Author: Gordon Laws
-
Lt. Colonel David Winn: A Doctor, A Letter Writer, and the Man with the Gold Teeth
One of the odd post-battle stories involves the return of David Winn’s body from Blocher’s Knoll. The officer’s body made it home . . . without his gold dental work, which had been retained by the Blocher family. The incident made headlines and inflamed feelings in the South. Often lost in the story is this:…
-
Blocher’s Knoll and Barlow’s Knoll
If you drive the northern edge of the Gettysburg battlefield today, you might pass Barlow’s Knoll without thinking much about it. It is not Little Round Top. It does not tower over the fields. It is simply a gentle rise in farmland near Rock Creek. Yet on July 1, 1863, this quiet swell of ground…
-
Discovering Plum Run: From Farmland to Battlefield
If you walk through the Plum Run valley today, it feels peaceful. Water moves quietly through grass and stone. Visitors pass between Devil’s Den and the Wheatfield, often without giving the stream a second thought. Yet this modest ribbon of water runs through some of the fiercest ground at Gettysburg. Before the battle, it watered…
-
The Forgotten: The Dead of the 8th Alabama Infantry at Gettysburg
With this article on the 8th Alabama Infantry and subsequent list of men, I’m starting a periodic feature on men whose combat deaths caused them to disappear and effectively be forgotten. The average age of a soldier killed at Gettysburg was roughly 22 to 23. He was typically not married and had no children. As…
-
Exploring the Legacy of Emanuel Craig and Gettysburg’s Black Community
Emanuel Craig was an African American laborer, Civil War veteran, and family man in 19th-century Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His life spanned the tumultuous Civil War era and Reconstruction, and his story illuminates the experiences of Gettysburg’s Black community during that period. Born around 1829 to Benjamin Craig and Mary (Wagner) Craig, Emanuel grew up in Adams…
-
Lydia Leister and Her Farm in War and Memory
Lydia Leister (born Lydia Study) was born some time between 1808 and 1811 (depending on what source you read) in Carroll County, Maryland. She hailed from a large family: her father, Dr. John Martin Study, was a local physician, and one of her sisters, Catherine, later married Gettysburg farmer John Slyder. In 1830 Lydia wed…
-
The Forgotten Heroes: Horses of Gettysburg
The horses of Gettysburg are their own tragedy. When the armies untangled from each other at Gettysburg on July 4, they left not only more than 6000 dead men, they also left between 3000 and 5000 dead animals. Horses and mules were integral to both armies, though their roles are generally only lightly touched upon…
-
Gettysburg’s William Maurey: Killed as a Confederate
What causes a man like William Maurey, born and raised in Gettysburg, to take up arms against his neighbors and, in many cases, his family? Each case is different, and so the answer is likely different for each person. Certainly, we’ve explored this in the case of Wesley Culp. As it would happen, the case…
-
Christmas in Gettysburg in 1863: Anxiety and Hope
Christmas in Gettysburg in 1863 was a study in extreme contrasts. The small town was still emerging from the shadow of the cataclysmic battle fought there five months earlier. The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) had left the community physically and emotionally scarred. By Christmastime, most of the immediate horrors had been addressed –…
-
Truth or Legend? Feral Hogs at Gettysburg
On the night of July 2, 1863, the battlefield around Gettysburg fell into an eerie darkness punctuated by the groans of thousands of wounded men. Earlier that day, vicious fighting had swept through farmer George Rose’s wheatfield – a 20-acre expanse that changed hands multiple times in a bloody back-and-forth. More 6,000 soldiers were killed…