Ten Roads

State of the Union

2009-01-18T17:26:00.002-05:00

Well... here we are... January 2009. I hope everyone is doing well. I personally am dealing with the trials and tribulations of senior year of high school, including but not limited to applying to college. Most of you have probably not had to do this for some years now, so let me just tell you that it's not enjoyable in the least bit. It's the epitome of stressful, in fact. Which leads me to my next paragraph...
Being part of the Civil War blogging community taught me a lot of things. I learned that there's a lot of support out there if you seek it. I also learned that military history is not for me, that I'm much more interested in the social and material aspects of the Civil War. I learned that a lot of young historians are wise beyond their years, and that a lot of older historians act like children at times. I found this to be particularly difficult to deal with and is in fact probably the reason for the initial hiatus of Ten Roads; to put it simply, I had enough drama in my own life (I am, after all, a teenage girl) that I didn't feel like dealing with all of the drama around here.
Time has passed and I continue feeling that way. I am going to officially say now that I do not plan to continue Ten Roads any longer. I perhaps will start anew at some point, and you definitely will hear from me and about me when I begin future endeavors. I thank you for reading Ten Roads and for all of the help and encouragement many of you have given me.

Feel free to keep in touch! Emails are always lovely.

Dedication Day 2008

2008-11-20T20:55:00.002-05:00

Click here to view the video I took of Ken Burns' speech at the Soldiers National Cemetery on November 19th, 2008.

I was helping out the Civil War Institute, so I was "behind the scenes," thus this video is at a somewhat unique angle.

Oh boy.

2008-08-31T10:55:00.003-04:00

Park Service to charge museum admission fee.

In reality, it is a better deal for the visitors. Currently the film is $8 and the proposed cost for the film + Cyclorama is $12. $7.50 is obviously a lot cheaper. However, something just bothers me about the museum requiring a fee. This will also cause ticketing to be backed up, causing people to decide against standing in line. That's what happened when we had the tickets for the museum but still weren't charging. We lost a lot of visitors then, in my opinion. Hopefully all of this works out with minimal hassle for visitors and minimal hassle for the Foundation staff.

Witness tree damaged

2008-08-09T13:25:00.002-04:00

Here is the article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Oddly enough, I don't remember it storming on Thursday. I must really not be paying attention anymore.

I've come to a conclusion...

2008-08-06T21:25:00.003-04:00

I absolutely despise all of the pointless sectarianism involved in academia, especially the study of the Civil War. It's gotten to the point where other people's opinions are annoying me, which is not something that happens typically and it bothers me. For this reason, I'm going to take a break from this for a short while, probably a few weeks. Besides, I will be busy with some freelance stuff and going back to school. I don't want to wind up hating what I actually love doing, you know?

"Which is Which?"

2008-07-26T13:00:00.003-04:00

The good thing about working on this newspapers project for the CWI Office/Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is that occasionally I come across interesting and/or amusing items. Here is an article from the Philadelphia Press, January 19, 1861.

Which is Which?
The blunders of the English journals, when American topics are discussed, are frequent and amusing. At one time English editors declare that the President of the United States is elected by the rowdies of New York; at another, they acknowledge Mr. Bennett's Herald to be reliable and respectable; anon, they discourse of Ohio as margined by the Atlantic, and so on. We have now to notice their latest and most amusing error.
A London periodical, entitled "Once a Week," commenced eighteen months ago, to rival Dickens' "All the Year Round," has an article, in its number for December 29, called "Abraham Lincoln, President Elect of the United States." It commences thus, biographically.
"'Honest Old Abe,' as the Americans call Lincoln, was originally a farm-laborer in Illinois. Frederick Douglas, 'the Little Giant,' his defeated antagonist, was a cabinet maker."
Here be two pieces of exclusive news - that Frederick Douglass, the negro, was the political antagonist of Mr. Lincoln, and that the said Frederick bears the sobriquet of "the Little Giant." In the innocence of our heart, we always thought that, not Frederick Douglass, but Stephen A. Douglas, stood in that position, and bore that familiar sobriquet. Moreover, we were certain - until corrected in our belief by "Once a Week," - that Stephen A. Douglas is a white man, instead of a black.
The English editor cannot plead, in extenuation, that Frederick was a slip of the pen, for a dozen lines lower down, he describes what Frederick Douglass said of Mr. Lincoln "in one of his stump speeches, when lately itinerating the northwest provinces." He adds that in 1858 this self-same "Frederick" was elected Senator for Illinois, and that the New York Tribune is a "religious" paper. Nothing can be said to excuse the ignorance of a writer who confounds black and white in this odd manner - who supposes a negro eligible for the Presidency - and who speaks of the States of the Union as provinces. To carry on the joke, this very facetious and accurate English writer brags of his personal knowledge of America, its institutions, its people, its politics. "I," he says, "who have stood for hours and days watching the boatmen of these rivers [the Wabash and the Mississippi] know how laborious is their life," he alludes to the boatmen and so on. All this comes from people writing boldly about matters with which they are almost unacquainted. Not otherwise could any person have blundered so palpably as to confound the Hon. S.A. Douglas, the patriotic and eloquent Senator for Illinois, with Frederick Douglass, the negro.

"The tube returneth."

2008-07-25T20:57:00.003-04:00

That tube thing returned to the square today. It, of course, got stuck again. It took slightly less time for the authorities to move it since they've had practice now, but it still backed up traffic for quite a while. I found it very amusing that they did not learn their lesson the last time. Also, I still do not know what the hell that thing is.

An update on the Cyclorama

2008-07-13T16:45:00.003-04:00

At the end of my shift at the VC on Friday, one of my managers took me upstairs to check out the Cyclorama. They were beginning to install the diorama part of it, including a cannon that is in line with the other cannons in the painting. The actual restoration is pretty much complete and now it's just getting the rest of it set up and the room/hallways/stairs ready for visitors. It's set to open September 26th and put plainly, it is going to be awesome. We've been giving out coupons for 50% off a New Birth of Freedom/Cyclorama ticket and they have no expiration date, so if you find yourself at the Visitor Center before September, make sure you track one down so you can save a bit when you return for the multi-media experience.

Interview with Zack Fry

2008-07-09T22:08:00.001-04:00

Zack Fry is a history student at Kent State University who has studied the Civil War for most of his life. He has been published in Gettysburg Magazine, The Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal, and other periodicals. Among the groups he has led on battlefield tours are the Civil War Education Association, Military History Online, and the Gettysburg Discussion Group. He also regularly gives presentations at local libraries and historical societies. Most importantly, he's also a good friend of mine.

Sarah Adler (SA): How did you first become interested in the 59th New York?
Zack Fry (ZF): My fascination started when I realized that much of the regiment was actually from my area of Ohio. I learned the story of their horrific experiences at Antietam, and I soon found that a man from nearby Bellville won the Medal of Honor at Gettysburg. Early in the project, I received copies of the Jacob L. Bechtel letters, an invaluable first-hand account of day-to-day life in the regiment. Bechtel wrote the letters to his sweetheart in Bellville. They really put a human face on the story. From there, my interest grew to include the entire regiment and all their experiences, from Antietam to Gettysburg to the end of the war.

SA: What would you say is the biggest obstacle you've needed to overcome as a young historian?
ZF: That's a tough question. In a strictly practical sense, it's realizing you don't have the means yet to do some of the more detailed research at distant facilities like the NARA in Washington. That day will come, and hopefully very soon. My initial interest was mainly the Ohioans in the 59th, and, unfortunately, just about all the records for their involvement are indeed in New York or Washington. I've made indispensable connections in some very fine historians who have helped me along the way, though, and I'm thankful for that every day.

SA: I know that you have faced some sporadic opposition to your findings. Would you say that this has actually helped you in some ways?
ZF: Nobody who puts his findings on the line escapes some mild criticism. Fortunately, the vast (and I mean nearly unanimous) majority of feedback I've received on my 59th research and interpretation has been complimentary and supportive. Of course criticism makes you a better historian - it keeps you focused, keeps you alert, and keeps you careful in what you say and how you say it. It sounds trite, but the true key to accepting criticism is to learn from it. Where the criticism is correct, vow to avoid that fault in the future. If it is scurrilous or destructive, look past it, and hope others do the same when they witness it happening. That's how I see it right now.

SA: You took the Gettysburg battlefield guide written exam when you were sixteen, right?
ZF: Fourteen, actually. It was in 2002. I remember it well. I think there were about 200 participants, and I wasn't in the top twenty, of course. Unfortunately, I learned the most about the Battle of Gettysburg in the following two years!

SA: So you were the youngest ever to take the exam?
ZF: I have no idea. I think someone at the site said I was, but that would be a difficult thing to determine, and I suppose it wouldn't mean much even if I were. Doing things because you'll be "the youngest" is a bad inspiration, I think; doing them because you believe you can succeed or because you enjoy them is better. Going back to the previous topic - if you're serious about studying history, and especially about being published, you should be willing to accept criticism in whatever fashion it is presented to you. Age must necessarily be immaterial at that point if you hope to be taken seriously.

SA: What would you say is your dream job?
ZF: Any occupation where I can tell others about the historical topics I love and be in the company of those who share my interest. I'd particularly like to teach. One thing is for sure - I hope I never stop learning. I love to research.

SA: You do a lot of your own artwork when you write. How did you get the idea to start sketching to accompany your articles?
ZF: I've always enjoyed portrait sketching, and many friends suggested I use that to my advantage in my writings. When I was just beginning serious research on the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Assault several years ago, I read Kathy Georg Harrison's "Nothing But Glory," wherein the author included her own excellent sketches of key participants. I thought that really gave the piece a personal touch, so it kind of inspired me to do the same. Sketch art for me is a hobby, but it's a very convenient and enjoyable one.

SA: You lead the occasional battlefield tour. Would you say you prefer giving tours to writing?
ZF: Both are incredibly rewarding, I think. Writing and speaking both involve a great deal of research, which I enjoy to no end. Of course, I can amass more detail in the story when I write, but that venue also lacks the face-to-face interaction that makes battlefield tours remarkable. I'm thankful to have had ample opportunities for both. A historian must be able to argue his case effectively in writing and in person. It's satisfying to be part of a published piece, but it's also very rewarding to be on the battlefield and see firsthand that your point is getting through to someone. I've also made great friends in some truly wonderful people on tours, such as fellow Gettysburg aficionado Lew Gage and the late historian Keith Snipes.

SA: Who would you say has been most influential in your studies?
ZF: On a personal level, my family has provided great support and encouragement. I'd be remiss not to thank professionals such as Bob Krick, Gary Kross, Bob Maher, Dan Reigle, and a host of others for the opportunities and the guidance they've given me. I had the good fortune to learn from some excellent high school history teachers, especially my good friend, the authoritative Mr. Conry. He continues to teach me the historian's craft with a bluntness that only decades of insight can afford, and I'm looking forward to walking the fields of Waterloo and Ypres with him in a couple months. My very inspirational philosophy professor, Dr. Wattles, teaches me at every turn to seek the greater historical truth. As far as Civil War history is concerned, I'm a great admirer of the work of Dr. Gary Gallagher, especially his efforts to connect the battlefield to the home front. Several classics gripped me in my childhood, including the staples of any Civil War bookshelf - Catton, Freeman, and some well-known Gettysburg-specific classics such as Frank Haskell's narrative and George Stewart's "Pickett's Charge." I've also gained a great deal from reading other military history writers such as John Keegan, David Chandler, Mark Grimsley, and Victor Davis Hanson. I'll leave it there for now.

SA: This is a question that has plagued many for ages; Guelzo and Prokopowicz disagree on the answer. So I ask you, do you think Lincoln would have been able to dunk a basketball?
ZF: Let's just say I think he would have had a much better chance of success than Little Mac would have.

Pivot! Pivot!

2008-07-09T21:10:00.004-04:00

Yesterday there was this... thing... in the square. I noticed an unusual backup in front of the train station (where I was working) when I left, and I looked towards the square eventually to see what was holding up traffic. And I saw this. What is it? I do not know. I know that it was large and rusted and tank-like. And that the truck carrying it wasn't able to make it all the way around. It was stuck in the square, taking up the whole area from York Street (where the truck part was) to Chambersburg Street (where the end of the thing was). People were getting out of their cars and leaving the shops to come out and get a look and snap a few pictures. Luckily I had my cell phone with me.

Oh boy

2008-07-02T12:38:00.004-04:00

145th Battle of Gettysburg re-enactment may be biggest ever.

As a local who has to go to work those days (mostly at the VC, nonetheless), I can honestly say I'm not quite looking forward to that.

CWI 2008

2008-07-01T17:53:00.004-04:00

I hesitate to write about my week at CWI because I don't think I can do it justice. But I know that there are some who have asked to hear about it, and so I will give it a go. I'm going to do it by day so that it maybe will flow a little better.

Sunday
My parents and I arrived at Gettysburg College around 2:30, I checked in and they helped me carry everything up to my room. One of my roommates, Alix, was already there. So we talked and got to know each other a little. My other roommate, Corinne, showed up a little while later. We went to an orientation meeting where we did the usual "name, where you're from, and three interesting facts about you" and met Pete Vermilyea, who is in charge of the scholarship students. At 6:30, we ate dinner at the opening picnic and then went to the CUB ballroom (a place that would become way too familiar to us) to hear Wendy Allen (a personal favorite of mine) and Richard Wengenroth talk about their Lincoln art. After lectures, the scholarship students retired to Apple, where we played cards and talked. By this point we were all pretty good friends and nicknames had been given to most.

Monday
We woke quite early in order to make it to breakfast in time. Alix, Corinne, and I stopped at the library to check our emails before heading to the CUB for our first lecture. It was a big one, too. Gabor Boritt welcomed everyone with his wonderful Tiger Lily poem before the panel discussion on Abraham Lincoln featuring Jean Baker, Michael Beschloss, Ken Burns, and James McPherson. After, Corinne and I decided to get autographs on the back of our folders - a practice that we would continue throughout the week - enabling us to meet most of the speakers. After lunch, McPherson returned along with Craig Symonds to talk about Lincoln as Commander in Chief and as Commander in Chief of the Navy. An extra program scheduled for 4:00 was canceled and instead Kenneth Winkle spoke about Lincoln and civic organizations for a little over half an hour. Dinner was at 6:00. At 7:00, Dr. Allen Guelzo spoke about the Lincoln-Douglas debates and Harold Holzer spoke about the time in between Lincoln's election and his taking office. Michael Burkhimer was the moderator. When the lectures finished around 9:00, the scholarship kids again headed back to the dorms where cards were played and messes were made when applesauce was substituted for spoons in the game of Spoons.

Tuesday
We woke up even earlier in order to make it to breakfast. After some bacon and hash browns, we met with Daniel Epstein for a private Q&A session. Dr. Brad Hoch gave us a tour of Lincoln's time in Gettysburg. Fun fact: Dr. Hoch used to be my pediatrician. We stopped by the train station and I chatted with Adam while everyone else toured. We returned to campus in time for lunch. According to my schedule, we had a bunch of free time in between lunch and dinner with Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court Frank Williams. I think maybe we went to the writing lab to work on the writings Pete wanted us to do during the week. After dinner we attended a lecture with Frank Williams and Daniel Mark Epstein with Larry Taylor as moderator. Cards were played at night.

Wednesday
Breakfast was had. Lewis Lehrman, William Lee Miller, and Richard Carwardine lectured in the morning. Joe Fornieri and Sharita Jacobs acted as moderators. Carwardine was someone I saw more throughout the week and is a nice fellow with an awesome British accent that makes him easy to listen to. A side note, I am currently reading his book on Lincoln, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, and so far it's quite good. We took the obligatory CWI group photo on the steps of Pennsylvania Hall (Old Dorm) and complained about the sun being in our eyes. After lunch was lectures with Douglas Wilson, William Harris, and James Oakes, with Catherine Clinton as moderator. At 3:00, we went on the Lost Avenue tour and got to see that legendary part of the battlefield that few ever view. We returned for dinner. At 7:00, John Waugh, Julie Fenster, Thomas Craughwell, and Gerald Prokopowicz lectured. Eileen Mackevich and James Tackach moderated. Thomas Craughwell is not quite a Lincoln scholar; he dabbles in several areas. His most recent book is about the plot to steal Lincoln's body. He was definitely one of our favorite speakers during the week, the story very entertaining. We were disappointed when he ran out of time because he was actually fun to listen to. I believe it was Wednesday night that we attended the FOG pizza party, where Joshua Domosh (one of the scholarship kids) regaled us with more stories about the legendary Stanley Domosh. I also saw Eric Wittenberg's name on the list of honorary members, accompanied by several other very accomplished souls. Cards were, of course, played. I think maybe by this time we had acquired spoons. It'd be better not to inquire as to their source.

Thursday
After breakfast Thursday morning, we had a private Q&A with Ed Bearss. Brian Dirck, Burrus Carnahan, and Allen Jayne lectured. Tim Shannon and Tom Turner moderated. Lunch was consumed with Catherine Clinton. Everyone then met outside for the Marine Color Guard that arrived to present Ed Bearss with his birthday cake. The man is now 85 years old. At 1:30 we went on our Beginner Tour of Gettysburg. Needless to say, this covered things I do all of the time, including seeing the film at the Visitor Center. So I slept through it (even Pickett's charge, which is loud), because I've seen it about five times now (I do work there, you know) and I was tired. Jared Peatman took us on a tour of the battlefield. The end of the tour brought us to the cemetery, where I told Jorg Nagler, the German Lincoln biographer, a little bit about some of the people buried there. We made it back for dinner, which we had with Dr. Allen Guelzo. All I will say about Dr. Guelzo is that he is a very interesting person with a gift for snark. The Raffle/Auction was eventful for us scholarship kids. We convinced Jordan to bid $1100 on a rifle, which we thought would sell for about $10,000. It um... didn't. It wound up going for $1200 and there was a moment of silence that Jordan describes as "the scariest moment of his life." And you guessed it! Cards were played when we returned to the dorms.

Friday
Friday was the last day we all had together, as Corinne left that night and several others left very early Saturday morning. Our first lecture after breakfast was one with Michael Burlingame (whose lecture helped me immensely with how I look at research), Jorg Nagler, and Matthew Pinsker. Michael Birkner and Kent Gramm moderated. Matthew Pinsker gave us a demonstration of the incredible Google Earth Tour project that it seems like everyone is working on (including myself). Afterwards was the annual CWI slide show. After lunch we heard from Barry Schwartz (whose lecture was not exactly well-received) and James Percoco. Jean Bandler and Elizabeth Brown Pryor moderated. I spoke with Elizabeth Brown Pryor after the session and got some great advice about the Foreign Service. CWI was then given a sneak peak of the horrible, horrible, horrible film Discovery did. It was supposed to be based on Gabor Boritt's The Gettysburg Gospel, but it just wound up being terrible. It was actually so bad that it was hilarious. It was also hilarious hearing Gabor and Jake argue about the events leading up to the film being made and Gabor talking about how horrible it is. Unfortunately, Pete wanted us to finish up our writings for him and we had to leave mid-horrible movie. We attended the banquet, which was nice. We then had to say goodbye to Corinne. At 8:00 we went to the Majestic, where we watched Budapest to Gettysburg, which is absolutely amazing. There was a Q&A with Jake and Gabor afterwards. We played cards back at the dorms until 11, when we went out to the soccer field to watch fireworks. It was a wonderful night. Alix and I went to sleep by 12:30. Apparently the others all stayed up all night. And apparently some really crazy happenings occurred. Let's just say that Alix and I were glad we missed said happenings.

Saturday
We went to breakfast, lugged our stuff to the CUB to check out, hung out in the café for a short amount of time. My mom then came to pick me up and I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was sad. I then went home and took the rest of the day to recover.

In summary, I had the most incredible week of my life. I met some amazing people, some of whom had such an immense impact on me that it cannot be put into words. It was an excellent time and I hope I can make it back somehow next year when the joint themes will be the Assassination of Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.

Greetings from CWI!

2008-06-25T12:57:00.003-04:00

I write to you from the CUB at Gettysburg College during some rare free time between lectures and tours and meals and private sessions with Very Important People.
The Civil War Institute is a beyond amazing experience thus far (not that I expect anything less during the remainder of my time). I will give a very, very detailed report when I find myself back home and rested.

Projects, projects, everywhere

2008-06-17T12:22:00.004-04:00

The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College (technically my employers) and the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission have me working on two projects as of late. My part in each is extremely dull, although what I'm contributing is important because when the projects are finished they are both going to be impressive.

Project number one involves a database of libraries in Pennsylvania. My job is to go through the spreadsheet of the database, separate the first and last name fields, and then go into the .pdf file and copy-paste email addresses. Fun stuff, lemme tell you. Big-picture-wise, the database is being created so that every library in Pennsylvania can be contacted and asked what kind of Lincoln-related holdings they have so that a website can be created with every single Lincoln-related text/artifact held by Pennsylvania libraries.

Project number two involves a database of Pennsylvania Civil War newspapers on the Penn State Libraries site. I am assigned Philadelphia, so I do searches for mentions of Abraham Lincoln in the Philadelphia newspapers included in the database. I enter every hit into a spreadsheet and save the page of the newspaper as a .pdf file. Later on every article will be sorted through and some will be disposed of. Once all of that is completed, the articles will be used in order to create a sort of Google Earth of 1860s Pennsylvania with Lincoln's whereabouts marked. I think it will wind up being quite interesting.

It takes a lot of patience to do these things. I am finding it hard to stay motivated. I finished about 150 for the first project today (I still have a couple hundred to go) and only about 10 articles for the second project (I have hundreds and hundreds more to go through). Hopefully my motivation levels will increase over time.

The Last Civil War Veteran

2008-06-14T13:59:00.003-04:00

Currently I am at the station, where preparations for the Gettysburg Festival are being made. Late paintings of the late Larry Rivers are hanging on our walls. Some of them are gorgeous, leading me to a Google search, leading me to this (somewhat disturbing) sketch he did of Edwin Denby, claimed to be the last Civil War veteran.

EDIT: It was brought to my attention that this is actually not the case. Please read the comments for more details.

Ch-ch-ch-changes?

2008-06-10T22:19:00.004-04:00

Gettysburg train station promised to park service.

I love how no one has told any of the people who actually run the station about any of this. It's very weird to find out about this from the newspaper.

I'm not quite sure what this means for Adam or myself (mostly him since it's his only job) and all of the volunteers, but I guess we don't have to worry about it all just yet considering it could take quite a long time for Congress to approve of the purchase. Chances are I'll be off at college by the time any take over actually occurs.

Hopefully it will all work out.

Lake Marburg/Codorus

2008-06-08T15:08:00.002-04:00

Last night I went to the Reliance Mine Saloon to meet Eric Wittenberg and several other Civil War bloggers/generally very interesting people - I had a great time, by the way. Eric and I somehow got to talking about Codorus (well, I as a local call the lake itself Codorus, but in reality it's called Lake Marburg). Neither of us knew why Lake Marburg and Codorus State Park were created, so I decided to look up some of the history today when I got home from work. Here is a mix of things I just read about on various sites and my own knowledge.

The area now known as Codorus State Park was once the location of Mary Ann Furnace. Founded in 1762 by George Stevenson, George Ross, William Thompson, and Mark Bird, it is regarded as the first of its kind on the western side of the Susquehanna River. Mary Ann Furnace provided the continental army with cannon balls and grapeshot and also employed Hessian prisoners, allowing the ironworks to be kept open while many of its original employees were off fighting the British during the Revolution. Nothing of the ironworks remains today.

Before Codorus State Park, there was Codorus Creek and the community of Marburg. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the P.H. Glatfelter Paper Company collaborated in order to establish Lake Marburg as both a water source for Glatfelter and the people of Spring Grove and a recreational lake. Codorus Creek was dammed and Marburg was flooded December 6, 1966 and Lake Marburg was full three years later. The creation of the park and Lake Marburg was known as "Project 70."

Lake Marburg is now 1275 acres with 26 miles of shoreline. It is used for fishing and boating, but it still provides water for P.H. Glatfelter. Because that company uses it in its manufacturing process, the depth of the lake fluctuates dramatically; some summers its level will drop 22 feet.

Because the lake was created over top of Marburg, during droughts it is possible to see the roads leading into the old community. Some original structures also remain under the water, so I'd imagine they can still be seen as well. Which I think is pretty neat, although a little... eerie.

An inflammatory post

2008-05-24T15:38:00.000-04:00

The first time I ever heard about the Lost Cause was when my good friend Zack Fry chided me for saying that the Civil War was not solely about slavery, but other issues as well. I did not mean that slavery was not an issue, or even that it was not the main issue, only that it was not the only issue the lead to civil war. Zack explained the concept of the Lost Cause and all that it entails and we moved on to a less heated topic. It may have even involved Monty Python and hovercrafts being full of eels.

Since that time several months ago, I have come across many blog entries pointing out Lost Cause-ers, stating annoyance and/or disgust with their beliefs. I came across one today as I sat at my desk at the train station, bored out of my mind. And suddenly it hit me. I had a philosophical, historical, and social epiphany.

Now one must know before reading the rest of this post the type of person I am. I am historically unbiased in most cases. Unless someone has done personal harm to me or my loved ones, I am likely to see both sides of every conflict or situation. There are constantly recounted stories at my school about me taking on entire classes in debates because I am the only person able to understand where both sides are coming from. I've found this especially helpful in my academic pursuits. Whether I personally agree with something is immaterial to me when dealing with historical research. As a student of the Civil War, I have remained sympathetic to neither North nor South. Instead I have become sympathetic to individuals - mostly the misunderstood ones - from both sides of the conflict. This leaves me in a position in which many historians are not, and thus I feel this is one of the few things I am actually qualified to comment on.

So about that. Back to my epiphany.

The Lost Cause, from my understanding, started primarily as an artistic movement. It was the South's Norman Rockwell version of the war. Whether it was correct or not, I don't care; that's not the point here at all. The point is, rather, that the Lost Cause today is an actual belief. It has been in the culture so long that it is now considered true by many. And whenever those people are insulted or berated for what is actually their belief, it is the equivilent of telling someone they are wrong for being a certain religion. Just because you do not believe that what they believe is accurate does not give you the right to be rude. Is it so unbelievable that someone could have an outlook on something that is completely different from yours? The point is, to tell someone they are wrong does not make you right.

Don't think this is me going after the pro-Union guys because the Lost Cause-ers are just as bad, stirring up just as much trouble on the internet.

I suppose the accuracy of the Lost Cause itself lies in whether you are talking about the political causes of the war or the personal causes. The government was surely fighting for different reasons than the common soldier was. But that's not the point either.

I am a firm believer that to understand a conflict you must take note of both sides. The Lost Cause is actually part of history but everyone is too focused on deriding it and the people who seem to believe in it to take note of this.

Chances are you are disagreeing with me. "What a silly little girl," you may be saying. That's fine with me. I don't need you to agree with me. All I ask is that you understand my point. And if you don't due to any lack of clarity on my part, please let me know and I'd be more than happy to clarify.

Disagreeing is one thing; insulting is another.

As promised...

2008-05-21T20:45:00.007-04:00

It was kind of the trip from hell, but at least I got Chamberlain-related pictures.

That's the Chamberlain museum. But it wasn't open :(

The man himself. Or rather, a statue of the man himself.

And here's a picture of Chamberlain and myself, basking in the gorgeous Maine day.

At least there will be mountains...

2008-05-15T20:06:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow my parents and I head off to New England for a few days. One of my cousins is getting married on Saturday in New Hampshire, we're staying a couple days with my aunt and uncle in Massachusetts, and then we're going to go up to Bowdoin College in Maine so I can check it out and see if it's a "fit."

I'll attempt to get a good picture of Chamberlain's house for you all.

No More Vietnams by Richard Nixon

2008-05-08T16:20:00.003-04:00

This is what is known as "double-dipping" - posting something I wrote for some other purpose. Not Civil War related, but related to my current research (I'm doing a research paper comparing the election of '68 to the one coming up in '08). This is a book review I did for my History Seminar (American History 1945-present) class on No More Vietnams by Richard Nixon. I figure book reviews are always a good thing, right?

I am glad to have rescued yet another book off the dusty shelves of my school library; this one had been stranded there since 1995. And this one was very interesting. I was intrigued by the title, and then when I noticed who authored it I knew I had to read it. No More Vietnams was written by Richard Nixon in 1985 and includes six very telling chapters: the Myths of Vietnam, How the Vietnam War Began, Why and How We Went Into Vietnam, How We Won the War, How We Lost the Peace, and Third World War. The book is the story of Vietnam as Richard Nixon saw it, and thus it is quite biased. But then again, no one ever said it couldn't be... it is his book after all.

Nixon provides many details when writing about the events leading up to, during, and after the Vietnam War. He mentions things the public probably did not know at the time of the fighting, such as the more confidential reasons behind the administration making some of the decisions that it made. The former president then defends the choices he made concerning the war. Though he blames his Democratic predecessors for the way they handled the war and left him with the burden of sorting things out and making tough decisions – such as whether or not to follow the North Vietnamese into Cambodia – Nixon also claims to have great respect for them. He is especially sympathetic towards Lyndon B. Johnson, who suffered a great deal during his presidency when the public began blaming him directly for the deaths of U.S. servicemen. In fact, Nixon believed Johnson died of heartbreak related to the war. According to Nixon, we won the Vietnam War by "winning the peace." However, we later "lost the peace" when Congress cut funding drastically, withdrew our troops from the Indochina Peninsula and refused to take action when the North Vietnamese broke the Paris Peace Accords by invading South Vietnam.

It seems as if the main purpose of writing this book was so that Nixon could explain his actions to the public and revamp his image. Whether that ever actually happened in his lifetime, I do not know. Nixon seemed to have believed he’d handled the war in the best manner possible, that he did what was best for the country instead of what would benefit him most politically. If this was truly the case, I believe that is admirable.

The thing that really struck me while reading was how similar everything is to the current situation. People seem to compare Iraq to Vietnam frequently these days, but I never realized how incredibly similar they are. So many things that Nixon writes seem like a prophecy of what was to come. As I was reading, I kept thinking how it’s too bad that Richard Nixon isn't around anymore, because he would have had some very helpful hints to share with the world concerning terrorism and warfare. Some of his ideas are very reasonable, but everyone acts as if reasonable is a bad thing these days, so I’m not surprised that no one has considered utilizing the ones found in this book.

People who should read No More Vietnams include anyone who wants to know why we were in Vietnam and why the decisions that were made were made, people who like amusing presidents who resigned in disgrace (the category in which I fit), and George W. Bush several years ago.

Some train station-related news

2008-05-01T19:26:00.005-04:00

This is going to be the first summer that the train station is up and running while being staffed full-time. So we (we being mostly Adam, Tina, and myself) are trying to figure out things such as changes in our hours. For now we are keeping the original hours, 10-4, but we will perhaps switch to Saturdays 10-6 and Sundays 12-4 in the future.

We are starting to have more groups come in, which can be fun but also a little stressful, since I for one haven't done many group tours and am still trying to figure out the best methods. I was given a very loud "Bully!" on three by a group of boy scouts the other weekend. And though Teddy Roosevelt scares me a little (okay, a lot), I found it quite amusing.

Since as I write this I am realizing I really don't have all that much to say. So I think I will take this time to promote the town guides' walking tours. I cannot even begin to explain how knowledgeable the town guides are. They know the answer to almost any question you could think of relating to the town's history, especially during the war. They are also to thank for running the train station for its first few months, so I'm completely grateful to them. And I've yet to meet one who isn't an amazing, hilarious, fun, and, most importantly, knowledgeable person. Their rates are good considering the large amount of information they share. I've found that if people know about Gettysburg already, they really only know details about the battle. You know a lot of you are guilty of paying attention to the battlefield and neglecting the town. So a walking tour with a town guide is a really, really good idea this spring or summer.

Is America history-challenged?

2008-04-24T20:11:00.004-04:00

We talked about this article from USA Weekend in my History Seminar class yesterday.

A report released last year showed that when more than 14,000 seniors and freshmen at 50 American colleges and universities were tested on some basics of American history and civics, the average score was about 52% -- a failing grade by any measure -- with the seniors scoring slightly higher than the incoming class. The best results came from Harvard, where seniors scored a 69.6% -- passing, but still a high D.

I cannot say I'm surprised. I know that many of my peers regard history as boring. But I still think it's extremely unfortunate that many people do not have this basic knowledge. Like one of the signs in the History Seminar room, "Everything that happened before you were born is your own kind of." I think not knowing basic things about American history is just like not knowing much about some part of yourself.

By the way, you can take the aforementioned test here. I'd love to hear what you get. I got a 73.3% Because the economics questions kicked my butt.

Huzzah!

2008-04-22T17:19:00.002-04:00

I've just been informed by Tina Grim that I have won a scholarship to the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College this summmer. I am beyond ecstatic!
If any of my readers are attending, I'd love if you left a comment.

I also am now an employee of the train station, working Saturdays 10-6 and Sundays 12-4 (which are our new weekend hours). I've also procured a position in Visitor Services at the new Visitor Center. I'm going to be quite the busy lady this summer!

As my best friend recently said, I'm really "on a roll lately." I have good news galore, but I won't bore you with everything else.

Introducing: the new Gettysburg Visitor Center

2008-04-11T18:47:00.007-04:00

Last night, my best friend Jessie and I attended the "sneak peak" of the new Visitor Center. There was free food everywhere; alas we had not counted on this and had already eaten. Another thing that was everywhere: people! And they were all "locals" (or were supposed to be). Though they didn't keep track, it was estimated in the Evening Sun today that well over 1,000 attended the event. And out of all of the people there, I knew about five of them, mostly people involved with the train station. It made me feel special and "connected" nevertheless.

The Refreshment Saloon
We entered the VC from the back. This leads you into the "Refreshment Saloon." How they decided on that name, I have no clue. It's a little snack bar area with plenty of seating. Right next to the "Saloon" is a small store selling jellies, sauces, and other pantry-type items.

The Main Lobby
The main lobby is large, much larger than the one at the old VC (obviously). There are benches by some picture windows and a few in front of a set of screens, introducing the park. The front desk is also a major improvement from the old VC, with several screens on the wall behind advertising things such as the battlefield guides and the film they show at the center (which we did not get a chance to see, unfortunately, due to time constraints, but Tina Grim from the college said it was "good" and that she was "pleased with it"). It kind of reminded me of an airport.

The Museum
The museum is pretty state-of-the-art (which I think was the goal). It reminds me of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, although a bit nicer. There are more panels, quotes, interactive stations (Jessie and I spelled dirty words in semaphore because we are just that mature), and film clips than artifacts, which I kind of dislike. I know that people aren't going to read every single word and watch every film. Still, it's a nice museum. And it's big - eleven rooms. The layout was kind of confusing, especially with the large crowd.

The Book Store
I was impressed. It's a very nice shop, filled with the usual t-shirts, hats, mugs, &c., but also some rarer items such as Coventry Pewter, spoon jewelry (really neat!), and just a general assortment of items I've never seen (and I used to work at the largest gift shop in Gettysburg, so I've seen a lot of stuff). It also has a shelf full of Vermont-related stuff - maple leaf-shaped candies, mostly - which is sort of confusing to me... can anyone explain? As far as books, it seems like they have all of the major titles (except of course, for Shades of Gray, but we're hoping to change that soon). I find it interesting that they decided to have a "Southern" section.

What Jessie Says
"The stonework is nice, and I love the wooden touches that make it seem more rustic. It doesn't feel out of place on the battlefield, but still has modern touches that make it much better than the old one. I'm looking forward to spending more time in there, and also to the things that will be added as they finish working on it."

What I Say
Well, it's definitely nice and definitely a gigantic improvement. I will either be working or volunteering there soon, so I am going to be spending a lot of time in the VC. And I can't think of many places in Gettysburg that are nicer, so I'm pretty happy.

Reynolds Avenue: temporarily closed (obviously)

2008-04-01T17:43:00.005-04:00

Generally I hear about these things before I see them. So it was sort of a huge surprise when, driving around the battlefield to take pictures on Sunday, I went to turn onto Reynolds Avenue and was greated with a big crane and a blockade. Generally when I am unable to do something I want to do I like to know the reason (this drives my parents absolutely crazy) so I parked at the info station and walked as close to the scene as I felt necessary for adequate observation. And this is what I saw:

They've taken out the bridge over the Railroad Cut on Reynolds Avenue. This was apparently something that was known by some ahead of time, but I did not know, and thus was a little surprised. But after I got over all of the "HEY THERE IS NO BRIDGE THERE" thoughts I started thinking "I bet people would like to see this." So here you go, two pictures of a bridge that is no more.

Driving, driving, driving, thinking...

2008-03-28T19:37:00.003-04:00

So on my way home from a quartet gig tonight I realized something. My Civil War obsession is very gas-guzzling. I decided to take the road that goes through East Cavalry Field instead of Route 30. Yeah, it added a good five or ten minutes onto my drive since it's all curvy with a 25 MPH speed limit... but it was exactly that: a good five or ten minutes. It was so beautiful, the monuments glowing pink and purple and orange from the sunset, and the rolling hills of farms past the trees.

As much as I want to get out of this area sometimes, I do truly love this part of the country. During my trip westward last fall I remember feeling so uncomfortable in Iowa because I couldn't see mountains in the distance. Iowa is my least favorite state for this reason. The flatness and the tornadoes and Taco John's. Ugh.

Anyway, I think the point of this post was that I really like taking the long way home when it takes me through the battlefield because it's very pretty at sunset.

Shades of Gray by Jessica James

2008-03-23T20:15:00.004-04:00

When I first opened Shades of Gray, I must admit I wasn't expecting anything amazing. I haven't read much historical fiction since middle school, and what I have read in recent years has been easier to enjoy because it's easy to make fun of than for its quality (Unholy Fire by Robert J. Mrazek comes to mind). But I wanted to give Jessica James's new novel about the Civil War in Virginia a shot.

In the first chapter, I was introduced to the two main characters: Andrea Evans, a strong-willed and dedicated young lady who spends her days dressed as a boy in order to act as a courier. Unofficially, she spies on Alexander Hunter, the Mosby-esque Confederate cavalry officer.

I expected the plot to take the cliché route, but the more I read on the more exciting and complex it became. I grew attatched to the characters, felt for them and wanted things for them. I am not exaggerating when I say that I became obsessed with Shades of Gray. I stayed up past 3 AM multiple nights in a row (all school nights, too), reading as many chapters as possible. When my friends at school inquired as to why I was a zombie, I was only too happy to share with them the cause. But falling asleep in Spanish class... and calculus... is a very bad thing, and so I forced myself to refrain from reading for a few nights until I could catch up on my sleep. On a Friday night I finally allowed myself to read more and actually finished the book.

This is embarassing for me to admit, as it's something I rarely do - and never have with books - but I cried. I bawled like a baby for two chapters straight. I could not avoid getting caught up in it all. If cliché at that point, I no longer cared nor noticed.

Jessica James has a way with words. Her ability to speak metaphorically is unprecedented. She not only makes it easy to picture the beautiful locations in Virginia, but makes you want to be there. Even if you dislike the plot, I think Shades of Gray is worth reading for the style in which it's written.

Shades of Gray affected me greatly. Not only emotionally, but it made me realize something. I think as historians we (I'm going to include myself in the historian category for these purposes) forget about emotion. Everything is all facts and figures and tactics. Even when we do venture into the realm of personal histories, what we find are just stories to us. It's difficult to focus on how the people felt (unless perhaps they've left a diary or letters behind). I think film and even historical fiction are more important than we generally accept. Not only can they inspire an interest in history that was never there before in some viewers/readers, but I think they can also bring us historians back to what's really important, make us focus on the feelings instead of the numbers, the people instead of the tactics. Don't tell me you didn't cry (or at least want to) when you saw Glory. This kind of thing has a major impact, something I'd forgotten thanks to my arch enemy, Jeff Shaara, who told me once that historical fiction (other than his) is worthless because it's too easy to make up characters and throw them into a story. No research involved, he said. Thus, worthless.

I want to challenge all of you manly historimen who read my blog to read Shades of Gray. Do you have what it takes to read something fictional and involving romance? Any of you who decide to take me up on this challenge will be handsomely rewarded... somehow or another (still need to figure that out). And if you cry and admit it... well that will have to earn you an even greater reward, I guess! Or if any of you happen to be married to someone who isn't quite into the Civil War thing, this would be a very good way to spark their interest.

Go here and order yourself (or your loved one) a copy. Go go go.

Huzzah for Spring (despite it not really being all that warm yet)!

2008-03-23T11:35:00.005-04:00

Happy Easter and slightly late Purim to all. This is the first time in maybe three years that I have not been able to make any hamantaschen.

Another personal note, I've been selected as a semi-finalist for a very prestigious scholarship from the Lenfest Foundation... $12,000 a year for four years of college if I find myself at the end of the process. The only bad thing about this is I now have to write more essays for them. One of them is about where I feel most at home. Perhaps I will say that I find myself most at home walking down the streets of 19th century Gettysburg, Pennsylvania :)

A personal update

2008-03-20T22:59:00.003-04:00

Well, look out everyone, as I now have my driver's license! This is bad for the world, but very good for me; once I have my own set of wheels I will be able to drive myself out to Gettysburg to do research and just generally hang about pretty much any time my heart desires.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but as soon as possible I am going to post a review of Shades of Gray by Jessica James and perhaps some other stuff if I can.

Oh, and may this spring be sweet to you all.

You'll have to go around, Mr. President.

2008-03-16T20:48:00.005-04:00

A while back we (the volunteers at the train station) were told that we should no longer tell visitors that Lincoln entered our building, but simply that he arrived there on November 18, 1863 and departed from there as well. Previously, we had been pretty sure that the president would have gotten off the train onto the platform, gone into the headhouse through the back doors, and left out of the "men's" entrance to his left. But then someone involved with the station discovered one source stating that Lincoln did not enter the headhouse because there were empty coffins stacked inside.

When I give tours, I tell people that we do not know for sure if Lincoln entered because of that one source. But then I say that personally I believe he did enter and I explain to them why I believe this.

The town was expecting a great number of people for the dedication of the cemetery. Many of these people would be arriving by train and then leaving by train a couple days later. Why would they crowd up the space needed for people (some very important ones at that) with coffins when there was the Sheads and Buehler warehouse right next door where they could have easily stacked the coffins? Or if not in the warehouse, why wouldn't they have unloaded the coffins onto the platform or just somewhere else? I suppose they could have even taken them upstairs, though I would imagine carrying coffins up a narrow spiral staircase would be rather difficult.

Perhaps there was a reason the coffins could not be moved, though. Or maybe there was a great deal of illogical thought going on in the confusion of preparing for a tidal wave of visitors. I do not know. It's just one of history's mysteries, I suppose.

Writing about history

2008-03-02T12:25:00.005-05:00

It seems to me that writing about history is one of those things that one would think would be easy but it winds up being an incredibly long and arduous process. I am simply amazed by all of the historians who have written multiple books, especially since quite a few of them have other full-time jobs (Eric Wittenberg comes to mind, especially).

When I was in 8th grade, I wanted to write a historical fiction novel set during the Civil War. I did quite a bit of research, stayed after school to talk with my history teacher about Gettysburg around the time of the war (fun fact: he was the one who actually got me into the Civil War in the first place and is both an amazing teacher and a battlefield guide), and found out about the set-up of the town, the people who lived there, and some basic military history. But every time I began writing I would start worrying that I wasn't being accurate. It bothered me having to make up things that didn't actually happen. Now that I am a more serious student of the war and hang out with more historians who seem to know about everything imaginable, I've realized that I'd only skimmed the very surface of my subject in 8th grade and that I wasn't too far off thinking I was going to wind up being inaccurate. I would have been sort of disasterous, I think. Maybe hilariously so, but disasterous nonetheless.

I believe that anyone who is able to write about history successfully, whether it be in a creative or academic form, has accomplished something great. My desire to write about something the way Gabor Boritt does, or the way Doris Kearns Goodwin does, or the way Michael Beschloss does, is strong.

Though I am faced with several obstacles including my age, lack of experience, time and resources, I am deciding that I am going to begin that long and arduous process of researching for hours on end and maybe someday something material will come out of it. Any advice you have for me would be much appreciated, even if it's "Stop right there, missy."

In other somewhat related news, you can expect a book review from me relatively soon.

Help, please?

2008-03-02T12:22:00.002-05:00

I keep receiving spam comments on my posts. Does anyone that uses Blogger know any way to prevent/deal with these other than just deleting them as they are received?

Happy Presidents' Day!

2008-02-18T21:10:00.003-05:00

My annual Presidents' Day cookies. I really get way too into this holiday.
Unfortunately they all got extremely damaged during transport to school and thus are edible but not hand-outable. So I am going to be eating Lincoln and Washington crumbs for the next few days.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T21:39:00.005-05:00

So I have not posted for quite a while. This is mainly due to my lacking anything even remotely interesting to say.

In my History Seminar class in school we have been talking about the Cold War and so my mind has basically been filled with Joseph McCarthy and that sort of thing for the past few weeks. It will continue to be filled with the Junior Senator from Wisconsin for at least a few weeks longer, as I just checked out a book on him for a report. McCarthy has even invaded my other classes, as I have a random sticky note on my AP Calculus binder with his name on it (I'm not sure why) and I just completed a Spanish project that basically summarizes the McCarthy/Murrow situation with all of the main players as animals. Eisenhower is a giraffe.

Hope everyone has had a nice Valentine's Day (or Velociraptor Day, if you so choose).

I decided to take this opportunity to publicly declare my love for the following:
♥ My friends.
♥ My family.
♥ Those who have influenced me (er, positively) over the years.
♥ Cookies. Oh! and dark chocolate.
♥ Presidents' Day (which is quickly approaching!).
♥ Classical music and music history.
♥ Henry Clay and his failed presidential campaigns. Clay in Oh-Ay(t)!
♥ Abraham Lincoln and his always being around for me to talk to outside of the train station.
♥ Old documents and artifacts.
♥ My readers. Especially those who leave me comments or have contacted me personally to give me your input.
♥ The history community.
♥ Anyone who has any part in the preservation of historic sites.
♥ Riding on carouselles. This is much more fun to do as a teenager than I remember it being when I was a little kid.
♥ Politics, for being interesting.
♥ Monty Python's "Hungarian-English Phrasebook" sketch (and Zack Fry for reminding me of it just now).
♥ Life.

And that's sort of a short list!

You can expect another post from me on Presidents' Day. It will be picture-filled (and delicious!) hopefully.

Anger

2008-01-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned before that I have an intense dislike for Jeff Shaara. I was looking through today's Civil War news and saw mention of a new addition of Shaara's battlefield guidebook and it refueled my anger. So I decided that perhaps I would take this time to explain my reasons for being so very anti-Jeff Shaara.

Jeff Shaara is a pretty horrible writer. His sentences are incredibly long, comma-filled ramblings. Take this excerpt from Gods & Generals:
She walked out to the back, down the porch steps, looked across the yard, the new furrows in the clean brown soil, the bed of the new spring garden, waiting for the seeding, the new crop, and she knew he would not be planting it, that he would not be working his beloved field outside of town. She looked up to the porch, saw the cloth bags, the seeds. She had just bought them this week, had hoped to sit with him, to poke small fingers into waiting dirt, the beginnings of the new life, and she thought of him, the look of pure joy, sitting in the dirt, part of it, brown smudges all over his clothes and face; thick, caked dirt on his hands. He loved it, would ask her to sit with him, share the feeling, the good work with God's earth.
To find that excerpt, I just hit "Surprise Me!" on the Amazon look-inside-the-book thing and found a perfect example. Number of sentences: 4. Total comma count: 22!

It bothers me that Jeff Shaara has made money off of his father's name. His father was much more talented. And he acts as if he's carrying on the legacy when in reality he's just capitalizing off of it.

Then there's the ego. The tooting of his own horn and crazy self-importance really, really bothers me. When I used to work at the museum and he was doing the book signing, I was sitting nearby for most of the day and the whole time he just told everyone about how great he is. "My father wrote this book," he'd say, pointing to The Killer Angels. "And I wrote all of these other ones." About his battlefield guidebook, he said something about how he tried to recommend the more unknown ones so that people would go see them. Because, you know, if Jeff Shaara didn't recommend them, there'd be no point in going. Then his speech at the cemetery on Remembrance Day this year was so offensive to me that I have still not gotten over it. If you do not remember my post mentioning it, Jeff Shaara basically said "Today is not about me. So let me tell you about how great I am. History is boring, but I make it worth learning. Kids would hate history if it weren't for me. Who wants to memorize dates and stuff? Oh and by the way, when Lincoln spoke here on this day, he didn't know what he was saying." To top it all off, he got the casualty figures wrong.

As I've stated before, for some reason people do not feel like they can publicly state their dislike for Shaara. And it's not that people do not dislike him; so many people I have talked to (including historians) feel he is overrated and simply riding his father's coattails. Perhaps my age/inexperience in the "real world" is making me blind to some sort of unwritten rule stating that one cannot say anything negative about Jeff Shaara or else. Once again, I inquire as to why this is. Why are we so afraid of Jeff Shaara? Or why is the history community so afraid of him? I know I'm not.

Frustration

2008-01-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

The Internet - or internets, as I lovingly call this series of tubes - makes me very mad sometimes. Fairly often I will not post to here for a while due to lack of anything interesting to post about and then I will decide to actively pursue something interesting so that I am forced to write and not abandon my blog. So I turn to sites with databases of letters, newspaper articles, magazine articles and read around a bit until something somewhat obscure catches my eye. And then I will read all that the source has to offer on the topic and then search for more information. Well, today, I came across something that piqued my interest while reading "A Trip To The South" by the famous Alan Pinkerton:

...Here [in Nashville, Tennessee] also I came in contact with an army surgeon whose head was full of wild quixotic schemes for destroying the northern armies by other processes than that of legitimate warfare.
One of his plans I remembered was to fill a commissary wagon with whiskey, in which had been previously mixed a generous quantity of strychnine. The wagon was then to be broken and abandoned and left upon the road so as to fall into the hands of the Union soldiers. Of course the liquor would be consumed by the finders, and the valiant doctor with evident satisfaction to himself, but to the equally evident disgust of his companions, loudly vaunted his death-dealing and barbarous scheme...

Pinkerton's article goes on to say that later this doctor "fled in terror at the first fire" and was dishonorably discharged from the service.

So I was very curious as to who this man was and other information about him. But a Google search turned up nothing except an excerpt from a book that I do not have access to on an online database. This happens to me quite often; I find something that I want to explore further but there is no more information online about the subject. So I am just forever wondering about details.

I did, however, learn much about strychnine. My newfound love for organic chemistry is keeping me entranced.

My English research paper

2008-01-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

Clay and Lincoln: Roles in Secession

During the tumultuous period when secession was imminent, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln, two politicians with similar backgrounds, decided the course of American history. Since the birth of the United States, the North and South constantly clashed over key issues such as slavery, states’ rights, and the economy. Easing the tension between the regions was a top priority for Henry Clay, whose political career spanned approximately forty years over which he "saved" the Union three times. Lincoln, on the other hand, in some ways hastened secession and his election is considered by many to be its cause. Though similar men with similar beliefs and backgrounds, whereas Henry Clay prevented secession, Abraham Lincoln’s election acted as a catalyst to secession.

Clay and Lincoln's personal lives are very much comparable. Clay lost his father at age three, and Lincoln lost his mother when he was nine years old. Clay lived a good part of his life in Kentucky and represented the state in the House of Representatives; Lincoln was born in there. As far as schooling, neither man possessed much of a formal education. Both grew up without wealth or a prominent father and had to work for what they needed, eventually becoming lawyers, congressmen, and presidential candidates.

The men were also similar in their political careers and beliefs. They had practically identical stances on economic issues, colonization (Clay was president of the American Colonization Society – its purpose being to relocate African-Americans to Liberia – and Lincoln was an ardent supporter of the idea), and slavery. Clay is considered the founder of the Whig Party and Lincoln was a loyal Whig in Illinois. Both ran for president after serving in Congress: running as a Republican, Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860; Clay lost the elections of 1824, 1832, and 1844, running as a candidate for the Democratic Republican, National Republican, and Whig parties respectively. Though much more well-known throughout America, Clay failed to win the presidency three times while Lincoln was able to somehow secure it, his debates with Stephen A. Douglas during his senatorial campaign in 1858, boosting his popularity.

Lincoln had a great admiration for Clay. He "loved and revered" the older Whig as a "teacher and leader," and when Clay died in June of 1852, Lincoln gave a touching eulogy. He wrote: "Our country is prosperous and powerful; but could it have been quite all it has been, and is, and is to be, without Henry Clay? Such a man the times have demanded, and such, in the providence of God was given us." His feelings towards Clay were ones of veneration. Abraham Lincoln idolized Henry Clay – he referred to him as his "beau ideal of a statesmen" – because they were indeed so incredibly similar. Regardless of all the similarities, because of the individual problems facing the nation during their respective careers, Clay and Lincoln had very different impacts on American history ("Abraham Lincoln's Eulogy").

The first time Clay dealt with the threat of Southern secession was in 1919, when Missouri requested statehood. It wanted to be admitted into the Union as a slave state, which would throw off the balance of the slave to free state ratio. The Northerners did not want to be outnumbered and claimed that Congress could declare that Missouri be a free state if admitted, but the Southerners believed that new states should be able to choose whether to allow slavery as the original thirteen did. Congress could not concur on what should be done for quite some time, but Henry Clay stepped in and helped reach an agreement in 1820. Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slave state and part of Massachusetts was made into the free state of Maine. It was decided that to avoid further debate when it came to new states wanting to enter the Union, slavery would not be legal above the 36º 30º line (Mansch 1).

Secession loomed again in 1832 when South Carolina attempted to nullify tariff acts passed by Congress that the state felt negatively affected its economy. Teaming up with then-vice president John C. Calhoun, Clay brokered a deal with both North and South by using his public relations skills and pushed through the Compromise Tariff of 1833 ("Henry Clay" 2).

Crisis was once again averted with the Compromise of 1850. The new territories obtained through the Mexican-American War resurrected the question of where slavery should be allowed in the United States. Clay created an omnibus bill covering the admission of California as a free state, creating the Utah and New Mexico territories with slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty, settling the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and making it easier for Southerners to recover fugitive slaves. Some congressmen were uncomfortable with passing the omnibus bill in case of an overlooked rider that would be detrimental to their region, but when Clay proposed the ideas as separate bills, all were passed (The Reader’s Companion 1).

Clay was given nicknames such as the "Great Compromiser" and the "Great Pacifier" because of his efforts to preserve the Union and appease both sides of each conflict. Through his compromises, Clay helped procure almost forty years of peace and unity that likely would have been filled with bloodshed had he not been in Congress to ease sectional tensions.

Because of his fidelity to Clay and his ideals, it is possible that Lincoln went into politics with the same goals of preventing secession and easing sectional tensions as his mentor. However, it is also possible that Lincoln was willing to be the one who brought about secession. His political genius is often overshadowed by the legends making him out to be a great liberator and person of impeccable morality; the possibility that Lincoln wanted to play a part in the disintegration of the Union so he could help put it back together again cannot be overlooked. If Lincoln did indeed share Clay's goals, he failed. If his intention was the latter, he succeeded. Perhaps it was a combination of the two, but in either case Lincoln acted as a catalyst for war.

Abraham Lincoln's debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 brought Lincoln to the attention of the nation. Lincoln and Douglas spoke about their ideas and positions on all of the issues of the day, especially slavery and the equality of African-Americans. Lincoln's views on slavery were those of the Republican Party: states where slavery already existed should be allowed to continue the practice, but the spread of slavery westward should be ceased (The Reader's Companion 2). As far as equality for African-Americans, Lincoln had at one time sought colonization, but did not believe that African-Americans were truly equal to whites (Jordan).

As happens in modern politics, Lincoln's positions were greatly exaggerated to the point that many (even members of his own party) believed he was an abolitionist and believed in complete equality for African-Americans. This amplification of his stance on the practice wound up being a dangerous one that practically caused secession. So many southerners in high places believed that Lincoln wanted emancipation that they considered his election a danger to the Southern way of life. Exaggeration of Lincoln’s position on slavery and equality for African-Americans worried the South and prompted the threat of secession if Lincoln was elected. In the minds of the southern leaders, the only way to save the South was to avoid being under the rule of a man thought to be out to undermine their economy and traditions (Mansch 68).

Lincoln was elected, carrying eighteen states and earning 180 electoral votes. South Carolina, seemingly the firebrand of the South, considered Lincoln’s election the last straw. No more would secession be just a threat; it would now become a reality. On December 24th, 1860, South Carolina created the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union. In this document, South Carolina states that the North "has invested a great political error" in the election of Lincoln and that they have elected a "man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery" ("South Carolina Secession Causes"). The South Carolinians gave Lincoln’s election as one of the causes of their leaving the Union and claimed that since Lincoln had declared in his House Divided speech of 1858 that the United States could not "endure permanently half slave, half free" it was only a matter of time until Lincoln would use his presidential power to eradicate slavery ("'House Divided' Speech").

Lincoln's election was inevitable due to the climate of the times, and so was eventual bloodshed for the same reason. However, Lincoln acted as a catalyst, willingly or not, just by running for president of the United States of America. His election was what prompted South Carolina to finally secede; soon came conflict at Fort Sumter, and ultimately civil war.

Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln’s political careers wound up with very different results, despite all of their parallels. This is even evident in their nicknames: Henry Clay – the "Great Pacifier" – mollified the country with his talents of seeing both sides of the argument and encouraging the North and South to give and take in order to come to an agreement; Abraham Lincoln – the "Great Emancipator" – and his election gave the South a reason to secede, freeing them from what they considered oppression.

Many things about the period of the Civil War are controversial and oft-debated, especially the exact roles that certain figures played. However, it is indisputable that Clay had a large part in delaying secession. It is also indisputable that Lincoln’s election is one of the main reasons that South Carolina seceded in 1860, causing other southern states to follow suit.

With the Missouri Compromise, Compromise Tariff of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850, Clay postponed secession. It is possible that secession was unavoidable by the time Lincoln ran for president (and thus he should not be blamed for secession), but the election of Lincoln provoked secession. No matter the intentions of Clay and Lincoln, their actions are how they are judged today and have resulted in their respective places in history.

Works Cited:
"Abraham Lincoln's Eulogy for Henry Clay." Presidential Rhetoric.com 8 Jan. 2008. <http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/lincoln/clayeulogy.html>

"Henry Clay." Encyclopedia.com. 15 Nov. 2007 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Clay-Hen.html>.

Holt, Michael. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

"'House Divided' Speech." The History Place.com 8 Jan. 2008. <http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm>.

Jordan, Brian. "Clay and Lincoln." Email to Sarah Adler. 19 Dec. 2007.

Mansch, Larry. Abraham Lincoln, President Elect. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc, 2005.

"South Carolina Secession Causes." Son of the South.net 8 Jan. 2008. <http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/secession_causes.htm>.

The Reader's Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company. 15 Nov. 2007 <http://web.archive.org/web/20050306105644/college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_000106_entries.htm>.

Departures

2007-12-31T19:23:00.000-05:00

I find it very appropriate that today, New Year's Eve, marks the 65th anniversary of the departure of the last passenger train from the train station in Gettysburg. I would give you the details myself, but I think Jerry Bennett does a much better job:

At 4:00 p.m., Thursday, December 31, 1942 conductor George Hardesty called, "All Aboard," and waved a "highball," the traditional hand signal that the train was clear to move, to the engine crew. Ahead in the cab of locomotive #202, engineer George Kelly pulled twice on the whistle and eased out the throttle starting train #44 on its journey to Baltimore. As the large drive wheels gained traction the train slowly gained momentum and then quickly pulled away from the passenger platform and the old brick station for the last time. In less than two minutes it had crossed Stratton Street and passed out of sight. Left behind at the station was a sad sense of finality, for after eighty-three years and 15 days, railroad passenger service to and from Gettysburg on its oldest and most historic line was a thing of the past.

When the train reached Baltimore and the last passengers departed, its cars were turned over to the U.S. War Department to help meet the growing requirement for rail transportation of service men. The curtain had close on the last act.

(From The Gettysburg Railroad Station by Gerald Bennett, available at the train station for a $5 donation.)

Beem letter: December 25, 1863

2007-12-25T09:02:00.001-05:00

The third and final Christmas letter from David Beem. This is the first I transcribed and by far my favorite. Merry Christmas!

New Culpepper, Va.
Dec. 25th, 1863.

My dear Wife:

It is a great length of time since I wrote to you than I usually let pass without writing, but I will try to make up for it to-day.

A merry Christmas to you! What would I not give to be able to look in and see what my darling wife is doing to-day! I hope you are enjoying yourself as all persons ought on this usually happy day. How is it, my dear?

As for myself, I cannot say that there is anything more than usual to mark the day. Indeed there is nothing in camp to distinguish the day from others, unless it be the unusual flow of whiskey, which is abundant. Last night it was quite noisy, and from all present indications it will not be any more quiet to-day and to-night. At this moment I hear several expressing themselves in various parts of the camp in so decided a manner as to show that whiskey is the chief performer. Last night some of the men were disposed to celebrate Christmas Eve by shooting their guns, and the consequence was we had to place guards all about to maintain order. But this picture of Camp only applies to this particular occasion, for usually we have a very quiet time. Our Sutler agreed to bring us some good things to eat from Washington, such as poultry &c., but he did not do so, and therefore we have to do without the good dinner we expected to obtain. So you see I am enjoying Christmas in a very quiet way, and if I do not have what some call a "big time" I at least am having a pleasant time, and unlike some of them, I do not expect to have the head ache when I get up in the morning.

I have no doubt you are eating a good turkey dinner about this time. At least I hope so, and may you have a good appetite to eat some of the choice dressing and bosom of the turkey. Next Christmas, my dear, I will be with you, and will you have a turkey dinner for me?

I think I remember what I did, and where I was at, this day two years ago. I was in Romney, boarding at Mrs. Bowles', and had a nice turkey, and oyster soup, for dinner. Then I wrote on that day a love letter, which I suppose contained all sorts of sweet things, for you know you and I were two then, but yet had a kind of lovin' way towards each other. One year ago I was at Falmouth, and I think I also wrote you a letter on that day; so this is the 3rd Christmas letter to my absent darling since this "cruel war" commenced, and my love, I sincerely hope that it will prove to be the last one.

I yesterday had an invitation to take dinner to-day with Col. Taylor of the 20th Indiana. Col. Taylor and myself were formerly very well acquainted, and I regretted that I could not accept the invitation. The camp of the 20th Indiana is about five miles from here, and Col. Cavins and myself intend to visit them in a few days. Being now in winter quarters, and permanently situated, we are enabled to enjoy something like a social system; at least Officers in different Corps in the Army can visit each other, which at other times they cannot well do.

There has been quite an agitation among the enlisted men in our Regt. for a few days on the subject of reenlisting. Some seventy five have already gone in, and perhaps a number of others will yet go in. None of Co. "H" have reenlisted, nor do I think any will. They all know that I do not propose to stay in the service, but whether my example has influence on them or not is more than I can tell. I am neither trying to persuade them to go in, nor saying anything to keep them from it, but leave them to decide for themselves. I think those who reenlist for another three years are entitled to great praise, but I do not blame those who do not do so, since they have certainly done their duty already; at least, until those who have not yet been out shall have served a term.

We are having some very cold weather here, but it is dry, and we get a long very comfortably. We have plenty of wood, and keep rousing fires. The boys, however, have just put on a knotty back-log which causes it to smoke, and I am consequently provoked somewhat, but will try to get over it.

My dear, I have since I last wrote, received two letters from you, one dated the 5th, and I presume the other was written a few days later, it had no date on it.

You say in one of your letters that Mollie contemplates visiting her husband sometime this winter. Well, I am glad he is situated so she can do so, and I hope if she goes her trip will be pleasant, and her visit a happy one. I would be very glad if we were situated so that I could have you with me, but that is out of the question here, as we are in a part of the country where accomodations for ladies are not to be found. You say that if I cannot go home to stay you wish me to go and stay a while this winter any way. Well, my dear, do you want to see me right bad? I am sure I want to see you the baddest in the world, but I can't go without a leave of absense; and this makes it a question which only the future can decide. There is one way, however, by which I could get to go home for thirty days - by getting the company to reenlist and promissing to serve three more years myself. Do you advise me to do this?

I presume this is almost long enough to write when I have nothing to say, and therefore I will close. I do so my darling love as I commenced, by wishing you a merry Christmas, and may your slumbers to-night be sweet and sound. I also wish you all a merry Christmas, and a good time.

Goodbye, sweet wife, with my love and a kiss.

Your loving husband
David.

David Beem letter: December 25th, 1862

2007-12-24T10:38:00.000-05:00

The second of the Beem Christmas letters. I'm unsure if it is complete, since it does not have any signature and ends rather abruptly.

Falmouth, Va.
Christmas, 1862

My dear Wife,

It is with pleasure that I again find myself seated to write you a letter.

You will see from the date of this that it is Christmas. At home, it means something; but in the army it means nothing. At home, we might have our nice turkey dinner, and a jolly time; but in the war there is no turkey for dinner, and as for a jolly time, if we have one at all, it is of that kind that I do not much enjoy. Last night a number of men in camp were a little too sociable on account of having an abundance of whiskey in camp. I hope that the friends at home are to-day having a nice time enjoying Christmas. Last Christmas I fully expected I would be at home to spend this one, but providence has kept me in the army. I would like to spend the day with you. How did it pass off? Did any of the folks have turkey and nice "goodies" for dinner? I will tell you about our dinner, and you must tell me about yours. Well, we had potatoes, pork, dried apples stewed, fried onions, beef, crackers and coffee. Now, I expect you will think that was a great Christmas dinner but I can assure you that it is better than we get for common. I tried to get a ham, but failed; and sent into the country for a chicken, but the breed seems to have become extinct in this region. So we had to confine our Christmas luxuries to the articles I have named.

Last night the Surgeon of our Regt. invited me to call in at his tent. I did so, and found five or six already there, among them two colonels, two majors besides a Surgeon or two. During the evening, a pitcher of egg-nog disappeared; how, I will leave to your imagination to guess. I must acknowledge, however, that a couple of the aforesaid gentlemen had previously imbibed a little too freely, and were therefore somewhat more boisterous than dignity would allow. As to myself, I was snugly in bed by 9 o'clock, but had scarcely got to sleep until some drunken rascals fired off their guns in camp and awakened me. Of course, they were arrested.

The day has been decidedly a dull one. To me, it appeared more like Sunday than any day for a long time. Nothing has been done, and everything except whiskey drinkers remarkably quiet. They have been exuberant all day. In fact the army of the Potomac has been on a general Christmas drunk. One or two of Co. "H" have been a little "tight," with which exception has maintained respectable sobriety. Boys whom I am well convinced would have been drunk as Bacchus were they at home, have here been duly sober.

This is the kind of Christmas we have had here in the army. I quit writing just here this morning and take it up to-night. Christmas night! a time for enjoyment and pleasure; a time for good old fashioned rejoicings. How much of this do you suppose falls to our lot? I don't think we have more than our share of it; we have none of the big fires of the old fireside to sit by, none of the big turkeys to eat and what is worse than all, none of the big girls to squeeze. Our chief source of enjoyment is in anticipation. What nice Christmas we will have, and how we'll enjoy them. Then, the big fires will crackle, the turkeys will be devoured, and the girls take care of their [illegible, looks like ribs]. But we make the best we can of our situation, and although deprived of the pleasures and enjoyment of home, we are by no means a downcast and gloomy set, for many an anecdote and many a joke pass the rounds.

I expected to attend church to-night, but for some reason or another there is none. Bro. Sabin told me there would be, but he was mistaken. There was preaching in one of the adjoining Regts. to-day but I did not attend. So you see there is still a spark of the religious element left in the army. While on this subject, I must tell you that Billy Rice lost his Bible in our Battle of Fredericksburg on the 13th. I believe it is one that was presented to him, and he regrets it very much. Billy is a good soldier, and I think a genuine Christian.

While I am writing I hear a band discoursing sweet music; they are playing "The Star Spangled Banner," "The Red, White, and Blue," "Yankee Doodle," and other lively and entertaining airs. All of which tend to remind me that it is Christmas night, and that I am not at home.

But still, I hope to hear that those who are at home are enjoying the occasion hugely, especially you.

I have been building me a snug little cabin, consisting of four rounds of logs, a fire place and a chimney, and covered with my tent, making it a very good comfortable abiding place. I have a snug little bed made in the back part, about two feet high, on which Dan and myself sleep. Jack sleeps with Adjutant, and has a good situation. You ought to see our domestic arrangements. Our parlor, sitting room, bed room and kitchen combined in fine order. All of which is good enough for soldiers. Next Christmas may find us in the Army; but if I am fortunate enough to be out, I hope to have a good, jolly time to make up for this.

David Beem letter: December 24th, 1861

2007-12-23T17:52:00.000-05:00

I found a series of letters in the Digital Image Library on indianahistory.org and decided to transcribe them.
David Beem, an officer of the 14th Indiana, wrote to his fiancee (and later wife), Mahala Joslin, on Christmas eve/day in 1861, 1862, and 1863.
I intend to post the second letter tomorrow and the third on Christmas Day. This is the first of the three, written from Romney, Va in 1861.

Romney, Va. December 24th 1861.

Dearest Hala;

Your very welcome favor of the 15th came to hand just now, and I really don't think I have received one since I left home that I was so glad to get. It had been almost a month since I had heard from you, and although I knew the uncertainty of the mails, especially as we have been changing our position, yet I could not think how it was that I was unable to hear any more from my dearest friend. You say in your letter that you had not written to me for about three weeks, thinking that I would be at home, I am very sorry indeed that you should be so disappointed, and regret it all the more because your disappointment is owing mostly to my own fault. But when I told you that I thought I could go home, we were at Huttonville, expecting to stay there during the winter, and if we had staid there, I could have got a leave of absence; but as we have left, and got to a place where we are more needed, it is very hard to go away, for unless an officer gets sick, he cannot at present get a leave of absence. Yet they still promise me that I can go home sometime this winter, and although I shall not depend on it, yet I shall certainly do the best I can. I desire exceedingly to go home for your sake, and I am certain the disappointment is almost as great for me as for you. I hope, however, that this disappointment will be followed by happier events. Let us hope for the best, and although it may seem hard now, I doubt not it will be much brightter [sic] for us both in the future.

I am sorry that I did not get your letter a little sooner. Supposing that your answer to my letter in which I spoke about your meeting me at Wheeling would not reach me, I wrote a similar letter a short time ago, which you will likely get before this reaches you. But as you think best not to go to Wheeling as I suggested in my first letter concerning it, we will think no more of it. My reason for suggesting it was because I wished to fulfill the promise that I made you if it was at all possible. You need not think for a moment that it will be a disappointment to me, or that I will think you unkind. The matter I left to your own judgement and inclination, and perhaps you are right. I am entirely satisfied for you to exercise your own pleasure, and although nothing would afford me so much delight as to meet you anywhere, even for a short time, and be able to call you mine, yet I suppose we must try to content ourselves to wait for a better time. I shall try in the future, my love, not to disappoint you again. But although separated by a cruel necessity, may we not still anticipate future bliss, and be happy in each other's love? I can assure you there is not a day but what you are uppermost in my mind, and always first in my affections.

To-night, dear Hala, is Christmas eve, and I do wonder what my love is at now. How happily we could spend a few hours together. I trust that you are enjoying yourself with friends at home. I think if I was there I could get your Christmas gift; but certainly it would afford me a great deal of pleasure to be able to give you a gift of some kind, which I would most assuredly do if I was with you to-night. It will be a dry Christmas to me. We will have but a little to amuse us, and nothing to remind us that it is merry Christmas. But I am very comfortably situated, boarding with a pleasant and religious family, and I could not expect anything better while in the war -

I do not know, dearest, that I have anything more to write. I shall in my next letter try to send you my picture, as there is an artist here. Please write often to me. If I could do anything to contribute to your happiness, I would do so most assuredly. I hope some of these times to be able to give you some substantial token of my love to you. Perhaps this will reach you before New Year's day. Enjoy it as well as you can, and think of me kindly. I would tell you what to do on New Year's day, but my letter may not reach you - so do just as you please, and if possible have a jolly time, for yourself and me; and I will be thinking of you -

But I must bid you good-night, and a happy one. Will you allow me a kiss before I quit writing?

My love to you always,
Yours in love,
David E. Beem

Train station open house

2007-12-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

The station held an open house last Saturday (yes, I know, I am becoming such a procrastinator) and we actually had quite a turn out, especially considering it was a last minute type thing and it wasn't advertised all that much. Although I think the count got messed up a little bit along the way, it's possible that we had over 100 visitors, mostly local. Several other volunteers came in to help out (among them Horace Greeley and Father Christmas) and we all had a good time giving tours.
I learned quite a bit just from listening (or uh, eavesdropping) including that the future of the train station is not in much danger and that the park service will likely be the buyer. It will be quite a while before anything is settled.
I also learned of this very interesting site, created by train station volunteer Chuck Kann. Though not yet complete, but its use of Google Maps is extremely helpful in locating where on the battlefield one may find monuments and even witness trees. I especially admire that Chuck has done the coding and taken the pictures himself, oftentimes having to wait for certain weather conditions or for the precise time of day to get the right lighting. Even at this stage, I feel that Chuck's project rivals Virtual Gettysburg.
Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of Saturday's open house was one of the visitors to whom I gave a tour. He was an older gentleman, quite knowledgeable about trains (a topic about which I somehow still do not know very much). I was mentioning that the last passenger service was on December 31, 1942 but that they had some sort of reenactment of Lincoln's arrival when the gentleman interrupted me with, "I was there!" Turns out, he was present at the 200th anniversary of the Western Maryland. We volunteers were extremely excited to have met someone who had actually been there in 1952 when the Thatcher Perkins arrived at our station.

Colors

2007-12-12T20:04:00.000-05:00

So my dad handed me the paper yesterday and this was on the front page. Well, it was news to me. You'd have thought I would have known about this before it was printed in the paper, but nope. I'm slightly concerned about our future, what will happen to the station and its devoted volunteers. But we'll see what happens before I start freaking out.

But speaking of the station changing hands, it's happened at least twelve times since 1858 when it was built. And almost every time it has been given a new coat of paint to go with its new ownership. Since it's something I get asked about a lot at the station, I figured it may be interesting to write about the history of the colors of the station.

Light gray and chocolate brown were the original colors of the station and were still there when Lincoln arrived in 1863. The gray was painted over the brick and the chocolate brown was used on the trim and doors. The models built by Bill Aldrich show the station with these colors and we have a small area of a wall over the archway leading out to the original platform painted in this way.

This green is called "railroad green" and is located in the office area (in the 1886 addition). It was apparently used pretty frequently in stations in the 1880s or so.

Meanwhile, this interesting salmon color adorns the rest of the second room. So we have a railroad green and salmon second room. I don't believe this is a historically accurate color. What Bob Alcorn told me when I asked was that the salmon was a "compromise," something they just thought would "look good with the green." It's a color that I personally like, but I never thought I'd see it on a wall.

The color of the outside of the building, this is another color that is not historically accurate. I've been told that this was an "accident," that it was intended to be the same color as the Reading Station (a sort of cream color) but something went awry. I have trouble believing this because... if you started painting a building and realized that what was supposed to be cream was actually bright golden yellow, I'm pretty sure you'd notice and stop the painting. But who knows. The trim is currently a dark green and a maroon color. Even if not accurate, it makes the building stand out. And it's a lot easier to say "the bright yellow building" while explaining where I volunteer.

Clay v. Lincoln

2007-12-10T17:13:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a research paper for my independent study honors English class on two of my favorite figures in history: Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln.
Basically my thesis is going to be that Henry Clay deferred secession while Abraham Lincoln and his election acted as a catalyst. From my research, it doesn't seem that comparing Clay and Lincoln's similarities and exploring their different roles are done very often; I haven't been able to find anything really written on the subject.
Well, what do you think? Any words of wisdom, fun facts?

I'm really excited about this paper!

Snow!

2007-12-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who sent their sympathies. Slowly but surely life is returning to normal.

We had our first real snow of the season today. It started out as a light dusting at about 7 AM and is still going strong with several inches already on the ground. We got out of school a little over an hour early, which brightened spirits immensely.

So inspired by the not-quite-yet-winter wonderland outside, I bring you a New Jersey soldier's account of a great (and quite brutal) snowball fight.

"You are probably aware that the Second Brigade of this division consists of four Vermont regiments, besides the Twenty-sixth. During the late heavy fall of snow, the Vermonters twice made an attack on the encampment of the Twenty-sixth, sending a perfect shower of snow balls at the head of every luckless Jerseyman who made his apperance without his tent. The first attack was a complete suprise to us; but we essayed a sally from the camp, and drove the attacking party back to their reserves. Being heavily reenforced, they charged on us again, and after a desperate resistance we were driven back into camp, fighting absolutely from the shelter of our tents until darkness put an end to the contest. Our casualties were quite heavy, but those of the enemy, it is thought, exceeded ours. A few days afterwards the attack was renewed, but we took up a strong position on a hill in the rear of the camp and repulsed every assault of the foe. The snow crimsomed with blood issueing from the olfactory organs of the Vermonters, and the appearance of the battle-field indicated the fierce nature of the contest. The enemy raised a flaf of truce, an armistice of a few hours was concluded, and then ensued that novel spectacle of war - men, who but a few minutes previous were engaged in one of the most sanguinary battles of modern times, harmonizing and fraternizing with clasped hands.

"But the matter did not rest. The night of the 24th had enveloped terra firma with its dusky shades. Many a waxen nose in the camps of the Second brigade snored sonorously, happily unconscious of its ruby discoloration on the morrow. Many an eye placidly closed in slumber was to be violently closed in battle ere the approach of another nightfall. And many a phrenological bump sparsely developed on the night in question was to be suddenly brought to an age of puberty on the approaching day. The eventful morning opened. Colonel Morrison sent a challenge to Colonel Seaver of the Third Vermont to engage in the open field at three o'clock P.M. The challenge was accepted, on the condition that the Fourth Vermont should be included with the Third. This was agreed to by the Colonel. Before the appointed time some of our men were detailed on fatigue duty, and at the time of the engagement we were only able to muster some three hundred men.

"Nothing daunted by the superiority of numbers, Colonel Morrison ordered Lieutenant MeCleese of Company C (Captain Pemberton being sick) to fortify a small hill on our right, make as much ammunition as possible, and pile the snow balls in pyramids. This arduous duty was hastily performed. It was a strong position, a swollen brook at its base answering the purpose of a moat - too strong, in fact, for the Vermonters. The hills were covered with spectators, and the eagerness to witness the novel contest knew no bounds. Companies A and B were thrown out as skirmishers. Company E occupied the right, C was given the centre, and H rested on the left. The Colonel dashed over the field in all directions, encouraging the men to stand fast, amid the blue wreaths curling from a 'brier wood' nonchalantly held in his left hand, and the Adjutant danced about on a spirited charger, apparently impatiently awaiting the hour of contest, the light of battle dilating within his eyes, and a quid of 'navy plug' reposing beneath his cheek. Lieutenant Woods, of the ambulance corps, and Lieutenant __ acted as mounted aids to the Colonel, while the 'Sergeant' and John K. Shaw, an aspiring Newark youth of eighteen, acted as perambulating aids. The line being formed and everything in readiness for the contest, a red flag was raised as a signal, and in a breath of time a strong body of the enemy drove in our skirmishers, and fiercely attacked our centre. At the same moment another strong force advanced against our right, but only as a feint; for they suddenly wheeled to the right, and joined their comrades in a furious charge on our centre. Major Morris ordered up Compnay E from our right, but too late to be of any advantage, and they were completely cut off from the main body of our army. Although flanked and pressed in front by overwhelming numbers, our centre heroically contested the advance of the enemy. Animated by the presence of the Colonel, they fought like veterans, and the white snowballs eddied through the air like popping corn from a frying pan. But the enemy were madly surging upon us in superior force, and it was hardly within power of human endurance to stand such a perfect feu d'enfer any longer. Gradually the centre fell back inch by inch, the line then wavered to and fro, and finally the men broke in confusion and rolled down the hill followed by the victorious Vermonters. In vain the Colonel breasted the torrent; in vain the Major urged the men to stand fast; in vain the Adjutant White, the chivalric De Bayard of the Twenty-sixth, implore the gods for aid.

"The boys never rallied. Lieutenant Woods made an attempt to rally them and form them in hollow square on the fortified hill to the right, but he was mistaken by the boys for a Vermonter, and unceremoniously pelted from their midst. But the Colonel was not totally deserted by his men. The Vermonters seized his horse by the bridle, and made a desperate attempt to take him prisoner. The fight at this point was terrific beyond description. The men fought hand to hand. Colonel Seaver, the Achilles of the day, dashed through the combatants, seized Colonel Morrison by the shoulder, and called upon him to surrender. But his demand was choked by the incessant patter of snow-balls on his 'physog.' Around the rival chieftains the men struggled fearfully; there was the auburn-haired Hodge, alias 'Wild Dutchmen' fighting manfully. There was the fierce Teuton Captain of Company E, dropping the foe right and left at every swing of his amrs; but all in vain. Amid the wild excitement consequent upon the shouting, the rearing, and plunging of horses, the Colonel was drawn from his saddle and taken by the enemy. Most of his 'staff' followed him as prisoners. A desperate attempt was made to rescue him, but it proved of no avail. Major Morris fared no better. Adjutant White, however, made a bold attempt to retrieve the fortunes of the day. Dashing into the dense ranks of the foe, he seized the bridle of Colonel Stoughton's Bucephalus, and gallantly attempted the impossibility of capturing the Colonel, who was the acting Brigadier of the attacking party. But the adjutant had 'caught Tartar,' for the Vermonters rushed around him like the waves beating upon some lone rock in the ocean, and vainly clamored for his surrender. He fought like an Ajax mounted on a 'Black Bass', retaining his position in the saddle by resting his knees against the pommel. This was at last observed by a shrewd Yankee, who deterously slipped between the two horses, detached the supporitng knee, and the Adjutant fell from his lofty position like a tornado-stricken oak. This fall disheartened the Twenty-sixth, and only detached parties of a dozen, scattered over the field, persisted in an obstinate resistance. The 'Sergeant' recieved a solid shot in the back of the head, and was borne to the rear a captive, and then

'The bugles sang truce.'

"Thus ended the great battle of Fairview; unequalled in desperateness, and the theme of many a future poet's cogitations. Our loss was very heavy, and we were severely defeated. The spectators, acting on the well-known principle of kicking a man when he is down, pitched into us most unmercifully when our centre was broken, and prevented us from re-forming in line of battle. The slaughter of the enemy was fearful, and the prowess of the Newark ball players and fireman was displayed on their battered visages. Colonel Stoughton was honored with a black eye, and the gallant Seaver fared but little better. The following is a fair recapitulation of the casualties on both sides:

"Bloddy noses, fifty-three; bunged peppers, eighty-one; extraodinary phrenological developments, twenty-nine; shot in the neck after the engagement, unknown.

"The Vermonters fought with the determined energy characterizing them when engaging Jeff's myrmidons."

(MaineMilitia.com)

Now I'm just wondering what "bunged peppers" means!

Temporary hiatus

2007-11-25T11:33:00.001-05:00

Due to the deaths of both my cat and my grandfather over the past two days, I'm not able to guarantee the quality or frequency of posts for a little while, so I'm declaring a temporary (meaning no more than a week or so hopefully) hiatus.

Remembrance Day and the weekend, 2007

2007-11-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

Surely I have kept you in suspense long enough. So here goes!

Saturday, November 17: The train station had extended hours on Saturday, but I still did my usual 12-4. We were quite busy all day, even during the time that the parade was going on on the other side of town. At three, a group of about 72 high school juniors (I stayed behind the counter to avoid blending in with the crowd) from Wisconsin came in to hear a lecture on Abraham Lincoln's assasination and many funerals. Unfortunately I cannot recall the gentleman's name, but he is the one who did all of the research so that another gentleman (whose name I also forget) could construct a model of the Lincoln's Springfield house, a model that is on loan to the train station for about two months. Wendy Allen brought the People's Portrait of Lincoln to the station for its reveal the next day, and so I was one of the first people who got to see the completed portrait. It's very nice and I think if possible you should stop by and see it and Lincoln's Springfield house.

Monday, November 19: I did my career shadowing with Joanne Lewis on Remembrance Day itself and had such a great time! She's such a wonderful person and she's just full of extremely interesting information. I learned so much while I was with her, especially fascinating stories about the town. We attended the ceremonies at the cemetery and were both horrified by Jeff Shaara's speech. It began by him saying that the day was not about him, but the speech was basically all about him. Not to mention his insinuations that history is boring and that he makes it interesting so that people will care about it. Something I've noticed: many people dislike Shaara, but for some reason no one feels that they can say so publically. Well you know what, I'm saying it. Jim Gettys (Mr. President as we call him in town) reenacted Lincoln giving the address. Joanne and I had lunch at the Farnsworth House (the first time I'd been there) and discussed history, education, the Wills House, and many other things. We then walked back to the Gettysburg Hotel where she showed me her binders of historical photos and told me the stories behind them. I think I learned more on Monday from my time with Joanne than I have in all my studies of the town! The whole day was a fantastic experience.

Exciting things to come...

2007-11-18T12:40:00.000-05:00

But due to my becoming randomly (and hopefully temporarily) ill today, I am going to wait until after tomorrow to write about Saturday and will include all of the Remembrance Day happenings (including my career shadowing with Joanne Lewis) in one large entry hopefully within the next two days.

By the way, if you live in PA in an area that gets the channel WGAL, I will be on the BrainBusters that airs December 1st. Watch me!

WWI propaganda: fun stuff!

2007-11-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

You've caught me; I have nothing all that interesting to post.

But! I randomly remembered that I made this website of propaganda from World War I for my 9th grade Honors English class. It's brilliantly organized (if I may say so myself) by country and subject and includes propaganda from the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, Russia, and Germany.

WWI Propaganda.

The internment of J. Allison Eyster

2007-10-30T20:32:00.000-04:00

Call me strange, but I really enjoy doing hours of research on random people I find whilst reading Civil War-related materials. It's my idea of a good time.

Browsing on the Valley of the Shadow site late this afternoon brought to my attention one J. Allison Eyster. Chambersburg's wealthiest merchant during the war, Eyster possessed about $82,000 in assets (today equivilent to approximately $1,776,000.)

The man obviously had a knack for business, as he was quickly awarded the contract to supply provisions to the soldiers at Camp Slifer. Besides the contract, Eyster also did what we can infer to be well over $11,000 of sutlering to Patterson's army. And this is apparently what got him into trouble.

Eyster was taken prisoner near Winchester, Virginia on the day after First Manassas without any discernable cause. He was first imprisoned in a Richmond tobacco warehouse with several other civilian prisoners, men from Waynesboro, and then detained in the County Prison until his release in early October.

From the reports of commissioners on various political arrests in the official records of the Confederate Army:
"He [J. Allison Eyster] is a Pennsylvania [sic] and a resident of Chambersburg. He is a wealthy merchant, well known in Baltimore; addicted sometimes to intemperance. He voted for Lincoln, but declares that he was entirely opposed to the war. He acted as a sutler in some sort to Patterson's army, selling it a large amount of goods on account of which there is still due to him he says about $11,000, to collect which he says he followed that army into Virginia, where he was arrested at the instance of his connection, Jonas Chamberlain, of Frederick County, whose affidavit is herewith returned. Chamberlain says that Eyster came to his house very drunk, and came into Virginia in a drunken frolic under Patterson's pass. I see no reason to detain Eyster unless as a hostage for the safety of our people who are in the bands of the enemy."

While doing the research on Eyster, I noticed that a great many of the prisoners in the other reports had been arrested for basically no reason. This caused me to do some research on habeas corpus during the war. I'd known that Lincoln had suspended it in response to riots and whatnot, but I never realized (or really even thought about it for that matter) that Davis had suspended it as well.

_{New York Times (Oct 7 1861)
The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (p. 1427)
Valley Spirit (May 1, Jul 31, Oct 9 1861)}

Crossposted to Civil War History.

My career shadowing plans

2007-10-27T19:33:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of lacking in interesting things to say as of late, so I guess now would be a good time to talk about how I have the best plans for November 19th ever conceived.
Joanne Lewis is a licensed battlefield guide and was the one who really got the town guide program started for Main Street Gettysburg. She was also in charge of finding volunteers for the train station, which is how I originally met her. I am required by my school to do career shadowing this year and Joanne is going to let me shadow her on the 19th while she gives tours and whatnot. So not only do I get to hang out with Joanne, who is awesome, but I get to be in town for Remembrance Day!
In other news, I am now a contributing writer over at Civil War History. I'd like to thank Daniel for the wonderful opportunity! Hopefully I will have something interesting to write over there soon.

Gettysburg's forgotten civilian deaths

2007-10-17T19:51:00.000-04:00

We've all heard about Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg. But have you ever heard of Edward McPherson Woods?
Daniel Sauerwein over at Civil War History (awesome guy, awesome blog) wrote an entry about souvenirs and relics, which reminded me about a story I heard Patricia Anschuetz tell at one point. The story talked about how several boys were killed looking for souvenirs, a sad fact supported by reports from McCreary and Ziegler. Local youth ventured out into the fields after the battle to collect whatever they could find. But there were many unexploded shells scattered about, not to mention still loaded guns which made hunting for what are today relics extremely dangerous.
The only of these boys I have been able to find any information on whatsoever is Edward McPherson Woods. And his name is basically all I know about him. Other than the .pdf from Penn State that confirmed my information, there are no Google hits for "Edward McPherson Woods." The .pdf says that the boy's death was mentioned in the Star and Banner on July 9th, and was intended as a "warning to others who may be visiting the battlefield."
It wasn't only the Gettysburg youth who were in danger from the 24,000 hazardous items left on the fields; farmers were also killed by unexploded shells while plowing.
I am unable to find much information on any of this, especially how many were killed. I plan on researching it further, perhaps even having an adventure over at the Adams County Historical Society.

I would assume this was an issue that many towns faced after significant battles, but it is not frequently talked or written about.

Washington Square, Ottawa, IL

2007-10-15T17:04:00.001-04:00

On our drive home from Iowa (the most westward we went) last week, my parents obliged my nerdiness and stopped at Washington Square in Ottawa, Illinois. It's a gorgeous park now, but on August 21 (my birthday!), 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas verbally battled in the first of a series of seven slavery-centered debates in the race for a seat in the Senate.
Modern-day Washington Square has a gorgeous fountain
with Lincoln and Douglas statues in the middle. It's definitely the greatest fountain I've ever seen. What I found amusing was how Lincoln is up front, very "Come to me, my people," and Douglas is all "Harrumph!" behind him. I do love Lincoln, but we sure do make him out to be quite godlike, don't we? Lincoln is probably built up even moreso than George Washington, which I think is really saying a lot. In a world of socially-enforced ethical absolutes, it seems if you went up against Lincoln, you are now portrayed as the bad guy. I'm not saying that Lincoln isn't worthy of the praise and image he is given, just that it seems to me that those History has looked upon favorably (or even relatively unfavorably in Douglas's case) can never be portrayed as simply human in art. I suppose it could be debated as to whether this is a good or a bad thing, or even whether it is true.
Across the street from the park, a mural portraying the debate is painted on the side of a building, Douglas in the background looking rather filled with jealousy at Lincoln's eloquence.
Washington Square also contains a very weather-worn Civil War monument. The writing on it is illegible and the faces of the figures carved onto it have disappeared. Unfortunate. From what I remember, it was erected quite shortly after the war, so it's been exposed to the elements for quite a long time now.
In summary, I like Washington Square. A lot. It's a very beautiful park with beautiful monuments and statues. I definitely would recommend a visit to anyone with an interest in 19th century politics... unfortunately I don't know very many people to whom this applies.

Coming to you from Iowa City, Iowa

2007-10-06T15:23:00.000-04:00

No train station this weekend due to my being out in the midwest. My parents and I set off on Wednesday, stayed the night in Toledo, Ohio, toured the University of Chicago on Thursday, Carleton College yesterday afternoon - I love it there, by the way. And I got to sit in on an Alcohol in America history class, which was very interesting. - and then got to my aunt and uncle's house late last night. We are staying two or three nights here before heading back home.

Being used to the glorious historical markers of Gettysburg and the east, I find the markers about the canning industry of Minnesota just a little silly. This area isn't very rich with prominant history, unfortunately.

Despite not being there this weekend, I do have train station news. An email I received recently has informed me that we no longer believe Lincoln actually entered our station due to the immense amount of empty coffins located inside at the time. Then again, no one is sure either way. It seems that wasn't the kind of thing people took much note of for posterity.

Lincoln and me

2007-09-29T21:46:00.000-04:00

September in Gettysburg is, frankly, dead as far as tourism goes. And thus my four hours at the train station once a week can seem like a year. Unfortunately, my freaking out about my blood test this morning caused me to forget to bring a book along (currently my book of choice is an encyclopedia of American History). This normally would be no big deal, as I would just play Boomshine to pass the time. Alas! The computer would not let me log in! And so I produced this sketch of Abraham Lincoln. I love how his eyes are sort of crooked but it doesn't matter since they are now saying he was quite unsymmetrical anyway.

Speaking of Mr. Lincoln in all of his unsymmetrical glory, his bust has moved into its home at the station. I'm ashamed that I did not even notice the president's head and shoulders outside until a visitor asked when it'd arrived. Eric and I were able to determine that it must have been sometime within the past week. I was able to greet the bust after showing a couple from D.C. out to Racehorse Alley. I touched a furrow in the jacket and suddenly realized that I have a weird tendency to touch statues and monuments (but I believe only of people, as I cannot recall randomly feeling up the Pennsylvania Monument or any of the other not-people monuments). But I digress. For those who do not know, the bust of Lincoln used to sit in the north-facing doorway of the Wills House until they began renovations. Originally it was supposed to go to the train station in Hanover Junction, but some series of events awarded Mr. Lincoln to us. So far, it's quite nice having him around.