Tanks for the Memories: Camp Command Brought Eisenhower to Gettysburg for the First Time
More than 8,700 Confederate Army veterans lived to attend the 50th anniversary reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913. They camped on the field where General George Pickett and his men had made their brave charge more than mile across an open field into the cannons on the Union Army in July 1863. Veterans of that charge would have been among the old men attending the reunion. They would have looked at the field covered with tents where the veterans camped during the reunion and remembered that the ground had been covered with bodies 50 years earlier. In that desperate charge, many of the unprotected soldiers had been felled by bullets. Had the veterans returned five years later, they still would have seen tents on the field where so much Confederate blood had been shed. They would have also Read more…
Saving the Marine Corps
This is a short excerpt from The Last to Fall: The 1922 Marine March, Battles, & Deaths of U.S. Marines at Gettysburg. The Marines had fought valiantly in World War I like in the Battle of Belleau Wood in France. After the deadly fighting there to drive the entrenched German troops from Belleau Wood, Army General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, said, “The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.” However, that didn’t stop Pershing and others from wanting to disband the Marine Corps after the war had been won. “Right after World War I, when John A. Lejeune was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps, there was a push by General Pershing and President Wilson to have the Marine Corps abolished,” said Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Williams, executive director of the United 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…
What? You mean there's more to Gettysburg than just the Civil War battle?
I have a new e-book available on Kindle called Beyond the Battlefield: Stories from Gettysburg’s Rich History and it happens to be coming out around the same time I’m beginning a new history column for the Gettysburg Times with the same theme. Gettysburg is best-known for the epic Civil War battle that was fought there in 1863. It tends to overshadow many of the other interesting and important stories that have taken place in Gettysburg and the vicinity. Gettysburg was home to one of the first tank training camps in the country during World War I that was located on a portion of the Civil War battlefield. This also brought a young army officer to Gettysburg who would play a very important role in town but also the world. His name was Dwight David Eisenhower. Gettysburg was also home to Read more…
^