CWI at Gettysburg College

          There is still time to register for the Civil War Institute, the annual five-day seminar about the war at Gettysburg College. Your loyal blogger attends the CWI every year and it is always a tremendous experience.

          This year’s theme is the war in 1864. The 2014 speaker list is impressive, as usual, and there are field trips scheduled to various battlefields. I recommend you check it out at http://www.gettysburg.edu/cwi/.

          The typical CWI schedule includes lectures on topics spread across the entire spectrum of Civil War study. It also includes battlefield tours of Gettysburg during which small groups of attendees follow the actions of specific regiments, some on each side of the fighting.

          There are scholarship opportunities at the CWI for high school students every year.

          I always get to Gettysburg a few days ahead of the CWI and spend time walking the Gettysburg battlefield. Then I try to spend an additional day on the battlefield after the CWI ends. I never fail to learn something new about Gettysburg during the seminar and I like to have one last day to investigate the information. Obviously, you don’t have to spend the extra time in the area that I do, but I am blessed with an understanding wife.

          Mrs. Leeway does not attend the CWI. We stay at an area hotel (as a frequent traveler, I have lots of hotel points and we use them) and my wife enjoys the local movie theaters, shopping malls, restaurants, free bus service and leisure time available at said hotel. Most CWI folks stay in the dorms at the college and eat at the student commons.

          If the Civil War interests you, the CWI is a tremendous opportunity to hear the latest scholarship on the subject. I take lots of notes and keep them. It’s never too late to learn something.

 

          Thanks for reading.