Gettysburg’s Least-Visited Monument
Along the winding Howard Avenue in Gettysburg, you pass monuments that mark the actions of military units such as the 107th Ohio Infantry and the 58th New York Infantry. The monuments sit so close to the road that you don’t even have to leave the comfort of an air-conditioned car to read the inscriptions on the stone blocks. At the crest of the road, a cluster of monuments, statues, cannon, and a flagpole mark the events that took place in July 1863 on Barlow Knoll. From that crest, you can look northeast down the slope of Barlow Knoll to the tree line along Rock Creek. Within those trees is what is arguably the least-visited monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield. Although there are no visitor statistics for monuments, this monument is so isolated that you have to know what you are Read more…
Frederick County (MD)’s Journey Through Hallowed Ground
Beginning in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, you can travel south on Route 15 and Route 231 for 180 miles until you reach Charlottesville, Virginia. “This part of the country has soaked up more of the blood, sweat, and tears of American history than any other part of the country. It has bred more founding fathers, inspired more soaring hopes and ideals and witnessed more triumphs, failures, victories, and lost causes than any other place in the country,” Yale University Professor C. Vann Woodward said of the route. And around 37 miles of the route runs through the middle of Frederick County. This is The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, a National Scenic Byway and a driving trip through America’s history and some of its scenic vistas. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground organization works with state and municipal governments to create joint tourism opportunities Read more…
Gettysburg Home Hosted President Night Before Historic Address
When President Abraham Lincoln first arrived in Gettysburg, Pa., it was the day before he was to speak at the dedication of the National Soldiers Cemetery, and his comments hadn’t yet been completed. He needed a placed to stay the night and work. Gettysburg attorney David Wills owned the largest house on the downtown square and he had also been the person to invite the President to speak at the dedication. So in November 1863, it wasn’t surprising that he played host to Abraham Lincoln. Wills Role in the Gettysburg Address It was Wills who convinced the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to purchase 17 acres to become a cemetery for the soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg that had occurred less than five months prior. He planned the cemetery dedication for November 19, 1863, with Edward Everett as the main Read more…
Newspaper editor critical of county official killed after scathing article (part 2)
They say, “The pen is mightier than the sword” and for Lloyd Clary that indeed proved true. The young newspaper editor of the Cumberland Daily Times had survived the bullets and swords of the Civil War only to be felled because of something he wrote on October 27, 1873. “Never in our experience have we been called upon to publish the details of an occurrence more truly painful and shocking than that of the killing of Lloyd Lowndes Clary, the brave editor of the Cumberland Daily Times by John H. Resley…” the Hagerstown Mail reported after the murder. It was in the offices of the newspaper on Oct. 27 that John Resley shot Clary twice, once in the neck and once in the body. The neck shot would kill Clary later that evening. Though Resley left the scene of his crime, he Read more…
Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity in Missouri During the Civil War
No one would look at a Daughter of Charity and see the steel in their personalities that gave them the ability to venture where women rarely went in the 1860’s. They ran schools, among which was St. Philomena’s School in St. Louis. They ran DePaul Hospital in St. Louis, which began as the St. Louis Mullanphy Hospital in 1828. The latter was frowned on. Nursing wasn’t considered a suitable profession for women. Nursing in public hospitals was often done by other residents of the hospital or the poor. No formal training program existed. That way of thinking began changing in the 1850’s, though. The French Daughters of Charity had served as battlefield nurses caring for French soldiers during the Crimean War. Their service had been so exemplary that many people began looking at the American Daughters of Charity and wondering Read more…
Ignoring facts doesn't make them false just forgotten
I am reluctant to write about this topic because the subject of the Confederate flag along with some other recent events have generated more anger and rudeness online than I have ever seen. I’ve watched friends turn on each other and rather than try to speak rationally about a topic, they simply “unfriend” each other on Facebook. However, other things have happened this week or occurred to me that, I think, had shown me some different angles on the topic that I felt compelled to share because I haven’t seen some of them mentioned. First off, I’ve seen written in newspaper reports that the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina was flying above the state house. First, this is not true. Second, this is being reported by the media, which seeks to have to public trust them, but can’t get Read more…
Frederick County's (Md.) last slave, part 3
Ruth Bowie had grown up as a slave during the Civil War. Even after gaining her freedom, she had remained with a former owners until she married Charles Bowie in 1880. By the turn of the of century, the Bowies were listed as living in log home along Lewistown Pike in Lewistown, which is where they would call home for their rest of their lives. They had had four children together, but none of them lived to adulthood and then Ruth had to deal with the loss of her husband in 1920. The Frederick News was reporting that Ruth was over 100 in 1946. The newspaper ran a short article noting that Ruth’s doctor had decided that she was too old to continue living alone. Her sight and hearing were still considered normal, but she had hurt her hip shortly Read more…
Frederick County's (Md.) last slave, part 2
Ruth Bowie was born a slave in Montgomery County, Maryland. When she died in 1955, she was the last person in Frederick County, Maryland, who had been born into slavery. Slave Life Letha Brown was a house servant and cook for the Mullinixes while Wesley was a field hand. “Well she remembers the days of her slavery when custom permitted owners to wield the whip ‘for the least little thing’ and little Ruthie often felt the sting of the switch,” Sullivan wrote. However, Ruth’s experience with this came from her interactions with Asbury’s wife, Elizabeth Mullinix whom she called “Ol’ Missy.” Hilton says he has no doubt that Ol’ Missy beat Ruth. “She treated everybody like that not just Ruth,” Hilton said. “Family stories say she was a crazy woman.” For the most part, Ruth worked in the main house. Read more…
Find out how the Marines would have fought the Battle of Gettysburg
The Last to Fall: The 1922 March, Battles, & Deaths of U.S. Marines at Gettysburg is now available for sale online and at stores. Thomas Williams, executive director of the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Company, said, “Every American is familiar with the iconic battle fought in Gettysburg during the American Civil War, some are even aware that two Marine officers and the ‘Presidents Own’ Marine Band accompanied President Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg in November 1863 to dedicate the National Cemetery there. However, few people are aware that 59 years later the US Marines would “reenact” the battle. “In 1922, General Smedley Butler would march over 5,000 Marines from MCB Quantico, Virginia to the hallowed fields of Gettysburg. Conducted as a training exercise, but more importantly to raise public opinion and awareness, the Marines would travel to the National Battlefield and Read more…
The banishment of a Confederate family
Priscilla McKaig held the military order in her hand and re-read it. It was short but it was impossible. Major General David Hunter, who was in command of the Union forces in Allegany County for a portion of the Civil War, was ordering her and her family to leave Cumberland for one of the Confederate States. “I was thunder struck, no charges – no explanation,” she wrote in her journal. Why shouldn’t she be? Her family was among the upper class of Cumberland. Her husband was a former mayor of Cumberland, a partner in the Cumberland Cotton Factory and president of the Frostburg Coal Company. Her first reaction was to refuse to comply. This was her family’s home and she had every right to be here. However, she had no choice but to comply. Troops ringed her house and she Read more…
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