Forthcoming Lecture: "The Old Keystone State Speaks Today"

This is quite a ways off, but mark your calendars for what is (at the moment, at least) my next scheduled public lecture. On Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, I'll be returning to the Skelly Post No. 9 Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Gettysburg to speak as part of Historic Gettysburg-Adams County's Educational Speaker Series. My talk is titled "'The Old Keystone State Speaks Today': Gettysburg's Pennsylvania Veterans Reunion of 1889."

Of the 90,000 soldiers who served under the United States flag at the Battle of Gettysburg, nearly one-third were Pennsylvanians. Twenty-six years later, on Sept. 11 and 12, 1889, many of those veterans returned to Adams County for Pennsylvania Day, a 48-hour festival which commemorated the wartime service of the men from the Keystone State. Tens of thousands of visitors gathered to witness this spectacle, to dedicate most of the Pennsylvania monuments upon the Gettysburg battlefield, and to deliver and listen to speeches about combat, death, union, treason, slavery, and emancipation.

Please join me for a discussion of what those who were present said and did during their return to Gettysburg, when their words and actions illustrated their collective memory of participating in the Civil War's bloodiest battle upon the soil of the state they called home.

I am looking forward to delving into this fascinating topic as I begin the next chapter in my exploration of Gettysburg's post-Civil War history, and the collective memory which precipitated from it. In the meantime, I will be sure to post any updates about this and other potential lectures. Aside from this project, I have some other research in the pipeline, including in-depth examinations of Gettysburg's first Confederate monument, the "Confederate flag incident" of Brig. Gen. Alexander Hays, the attempted resignation of Robert E. Lee, and the effects of abolitionism and anti-slavery rhetoric on participants at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The itinerary for Pennsylvania Day at Gettysburg, Sept. 11-12, 1889. (Internet Archive/Pennsylvania at Gettysburg)

Additionally, I am continuing to work on a long-form essay about the speech Frederick Douglass delivered at Gettysburg in January 1869, which I am planning to publish at some point next year for the 150th anniversary of that event. For those who saw me speak at Gettysburg's GAR Hall in February, the article will be a more detailed extension of my topic that evening.

As always, if anybody is looking for a guest lecturer for any events in the Mid-Atlantic region (particularly in Pennsylvania or Maryland), please feel free to send me a message.

One of the most bountiful sources for Pennsylvania Day material is the "Pittsburg Dispatch" (Pittsburgh did not have an "h" in its name at the time), as exhibited in this front page of the Sept. 12, 1889, issue of the paper. (Chronicling America, Library of Congress/Pittsburg Dispatch)