Battle of Gettysburg

My historical novel Brookhaven is set during the Civil War’s final two years and immediately after, and then in 1915, 50 years later. The moment that sets the story into motion happens in late April of 1863 – Grierson’s Raid, in which a troop of some 1700 Union cavalry made their way through Mississippi from the Tennessee border to (eventually) Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The soldiers came to Brookhaven, most notably burning the train station and tearing up railroad track.

The raid had a specific point: divert attention from Gen. Grant’s army preparing to cross the river from Louisiana and end the siege of Vicksburg, the last Confederate position on the river. The fall of Vicksburg would been the Union controlled the entire length of the river and would split the Confederacy in two.

The Vicksburg campaign was covered in a collection of articles edited by Chris Mackowski and Dan Welch, part of a series called “Summer of ’63.” Their Vicksburg & Tullahoma covered the events and milestones of that campaign, including a raid on Mississippi’s capital of Jackson, which eventually led to a Union victory.

Now Mackowski and Welch have done it again, this time turning to another major Union victory in 1863 – the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Summer of 1863: Gettysburg follows a similar format. Mackowski and Welch have gathered and edited articles from the Emerging Civil War web site (which I can’t recommend highly enough if you’re interested in American history generally and Civil War history specifically). When you read a concentration of work like this, you realize just how fine the historical scholarship is on the site.

The subjects include understanding why the Battle of Chancellorsville is so vital to understanding Gettysburg; how Gen. Meade took control of the Union army on the eve of battle; the mascot of the 11h Pennsylvania; prominent local families; how the Union retreated through the town at the beginning of the three-day battle; the impact of three men on the battle’s outcome; the role of Stonewall Jackson; the poet and writer Herman Melville on Pickett’s Charge; the aftermath, including the effort to punish Gen. Meade for “allowing” Lee’s army to escape; how the wounded saw the battle; how the battle was memorialized; the famous 1913 reunion of both Union and Confederate veterans,; and much more.

A professor at St. Bonaventure University, Mackowski has received B.A., M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. degrees in communication, English, and creative writing. The author of some nine books, he’s written extensively on the Civil War for a number of publications. He also worked for the National Park Service and gave tours of the Civil War battlefields at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania.

Welch is an educator in a public school district in Ohio and serves as a seasonal park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and associate editor of Gettysburg Magazine. He’s written two books in the Emerging Civil War Series and co-edited several volumes.

A collection like The Summer of ’63: Gettysburg makes you appreciate the quality of the articles at Emerging Civil War. It also reminds me of the debt I owe to the writers there; I spent considerable time using the site for research and background for Brookhaven. It’s a debt I can’t repay. And my book has been published for some months, yet I still spend considerable time on the web site.

Top illustration: The Battle of Gettysburg as depicted by artist Thure de Thulstrup for Harper’s Weekly.

In July 1913, some 53,000 Civil War veterans gathered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the famous battle. Almost every veteran was, by this time, an old man, with most in the 70s. The youngest was 61; he’d been an 11-year-old drummer boy in 1863. The oldest was 110; he’d fought when he was 60.

The anniversary event didn’t happen by itself; planning had gone on for years, at least in theory. The commemoration almost didn’t happen because of what was falling through the cracks as the date got closer. But competent people intervened, and the commemoration happened.

In The World Will Never See the Like: The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913, author John Hopkins tells the story in all of its chaos, splendor, and glory. Veterans, mostly Union because those states provided at least some transportation costs, came from all over the country to find old friends and sometimes old enemies, remember, and celebrate a unified country.

The idea was first raised in 1908 in the Pennsylvania legislature. Five years later, a host of state legislatures and the U.S. Congress had weighed in. Hopkins concisely details the planning, the organization of the event, and what happened during the four days of celebration (including 100+-degree weather and a storm). The program itself may have been the easiest part to create. Organizers had to consider food, housing, medical facilities (a number of the veterans would get ill during the celebration, and some would die), travel arrangements, and sanitary facilities. A huge tent city was erected at the site of the battle, with neighborhoods and streets. Boy Scouts were enlisted to be information and direction guides.

The participants knew they had made history in 1863 and were making history again in 1913. There would indeed never be a celebration like this on American soil.

Hopkins also discusses the politics. How would attendees and speakers alike describe what had caused the war and led to the battle. The “Lost Cause” idea was likely at its high-water mark in the South, and it had certainly influenced Northern thinking as well. In the end, everyone agreed that the causes were less important than what had resulted – a unified country once again. In particular, the veterans were less interested in discussing and debating the causes of the Civil War, and more interested in remembering, connecting, and finding out what had happened to the men they had fought with and against. (A small group of elderly women, who had been nurses, also attended.)

Hopkins, a communications and public relations professional, received his degree in political science from Williams College. He’s worked for more than three decades in higher education, nonprofit, and agency settings. For this book, he made extensive use of letters, memoirs, news reports (more than 150 journalists covered the event), and official proceedings.

The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 tells a story that is informative, often enlightening, and surprisingly poignant. Certain parts may move you to tears. Most of those present would be gone within a decade, and they laughed, cried, and often drank (a lot) with the men they shared the most formative moment of their lives with. The event itself might have been a defining moment in the passing of the 19^th century and the arrival of the 20^th.

Top photograph: Veterans arriving in the tent city for the 50th reunion of the battle.

“The Summer of ’63: Gettysburg” by Chris Mackowski and Dan Welch

“The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913” by John Hopkins

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