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.

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.

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!