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| The High Water Mark of the Rebellion |
Last week, in Gettysburg, the good folks of the CompuServe
Civil War Forum—one of the earliest and most enduring online Civil War
Round Tables—held their 20th and last battlefield conference. Forty-some
folks gathered from far and wide—from San Francisco (yours truly) and Albuquerque,
from Toronto and Memphis, and many points in-between. It was a spectacular
weekend in the company of some stellar Licensed Battlefield Guides, and an
altogether fitting and proper close to two decades of battlefield tramping.
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| Trostle Barn, April 2016 |
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Timothy O'Sullivan image of the Trostle barn showing horses from Bigelow's 9th Massachusetts Battery.
Note the hole from a Confederate artillery shell visible in the south face of the barn in both photos.
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Stuart Dempsey kicked things off with a detailed look at 11th
Corps actions on the First Day. Chuck Burkell then took the reins for a full
day’s touring of the Second Day fighting, and Chris Army spent a morning with
us looking over Culp’s and Cemetery Hills, and the East Cavalry Battlefield,
including a stop at the old stone barn on the Rummel Farm. Chris also took us
by Power’s Hill, where the Civil War Trust is spearheading efforts to preserve an additional 26 acres along the Baltimore Pike.
Chuck Burkell joined us again Saturday afternoon to conduct
a walk of Pickett’s Charge. Highlighting our evening events was a moving and
memorable talk on “The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address,” by Scott Hartwig at
the Dobbin House. Scott was the historian at Gettysburg NMP for 34 years,
overseeing a monumental transformation of the park facilities and landscape.
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| Homing in on the copse of trees, left of center |
CompuServe Civil War Forum: Twenty Years of Battlefield Conferences
1997: Antietam and Harpers Ferry with Dennis Frye
and Tom Clemens.
1998: Chickamauga and Chattanooga with Jim Ogden;
talk by Sam Elliott.
1999: Petersburg with Chris Calkins; talks by Bill Miller,
Will Greene, Noah Trudeau; Museum of the Confederacy with John Coski;
Hollywood Cemetery
2000: Vicksburg with Ed Bearss; side-trip to Port Hudson;
Terry Winschel
2001: Gettysburg, with Jeffry Wert and Wayne
Wachsmuth
2002: Shiloh with Stacy Allen; speakers included Wiley Sword and Larry
Daniel
2003: Fredericksburg with Bob Krick; side-trip to
Chancellorsville; side-trip to Guinea Station with Frank O'Reilly
2004: Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove
with Bill Piston and Bill Shea
2005: 1st and 2nd Manassas with Scott Patchan; speakers
included Bill Miller and Gary Ecelbarger; side-trip to Loudoun County
sites with Steve Meserve
2006: Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, with
Thomas Cartwright; side-trip to Stones River with Jim Ogden; side-trip to grave
site of Sam Watkins with David Fraley
2007: Appomattox with Ed Bearss, Ron Wilson, and Patrick
Schroeder; side-trip to Battle of Lynchburg
2008: The Campaign for Atlanta with Greg Biggs, Charlie
Crawford, Steven Woodworth, Steve Davis, Russell Bonds, Gordon Jones, and J. D.
Fowler
2009: the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign with Scott
Patchen and Steve Meserve
2010: Civil War New Orleans, with Prof. Justin Nystrom,
and Charlie Nunez
2011: The Seven Days, with Bobby Krick, and Chris
Furgeson
2012: The Battle of Bentonville with Mark Bradley;
Wilmington and Fort Fisher with Chris Fonvielle
2013: Fort Sumter and Secessionville, Charleston, with
Pat Brennan and Richard Hatcher
2014: Ball's Bluff and Monacacy, with James Morgan, and
Benjamin F. Cooling
2015: Mobile Bay and Pensacola, with Richard McMurry
2016: The Battle of Gettysburg, with D. Scott Hartwig,
Stuart Dempsey, Chris Army, and Chuck Burkell
