GDG- Re: Local Gettysburg Troops

[Smith, David [USA]]

Message: 14

Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:48:09 +0000

From: dwmadison at comcast.net

Subject: GDG- Local Gettysburg Troops

I have a question about the men who lived in the Gettysburg area prior
to the battle and actually fought there. I know about the Welsy Culp
story. Are there any others who left writngs about their experiences and
what regiments they belonged to.

Thanks

Dennis

 
Dennis--
 
Almost all the leads I am going to give you are Confederate, which may
surprise you.  One of the early chapters of Glenn Tucker's "Lee and
Longstreet at Gettysburg" contains a discussion of 2-3 or more
individuals with local ties in the armies.  Most of them are Confederate
- his point is that the Confederate's did not make as good use of people
with local ties in their ranks as the Union did.  I believe it is in the
chapter that discusses the flank march.  If time permits, I will try and
look it up for you.
 
There is also a case in Franklin County of an individual who joined the
Confederate Army and then returned in 1863.  I think he helped with the
plundering; at any rate, when the Confederate Army withdrew, apparently
they took his mother along, because of fears for her safety.  I would
have to look through my notes to find the obscure source where I plucked
that one out.  But it is worth noting that this family came from
Missouri, that divided state, in 1859 or 1860, so they didn't have
strong ties in the area.
 
Also, Chris Keller's article "Galvanized Confederates" in William
Blair's *Making and Re-making Pennsylvania's Civil War* (or something
close to that) has other examples of Pennsylvanians who fought for the
Confederacy - many, but not all of them from the Philadelphia area.  I
went to grad school with Chris - warning - his statistics about how many
galvanized Confederates there were is probably off, because he does a
straight line extrapolation, while Pennsylvania, as a border state
probably had many more than say, Maine.  Chris's opening story, though,
does a good job in capturing the anguish of the family - the father
tries to talk the son out of his service when it becomes clear he will
be heading to a POW camp.
 
One of my favorite stories regarding this divided border area doesn't
involve soldiers at all.  According to Jacob Hoke, some enterprising
individual ran around Franklin County and bought up all the Confederate
money that CSA soldiers spent during the Gettysburg invasion that he
could find.  Of course,he could get it at a huge discount because it was
worth nothing in the North.  Then HE MOVED to the Shenandoah Valley and
bought himself a nice farm and some land with all that Confederate
money!  That's using arbitrage and foreign exchange rates to your
advantage!
 
David