Elliott Burial Map of Gettysburg

We can't imagine what it was like to find ourselves in the aftermath of a catastrophic battle like Gettysburg.   Death and destruction were all around.  And the stench.  Approximately 7,000 corpses lay rotting in the Pennsylvania sun following the climactic action on the final day, July 3rd, 1863.  Then came the grisly and monumental task of interring the dead, a lengthy endeavor that horrified all involved.  The residents of the town soon found themselves living in a vast cemetery.  And while the citizens just wanted things to go back to normal and likely had no desire to document the location of the graves, others undertook the challenge.  One of whom was Samuel G. Elliott, a California engineer who surveyed the field during a visit in 1864.  

https://www.loc.gov/item/99447500

  

My Article in Gettysburg Magazine

I am pleased to announce that I have an article in the recent issue of Gettysburg Magazine, issue #62, January 2020. This magazine is a peer-reviewed periodical published bi-annually by the University of Nebraska Press. My piece deals with two female casualties of Pickett's charge. You will already find parts of it scattered in my book and in a previous blog post, but this article has all the details and most recent research – complete with footnotes — in one comprehensive piece.
Click [HERE] to order a copy.

From Books to Battlefields: Women Soldiers as Students and Teachers

And just like that, my summer is over, and it's time to go back to school.   While I love my job as a college instructor and have been blessed to have taught with some of the most amazing people throughout my career at all levels, I defy you to find a teacher who rues the end of summer vacation.

Two Female Casualties of Pickett's Charge

After testing the Federal left and right flanks, General Robert E. Lee contrived a plan to attack the Union center.  This futile assault would prove to be the climactic point of the three-day battle of Gettysburg and a costly Confederate defeat.   In terms of the number of killed, wounded, captured, and missing, the South lost over 6,000 soldiers in this charge alone.   At least two of those casualties were women. 

Does a Woman Soldier Haunt a National Cemetery?

Women soldiers went to extreme measures to blend in while in the ranks, their true identity hidden.  However, there may be one female fighter who is finally trying to make herself visible, an act she so desperately tried to avoid 150 years ago.

Boscobel AAR

I consider myself semi-retired from reenacting.  The only event I generally attend a year is Muskets

Photo by Tom George Davison

and Memories in Boscobel, Wisconsin held annually the first weekend in August.   I still can't get over how cool Wisconsin is this time of year.  While my friends and family are drinking the air in Mississippi, I'm typically freezing under a wool blanket.  I campaign, which means I only bring what I can carry on my person and sleep under the stars with no tent.  In that regard, you get a sense as to what the soldiers experienced.  I am in the infantry and, as a lifelong athlete, enjoy the physical challenge of it.  You definitely get a good workout!

Mark is the overall Confederate commander at this event and helps design the battle scenarios, which he typically researches months in advance.  He, and a lot of others, put a lot of time and effort into it, which results in a good event that typically draws large crowds.  The small town embraces it as well.


This year, the event organizers wanted to honor Alonzo Cushing who was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg.  He had local ties, having been born in Delafield, Wisconsin.  (Boscobel itself had a Medal of Honor winner who served with a woman soldier.  Click HERE to read about them.)