graciously identified me as the cartographer each time he showed a map. Smith was a very unusual character, both as a general—the oldest one at Gettysburg, at age 65—and as a businessman and politician in Virginia.

My final session was with Dennis Frye. He offered two very interesting scenarios involving the Potomac River and the Gettysburg campaign. First, he contrasted Lee's 1862 northern invasion with the 1863. In the former, Lee made it a point to cross the Potomac relatively close to Washington, ostentatiously doing it under Union observation, essentially challenging the Union Army to do anything about it. Then he got to Frederick in Maryland and halted. In 1863, however, stealth and speed were the watchwords. He snuck behind the Blue Ridge Mountains and moved rapidly into Pennsylvania following the river crossing. Anyway, regarding the scenarios: on June 24, Gouverneur K. Warren wrote a memo to Joseph Hooker, then commanding the Army of the Potomac, suggesting that instead of following Lee on a parallel course, the Army should move directly to Harpers Ferry, which was not only faster, but it would allow them to threaten Lee's rear and supply line. Hooker bought into this suggestion, but submitted his resignation when Halleck and Lincoln would not let him do it. The second scenario was at the end of the campaign. George Meade considered crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry using the railroad bridge, which he hoped was still intact. Having done this, he could send cavalry to block Lee's retreat up the Valley. His backup plan was to order pontoon bridges to be shipped from Washington, and in fact they were delivered on July 7, although Meade inexplicably did not order them to be assembled. It turned out that the railroad bridge had been destroyed by the Union troops who were ordered to abandon Harpers Ferry on June 28. Meade focused instead on Lee's strong defensive position at Williamsport and did not get around to ordering the pontoons to be deployed until July 14, which by then was too late to catch Lee. I had not heard either of these stories previously, so this was pretty interesting for me.

We had a very nice catered dinner and the evening concluded with a giant raffle and auction for battlefield preservation, which together raised about $4700. I was back at the hotel in time to rest up for a grueling day tomorrow.

Saturday, July 27

Our final day is going to be a long one. It started with an all-day bus tour, “The Retreat: Imboden’s Wagon Train of Wounded, the Battle of Falling Waters and Monterey Pass” with Steve French, John Miller, and George Franks. Steve was our first guide, taking us on the route of John Imboden and his wagon train of wounded. We drove to Cashtown, which was his headquarters on July 5, and then headed west on the old road. He had 1200 wagons in his train, extending over 17 miles, and we heard all about how miserable the experience was for the wounded, driving in wagons without suspensions over rugged, muddy roads at about 2 miles an hour. Rather than going directly into Chambersburg, he (and we) went on a shortcut called the Pine Stump Road, which Steve said happened to be the worst road in Franklin County at the time. On the way into Greencastle, we passed by the monument to William Rihl, who was killed on June 22, the first Union soldier to fall north of the Mason Dixon line, at the Fleming farm. In Greencastle, we heard about the attack on the wagon train by local civilians, who descended on the wagons with axes.

At Cearfoss, which was called Cunningham Cross Roads at the time, Steve described the biggest attack on the wagon train, in which 900 men were captured. We drove to Williamsport and walked down through the C&O Canal National Park to the Potomac, to see the site of Light's Ford, which was Imboden's target to get his men into Virginia. Then we walked a ways to see the confluence of the Potomac and the Conococheague (which is apparently pronounced conoco-jig), where Ewell's corps crossed; we actually stood where Rodes's division waded across. Then we drove to Falling Waters, West Virginia, where the bulk of Lee's Army crossed. We only stayed a few minutes and could not get down to the water because it is private property, littered with old RVs. But we heard about the pontoon bridge here that was destroyed by Union troops on July 4, temporarily trapping Lee in Maryland, until the bridge was rebuilt the night of July 13. Hill's and Longstreet's corps crossed here on the bridge, along with the artillery, and the remaining wagons.

Then it was back into Maryland to the Donnelly House, where we were met by George Franks, the owner of the property and the author of a recent book on the Battle of Falling Waters. We stood on a noticeable ridge and saw where 1500 Confederate troops in the rear guard of Henry Heth's division were attacked on horseback by two companies of the 6th Michigan cavalry, commanded by George Armstrong Custer. They suffered 50% casualties. We saw where J. Johnston Pettigrew was mortally wounded; although he had survived Pickett's Charge, he died a few days later in Virginia.

We drove to Waynesboro and had lunch at a semi-Chinese buffet called 85 Spices. At this point it was announced that our bus had a mechanical problem and we had to wait for a replacement, but this only held us back for about 30 minutes. Our final stop was in Monterey Pass, where we were met by John Miller of the local battlefield preservation group. I was sort of amused to see that they were using one of my Wikipedia maps in signage and handouts, but less amused when I found they were selling a booklet including my copyrighted map (modified slightly with some additional text labels) without attribution. Monterey Pass is the location in which Ewell's supply wagons and ammunition train were attacked by Union cavalry in a nighttime battle on July 4–5. It was unfortunate that a heavy rainstorm dropped on us just as we got out of the bus, so most of our visit was done with commentary inside the bus alone. We drove to the little town of Leitersburg, which represented the farthest extent of the attack. Although Monterey Pass is a relatively small area, by extending it to Leitersburg we could see that the line of wagons burned or otherwise destroyed by the Union was over 9 miles long. The weather cleared little bit and we took a short hike on the Maria Furnace Road.

We did not return to the hotel, but went directly to the Gettysburg visitor center, where we had a nice buffet dinner, followed by a brief visit to the museum and a viewing of the regular introductory movie about the battle, narrated by Morgan Freeman. I enjoyed the movie, which I've seen three or four times, but there was some grumbling in the crowd about how little of the time spent was actually about the battle. Sue Boardman did a PowerPoint presentation about the history of the cyclorama and its recent restoration. Then we went upstairs and she gave us a detailed look at a lot of the details of the painting (which was a lot more interesting than the regular cyclorama audio presentation that most visitors hear). We got back to the hotel about 10:30 PM, a long and productive day.

I am moving on to Gettysburg Sunday for the Savas-Beatie Author Conclave and will continue this travelogue to include that. But let me say that I enjoyed another Chambersburg seminar, which was well organized as usual, and brought together a lot of interesting content, as well as a lot of interesting people. I hope to be able to do another one someday.

Sunday, July 28

This morning I transferred myself to the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg for the three day Savas–Beatie "Author Conclave". (I selected this because other attendees were staying there. It is by far the nicest Gettysburg hotel I've ever stayed in, although it is a tad inconvenient, being about 3 miles to the east of town.) Our first session was at the 24th Michigan monument on the first day's battlefield, with Lance Herdegen doing a presentation about Archer's brigade being repulsed by the Iron Brigade. This was not a typical battlefield tour because Lance had an injured foot and stayed seated the entire time. His presentation consisted primarily of soldier anecdotes, but he talked about John F. Reynolds (disliked by the soldiers in the Iron Brigade), the various theories of how he was killed, the capture of General Archer, and how the 2nd Wisconsin was hit by the first rifle volley, knocking out 30% of their strength. One interesting anecdote, although grisly, was about a man named Albert Woods, whose cartridge box was hit by a bullet and exploded. JD Petruzzi volunteered to lead us down to Willoughby Run, where such significant fighting occurred. I was impressed by the steep slope the Confederates had to climb up from the creek bottom.

The best thing about the conclave is how many authors I have met. Here is a list from the three-day event, annotated (*) with the ones I have worked with to produce maps for their books: Lance Herdegen(*), Matt Lively(*), Scott Patchan(*), Scott Mingus(*), JD Petruzzi, Frank Varney(*), Brian Jordan, Dave Powell(*), Dean Shultz, David Shultz, Eric Wittenberg(*), Harry Smeltzer, Wythe Holt(*), Mike Cobb(*), George Newton, Steve Stanley, Charlie Knight, Jim Hessler, Gene Schmiel(*), Tom Clemens, Brad Graham, Jim Morgan, and of course Ted Savas.

After lunch with Ted, Dave, Scott, and Harry, the group (about 40 people—the event was open to the general public, although they did not have an exhaustive publicity campaign) met again at the railroad cut, and Lance continued with his story of the Iron Brigade. Once again, heavy on soldier anecdotes. He said that Rufus Dawes had the best memoir of the war and his regiment, the 6th Wisconsin, experienced the pinnacle of their war service at the cut. He also opined that John Reynolds exercised poor judgment in committing these troops to battle when he did, knowing that the first relief force was at least an hour's march away.

We relocated to the High Water Mark monument, where George Newton, a licensed battlefield guide and the author of Silent Sentinels, gave us a presentation on the artillery bombardment of July 3. He pointed out the line of Confederate cannons to us and a number of us were taken by surprise that it was as close as it is, about 650 yards. He discussed the controversies over the length of the bombardment, which range from 30 minutes to three hours, and he seems most comfortable with E.P. Alexander's estimate of one hour. He talked about the problems with bad fuses on the Confederate artillery shells and said that all of the field artillery cannons had an effective range in combat of only 11–1200 yards. He described the actions of Henry J. Hunt and went into some details about the actions of the Union batteries led by Cushing and Cowan. A big argument erupted in the crowd about the Confederate placement of only seven guns on Benner's Hill, and whether they had sufficient range to do anything useful. (George said yes.)

For dinner a lot of the authors met at O'Rorke's bar/restaurant and I had a great time interacting with many of them. A local couple brought their cute dog, Fanny, to visit. She is named after Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's wife, although she is dressed for a different era. She is a show dog, so was not nervous about all of the people.

Monday, July 29

Today was primarily cavalry day. Our giant caravan of cars—people always call for carpooling, but it never seems to occur—drove to Knoxlyn Ridge and we met at the Ephraim Whistler house, where the first shot was fired on July 1 by Union Lieut. Marcellus Jones. JD Petruzzi gave us a background of the previous few days in the campaign, including the Confederate visit to Gettysburg on June 26, the movements of the left wing under John F. Reynolds and John Buford, and the Pettigrew shoe expedition on June 30. He described the arc of vedettes that stretched from the Fairfield Road for 7.2 miles, and how this line interacted with the reserve line of dismounted cavalry on Herr's Ridge to the east. Then we drove to the Buford statue on McPherson's Ridge and he and Eric Wittenberg described Buford's background and the positions of artillery on the morning of July 1.

Then we headed south and met Eric at the William Wells statue on S. Confederate Ave., near Big Round Top, for a discussion of the July 3 action in "South Cavalry Field." He gave us personal backgrounds on Elon J. Farnsworth, Alfred Pleasonton, Judson Kilpatrick, and Maj. William Wells, who is the secondmost junior officer to have a monument on the field (a cavalry lieutenant in East Cavalry Field is the most junior). We took a hike on Kilpatrick Avenue, which is actually a narrow bridal path that goes to the Slyder Farm. We passed by the 1st Vermont Cavalry monument, which is approximately where Farnsworth was killed, as well as one of the half-dozen witness trees on the battlefield, which we were sad to see had just died and was marked for removal. At the Slyder Farm, Eric revealed that the farmhouse was used in the movie Gettysburg to represent Lee's headquarters. The real one is on the Chambersburg Pike as part of an motel, but they look very similar. Back at the Vermont monument, I observed that the Park Service program of removing trees has made a big difference in interpreting the spot, including the revelation of a declivity that had been hidden in the woods, and was the line from which the Confederates popped up and fired on Farnsworth. He said that in the late 90s there was an effort to erect a monument to Farnsworth, but the Park Service told him that they did not want additional monuments on the battlefield. Eric also covered Wesley Merritt's actions around the Emmitsburg Road and engaged in a what-if about a coordinated cavalry action that might have seriously disrupted the Confederate rear area. He also criticized Alfred Pleasonton for his uncoordinated actions July 5–15.

After lunch we met Dave Shultz on Sickles Avenue, where he gave a presentation that started out talking about the importance of Pitzer's Woods, although he never really demonstrated that that I could tell. The overall theme of his talk was about Sickles's actions on July 2, of which he seemed to be relatively sympathetic. He was also critical of George Meade for disregarding the potential threat on his left flank. He also made a claim of which I was unfamiliar, that Henry J. Hunt actually placed two artillery batteries on the high ground around the Peach Orchard and asked for infantry support before Sickles moved his men.

Back to the cavalry, we drove to East Cavalry Field and met on Cress Ridge, where Eric led us through the battle there. We stopped as well at the 1st New Jersey monument, where we discussed the dismounted fight for the Rummel farm, and the Michigan monument, for Custer's big charge and the conclusion of the battle. We had a lengthy discussion criticizing the work of Tom Carhart, who claimed that Lee intended for Stuart to attack into the rear of the Union along with Pickett's Charge, and concluded that Lee was merely concerned about his left flank, not arranging a coordinated attack. (If such an attack had been ordered, Stuart would have undoubtedly attacked again and again, rather than withdrawing after his first setback.)

Ted and Sarah invited me to the author dinner that night, which was held at Mamma Ventura's, right off the square in downtown Gettysburg. I had a great time talking primarily with Scott Mingus and Brian Jordan and really appreciate being included in a distinguished guest list.

Tuesday, July 30

We started at the South Mountain Inn in Boonsboro, right at Turner's Gap in South Mountain. Here Tom Clemens gave us an overview of the Antietam campaign leading up to the battle of South Mountain. The Inn was D.H. Hill's headquarters during the battle. It was later owned by the widow of Adm. John Dahlgren, Madeleine. Walking up the hill for a nice view to the east, Tom described the Union approach and he also debunked the famous story about how the Iron Brigade got its name. He mentioned that there were three other units in the war that used the same name. (I personally am of the school that calls these famous Westerners The Iron Brigade, using names such as the "Eastern Iron Brigade" to represent the New Yorkers, etc.) We took a hike for 1 mile on the Appalachian Trail, heading south along the top of the ridge, where we ended up at Wise's North Field, at Fox's Gap. This was not a bad trail, but it is amazing to think about wheeling artillery along it. During the war, it was often referred to as Wood Road.

Tom described the battle here, aided in a few places by alternative opinions from Gene Schmiel, who has written a biography of Jacob Cox (not published yet, but it includes my maps). We visited the Jesse Reno monument and also the North Carolina monument, the latter having been installed recently using a design by Gary Casteel (the sculptor who designed the unusual Longstreet statue at Gettysburg). There was a small monument to Samuel Garland, the Confederate general killed in the battle. Tom told us about the original attempt to erect a monument to him. Madeleine Dahlgren also owned this property and she politely but firmly refused to allow a monument to a Confederate soldier to be erected here while she was alive.

We drove to the Antietam battlefield visitor center, and along the way I stopped for a delicious turkey club wrap at the Battlefield Market. Here Tom gave us an overview of the next part of the Maryland campaign, leading up to the battle. He criticized the common practice of describing the battle as a three-phase affair, morning, noon, and afternoon (which is the way I did it in Wikipedia), describing all of the time overlaps that make this inaccurate. His theory is that Lee did not intend to give battle at Antietam, but rather to move once his army was concentrated; his evidence is that Lee did not entrench. Tom had less than two hours to present something about Antietam, so he chose the actions in the West Woods after the departure of Sedgwick. (In responding to questions, he actually spent a lot of time on Sedgwick's attack as well.) We hiked over to the West Woods and passed by the Philadelphia Brigade monument. Tom told us that because the War Department and later the Park Service originally owned such a small amount of land on the battlefield, this parklike setting dominated the public perception of the West Woods, although almost all of the real fighting occurred to the west. So we walked over there, where the Hagerstown Pike bypass cuts right through the area of fighting. In this area, Ezra Carman originally laid out a Confederate Avenue, but it is no longer there. We stopped at the 15th Massachusetts monument, which depicts a mortally wounded lion fighting back fiercely, which was in the center of the area that was the focus of the fighting here. We hiked over to the woods behind the Dunker Church and Tom described George S. Greene's brigade advancing to and halting in this area.

Unfortunately, at this point I had to bail out in order to get my late afternoon flight at Dulles. So I missed about 10 minutes of Tom and the final stop of the day, which was Jim Morgan at Ball's Bluff.

I had a great experience with the Savas-Beatie authors and hope that I will be invited to future similar events. My compliments to Sarah Keeney for her excellent planning and logistical management of the event.

My next trip starts on October 3, the Mosby Heritage Area Association annual seminar. See you then.