Dear Colleagues,

The Conference Planning Committee for the 2001 NE-NCHC meeting in Gettysburg has an exciting program prepared for you. We have lots of Sessions planned on the theme of Civil Wars, Poster Sessions and Roundtables on more general topics, and opportunities to interact with experts and Civil War re-enactors. Our Battlefield as Text@ explorations will take on a new perspective as we enact various civil war personae. We look forward to an exciting conference and hope to see you there.

Battlefield as Text@

We will organize groups, then, according not to geographic destination but according to the personas chosen. We will post a Bibliography of sources you might want to consider to contextualize these individuals and to learn more about the Civil War and Gettysburg in particular before the conference on the NE-NCHC website, so look for that as well

William T. Simpson - In 1861 William "Bill" Simpson enlisted at fifteen years old into the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers. As a drummer boy, Bill set a cadence on a march and helped boost morale. The drummer boys stuck close to the general to drum his orders to the men. During battle, a drum might signal the soldiers to commence firing. Later, it might "beat a retreat." July 1, 1863 was not very action packed for Bill's regiment. Bill did find himself avoiding flying bullets as he tried to visit with his uncle who was also at Gettysburg. Bill returned to his regiment and had a good's night fun with Dr. Altman, a surgeon of the regiment, and the other drummer boys. They camped in a barn at the Spangler's house that evening. By the third day of the battle, Bill was busy. Bill, like other drummer boys, assisted the physician, carrying water to the wounded and helping to load the ambulances with the wounded. After returning from running an error, Bill stated, "they were fighting like demons." During the aftermath, he helped carry the dead and wounded from the field, a task he found horrifying. Bill mustered out of the Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers in 1865 as a 2nd Principal Musician. Years later he served as police chief of Scranton, PA.

Tillie Pierce (Alleman) - Tillie Pierce was a fifteen-year-old resident of Gettysburg when the battle broke out near her home. On a Friday afternoon while at Seminary school, she heard the cry, "The Rebels are coming!" Her teacher instructed the children to run home. Tillie saw the rebels in their tattered clothing as she escaped with neighbors to Jacob Weikert's house. On July 1, 1863 she felt relieved when she saw Union troops. However, her surroundings became gruesome as fighting broke out. She saw a man thrown in the air and land in a wheat field. When he was retrieved and brought to the home she noticed that his eyes had been blown out.

The next day Tillie helped take water to Union soldiers. She watched an officer strike down one of his soldiers while the soldier crawled alongside the regiment, unable to walk due to the fatigue of marching. Tillie witnessed much more on July 3, when the house filled with wounded. They laid inside and outside the house. Tillie tried to help and watched many soldiers lose their limbs to amputation, surgery typically performed without any kind of anesthesia. She quickly became used to the scene of men in agony as she watched the limbs pile higher then the fence in the yard. A couple days following the Battle of Gettysburg, she was again overwhelmed to see the remains of battle: dead confederate soldiers, bloated horses, abandoned artillery. Though she remained a supporter of the Union cause, her first-hand understanding of the horrors of war haunted her for decades.

Christian Douglass (fictitious/composite persona) - Born a slave in Georgia, Christian worked as a field hand before escaping and fleeing to Cincinnati in 1861. Despite resistance to allowing African-Americans to fight, immediately following President Lincoln's edict in January 1863 that all persons held as slaves "are and henceforth shall be free," he joined the Fifth United States Colored Troops. During the battle at Gettysburg, he fought valiantly with his troop and picked up the regiment's flag when the Flag Sergeant fell. Carrying the flag high, he was injured at Culp's Hill and died as the battle continued. Though he did not survive the war, the words of Colonel Herman Lieb, who commanded the Ninth Louisiana, might have been written for Christian: "It is impossible for men to show greater bravery than the Negro troops in that fight."

Francis J. Gilpatrick (fictitious/composite persona) - Francis "Frank" J. Gilpatrick emigrated from Ireland in 1842. He moved to America at the age of 12, where he resided in New York. He began his adulthood by taking priestly vows and was assigned to a parish in Texas. At 31, Frank did what so many first-generation immigrants did: he enlisted as a soldier to fight in the Civil War. He joined the Confederacy as the Chaplin of the 5th Texas Infantry. He grew close with the men in the regiment and helped on the battlefields they fought. Besides his ministry duties, he would take water or supplies to the men and assist the doctors, when he was needed, which was all too often. On July 1, 1863, he accompanied the 5th Texas Infantry on the field at Gettysburg, where a stray bullet struck Frank in the arm. He had his arm amputated, and though initially he rallied, infection set in and, after five days' suffering, he died from the wound.

Cornelia Hancock, 1839-1926 - At 23, Cornelia Hancock, a Quaker from New Jersey, answered a call for nurses at Gettysburg. At Gettysburg she was immediately introduced to and immersed in the horrors of war. Writing her sister, she exclaimed, "I feel assured I shall never feel horrified at anything that may happen to me hereafter!" Cornelia testified that nearly 300 surgeons took roughly five days to perform all the amputations that occurred at that battle site. She witnessed the many rebel soldiers laying in the battlefield as they slowly died with little food and wounds untreated. Dismayed by what she witnessed, she nevertheless traveled to Virginia in 1864 to help aid injured Federal soldiers. Cornelia became disgusted by General Grant, concluding "The idea of making a business of maiming men is not worthy of a civilization."

Cornelia was a skilled organizer and her ability to raise supplies made her a valuable nurse. However, after witnessing pitiful conditions at the Contraband Hospital in Washington D.C., she was inspired to help the cause of freed slaves. After the war, her vocation shifted from a nurse to that of a teacher and advocate when she opened the Laing School for Negroes in South Carolina. She taught there for ten years before returning north to Philadelphia. There she helped found the Children's Aid Society and the Bureau of Information.

Wesley Culp -- The Civil War is often described as a war between brothers, and though such a description might seem to romanticize the war, the Culp family illustrates how families were divided by a war fought on American soil. Wesley Culp was born in Gettysburg in 1841. At 17, he moved with some of his friends to Virginia to pursue work in a carriage factory, where he made harnesses. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted as a Confederate in the state of his residence. He enrolled on April 20, 1861, the same day his brother enrolled for the opposing cause. While serving in the 2nd Virginia Infantry in the infamous "Stonewall Brigade," Wesley returned home for the battle of Gettysburg. Wesley visited his sister on the evening of July 1st, 1863. Two days later, Wesley fell to his death on the land that belonged to his grandfather, Culp's Hill. Culp's Hill, which now belonged to Wesley's uncle, was Wesley's resting place. Although his grave was never found, the stock of his rifle with his name engraved upon it was recovered from the battlefield. With his death died the hope for one among many families of fraternal reconciliation.

Richard Brooke Garrett - Richard Brooke Garrett attended West Point with his cousin Robert Garnett. While his cousin had the distinction of being the first general officer killed in the Civil War, Richard made it through numerous battles. In 1862, Richard commanded the infamous "Stonewall Brigade." After a disagreement with Stonewall Jackson, Richard moved on to become a successful brigade commander under Major General George S. Pickett. Richard's brigade, in George Pickett's division of James Longstreet's I Corps, arrived at Gettysburg after the second day's fighting. On July 3, 1863, his brigade took up positions in front of Spangler's Woods. However, during Longstreet's assault, his brigade was assigned to the front left of Pickett's division. Pickett ordered that all men involved in the assault be on foot, but Richard had been injured by a hard kick from his horse and so had to ride. While his Confederate troops stormed The Angle, with Richard leading the way, the 72°d Pennsylvania rose and fired. Richard was struck in the head and killed instantly near the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge.

Sallie Ann Jarrett - Sallie Ann Jarrett, born in 1861, was a member of the 1lth Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Named after a favorite young lady of West Chester, she slept under the Captain's bunk. The bulldog was not just the mascot of the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment, but a soldier in her own right. As a pup, life was as easy for her as it was pleasant for the members of the regiment at Camp Wayne, but as Sallie and "her" boys grew up together, their assignments grew harder. Even-tempered and affectionate, she followed the regiment to all their skirmishes. Sallie was once stolen by a neighboring outfit, but found by one of her guardians and brought home. Although she had five litters in her lifetime, she put the military first. She would perform her duties before tending to her young.

The regiment engaged in some of the fiercest fighting such as Cedar Mountain, Bull Run, and Gettysburg. Sallie was there through it all, proving to be intelligent, active, and fiery. At Gettysburg, she seated herself amongst the dead and dying for three days without deserting her post. She licked the wounds of her comrades and guarded the lifeless bodies of those who had fallen. Although at Gettysburg she had no food and little sleep, she remained with the regiment and continued marching with them through the rest of their hardships. On May 8, 1864 Sallie was struck in the neck by a Minie ball during the campaigns of the Wilderness, a wound which left her with a battle scar. On February 6, 1865 Sallie led the troops to Hatcher's Run in Virginia where her career and life would come to an end. Sallie was killed in action by a shot in the head. A monument was resurrected in her honor at the battlefield