THE DELAWARE VALLEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
Presents a New FREE Historical Seminar
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 7:00 – 8:00 PM via ZOOM
“Be Free or Die! – The Saga of Robert Smalls”
Presented by Jerry Carrier
On May 13, 1862, a 23-year-old slave demonstrated that his inability to read or write did not keep him from seizing a Confederate warship and delivering it – with 17 other enslaved people – to the federal squadron that was blockading Charleston Harbor.
This astounding feat was only the first chapter in the legendary career of Robert Smalls. After winning his freedom the old-fashioned way – by taking it – Smalls went on to be a celebrity symbol of President Lincoln’s policy of emancipation, the first African-American captain of a U.S. Navy warship, and a ground-breaking lawmaker in both the South Carolina Legislature and the U.S. Congress.
It is little wonder that an admirer in the African-American community of Beaufort, SC, remarked that “Smalls ain’t God, but he’s young yet.”
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Thaddeus Stevens Museum opens in Gettysburg on April 4th
Thaddeus Stevens Museum opens in Gettysburg
from the Gettysburg Connection
March 16, 2024 by Ross Hetrick
On April 4, something will happen that should have happened a long time ago — the grand opening of the first Thaddeus Stevens museum at 46 Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg, PA.
The event from 5 to 7 p.m. will include music by noted musician Tom Jolin and the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner by Jesse Holt. There will be tours of the new museum and free handouts of DVDs and other Stevens souvenirs.
More than 40 years ago I read a biography of Thaddeus Stevens and was bowled over. While other politicians vacillated and appeased slaveholders, Stevens was irrevocably against human bondage. Not only that, he was incredibly effective and was instrumental in preventing President Andrew Johnson from reversing the gains of the Civil War. Despite not being president, he was one of the most important people in American history.
I had to go to Lancaster, PA, one of the places that Stevens spent much of his adult life. I expected to tour his house full of artifacts of his life and see his incredibly inspirational grave that celebrates his devotion to equality. What I found horrified me.
Stevens’s house had been changed beyond recognition and there were no house tours, just a tarnished plaque saying he had lived there. His grave was little better. The small cemetery where he is buried — the only integrated cemetery in Lancaster at the time of his death — was overgrown with tree branches and broken tombstones strewn about. In Gettysburg, where he lived for 26 years and had a major impact in the borough and the state, it was worse. His house had been torn down in the 1920s and he was completely forgotten, overshadowed by the battle, Lincoln and Eisenhower.
The Thaddeus Stevens Society was founded 25 year ago to rectify this terrible situation and give Stevens the honor he deserves. There have been a number of gains in the intervening years. Two statues have been put up to the Great Commoner, one in Lancaster and another in Gettysburg. His cemetery is better maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers.
Now, at long last, people who come to know about Stevens and admire him can go to the new museum in Gettysburg on Chambersburg Street to get a fuller sense of this man’s greatness. They can see letters written by him to important figures of the day. They can see cast iron stoves made at iron mills he owned. There are dozens of Civil War era newspapers detailing his exploits, including one from France. There is a space for researchers to use the Society’s extensive library about Stevens and people can watch videos about Stevens while sipping coffee.
The location of the free museum is very appropriate since it is located across the street from where Stevens’s house was until it was torn down.
A year from now, LancasterHistory will open the $25 million Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center For History and Democracy in Lancaster, PA. Besides Stevens, it will be about his Lancaster housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith, and the Underground Railroad. It should be magnificent.
Ross Hetrick
Ross Hetrick is president and founder of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. Hetrick was a business reporter for 18 years in Baltimore and owned Ross's Coffeehouse & Eatery in Gettysburg from 1996 to 2004.
Non-Historic Structures To Be Removed From Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania NMP
The concrete block garage intrudes on the Fredericksburg National Cemetery near the historic Stone Wall/NPS file
Six non-historic structures are scheduled to be removed this spring from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia. Their removal will allow the park to rehabilitate the historic battlefield landscapes where these structures currently stand. The project is scheduled to begin after April 1 and is anticipated to take about five months.
This project will include the demolition of six former residential properties and one cement block garage shop. All the structures are non-historic, abandoned, and within park boundaries. Many of the buildings are structurally compromised and include hazardous materials that will be mitigated.
All the properties to be demolished were built on former battlefields. These modern structures intrude upon culturally significant landscapes, which may contain archaeologically sensitive materials. The park will monitor the project to protect any cultural resources uncovered during the demolition process.
Once the non-historic structures are removed, the park will match the remaining landscapes with their natural surroundings. At four of the sites, the park will plant native oak and other woody species found in nearby forest communities. The rehabilitation of these historical landscapes will further the park’s mission to protect and preserve the ground upon which thousands of Americans fought and died during the Civil War.
Kris Heister named superintendent of Gettysburg NMP and Eisenhower NHS
NPS News Release Date: March 12, 2024
Contact: John Harlan Warren, 215-908-3159
Gettysburg, Pa. – National Park Service (NPS) Deputy Regional Director Cinda Waldbuesser today announced the selection of Kristina (Kris) Heister as the superintendent for Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site. Heister has worked at Gettysburg and Eisenhower as deputy superintendent since 2020. She begins her new assignment on March 24, 2024.
“Kris brings a wealth of National Park Service experience with a deep commitment to community engagement, resource protection and employee development,” said Waldbuesser. “Her knowledge of and commitment to protecting both cultural and natural resources while enhancing visitor experience make her an excellent choice to lead these two important parks.”
“Over the last four years, I have been amazed by the dedication of my colleagues, our partners and our community,” said Heister. “Their collective commitment to preserving and protecting these hallowed grounds inspires me everyday. I look forward to continuing to work together and maintaining an open dialogue with our partners and our community to address both the challenges and opportunities the future holds for these exceptional places.”
As the current deputy superintendent, Heister is already a key leader on the park’s management team, providing oversight for all aspects of park operations. Twice she has performed detail assignments as acting superintendent of the two parks, first in 2019 and again in 2023-2024. Before coming to Gettysburg, she served as superintendent of Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, as chief of Natural Resources for the NPS Northeast Region, and as Natural Resource Program Manager at Valley Forge National Historical Park. During her three decades-long career, she has worked at small, medium and large parks throughout the country, with almost half her career in historical parks.
A lifelong Pennsylvanian, Heister has deep connections to both the Civil War and to the Eisenhower family. Her family counts 18 members who fought in the Civil War for the Union, although none at the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower sent a signed note to her great-grandmother for her 100th birthday which is a family treasure. The favorite Heister family meal is a recipe Julie and David Eisenhower served for Christmas one year, which was found in the local newspaper. She cares deeply for the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg and the home of a remarkable military general and president.
In her spare time, she enjoys the company of two beautiful coonhounds, Boone and Scarlett, and taking care of her 90-year-old mother.
New Ron Kirkwood book to be Released in June - "Tell Mother Not to Worry"
“Tell Mother Not to Worry” - to be released June 15th - profiles scores of additional soldiers and offers new information on events and experiences at the farm, including the mortally wounded Confederate Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead.
This sequel to “Too Much for Human Endurance” also includes another chapter on the often-overlooked First Division II Corps hospital at Granite Schoolhouse, a wounded list for that division, and a chapter on Col. Edward E. Cross, who died at Granite Schoolhouse in the middle of Spangler land.
Kirkwood concludes by continuing the story of George and Elizabeth Spangler and their four children after the war and ends with an uplifting chapter on their modern-day descendants and how they were found after the release of “Too Much for Human Endurance.”
With this sequel, Kirkwood brings further understanding of the lives of the soldiers and their families and completes the story of George and Elizabeth Spangler’s historic farm.
Kirkwood has been a presenter at our CWRT and led the group on a personal tour of the Spangler Farm. He retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer in newspapers and magazines including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, and the York (PA) Daily Record. Ronald edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He has won numerous state, regional, and national awards for his writing and editing and he managed the copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ronald has been a Gettysburg Foundation docent at The George Spangler Farm Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013, and he explores the Gettysburg battlefield dozens of times a year.
African Burial Ground National Monument Explores New York's History Of Slavery
The outdoor portion of African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan includes the Ancestral Chamber and the Ancestral Reinterment Ground/Jennifer Bain
By Jennifer Bain - February 1st, 2024
For all those who were lost
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who were not forgotten
***
In a sacred sliver of outdoor space near City Hall in Lower Manhattan, those four sentences are etched onto a 24-foot-tall green granite monument alongside a heart-shaped Sankofa, a Ghanian symbol that means “learn from the past to prepare for the future.”
The dramatic memorial forces us to acknowledge the role that enslaved Africans played in building New York City. It’s a shameful story that might have been forgotten had workers building a federal office tower in 1991 not unearthed human remains 24 feet below the street.
All told, 419 human skeletal remains were exhumed, studied and eventually reinterred after a public outcry. That’s only a fraction of the estimated 15,000 enslaved and free Africans that were laid to rest between the mid-1600s and 1795 in a cemetery here that once spanned 6.6 acres or what’s now five city blocks.
The rediscovery sparked a grassroots movement to protect this hallowed ground and tell this important story. In 1993, 0.34 acres of the cemetery became the first below-ground New York City landmark and a national historic landmark. On Feb. 27, 2006, the African Burial Ground National Monument was proclaimed by President George W. Bush.
“Do you know why you just had to go through that airport-style security — put all your stuff through the X-ray machine and go through the metal detector?” ranger Bethany Burnett asked when I joined two other people for a public orientation tour in January. “This is a federal office building. So, I know it’s hard for people to picture when we’re in this museum, but on the other side of the wall, there’s an office building that houses the IRS, FBI, EPA and federal courts.”
This National Park Service unit — one of 12 surrounding the port of New York City — is divided over two separate spaces. The outdoor memorial is at African Burial Ground Way and Duane Street. The visitor center is around the corner on the ground floor of the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway and has its own entrance.
During the 30-minute tour, Burnett brought the sobering story of slavery to life.
“This is the oldest and largest non-excavated burial ground in North America for free and enslaved Africans,” she said to begin. “Its rediscovery in 1991 really changed how we talk about the history of New York. Often when we talk about slavery, we’re focusing on the south or we’re focusing on plantations or we talk about the Caribbean. Often we don’t talk about slavery in northern urban areas like New York itself, and yet the rediscovery of this burial ground really showed the prevalence of slavery in norther urban centers like New York.”
Africans were captured and brought to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam on slave ships from different regions with diverse cultures, religions and languages. In 1664, the British took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
Before the American Revolution, the NPS says, New York had more enslaved Africans than any other colony in the north. Along with free Africans, they were forced into manual labor. Men cleared farmland, filled swamps and built structures and roads. Women sewed, cooked, harvested and cared for their owners’ children as well as their own. Children carried water and firewood.
These enslaved people usually died of physical strain, malnutrition, punishment and diseases like yellow fever and smallpox instead of old age. But they were buried with CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY
Thaddeus Stevens museum will open in Gettysburg
Story from the Gettysburg Connection
January 29, 2024 by Ross Hetrick
With the help of members and supporters, the Thaddeus Stevens Society has reached its goal of raising $28,000 for a new museum. The society has leased a storefront at 46 Chambersburg Street in downtown Gettysburg for the first Thaddeus Stevens museum.
The grand opening is planned for April 4, 2024, the 232nd birthday of Stevens and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Stevens Society. Planning for the event is in the initial stage and further details will be announced in coming months.
The 815 square-foot space will feature the Society’s extensive collection of Stevens artifacts including Stevens letters, period newspapers and stoves made at iron mills owned by Stevens. There will also be hundreds of books and documents available for research on Stevens.
The storefront is across the street from where Stevens’s home was located at 51 Chambersburg Street until it was torn down a hundred years ago. Stevens lived in Gettysburg from 1816 to 1842. While there, Stevens became a prominent anti-slavery and pro-education state legislator and operated two iron mills in the area. He then moved to Lancaster, PA in 1842 where he was elected to Congress and was instrumental in the legislative destruction of slavery and became the Father of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which requires equal treatment under the law and extends civil rights to the state level.
The storefront is one door to the west of the historic Christ Lutheran Church, where Stevens rented a pew, as he did in other churches in Gettysburg and Lancaster.
Adams County Historical Society Presents Two Exciting Programs in February
Frederick Douglass on Sat Feb 3rd
& Trauma and the Civil War on Thu Feb 15
Join Frederick Douglass, the former slave, writer, orator, and abolitionist (interpreted by Nathan M. Richardson), for an hour long conversation, reflecting on his life and times including slavery and the Civil War. Participants are invited to bring questions for Mr. Douglass on any topic from the period, including his relationship with Abraham Lincoln.
This program is in collaboration with the Lincoln Cemetery Project Association and will be held on Saturday, February 3rd at 7 p.m. at the Adams County Historical Society (625 Biglerville Road). The program is free for ACHS members and $10/general admission.
Is PTSD a barrier to understanding Civil War trauma? Join historian Peter Carmichael as he pursues an answer to this question on Thursday, February 15th at 7 p.m. at the Adams County Historical Society (625 Biglerville Road). Through a range of letters and reports from soldiers and physicians, Carmichael will shed light on the distinctive ways through which Americans during the Civil War understood battlefield trauma.
Tickets are free for ACHS members and $10/general admission.
GAR Museum Free Zoom Program for Sunday, February 4, 2024
THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC (G.A.R.) CIVIL WAR MUSEUM & ARCHIVE
Presents a New Program via ZOOM
Sunday, February 4, 2024 at 1pm
African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign:
The Many Ways that African Americans Affected and Were Affected by the Gettysburg Campaign”
By James Paradis
This presentation examines the black residents of the town who lived “on the fault line” between slavery and freedom, and the impact of the battle on them. This talk gives an account of the unheralded, but important, part played by the thousands of African Americans who accompanied both armies to the battlefield. We will also tell the little-known story of Black volunteers from Pennsylvania who engaged the Southern invaders in combat during the invasion. Finally, we will consider the response of African Americans who came forward during the aftermath of the battle.
James Paradis teaches at Arcadia University. He recently retired from Doane Academy where he served as Dean of the Upper School and taught history for 35 years. He has authored two books. His doctoral dissertation at Temple University became "Strike the Blow for Freedom: The 6th United States Colored Infantry in the Civil War." His second book, "African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign," with foreword by Edwin C. Bearss, Chief Historian Emeritus, National Park Service, was published by Scarecrow Press, a division of Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. An expanded Sesquicentennial Edition was released in September 2012.
Dr. Paradis has served for many years on the board of directors of Citizens for the Restoration of Historical La Mott, which preserves of the site of Camp William Penn, the first and largest training camp for Black soldiers in the Civil War. He served as historical consultant and narrator for the documentary film, "Black Soldiers in Blue: The Story of Camp William Penn," released in 2009. In 2011 the NAACP of Cheltenham, PA awarded him a Certificate of Recognition for his contributions preserving African American history.
Please send a request to reserve a virtual seat for this outstanding presentation by replying to this e-mail at
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As a lover of history, you know how critical it is to keep history alive, especially today! We very much appreciate your continued support for the GAR Civil War Museum & Archive
A FREE virtual program online
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC MUSEUM & ARCHIVE
In its new location:
8110 Frankford Ave. (Holmesburg - N.E. Philadelphia)
www.garmuslib.org
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust Spring Seminar - Saturday, March 9th.
WAR IN THE BALANCE
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust will host its inaugural Spring Seminar on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the historic Wilderness Baptist Church’s fellowship hall from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The seminar is focused on the often ignored but historically important events in central and northern Virginia that occurred between the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 and the Battle of the Wilderness a year later.
Speakers include noted historians and authors Mike Block, Dan Davis, John Hennessy, Kevin Pawlak and Ted Savas.
Interesting and rare Civil War relics will be on hand for viewing and discussion courtesy of CVBT Board member Paul Scott!
Select authors will have books for sale.
A box lunch is included in the $40 registration fee.
CLICK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER