The Gettysburg National Museum

In 1921 George D Rosensteel opened the Gettysburg National Museum.  It was a family business and passion.  The collections from this museum are the foundation for the museum now located in the Gettysburg Military Park Visitors Center.

George D Rosensteel was the nephew of John Rosensteel.  John grew up in the Gettysburg area, and began collecting relics of the battle, within days of the battle's ending.  George worked for his Uncle, who owned and ran a series of businesses located on the east side of Little Round Top, which included a museum.

George opened the new Gettysburg National Museum in 1921.  He built the museum on land bought from his Uncle, across the Taneytown Road from the Soldiers National Cemetery.  He added to his collection of artifacts by buying other collections such as his Uncle's Rosensteel's Round Top Collection, the William Zinkand Collection, The Bushman Collection, The Henry Spangler Family Collection and others.  Over the years the building was expanded so family could live there, house the ever growing collection of Civil War relics, and in 1963 the addition of an Electric Map.

In the early 1970's the property was sold to the National Park Service.  Over 30,000 artifacts were donated to the Park Service at the same time.  The government operated the building as the Gettysburg Visitor Center and Museum until 2008.  On the last day of operation; 13 April 2008, about 160 people sat through the final showing of the Electric Map. The building was torn down in March 2009, to make way for rehabilitation of Ziggler's Grove.

A VMI Graduate

View from Oak Hill

On 1 July 1863 coming down from the north, fate put a division of Confederate soldiers on the far right of the Union line, and on highest point of Oak Hill.  This Division was led by the capable VIM graduate Major General Robert Rhodes.

Robert Emmett Rhodes was born in Lynchburg, VA, 29 March 1829.  After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1848, he stayed at the school as a professor until 1851.  Leaving it is believed because the promotion he expected went to Thomas J Jackson.  He went to work for the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad.

Rhodes became the Colonel of the 5th Alabama, leading the men at the First Battle of Manassas.  He continued to raise in rank, and to the command of larger parts of the army, until landing in Divisional command in Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Corps just before the Battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson himself recommended Rhode be promoted to Major General, which was done with the effective date of 2 May 1863.  He was the first Divisional Commander in the Army of Northern Virginia, who was not a graduate of West Point.

Rhodes' division was a part of Lieutenant General Richard Ewell's newly formed Corps at Gettysburg.  Arriving on the field from the north they took possession of Oak Hill, an excellent artillery platform.  Although there were a number of bad command decisions made by his division, they held their ground and eventually joined in routing of the Union forces on 1 July, driving them back to Cemetery Hill.

A little over a year letter, during the Battle of Third Winchester/ Battle of Opequon, Rhodes was leading his men in an attack, into a gap between the 6th and 19th Union Corps.  On 19 September 1864 an exploding shell killed Robert Rhodes instantly.  He left behind a wife, Virgina (Woodruff) and two children, Robert E and Bell Yancey Rhodes.

The Highest Casualties Rate

On the east side of Oak Hill, overlooking the McLean Farm, there are two artillery batteries.  The one shown in this old photo is of Page's Morris Battery.  A part of Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Henry Thomas Carter's Artillery Battalion.

Captain Richard Channing Moore Page was commanding the Morris Artillery at Gettysburg, PA.  Page was born 2 January 1841 in Albemarle County, VA.  When the Civil War started he enlisted in the Rockbridge Artillery, fighting with them during the Battle of First Manassas.  He transferred to the Morris Artillery in Oct 1861 as their Second Gun Sergeant.  When the Confederate artillery was reorganized in April 1862 Page was elected Captain of the Battery.

Page's Battery was part of the Artillery that made up Lieut Col Henry Carter's Battalion.  They were the Artillery of record in Maj Gen Robert Rhode's Division of Lieut Gen Richard Ewell's Corps.  They arrived on Oak Hill from the North with four Napoleons.  Page's Battery was ordered near the base of the hill, to the rear of Brig Gen George Doles brigade near the McLean barn.  The Union 11th Corps Artillery pounded them with a damaging fire.  The Battery lost 4 men killed, 26 wounded; including Capt Page and 17 horses, all during the 1 Jul fight.  This is the highest casualties rate for any Confederate artillery at Gettysburg.

Page would return to the Confederate Army; after recovering from his wound 27 Feb 1864, with a promotion to Major.  After the war he went to the University of Virginia, graduating in 1868 with a medical degree.  Page opened a practice in New York City, where he died 19 June 1898.

The farm property that Page's Battery fought on, on 1 July was owned by Moses McLean.  The farm is along and north of the Mummasburg Road.  At the time of the battle the farm was rented to David and Harriet Beams.  David was away during the battle fighting with 165th PA as part of Dix's Peninsula Campaign.  His wife and three year old daughter fled just ahead of the Confederates.  The farm was deeded to the Gettysburg National Military Park 14 April 1965.

A Christmas Poem

In 1864 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a widower with six children.  He had and would see the grief of Civil War.  This man's way of coping has brought us the beautiful Christmas Carol "I heard The Bells On Christmas Day".

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's oldest son Charley [this is what he was called by the family] enlisted to fight for the Union in March 1863.  He would become a Second Lieutenant in Company G of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry.  Charley missed the battle of Gettysburg do to an outbreak of typhoid.

However on 1 Dec 1863 Henry Wadsworth learned that his son had been  critically wounded during some skirmishing as part of the Mine Run Campaign.  Charley was moved to New Hope Church, where his father found him on 5 Dec 1863.Wadsworth was told that his son might not survive, and if he, he could be paralyzed.

Wadsworth wrote the word to the poem that would become our song, while waiting for his son to recuperate.  He was inspired after hearing church bells tolling Luke 2:14 "Peace on Earth" on Christmas morning.

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
   And wild and sweet
   The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
   Had rolled along
   The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
   A voice, a chime,
   A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
   And with the sound
   The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
   And made forlorn
   The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth," I said;
   “For hate is strong,
   And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
   The Wrong shall fail,
   The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Just A School

This house on the southeast corner of Washington and High Street, was built as the Gettysburg Academy in 1814.  It went onto to be the home of several other schools, before the Civil War came to its door steps.

The Gettysburg Academy opened in 1814, under headmaster Samuel Ramsay.  There were 3 dorms, a library and a gymnasium [at this time gymnasium referred to a preparatory school].  Samuel Schmucker turned the building and the school into the Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1826.  When the first Seminary building was completed, the school then became the Pennsylvania College [now Gettysburg College].

William Eyster

In 1856 the Reverend David and Mrs Rebecca Reynolds Eyster bought the building.  They opened the Gettysburg Female Institute.  When the Reverend died in 1861, his wife continued to run the school with one of their sons William Reynolds Eyster; a new graduate of the Pennsylvania College, teaching math and latin.

The Eyster school served young ladies from "the best" local families.  One of the pupils was Tillie Pierce, who wrote about the first day the Confederate's arrived in Gettysburg.  On 26 June 1863 the class was dismissed by Mrs Eyster as Confederate Major General Jubal Early's troops marched into town by simply saying, “Children, run home as quickly as you can."  The building was used for a hospital after the battle, as most buildings in Gettysburg were.  Rebecca Eyster closed the school in 1871.

View from back along Washington St

It has been a private residence since.  During WWI it was used as Officer Quarters.  You can see an artillery shell in the side of the building today.  It is a Reed shell from a 10 pound Parrott gun.

The Great Test

View from near Peace Light, morning of test

So it's been almost a week since 97 hearty souls sat for the test to become a Licensed Battlefield Guide at the Gettysburg National Military Park.  December 2nd dawned bright and clear, with a bit of frost and a glorious sunrise.  Some few of the would be guides made the trip up Little Round Top, to rub old Colonel Patrick O'Rourke's nose for luck.  I chose to spend a little time in reflection at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.

The parking lot at HACC [Harrisburg Area Community College ] quickly filled up.  Each of in our own nervous way, we filtered up to the door, where we stood in the cold waiting to be invited into the lobby.  We talked about those last few minutes of panicked studying that morning.  Those of us who had been through this before, we're offering up our tidbits of test wisdom. Not really believing any of that wisdom.

Finally the doors opened and we pushed inside.  We received instructions about the check in process.  Make sure you have your government id [yes just like getting on a plane], no cell phones, no study aids.  They are good enough to let us bring coffee or water.  We got into lines, checked in and received our number [from this point forward we are known as that number].  Each of us off to our assigned room.  Some final instructions.  Those last burst of nerves, and it's 9am.  For the next three hours you are just trying to pull answers from the deep recesses of your brain.

After a short break for lunch, we all mostly return for another three hours of essay writing.  If you didn't return, your morning part of the testing was to be thrown out.  We had; I believe, two in our room who apparently found the morning to much for them and didn't return.  Six essays to write longhand, isn't just taxing on the brain, but it is physically hard on your hand too.

At 4:30 the torture stopped.  We all drifted slowly and perhaps a bit dazed into the parking lot.  Most taking the first big deep breath we had taken in weeks.  After a few last words we all drifted off, some to spend much need time with family, some for a drink with friends, myself I went for a moonlit walk with my thoughts across Pickett's Charge [what can I say, it's my happy place].

I would like to take a minute to thank another group of people who gave up their Saturday.  Guides already carrying that licenses, that we are hoping to earn. You all arrived early, stayed late, and throughout where encouraging to each and everyone of us.  I hope to someday to able to say I am a member of such a wonderful group of people.

And so to wrap this up, the 97 of us now wait.  Sometime in late December [I'm assuming here, based on past years], we will get letters let us know if we move forward to the next tier of testing.  Good luck to all. [By the way, I must give credit for the last 2 photos to Fred Hawthorne. I stole them off his FaceBook page].

The McPherson Farm

This view taken from Stone's Ave

The stone barn in this photo is all that remains of the Edward McPherson farm.  This is land located along the Chambersburg Pike, about a ½ mile west of Gettysburg.  It was fought over heavily on 1 July 1863.

Edward McPherson was a lawyer and had been a member of the US House of Representatives.  President Abraham Lincoln appointed McPherson Deputy Commissioner of the Internal Revenue.  At the time of the Battle he was in Washington, DC.

The John Slentz family was renting the 66.5 acre farm at the time of the Battle.  The farm included the barn that is in the photo, a house and a wagon shed.  They had some pasture and a field of corn and one of wheat.  The barn was used during and after the Battle by the wounded.  It would be 3 months before the Slentz family could live in the house again.

The depression in the forward of photo is an unused quarry.  You will also notice several monuments in the photo, including the 150th PA and the Reynolds Equestrian Monument.

A view taken today.  Looking from Reynolds Ave.