This site is dedicated to the eternal memory and bravery of
Colonel John William Moore
203rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
KIA Fort Fisher, N.C. January 15, 1865
The Burning of the Columbia /Wrightsville Bridge
June 28, 1863 [Frank Leslie's Illustrated]
"In great deeds something abides, on great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits
linger, to consecrate grounds for the vision place of souls.
And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see
where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream:
And Lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in it's bosom,
and the power of the vision pass into their souls."
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain-
commenting on his return to the battlefield
at Gettysburg 10/3/1889
Welcome,
This is the web site for
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
in the Civil War
by Ronald C. Young
AVAILABLE in SPRING 2009
LANCASTER COUNTY CIVIL WAR SOLDIER BURIAL DATABASE
Will include nearly 8000 entries of soldiers buried in Lancaster County, Pa. Searchable by Name, Regiment, Cemetery, Township/Borough.
Includes birth and death dates, terms of service, service notations.
LANCASTER COUNTY CIVIL WAR BIOGRAPHIES
A collection of the lives of some of the lesser-known, but more fascinating men and women in Civil War Lancaster.
These two works will conclude at this time my combined 4 volumes of Civil War Lancaster County.
Please check out the two companion histories available from this website, as well as the Lancaster County Historical Society,
Eastern National Bookstore at Gettysburg, Civil War and More in Mechanicsburg, Pa as well as other online book dealers.
Lancaster County Native Son
Joshua Lawrence Young
at the 99th Pennsylvania Volunteer
Infantry Monument, Gettysburg, Pa.
Companies B and D of the 99th were from Lancaster.
The regiment suffered many casualties as they bore the
brunt of the Confederate attack above and around
"Devils Den" on the afternnon of July 2, 1863.
" Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of countless minor scenes and interiors,
(not the official surface courteousness of the Generals, not the few great battles) of the Secession war; and it is best they
should not, the real war will never get in the books. In the mushy influences of current times, too, the fervid atmosphere
and typical events of those years are in danger of being totally forgotten.
AND so good-bye to the war. I know not how it may have been, or may be, to others, to me the main interest I found,
(and still, on recollection, find,) in the rank and file of the armies, both sides, and in those specimens amid the hospitals,
and even the dead on the field. To me the points illustrating the latent personal character and eligibilities of these States,
in the two or three millions of American young and middle-aged men, North and South, embodied in those armies, and especially
the one-third or one-fourth of their number, stricken by wounds or disease at some time in the course of the contest were
of more significance even than the political interests involved.
National Banner of the 203rd Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry battle scarred and burned at Fort Fisher, N.C. January 15th, 1865. The regiment, dominated by men and boys
from Lancaster County, suffered the most casualties of any Union regiment in the battle.
All Brothers are invited to attend 4th Thursday of the month at the Lancaster County Historical Society. 7 p.m.
LANCASTER COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA
CIVIL WAR NEWS
TRADITIONAL MEMORIAL
DAY
HELD
BY:
SONS OF UNION VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR
GEN. GEORGE H. THOMAS CAMP #19
LANCASTER, PA. MAY 30, 2009
LANCASTER CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE
January8th
Author, Colonel Kevin Weddle
Lincoln's Tragic Admiral:
The Life of Samuel Francis Du Pont
Once revered as one of
the finest officers in the U.S. Navy, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont is now, when remembered at all, criticized for resistingtechnological advancement and for half-heartedly leading the disastrous all-ironclad Union naval attack on Charleston.Despite the fact that Du Pont’s name has become intertwined with the ironclad due to the catastrophicbattle that brought shame on both the man and the machine, Weddle reveals that the admiral was the victim of a double
irony
Kevin J. Weddle is a professor and Deputy Dean of Academics at the United States Army WarCollege.
He is an active duty Army colonel and holds a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University.
February 12th
Photographer,
Chris Heisey
Heart Drawn to See –
Images of our Battlefields.
The evocative Civil War imagery of Chris Heisey has appeared in more
than 70 publications, including National Geographic Traveler, Popular Photography, and North and South. Commissioned by the
National Park Service and the U.S. congress fornumerous assignments, his work has earned several
merit citations including a recent Photo of the Century award.Join Chris as he shares stories of his photographic
journeys.You’ll be astounded at the magnificence that his camera discovers on the battlefields that
mean so much to us.
March 12th
Gabor and Jake Boritt
The Gettysburg Gospel:
The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is full of legends, mysteries, as well as newly
discovered knowledge. The words Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg comprise the most famous speech in history. Lincoln scholar Gabor
Boritt shows, there is much that we don't know about the speech. In The Gettysburg Gospel he reconstructs what really
happened in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863. Boritt tears away a century of myths, lies, and legends to give
us a clear understanding of the greatest American's greatest speech.
A bonus!
Afterward, selected scenes and discussion
from Director, Jake Boritt’s film. BUDAPEST TO GETTYSBURG, is a riveting tale – a journey from terror to hope.
A world-renownedhistorian confronts a history he has refused to study: his own.Gabor
returns to his homeland to face the harsh history of his Jewish-Hungarian childhood: the Nazi invasion, Allied bombing raids,
Soviet tyranny, the 1956 Revolution & his escape to America.
April 9th
Mary and Martin
Schaller
Soldiering for Glory: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Frank Schaller, Twenty-second Mississippi Infantry
Confederate
colonel Frank Schaller lived a life of grand ambition, driven to attain rank, fortune, a good marriage, and some measure of
redemption in the eyes of his German family. Edited by Mary W. Schaller and Martin N. Schaller, his correspondence from the
1860s follows his battlefield experiences, his machinations for advancement, and his courtship of Sophie Sosnowski of Columbia,
South Carolina.
Mary W. Schaller is the author or editor of fifteen previous books and plays, including Papa Was a
Boy in Gray: Memories of Confederate Veterans Related by Their Living Daughters.
May 14th
Publisher,
Patrick Schroeder
Thirty Myth's about
Lee's Surrender
Find out the facts about where Lee was heading with his
army, losses at Sailor's Creek, the origins of the apple tree story, where the surrender actually took place, who accompanied
Lee to the McLean House, who was present at the surrender meeting, Grant's uniform, George Armstrong Custer's role
at Appomattox, surrenders after Appomattox, the Confederate soldiers' return home, Lee's activities after the
surrender, the buildings of Appomattox Court House, the wax figures, and all about Wilmer McLean and his house that was used
for the surrender meeting.
June
11th
Ed Bearss
Dahlgren’s Raid
One of the most
controversial episodes of the Civil War unfolded in central Virginia in February and March 1864. Two Union cavalry officers,
Brig. General Judson Kilpatrick and Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, led 3,500 troopers from their camps in Culpeper County toward
Richmond. There is evidence to suggest that Federal cavalry set out to capture Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, and
possibly even assassinate him. Ed will tell the tale of Kilpatrick and Dahlgren and their plot in which one was killed in
a Confederate ambush.
July 9th
Exec. Director
& CEO of
Wheatland, Patrick Clarke
James Buchanan
In 1856 James
Buchanan was elected the 15th President of the United States at the age of 65. He inherited an expanding nation that
had grown intolerant of one another. Following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina threatened to secede.
In his final message to Congress, President Buchanan recommended amending the Constitution on the subject of slavery, noting
that if not left alone the agitation of the slave states would cause the dissolution of the country. Congress refused
to act or debate on these issues. Writing to his nephew from Wheatland in April 1861 he wrote, Congress was “repeatedly
warned by my administration that an assault on Fort Sumter would be civil war & they would be responsible for the consequences.”
August
13th
Ranger Bert Barnett
Rhyme & Reasons:
The Meaning
& the Power of Poetry in Civil War America
If you want only the facts about the Civil War, any textbook will
do. But if you want to understand the thoughts and emotions of the men who faced each other across the battlefield and those
who waited for them at home, look to the poems and songs written during and after the War.
September
17th
Author, Bob O Connor
The Perfect Steel Trap -
Harpers Ferry—1859
This book is based
on fact. Newspaper accounts, telegrams and court documents included in the book will tell you what really happened during
these exciting times. Frederick Douglass, who told John Brown that Harpers Ferry was “the perfect steel trap”,
provides the title of this book. Douglass told him, once Brown and his men got in, the trap would close and all would be lost.
October
8th
Battlefield Guide, Roy Frampton
Battlefield Curiosities
Ever wonder if there could
possibly still be living witnesses to the Battle of Gettysburg? Did you know that there are rock carvings left by the
soldiers all over the battlefield? Have you seen the 5-inch, three-toed dinosaurs foot print on one of the stone bridges
on the battlefield? Huh??? What other oddities can be found on the sacred ground at Gettysburg? Let Licensed Battlefield
Guide, Roy Frampton be your guide through the curious, little known secrets of the Gettysburg Battlefield.
November 12th
Fellow
Member, Dick Simpson
2nd Vermont—Gettysburg Heroes
Dick, in period costume, will be taking the role
of his great-grandfather, Aaron Willey, who at the age of 74 in 1013, will be tell of his travels with the 15th Regiment,
2nd Vermont Brigade, on the road to Gettysburg. View slide s set to Civil War Songs as they fire into the flanks of
Pickett’s Charge on July 2, 1863 and become “Gettysburg Heroes”.
Field trips
for 2009 will be announced soon!
We meet at the Lititz Public
Library at 651 Kissel Hill Road in Lititz, Pa.
2nd Thursday of the month.
Micky Kraft - Program Coordinator P.O. Box 7474 Lancaster, PA 17604 Phone: 717-392-4976 or email.giflancastercivilwarroundtable@gmail.com
New site address: http://sites.google.com/site/lancastercivilwarroundtable/Home
