Ron Kirkwood on “Tell Mother Not to Worry”: Soldier Stories From Gettysburg’s George Spangler Farm”

The George Spangler Farm in Gettysburg is a place of reverence. Nurses held the hands of dying soldiers and prayed and spoke last words with them amid the blood, stench, and agony of two hospitals. Heroic surgeons resolutely worked around the clock to save lives. Author Ronald D. Kirkwood’s best-selling “Too Much for Human Endurance”: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg established the military and medical importance of the Spangler farm and hospitals. “Tell Mother Not to Worry”: Soldier Stories From Gettysburg’s George Spangler Farm is Ron’s eagerly awaited sequel.

Kirkwood researched thousands of pensions and military records, hospital files, letters, newspapers, and diaries of those present at the hospitals on Spangler land during and after the battle. The result is a deeper and richer understanding of what these men and women endured; suffering that often lingered for the rest of their lives. Their injuries and deaths, Yankee and Rebel alike, carried with it not only tragedy and sadness for parents, spouses, and children, but often financial devastation as well.

Ronald D. Kirkwood retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer in newspapers and magazines, including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, York (PA) Daily Record, and Midland (MI) Daily News. Ron edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He won state, regional, and national awards and managed the copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ron has been a Gettysburg Foundation docent at the George Spangler Farm Civil War Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013. He is a native of Dowagiac/Sister Lakes, MI, and a graduate of Central Michigan University, where he has returned as guest speaker for journalism classes as part of the school’s Hearst Visiting Professionals series. Ron and his wife of almost 50 years, Barbara, live in the deer-filled countryside near Murrysville, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh.

Funding provided by the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission at Camden County College, the officially designated county history agency of the New Jersey Historical Commission.

(Please note special start time at 7:00 pm this month). 
Free and open to the public. In-person meeting at Camden County College, William G. Rohrer Center, 1889 Marlton Pike East, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003, and simulcast on Zoom. Please email oldbaldycwrt [at] verizon [dot] net at least 24 hrs prior to request Zoom access.

Ellen Alford on “Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey: Not Without a Fight”
Southern New Jersey was a hotbed of slave fugitives, freedmen and abolitionists in the Civil War era. The proud 22nd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops included hundreds of Black New Jerseyans ready to fight for emancipation and the Union cause. Abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin and Benjamin Sheppard operated among key landmarks of the Underground Railroad in South Jersey counties such as Cape May, Cumberland and Salem. Slavery and the rights of Black Americans were at the forefront of the region’s attention including stories such as a melee in a Cape May hotel between Black waiters and white patrons, the covert signaling of boats ferrying fugitive slaves across the Delaware River and the daring rescue of a runaway slave from the hands of slave catchers by local church worshipers. Author Ellen Alford reveals the history of abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey.

Ellen D. Alford is a native South Jersey resident and local historian who researches and writes about the Underground Railroad, slavery, abolition and Harriet Tubman in South Jersey. She is a former newspaper correspondent, public school educator and university administrator. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Lloyd P. Burns Award for Public Service from the New Jersey Press Association. Ms. Alford is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a degree in English/communications and has pursued graduate studies in American history at Rutgers University–Camden, New Jersey, where she was awarded the A&S Academic Excellence. Ms. Alford is a member of the National History Honor Society.

Funding provided by the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission at Camden County College, the officially designated county history agency of the New Jersey Historical Commission.

Alex Rossino on “Lee’s Army in Maryland: A New Perspective on the Campaign of September 1862”

 Most students of the Civil War believe the story of Robert E. Lee’s 1862 Maryland Campaign is complete, and that new studies must rely on interpretations long since accepted and understood. But what if this is not the case? What if the histories previously written about the first major Confederate operation north of the Potomac River missed key sources, proceeded from mistaken readings of the evidence, or were influenced by Lost Cause ideology? Dr. Alexander Rossino demonstrates that these types of distortions continue to shape modern understanding of the campaign and offers suggestions for how to correct them, developing in the process a new understanding of what General Lee hoped to accomplish in September 1862.

Dr. Alexander Rossino is an independent historian. He earned Master’s and Doctoral degrees in History at Syracuse University, where he taught for two years, before working as a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He is an expert on the 1862 Maryland Campaign and the author of Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia from the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862; The Tale Untwisted: General George B. McClellan, The Maryland Campaign, and the Discovery of Lee’s Lost Orders (with Gene Thorp); and Calamity at Frederick: Robert E. Lee, Special Orders No. 191, and Confederate Misfortune on the Road to Antietam.

The October 22, 1777, battle at Fort Mercer (aka Red Bank) New Jersey is rather overlooked in both NJ and national Revolutionary War history.  The Red Bank Battlefield Historical Park in National Park, NJ is looking to increase its visibility by partnering with the American Battlefield Trust to improve the park’s interpretation signage and overall exposure.

Erik Mollenhauer and Old Baldy member Ed Komczyk are involved in a campaign to improve the interpretation and increase the recognition of the battlefield. This was the site of one of the fiercest and bloodiest small battles of the war and the only battle the Americans won during the entire Philadelphia campaign. The battle occurred shortly after the American victory at Saratoga. Ft. Mercer never received proper recognition since no well-known commanders were involved on the battlefield. Erik and Ed’s group hopes to rectify this situation and gain the support of the American Battlefield Trust and the Gloucester County Board of Commissioners.

Erik Mollenhauer’s early career began as a secondary science teacher.  During that time he received state and national teaching awards, including one from the White House. In 1990, Erik became a teacher trainer and program developer. Among his projects, he developed a program that took teachers to Russia and eight other countries. In 2001, he developed a project that brought the monarch butterfly story to schools across the U.S. and Canada.

Erik has presented talks on a wide variety of topics including “Secrets of the Night Sky”, “The Hidden Life of Streams”, “Fossil Legends of Indigenous America” and more. His latest project is a deep dive into the history of Gloucester County’s Red Bank Battlefield. The truth of what happened there on Oct 22, 1777 is bigger, more surprising and inspiring than almost anyone knows.