Parting shot at Gettysburg

 

          The final two days at Gettysburg were spent wandering the battlefield, Nikon in hand.

          This year the mystery that had been Culp’s Hill became a great deal clearer (to one particular person) and the Nikon availed itself to recording the areas of the Hill where your favorite blogger finally has a working understanding of the fighting.

          After walking in the dark for six years, a small spec of light finally made itself visible to this human’s eyes. One of the images here came from Culp’s Hill, while others came from elsewhere.

          No exaggeration here: It was a great deal more satisfying to walk on the Hill with the ability to record an image and know what happened in the pictured location. Yes, the weather was miserably hot and humid. Yes, the Hill was a steep climb in places. But understanding the Hill’s story made all the physical effort more worthwhile.

          And, truth be told, that basic understanding of the Hill’s unique place in the Gettysburg story could not have happened for this blogger were it not for the Civil War Institute and the tours planned for Gettysburg each year.

          You can laugh at this next part. Mrs. Leeway sure did.

          The remnants of the trenches dug by the Federal defenders of Culp’s Hill evaded this blogger for six years. It was one of those situations where the forest was hard to see because all the trees were in the way. Of course, it helps to look in the right place if you want to see something.



Look where the ground slopes to the left
and look at the tree line. The trenchs
were on the spot where the ground seems
to level out.

         

Tour guide: You can see what remains of the Union trenches right here.

          Blogger (peering closely in the indicated direction): Really? Where?

          Tour guide: You’re standing on one.

      

 

         The other images came from locations around the battlefield and are offered as a mini tour for the reader.

          Some of the images here were captured as part of a project. Others are locations seen in this blog space before, but this time in an attempt to capture a fresh viewpoint. One thing Gettysburg does not lack is interesting opportunities for the camera.

          The general idea for Speedyleeway Research Month was for your loyal blogger to research something every day or listen to an expert in a field each day during the month of June. Whether it was getting tips on ways to conduct more research or stumbling into something most of the world already knew about, this month was a success for Speedyleeway.

 

Look above the artillery piece. The tallest hill in the distance, to the right, is Round Top. To the left
you can see Little Round Top. The image was captured from the spot where General Lee met the troops
as they returned from Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863.

Shot from the same spot as the previous image. The bigger bunch of trees to the right is the Copse of
Trees, the target of the Confederates charge on the final day at Gettysburg.

 

The flank marker for the 20th Maine. Look at the small
change across the top.

Memorial to the Irish
Brigade.

General Warren on
Little Round Top.

 

          There were a few days when yours truly had to put aside research and go to work. It seemed possible, even probable, that no research would be done. But, with the mental dexterity developed as a graduate from a great American university, the hurdle was overcome with a simple question: “Hey, what was the fastest Pro Stock run ever made here?”

          That, my friends, is research.

          Whether it is your own family tree or something to do with your favorite athletic team, this writer hopes you find something to research and that the result gives you joy.

          Thanks for reading and happy Speedyleeway Research Month!

2014 CWI: Final talks and tours

          Speedyleeway Research Month continued with the final days at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

          Sunday opened with Keith Bohannon discussing Federal General William T. Sherman and his campaign for Atlanta. Bohannon highlighted the differences between Sherman and the Confederate commanders he faced, Joseph Johnston and John B. Hood. Bohannon explained that Sherman had the support of his military superiors and his civilian superior, which Johnston did not. Hood had the support of the Confederate civilian leadership but he really faced an impossible situation.

          Bohannon threw out a fact that your loyal blogger did not know, that the set from the film The Wizard of Oz was burned during the filming of Gone with the Wind.

          Emmanuel Dabney delivered a terrific address about the US Colored Troops at the Battle of the Crater. Union soldiers dug a mine under the Confederate lines with the idea of using a massive explosion underground to open up a gap in the Confed defenses. Dabney talked about the terrible massacre during that engagement and said white US soldiers killed their African American comrades when it became obvious the attack was a failure.

          Your favorite blogger talked to Dabney later on during the day. He’s a great young guy and he’s very passionate about history.

          Next came a series of breakout sessions and yours truly took in Jonathan Noyalas’ outstanding presentation about the Battle of Cedar Creek in one of the really snazzy classrooms at the College. The net result of this battle was the end of Jubal Early’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Noyalas took us through this event very nicely.

          Then it was back to the main meeting room for Crystal Feimster’s address about the rape and mutiny at Fort Jackson, Louisiana. The event, as detailed by Feimster, was particularly ugly. Federal officers raped a group of African American women who worked in the camp laundry. Six of the guilty officers were dismissed from the Army but President Lincoln revoked the dismissals and the officers returned to the same regiment they’d been dismissed from.

           K. Stephen Prince discussed The Burnt District: Southern Ruins and the Problem of Reconstruction. Photographs of the ruined cities in the South, Prince told us, generated a great deal of intellectual commentating in the immediate post- war period. We now term the discussions of the period Ruin Talk. Northerners saw the ruins of the South as 1) visions of the guilty South, 2) the end of what the South had been before the war and 3) the South reborn. The ruins of the South were frequently compared with the ruins of Pompeii, according to Prince, but Ruin Talk ended at the end of 1865.

          Prince’s address gave your loyal blogger the idea that there is a strong similarity between the still images of post-Civil War Southern United States and the newsreel visions of Japan after the Second World War. In both cases, photography brought home the brutality of armed conflict. Cultural and economic changes were demanded by the winners in both instances. We could argue about which rehab project worked best.

          Barton A. Myers gave us a great talk, Controlling the Chaos: The Guerrilla Wars of 1864. There were guerrilla fighters in every Confederate state, according to Myers, but the Confederate States government enacted a law making it legal. But the groups probably hurt the Confederate war effort more than they helped. Guerrillas hurt Confederate command and control of the war effort for one thing and Myers added that many of the darkest hours of the war involved guerrilla forces.

          Susannah Ural talked about the incidents where the Texans fighting under John B. Hood refused to go into attack until Robert E. Lee, who seemed intent upon personally leading them from the front, got out of the way. The Texas Brigade was, by 1864, among the best fighting units on either side of the war and Lee frequently counted on them to perform the most difficult tasks.

          One of the great opportunities offered by the CWI is the dine-in program where members of the Institute faculty have dinner with a small number of attendees. This year, yours truly and a few others had dinner with Ural. We discussed portions of Ural’s book, Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades and what reactions we had to the selections. It was interesting to share ideas in such a comfortable setting with a cross section of CWI attendees and one of the leading researchers and authors in the Civil War field.

          Two tours were part of the CWI experience for this attendee. Brooks Simpson led a group of us to the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields. Both locations have excellent remnants of Civil War trenches. Yours truly had never before visited either location. It was interesting to see the tangled woods of the Wilderness and realize that the area was equally difficult to pass through at the time of the battle. It was exciting for this writer to stand in the Mule Shoe salient of the Spotsylvania battlefield.

Simpson is an outstanding professor and author. It became obvious that he is also a terrific tour guide. Your loyal blogger is now reading his book, Let Us Have Peace about U.S. Grant during the period immediately before and after the end of the war.

The second tour was at the Culp’s Hill positions at Gettysburg. This tour was conducted by Jennifer Murray and Murray did an excellent job. It was the first time your loyal blogger began to understand the fighting on that key hill. Civil War historians ignore Culp’s Hill, for reasons that make little or no sense, despite the fact that it was the key to the Union defense for all three days of the fighting.

This was a terrific conference. The only bad thing is waiting for 360 more days for the next edition of the conference.

 

Thanks for reading and Happy Research Month!

CWI 2014: The conference continues

          Speedyleeway Research Month continues. When last we looked, our hero was preparing to attend the first day of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College…

The first full day of the 2014 Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College was mostly carried live by the cable television network CSPAN. The presenters were all very informative, leading us through the questions surrounding the theme of this year’s Institute, the Civil War in 1864.

          A day earlier, Brian M. Jordan started the event with a big picture look at 1864. Jordan made a complicated question easier to understand, linking events and people together. That keynote address set us up for the things to be discussed throughout during this year’s CWI.

          Later on Friday, Peter Carmichael and author Gordon Rhea discussed the campaigns of 1864. Carmichael heads up the CWI team.

          Saturday, we got deep into matters. Carmichael opened the day by discussing the generalship of Robert E. Lee. Lee’s aggressive approach to the war, Carmichael said, led to heavy Confederate losses.

Carmichael suggested that Lee should have retreated to Richmond and Petersburg earlier than the Army of Northern Virginia eventually did. Such a move would have saved 20,000 Confederate lives, Carmichael told us, making the defense of Petersburg and Richmond easier jobs.

 

Some clown, easily recognizable to readers of this blog, stood up and asked how falling back to the Petersburg/Richmond area earlier would have made a difference for the Confederates. Some people will do anything to get on television.

Brooks Simpson talked about U.S. Grant and the problems Grant faced in attacking Virginia in 1864. Simpson, who is among the most entertaining Civil War speakers, discussed Grant’s difficulty with his subordinates in the Union’s Army of the Potomac and the fact that Grant was basically fighting on Lee’s home turf. Simpson said, during the question and answer session following his presentation, that Grant did not give the order for the final Union charge at Cold Harbor.

Ari Kelman discussed the massacre of a group of Native Americans at Sand Creek in Colorado. Kelman argued the event was a part of the Civil War, since it happened in 1864. Whether you agree with that idea or not, and your loyal blogger does not, it was still an outstanding presentation. Kelman’s look into the event does allow for a discussion about how myth and memory about history can differ, depending on your point of view. That point resonates with any audience interested in the study of the Civil War.

Next on the schedule was a group of breakout sessions. Attendees were free to select the sessions of their interest. Brian C. Miller offered a look at CSA General John B. Hood and his ill-fated period as commander of the Army of Tennessee. Hood’s performance is easy to pick on and many historians have used his performance at the head of the AoT as a chance to make jokes. Miller, it seemed to this observer, avoided that temptation and instead studied the man and his career, the pluses and the minuses.

The next session was Megan K. Nelson’s look at the burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania by Confederates. Drawing from the material generated while writing her book on the subject, Nelson managed to put a lot of information into her presentation. Chambersburg was just one city of many to suffer major damage during the war but Nelson brought this particular event to life with some tremendous images from the period, along with a few others from the present day. It was interesting to learn the towns people were tipped off that the Confederates were coming and the people managed to send their valuables away, including the money from the local bank. The story of rebuilding the town is interesting. This was an excellent talk.

Susannah Ural was the final speaker of the day and her presentation mirrored the title of her latest book, Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades. Ural discussed how soldiers and non-combatants back home coped with the issues we Americans know all too well today, starting with family separation. Ural quoted letter after letter from the battle front and from the home front and pointed out changing viewpoints that are obvious from the letters. But this was more than a letter reading party. Ural told the stories of everyday people in various walks of life before the war and how the war impacted them. To understand the war, you have to understand the era and Ural’s talk gave terrific insight.

Every speaker joshed with Carmichael on a wide range of topics, giving all of us in the audience the joy of humor in the form of unexpected jesting at opportune moments.

The CWI continues through Tuesday.

          Thanks for reading and happy Research Month!

Gettysburg: Heat, rain and ground-bound bees

          Speedyleeway Research Month continues with yours truly arriving in Gettysburg two days ahead of the 2014 Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. It is a standard policy to arrive a few days ahead of the conference so as to spend a few days on the battlefield, Nikon in hand.

          This year there is the added goal of grabbing a few images for an old pal and fellow Civil War enthusiast, Buck Weber.

          Upon arrival, Mrs. Leeway and I noted the ambient conditions: 91 degrees and very humid. Mrs. Leeway, observing in some depth the atmospheric idiocy, headed for the air conditioned hotel room while your loyal blogger headed out toward the battlefield.

          Hmmm.

          Generally speaking, it was a successful afternoon. By that, the sharp-minded reader will assume there were no automobile accidents and, in this, the sharp-minded reader would be correct.

          The conditions were very hazy, which is common this time of year here, so no images were collected. Both legs suffered sore muscles from climbing the steps in the Pennsylvania Monument and a steep trail on Culp’s Hill.

          Today’s wanderings included some images collected while dodging raindrops.

          This image shows the spires atop the Codori barn. This barn, with its three spires, is among the most recognizable structures on the entire battlefield and I tried the old back-lit trick against the morning sun. I confess to enhancing the contrast with the Photoshop program.

          The next two shots also come from the Codori location, one showing the Copse of trees the Confederate army aimed at during the third day’s charge and the other to the south of the Codori farm area. These images were collected in the early afternoon.

        

 

  Just to give the reader a frame of distance, there is an image of the Virginia Memorial from across the road from the Codori area, nearly a mile away. The Virginia Memorial is a very tall structure but undulations in the ground make it look short in the distance,

          Next is an image of a Union general, William Wells, who eventually was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. This image is near the base of Round Top, not far from Little Round Top.

       

        Once heavy rain started, the Nikon went under cover and your loyal blogger started driving around, looking for several markers on Culp’s Hill. None of the markers in question were found, but there was a eye-catching sign warning of swarms of ground-bound bees in the immediate area.

          The inside of the car seemed to be the better option.

          Day 1 of the CWI is Friday. I can’t wait.

 

          Thanks for reading and Happy Research Month!

Next up for Research Month: CWI at Gettysburg

          The next event in our 30-day observation of Speedyleeway Research Month is the June 20-24 Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

          This is one of the crowning events on the Speedylee calendar every year.

          The Civil War Institute is a five-day gathering of those of us interested in the history of the terrible war that cost hundreds of thousands of families untold pain and suffering. It also ended slavery on the North American continent and, in the approximate words of Shelby Foote, changed our nation from those United States of America to the United States of America.

          The CWI annually gathers the leading scholars on the subject together with like-minded enthusiasts. The event includes addresses in large halls and meetings in classrooms for lectures and discussions. New to the CWI last year was the dine-in concept whereupon individual professors/authors eat dinner with small, assigned groups to discuss a specific topic about the war. There are two nights of dine-ins this year.

          All-day tours to various battlefields are offered as a part of the package as are half day tours of the Gettysburg battlefield.

          Your loyal blogger has never left the CWI without feeling energized and excited. The single problem with leaving the CWI is the idea that the next Gettysburg conference is 360 days into the future. That’s a long wait. Not as bad as waiting two years until the next Pro Football Researchers Association meeting, but still a long wait.

          Some of the classroom sessions, which the CWI terms ‘Breakout Sessions,’ are assigned and others are open to selection by attendees. These sessions are usually very interesting and because the size of the gathering is small enough, there is plenty of interaction with the speaker.

          Yours truly takes notes during every session, including the walking tours, and I ask a lot of questions. A lot of questions.

          The CWI offers scholarship deals for high school students interested in attending and lots of teachers attend also.

It’s too late for 2014, obviously, but you can find the CWI at www.gettysburg.edu/cwi/. The info about the next year usually starts showing up soon after the completion of the last one.

 

          Thanks for reading and happy Research Month!

Research Month opens with Pro Football Researchers Association meeting

          June is Research Month here at Speedyleeway. We observe Research Month every year by attending conferences dedicated to, you guessed it, research. Sometimes, we get so fired up we even do some research.

          First up is the Pro Football Researchers Association meeting this weekend in the Cleveland area. The PFRA meets every other year and this year’s event will include several presentations covering the Cleveland Browns’ NFL championships in 1954 and 1964. Members of those squads are scheduled to meet with PFRA members and several researchers and authors will speak as well.

          The meetings will be held at two locations. Friday we’ll be at the Browns’ practice facility and Saturday we’ll meet at the stadium.

          The PFRA is a registered charitable organization. It publishes a newsletter named The Coffin Corner. Several members have published books about the history of the game and believe me when I say that it is exciting to walk into a room full of people who know more about the history of professional football than I do.

          This year’s meeting, like every PFRA function I have attended, is an outstanding chance to learn something about the game America loves.

          It is easy to learn more about the PFRA. Just go to www.profootballresearchers.org. Information about how to join up – the dues are very reasonable – and all things PFRA are available on the site. You’ll even find a forum where non-members are welcome to contribute.

          What could be better for a football fan?

          Among the players expected to attend the meeting this weekend is Bob Gain, who played on the 1954 Browns title team and played his college ball at Kentucky. That means Gain played for Bear Bryant in college and for Paul Brown in the pros, two legendary coaches. Gain will be an interesting man to hear speak.

          Next week this blog will address the second half of June’s research doubleheader.

          Thanks for reading and happy Research Month.