History Uncovered at the National Soldier’s Orphans’ Homestead!
January 16, 2023
History came to life during the annual interior painting and maintenance at the National Soldier’s Orphan’s Homestead in Gettysburg. A wall in the original dining area was in need of repair, and the decision was made to cut a small hole to see what was behind the drywall. Fortunately, the hole was in an area that revealed plaster, layers of wallpaper, and the original brick. As Laurie Crown, Manager of Ghostly Images and Eric Nelson, Lead Tour Guide and Trainer, worked to uncover the brick, they discovered what appeared to be one side of a window frame. After several days of careful work, three of the original windows were uncovered. The very windows that Major General Oliver O. Howard of the XI Corps perhaps used to monitor the Battle of Gettysburg. The very windows later used by the children of the Orphanage to catch a glimpse of the normal life they once enjoyed, and desperately longed for.
The Devil’s Kitchen
January 11, 2023
Almost everyone has heard of Devils Den and at least visited it once, but have you heard of The Devils Kitchen? If you park at the parking space in front of Devils Den and cross the little wooden bridge over Plum Run creek and turn left, you begin to follow a prescribed path that enters Big Round Top’s woods, and then it’s a short hike to a foreboding group of rocks known as The Devils Kitchen.
The Story of the Friend to Friend Masonic Monument
January 4, 2023
The Friend to Friend Masonic Monument located in the Gettysburg National Cemetery Annex on Steinwher Avenue. This touching monument depicts Union Army Captain Henry H. Bingham assisting the severely wounded Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead after Pickett’s Charge. Both men were Freemasons, and it was said that as General Armistead fell, he gave a Masonic sign asking for assistance (although this is disputed).
Haunted Gettysburg
October 14, 2022Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is known throughout the world as the location of one of the largest, most expensive, and deadliest battles of the American Civil War. With over 50,000 estimated casualties, the famous Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 is widely believed to mark the turning point of the war. Over 160 years have passed since those three bloody days at Gettysburg, but some believe the nightmare of that battle never ended for some of the poor souls killed there. Across the hallowed grounds of the battlefield and throughout the town and environs, it is believed by some that the haunted souls of those who suffered there may still roam.
Ike at Gettysburg
September 22, 2022The name Gettysburg has long been enshrined in history as the site of one of the greatest battles ever fought on American soil. But long after the events of the Civil War, this historic town continues to elicit praise and attention for being representative of qualities near and dear to the collective heart of the American republic.
There is no greater example of this than the lifelong investment and love shown to Gettysburg by one of America’s greatest war and peacetime leaders, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Gettysburg By Night: Experiencing the Town After Sunset
September 1, 2022Gettysburg is a well-known historical destination for travelers and tourists from all over the world. And there are certainly a great many things to see and experience in Gettysburg during the day, but that doesn’t mean that the town stops being a first-class destination when the sun sets! There’s plenty to do in this Gettysburg by night! Below are just some of the many great activities available to visitors after dark.
The High-Water Mark: Revisiting a Pivotal Moment of the Battle of Gettysburg
July 19, 2022What is the High-Water Mark?
The High-Water Mark of the Confederacy or “high tide of the Confederacy” refers to an area on Cemetery Ridge near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, marking the farthest point reached by Confederate forces during the action known as Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863. Like a high-water mark denoting a level of water, the term is a reference to arguably the Confederate Army’s best chance of achieving victory in the war. The designation “High-Water Mark” was formally evoked by historians in the years following the Civil War, based on the idea that the battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war.
What are the Must-See Sights of the Gettysburg Battlefield?
June 23, 2022The Gettysburg Battlefield is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Pennsylvania. For three days in 1863, Union and Confederate forces met here on the hills, fields, and wooded landscape of central Pennsylvania in what would become the most famous battle of the American Civil War.
The 6,000-acre battlefield has since been preserved as a tribute to those who fought that day and boasts more than 1,300 monuments, markers, and memorials to tell their story. The modern battlefield and much of the nearby town still look very much like they did in 1863. Today the area remains a living monument to the struggle and strife of our American Civil War.
Where Did the Iron Brigade Fight at Gettysburg?
May 31, 2022Though destined for fame as one of the most respected and feared forces in the Army of the Potomac, the Iron Brigade came from humble roots. The all-Western infantry brigade was primarily comprised of five colorfully named regiments: the Calico (6th Wisconsin), the Huckleberries (7th Wisconsin), the Babies (19th Indiana), the Feather-beds (24th Michigan), and the Ragged Asstetical (2nd Wisconsin), which won its not-so-fierce nom de guerre, said the veteran Aubrey Cullen, “from the fact that the government contractors had run short of good material when they made the pantaloons … allowing their flag of truce always to be kept in their rear.”
What are Iverson’s Pits?
April 29, 2022On the Gettysburg battlefield, in the shadow of the Oak Ridge Observation Tower just off Doubleday Avenue and not far from the junction between Confederate Avenue and the Mummasberg road, there is an open field of nondescript farmland bordered on one side by a low stone wall. This property, part of the John Forney farm on the eve of the famous battle, would sadly be the site of one of the most brutal and ignominious episodes of the Civil War.
This otherwise nondescript patch of grass on Oak Ridge is where the unsuspecting men of a hapless North Carolina Brigade would meet a horrific fate, and the events of that tragic day would earn that lonely patch of ground a share of infamy that echoes through the years to the present day.
Modern-day visitors to the Gettysburg Battlefield can experience the site firsthand and walk the hallowed field widely famed as a supernatural hot spot.