Gettysburg Today

 

 

 

Vincent J. Curtis

3 July 2013
 

 

(GETTYSBURG, PA) - Gettysburg this year celebrates the sesquicentennial – 150 years – of the two great events which made this small Pennsylvania town famous: the Battle and the Address.  This military buff visited Gettysburg for the fourth time on the exact anniversary of the Battle, first to experience again the mood of the place, and then to get a sense of what people feel when they experience Gettysburg for themselves.

 

At the beginning of July the weather in Gettysburg is usually hot.  It was blistering hot the days of the Battle.  This year, the weather was cool, humid, overcast, and threatened rain most of the time.  When the sun did come out, it was like a heat lamp had been turned on.

 

The town itself lies in the middle of the Battle places.  The major engagement on the first day happened north of the old town, and the engagements on the final two days occurred immediately south of it.  Only minor skirmishing occurred in the town itself, as the Federal troops, broken in battle north of the town, streamed through it on their way to rally on high ground to the south.  The historic buildings of that era are noted with small plaques outside, and their exterior brickworks are carefully maintained.  A modern city has grown up in the northerly direction, around the battle places of the first day.  Development to the south is completely blocked by the battlefield of the second and third day.

 

Anyone who has been to Gettysburg knows how well marked and how well preserved the battlefield is.  While you can tour all the major sites and see the important monuments in a day, it would take many days to find and read the inscription of most of the monuments.  There is a monument to every little reserve artillery battery that was on the field; there is a monument to a cavalry outfit that would like to have been in the battle, but did not because it was ordered to guard the supply trains.

 

Gettysburg is the site of a national military cemetery, and the dedication of that cemetery was the occasion at which President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.  After touring the cemetery and the battlefield south of town, one gets a sense of the pain and the suffering that was inflicted on those three momentous days as two armies fought desperately to win the decisive battle for their cause.  You get a sense of the courage and the devotion, up to and including its last full measure, with which men persevered to do their duty.

 

You look at the quiet shady hillside, the back of Little Round Top, the 20^th Maine memorial, and wonder how the better part of a thousand could crowd into this place and fight with muskets and bayonets up and down the rocky slope in terrific heat.   You look at the open, undulating field which Pickett’s Charge crossed, a mile in the open, crisscrossed with fences and roads and wonder what could possibly have been in Lee’s mind when he ordered it.

 

And then you go to where it ended - the high tide of the Confederacy.  You go to the copse of trees.  You see where Armistead fell, where the 26^th North Carolina was annihilated, save for its color bearer, by a battery of canister at the wall, you imagine the crisis at the angle as the Confederate wave crossed the wall, the smoke, the noise, the shouted orders, the double canister at ten yards, Hancock goes down, the collapse of the 71^st Pennsylvania, the 69^th Pennsylvania is overwhelmed, the 19^th Massachusetts and 42^nd New York  rushing to contain the breach, the volleys of fire from flanking regiments into the boiling Confederate mass, and then - the utter collapse of the attack from lack of reserves.

 

Not only is the battle over, but the fate of a country has been decided.

 

You wonder if people nowadays get a sense of the drama, the devotion to duty, and the sheer importance of what happened at this very spot one hundred and fifty years ago, July 3^rd.

 

Now, the fields of Gettysburg are host to the camps of re-enactors, who will play out and demonstrate for spectators in a tiny way what happened here.  Tourists with their little cameras squint at the screen as they try to capture the image of a monument.  Children touch the cannons and try to sit on the mound of balls, and otherwise run around.  Dads read the inscriptions on the plaques.  Nerds regale their listeners with facts, some of which are actually true.  All activities of peace.

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Battle of Stoney Creek Re-enacted on its Bicentennial

 

 

Vincent J. Curtis

3 June 2013
 

Over six hundred re-enactors crowded the old battlefield to re-enact the Battle of Stoney Creek on its bicentennial anniversary.  The Battle of Stoney Creek, which took place on June 6, 1813, was a decisive battle of the War of 1812 as the victory ultimately decided that Upper Canada would remain in British hands.

 

The weekend festivities featured over three hundred officers and other ranks, with an equal number of re-enactors dressed as sutlers (collectively, the mobile, private enterprise CANEX of its day), settlers, natives, artillerists, and camp followers.  Featured events included demonstrations of American and British field evolutions, or ‘drill’ as it was quaintly called, and the firing of period artillery pieces.

 

The sight of the restored RCAF Lancaster Bomber of Canadian Warplane Heritage, which overflew the battlefield in the morning, Merlin engines purring, did not seem to auger well for American prospects.

 

After an artillery demonstration, the re-enactment began near twilight with the marching of the British troops, dressed in customary red tunics, to the south end of the battlefield.  The line of Red Coats marching in ranks of four ran for over 100 meters end-to-end and looked powerful in numbers alone; even dangerous.  The Royal Scots Grenadiers re-enactors stood in for the 49^th Regiment of Foot and the 8^th King’s Regiment.

 

The demonstration of black-powder musketry and volley-fire during the battle re-enactment was quite realistic; all that was missing were whizzing lead balls and bayonet charges.  The battle raged back-and-forth for a good thirty minutes.  Then, as night deepened, the line of Red Coats began an inexorable advance, culminating in the famous rush made by Sgt Alexander Fraser of the 49^th, his brother Peter, and about thirty other volunteers.  In a feat which would win a Victoria Cross today, Fraser and his cohorts rushed directly at an American artillery battery, captured it, and subsequently captured the two senior American generals, John Chandler and William Winder, along with seventy-five rank and file.

 

With the battle won, the battlefield proceedings ended with the women of the camp marching in single file onto the field, each carrying a lit lantern.  As the moderator read out a name of one the deceased of the battle, a lantern was extinguished.  The spectators were both moved and appreciative.

 

Night having completely enveloped the battlefield, the American forces withdrew to their camp, and the re-assembled Red Coats marched in column of route back to theirs, to much applause for a stunning performance.

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War of 1812 Bicentennial Symposium

 

 

 

Vincent J. Curtis


2 March 2013

 

The War of 1812 came to Hamilton, ON, again.  This time, it wasn’t Americans with guns.

 

In their stead came a number of distinguished historians and scholars armed with words.

 

The engagement, held at the Sheraton-Hamilton Hotel, was a bicentennial commemoration conference whose focus was the decisive events of 1813.  The theme of the conference was “Walking the Razor’s Edge: A Continent in Play.”

 

Both America and Britain were represented.  Leading the list of speakers was Dr. Andrew Lambert, professor of Naval History at King’s College, London.   Dr. Don Hickey, Professor of History at Wayne State College, Nebraska, closed out the symposium.  Twenty-two other speakers were scheduled to lecture in four sessions.

 

In the middle were conference attendees, who numbered 280, according to event organizers Rob McGuire and Tom Fournier.  Some attendees were dressed in period costume, and most of them sounded Canadian.

 

Representing the British side, Andrew Lambert was welcomed with whoops and cheering.  His opening keynote took the view that the war was a paltry affair, so far as Britain was concerned.  Britain had had much more powerful France under Napoleon to deal with.  Britain won the War of 1812 conclusively by crushing American finance through blockade, and then burning down of White House and seizing the USS President in a daring raid in June, 1814.

 

Representing America, Don Hickey was welcomed with good spirits, which he returned.  He entitled his closing keynote provocatively: “Ten things Canadians should know about the War of 1812 but probably don’t.”  He opened by saying “I should have called it ten things average people should know, since only Canadians remember anything about the war at all!”

 

He agreed that Britain won the war, and held British diplomacy before, during, and after the war in high esteem.  The “ten things” were a list items he usually presented to his American military audiences.  Noteworthy among them was Hickey’s calling this Canada’s “war of independence, critical to the evolution of a sovereign Canada.”

 

Enliving and adding colour to the symposium were a number of military re-enactor groups, including: 41^st Regiment of Foot Military Living History Group, 49^th Regiment of Foot (Canadian Military Heritage Society), and, in the person of media liaison Rob McGuire, the 1^st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots) Grenadier Company.  The City of Hamilton, Mr. William Longo, and Military Heritage partnered with organizers to put on the conference.

 

War of 1812 symposia has been held annually since 1998.  The bicentennial of 1812 was convened last year at the University of Guelph, in Guelph ON, which organizer Tom Fournier described as a “tremendous success.”  Though attendance was down slightly this year, both Tom Fournier and Rob McGuire pronounced themselves “happy” with this year’s conference.

 

Next year’s bicentennial of 1814 symposium will be held in London, ON.

 

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