Congressman Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, [July 1, 1866]

WASHINGTON, D. C., [July 1, 1866].

MY DEAR ONE:— We missed you so much at Gettysburg [June 28-30]. It was cool, fine weather. The company good. "All things lovely." The battle-field must be one of the finest in the world. We had for guide and chaperon a gentleman who has made it a study for a long while, and I now feel that I know the battle as if I had seen it. There was nothing more in the generalship than I had supposed, but the stubbornness and good conduct of the army, of men and officers generally, was worthy of the cause. The Rebel attack was a very brilliant but rash thing.

Pick a cool day to go to Fremont. Every week or two, even in this weather, there is a little cool spell.

I shall not come home until the end of the session, now supposed to be on the 16th. - Love to all.

Affectionately, your

R.

MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 28

In The Review Queue: Gettysburg, The Living and the Dead

Gettysburg: TheLiving and the Dead

By Kent Gramm

Photographs by Chris Heisey

In Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead, writer Kent Gramm and photographer Chris Heisey tell the famous battle’s story through the eyes of those who lived and died there. Unlike histories that simply recount the three furious days in July 1863, this book transports readers onto the battlefield and into the event’s historical echoes, making for a delightful, immersive experience.

Creative nonfiction, fiction, dramatic dialogue, and poetry combine with full-color photographs to convey the essential reality of the famous battlefield as a place both terrible and beautiful. The living and the dead contained here include Confederates and Yankees, soldiers and civilians, male and female, young and old. Visitors to the battlefield after 1863, both well known and obscure, provide the voices of the living. They include a female admiral in the U.S. Navy and a man from rural Virginia who visits the battlefield as a way of working through the death of his son in Iraq. The ghostly voices of the dead include actual participants in the battle, like a fiery colonel and a girl in Confederate uniform, as well as their representatives, such as a grieving widow who has come to seek her husband. 

Utilizing light as a central motif and fourscore and seven voices to evoke how Gettysburg continues to draw visitors and resound throughout history, alternately wounding and stitching the lives it touches, Gramm’s words and Heisey’s photographs meld for a historical experience unlike any other. Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead offers a panoramic view wherein the battle and battlefield of Gettysburg are seen through the eyes of those who lived through it and died on it as well as those who have sought meaning at the site ever since.

About the Authors

Kent Gramm is an adjunct professor of English at Gettysburg College. His prior works include November: Lincoln’s Elegy at Gettysburg, Gettysburg: A Meditation on War and Values, Somebody’s Darling: Essays on the Civil War, and two poetry collections. He edited Battle: The Nature and Consequences of Civil War Combat. His play Lincoln Lives was performed in Baton Rouge as part of Louisiana’s Lincoln Bicentennial Inauguration.

Chris Heisey has won awards for his photography and has published popular Civil War calendars. He contributed photographs to In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness through Cold Harbor with text by Gordon Rhea and to Gettysburg: This Hallowed Ground with text by Kent Gramm.

ISBN 978-0809337330, Southern Illinois University Press, © 2019, Hardcover, 240 pages, Photographs, $34.50.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2

So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2

by James and Suzanne Gindlesperger

Gettysburg.  What more is there to say?  It is easily one of the most studied battles in all of world history.  So many books have been written about it and its participants that you could fill a good sized room in a library with nothing else but books on the subject.  And just when you think not another word could be written on the battle, out comes a new book, with a new perspective, adding yet another book to the already overcrowded shelves.

“So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2” takes a less traveled path than most books on the battle.  It’s not about the battle, but about the battle field, or rather, the monuments that cover the field.  Written by James and Suzanne Gindlesperger, it is their second volume covering the Gettysburg monuments, adding 220 additional park attractions to their first volume.

Their book divides up the massive Gettysburg Battlefield into 11 areas (A-K), each with its own map (and of course an additional map showing where each area on the battlefield is located is included at the front of the book).  Each chapter begins with its representative area map upon which the chapter’s featured monument are located, numbered as you would encounter them as you drive through the battlefield.  Each monument is numbered according to which area it is in, and its order on the tour route, therefore the first monument featured in the book, honoring the 121st Pennsylvania Infantry is numbered A-1.  The numbering is not continuous through the books but restarts with each chapter/area.

Each monument narrative begins with its area map location number such as A-5, and is followed by the name of the monument, Eighth Illinois Cavalry Monument, and its geographic coordinates, 39° 50.147’ N, 77° 14.968’ W.  A narrative follows describing the unit’s action on the field, a description of the monument, its designer, manufacturer or sculptor, and the date of its dedication.

The Gindlespergers include in their book, three appendices: Union Medal of Honor Recipients at Gettysburg, Confederate Medal of Honor Recipients at Gettysburg, and the Sullivan Ballou Letter, which considering Major Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry was killed nearly two years earlier during the First Battle of Bull Run seems a little out of place.  Also included at the end of the book is a suggested reading list.

“So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2” is a treasure trove of seldom discussed information about The Battle of Gettysburg, and it is an indispensible book for those interested in the battle, a great guide book for those touring the battlefield, and is a great book for those who haven’t yet visited the battlefield or those planning their future trip.

ISBN 978-0895876201, John F. Blair, Publisher, © 2014, Paperback, 234 pages, 12 Maps, 225 Color Photographs, Appendices, Further Reading & Index. $19.95.  To Purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Sickles At Gettysburg

Sickles at Gettysburg
By James A. Hessler

There are few people in history that stirred up as much controversy in their lifetimes as did Dan Sickles in his, and the subtitle of James Hessler’s recent biography, “Sickles at Gettysburg,” covers nearly all of it: “The Controversial Civil War General Who Committed Murder, Abandoned Little Round Top, and Declared Himself the Hero of Gettysburg.”

Mr. Hessler has written a fascinating biography of Daniel Edgar Sickles. It seems nearly everything in Sickles life is up for debate, even the exact date of his birth, as historical records differ, and even the General contradicts himself in various documents. Though briefly touching on other subjects, Mr. Hessler has done a good job of limiting his biography of Dan Sickles, concentrating it on the action on that fateful second day of July, 1862 and the ensuing controversy of Sickles’ actions on that day, and the debate that lasted for decades, while the General lived, and continues on, to a lesser extent, even today.

Even before the outbreak of the Civil War, and the Battle of Gettysburg, Dan Sickles had already made a name for himself, having used New York City’s Tammany Hall political machine, he became a United States Congressman. But the rising star of Dan’s political career, quickly came crashing to the earth when he, a rumored womanizer himself, shot and killed, Phillip Barton Key, his wife’s lover, and the son of Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Never one to let adversity block his path, Daniel E. Sickles was the first person to successfully use temporary insanity as a defense, and was found “not guilty.”

Possibly seeking to rehabilitate his reputation with the public, once the Civil War broke out, he organized four regiments of infantry in New York, soon to be named “The Excelsior Brigade” and was himself appointed as a colonel of one of the regiments. Despite opposition from congress, Sickles was eventually appointed a Brigadier General and given command of the brigade. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to Major General and given command of the III Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

The single most controversial aspect of Sickles military career, and possibly of his life would end up to be his actions on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1863, when either by insubordination or a misunderstanding of General George Meade’s orders, he abandoned his position on Cemetery Ridge and moved his III Corps approximately three-quarters of a mile forward to the peach orchard, in advance of the line of the rest of the Union Army, and nearly out of supporting distance from it. It was there that Sickles, was struck in the leg by a cannon ball, causing a severe injury, due to which the leg had to be amputated.

Sickles and those who supported him would spend the next five decades defending the move to the Peach orchard, and Mr. Hessler, gives a fair and balanced assessment of the argument in support and against Sickles’ actions. The author, is a steady moderated voice, leading his readers through the decades long debate, and doesn’t take one side or the other. He instead lets his readers decide the merit of the arguments for themselves, but does point out, that Sickles reputation is forever tarnished, not by his actions on that hot and humid day in July, but in his attempts to bend the historical record, in which ever way he needed, to present himself and his actions in the most favorable light.

Despite the many flaws in Dan Sickles’ character, Mr. Hessler also relates how Sickles was largely responsible for the preservation of the battlefields of Gettysburg, and the eventual creation of the Gettysburg National Battlefield, a legacy he left for generations to enjoy and study.

Dan Sickles is a complex historical figure, and James Hessler has done an exemplary job in writing his biography. His book is well researched and easily read. It is easy to hate Dan Sickles for the way in which he conducted his life, but had he conducted his life any other way, he would have never been so interesting. “Sickles at Gettysburg” is biography how it should be written.

ISBN 978-1932714647, Savas Beatie, © 2009, Hardcover, 432 pages, Photographs, Illustrations, Maps, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $32.95