A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime: Antietam, Gettysburg, and Beyond

Over more than a year, John Banks crisscrossed the country, exploring battlefields, historic houses, forts, and more. He rode on the back of an ATV with his “psychotic connection” in Mississippi, went under the spell of an amateur hypnotist at a U.S. Army fort in Tennessee, admired a sunset from the grounds of the notorious Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, prayed during a tense boat ride in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, and briefly interviewed Louie the wild boar in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Join him on a road trip like no other.

 Join us on Zoom for this presentation by historian John Banks, author of A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime: Antietam, Gettysburg, and Beyond!

Click here to register!

Join us as we welcome Robert Hicks to present Wounded for Life: The Post-War Journey of Two Union Soldiers. 

Many Civil War books discuss the mortality due to bullets and diseases but very few explore the postwar lives of wounded warriors. Based on his new book, Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War, Dr. Robert Hicks examines two Union veterans, Presley Dawson and Henry Huidekoper. Dawson, an African American private, was lamed by collapsed earthworks under fire and contracted malaria. Huidekoper, a lieutenant colonel, was shot twice at Gettysburg and suffered an amputated arm. Both men worked, married, and had children, yet the war changed their bodies. Dr. Robert Hicks looks at how they constructed new identities after the trauma of the battlefield.

 Click Here to Register

Robert D. Hicks, PhD is an independent scholar of the history of science and medicine. Formerly, he served as director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library and William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He has worked with museum-based education and exhibits for four decades, primarily as a consultant to historic sites and museums. His most recent book, Civil War Medicine: A Surgeon’s Experience, appeared in 2019 by Indiana University Press. This presentation derives from his new book, Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War.

 The Business of Death in the Mid-19th Century

Death in the 19th century was a relatively common occurrence. Illnesses and accidents that we do not commonly see or that can be easily prevented in the 21st century could cause death during the Victorian era. Most who study history are familiar with the mourning customs of the 19th century, such as wearing black crepe. But who actually produced the items needed for caring for the dead? Many occupations such as grave diggers, coffin makers, embalmers, and tombstone carvers all made a living entirely or at least partially from death. Death could be big business for 19th century businesses. This presentation will discuss some of the mid-19th century occupations that contributed to the needs of the dead and their mourners.

Join us on Zoom for this presentation by our own Annette Jorgensen, SRMEC Membership and Development Coordinator!

Click Here to Register

Attendance is limited to 100. Sign up today!

As Americans struggled through the Civil War’s fourth autumn, voters cast their ballots in the presidential election of 1864. The campaign pitted incumbent Abraham Lincoln against his former general-in-chief, George McClellan, and its results framed the ultimate effects of the conflict itself. Soldiers and citizens determined whether the nation would quell a rebellion, or open peace negotiations; expand the rights of freed people, or de-emphasize personal liberties; and end slavery, or keep the institution intact. More than any wartime event not decided on a battlefield, the course and consequences of this election are among the most significant in U.S. history.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

For the 161st anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg this year, Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center is honored to again host a candlelight illumination as part of our annual 24 Hours on the Ridge event. For two hours on the evening of November 1, five hundred luminaria will line the historic tan bark path leading to Schmucker Hall, memorializing the soldiers, broken in battle, who sought refuge and care in the Seminary building in the summer of 1863. Throughout the evening, patient names will be read from the historic steps of the building.

For just $25, you may sponsor the name of a patient treated at the Seminary Hospital or choose to sponsor in memory of a soldier important to you.

Click Here for a list of Seminary Hospital patients

Bags will be lit safely with battery-operated LED tea lights and will feature both your name*, unless you choose to sponsor anonymously, and the name of your sponsored soldier. Following the event, bags will be available to take home.

Click Here to Purchase a Sponsorship

**Due to illness, this event has been postponed and will be rescheduled to a later date.**

Join us as we welcome Robert Hicks to present Wounded for Life: The Post-War Journey of Two Union Soldiers. 

Many Civil War books discuss the mortality due to bullets and diseases but very few explore the postwar lives of wounded warriors. Based on his new book, Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War, Dr. Robert Hicks examines two Union veterans, Presley Dawson and Henry Huidekoper. Dawson, an African American private, was lamed by collapsed earthworks under fire and contracted malaria. Huidekoper, a lieutenant colonel, was shot twice at Gettysburg and suffered an amputated arm. Both men worked, married, and had children, yet the war changed their bodies. Dr. Robert Hicks looks at how they constructed new identities after the trauma of the battlefield.

 Click Here to Register

Robert D. Hicks, PhD is an independent scholar of the history of science and medicine. Formerly, he served as director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library and William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He has worked with museum-based education and exhibits for four decades, primarily as a consultant to historic sites and museums. His most recent book, Civil War Medicine: A Surgeon’s Experience, appeared in 2019 by Indiana University Press. This presentation derives from his new book, Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Introduction to The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War:

Gettysburg, Manassas & More   

The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War, Gettysburg, Manassas & More is the third book in the Nameless and Faceless series. The prior two books are The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War and The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War. Both books earned me Artist in Residence through the National Parks Arts Foundation-National Park Service, Gettysburg Poetry September 2020, and Artist in Residence-National Park Service Manassas Poetry October 2021. 

The books are a collection of 28 poems and 28 historical essays on the Civil War. We know that not everyone who witnessed and experienced the Civil War made it into the history books. What about all those who rest in Civil War Battlefield Cemeteries with only the word Unknown to note their final resting place? So many of them still without a name or a face.  By combining the rhyme and narrative of poetry with Civil War History a lost voice of history comes forth to share their experiences and their suffering. A place where their humanity and the songs of their soul come together to create a voice to tell their story of compassion, life, death, agony, and grief as a reminder to the world that they did not die in vain. 

There is no North or South in these collections.  No border states.  No governance or politics.  For in the voices of the lost and unknowns, it is to remember that suffering has no boundaries. 

Join us on Zoom as we welcome award-winning author and poet Lisa Samia for our first History Happy Hour of the 2024-2025 season!

Click Here to Register

Attendance is limited to 100. Sign up today!

In the summer of 1861, soon after the start of the Civil War, the United States Coast Survey published a pair of influential maps based on data gathered in the previous year’s national census. Both depicted the percentage of enslaved people living in individual counties utilizing varying shades of black and gray—one map featuring Virginia, and the other all slaveholding states in the American South. Explore who created the maps, how the U.S. Army used them to benefit sick and wounded soldiers, and their influence on directly impacting emancipation policy enacted by leaders of the Union war effort, up to and including President Lincoln.

This program will be presented by Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, at the Gettysburg Library.

Registration Requested: https://www.adamslibrary.org/event/1861-slave-census-map-52320

“Treated at the Seminary” is a series created to take an in-depth look into some of the 486 known patients treated at the Seminary Hospital between July 1 and September 16, 1863. This program aims to shed a new light on lesser-known, but certainly no less important, figures who fought in this historic battle. For some, their stories ended within the walls of Schmucker Hall, and for others, the life-saving medical care rendered here made the next chapter in their lives possible. Join Kaleb Kusmierczyk, Director of Museum Operations, as he uncovers these seldom-told stories that reach far beyond the Gettysburg battlefield.  

- FREE -

Outdoors Weather Permitting - Chairs Recommended

**Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

We are thrilled to welcome Blue & Gray Hospital Association for Civil War medical living history demonstrations in the exhibit galleries! Access is included with Museum Admission, 9:00am-2:00pm.

This is the incredible story, published in the Gettysburg Compiler in 1898, of an enslaved man named Jo who escaped a horrific master and endured a nearly two-year long journey to freedom from Louisiana to Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Jo's story is one that rivals other well-known formerly enslaved individuals who suffered at the hands of their masters before self-emancipating like Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave.

Join Kaleb Kusmierczyk, Director of Museum Operations, as he leads a group reading session of the transcribed newspaper account followed by a guided discussion. 

- FREE -

Outdoors Weather Permitting - Chairs Recommended

**Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

For more than 11 years, since Seminary Ridge Museum opened on July 1, 2013, among visitors’ most asked questions has been, “Did Robert E. Lee use the Seminary Cupola?” Codie Eash, who has been part of the SRMEC staff since 2012, has pondered that inquiry for the past decade, frequently engaging with inquisitive minds on evidence for and against the Confederate commander’s potential use of Gettysburg’s most famous observation post. Having amassed dozens of primary sources, historians’ perspectives, and statements from Gettysburg National Military Park, Adams County Historical Society, and leading Lee experts, now Codie will take on that question in a standalone program for the first time, and invite audience members to draw new conclusions based on the evidence presented.

- FREE -

*Please note the change of venue: Due to the weather, we will be moving this program inside to the Valentine Hall Auditorium at 61 Seminary Ridge, next to the Museum.*

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Wings and Trivia has been postponed.

Watch for a rescheduled date this winter to be announced soon!

Join us for another lighthearted evening of family-friendly general trivia (but not about generals) for prizes!

Wings, macaroni and cheese, and more will be provided by Ragged Edge catering. The evening is BYOB, though water, lemonade, ice tea will be included. 

Registration is individual, but you may register up to 6 total people (a full team) at one time.

On September 11, 1889, the Rev. J.C. Truesdale stood along Gettysburg’s Emmittsburg Road and delivered a soaring address to dedicate a monument to the veterans of the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry, affectionately known as “The Wildcat Regiment.” Though he had not been at the Battle of Gettysburg, the Presbyterian pastor and Ohio native served as a Pennsylvania militiaman during the Civil War, en route to his role as the 105th’s regimental chaplain during the conflict’s final year. One contemporary remarked, “He was highly esteemed, and he was cordially hated,” while another deemed him a “radical...against slavery” and recalled, “He was an earnest, fearless, eloquent minister of the Gospel of Christ”—exemplified in the sermon he spoke on the rebellion’s bloodiest battlefield, 26 years after the events of July 1863.

- FREE -

Outdoors Weather Permitting - Chairs Recommended

**Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

“Treated at the Seminary” is a series created to take an in-depth look into some of the 486 known patients treated at the Seminary Hospital between July 1 and September 16, 1863. This program aims to shed a new light on lesser-known, but certainly no less important, figures who fought in this historic battle. For some, their stories ended within the walls of Schmucker Hall, and for others, the life-saving medical care rendered here made the next chapter in their lives possible. Join Kaleb Kusmierczyk, Director of Museum Operations, as he uncovers these seldom-told stories that reach far beyond the Gettysburg battlefield.  

- FREE -

Outdoors Weather Permitting - Chairs Recommended

**Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

Join us for our first Summer Symposium!

By popular request, join us for our first Summer Symposium!

Throughout the day, we will examine the Gettysburg reunions that veterans of both armies attended in 1869, 1888, 1913, and 1938, and the centennial commemoration in 1963. Explore how these gatherings shaped post-war reconciliation, memorialization, and collective memory in American History. The event will uncover the complex narratives of reunion and remembrance that continue to resonate today.

We are excited to welcome historians Dr. Jill Titus, John Heiser, Dr. Jennifer Murray, Dr. Stephen Goldman, and Peter Miele as they join SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation Codie Eash.

8:30am - Registration Open/Light Breakfast, Valentine Hall
9:20 - Welcome and Introductions
9:30 - Codie Eash, 1869
10:35 - John Heiser, 1913
11:40 - Dr. Jennifer Murray, 1938
12:30pm - Lunch and Museum Access
2:30 - Dr. Jill Titus, 1963
3:35 - Dr. Stephen Goldman, 1888
4:40 - Panel Discussion led by Peter Miele

Included with your in-person registration is light breakfast, catered lunch, book signing opportunity, admission to Seminary Ridge Museum, and a guided tour of the historic Cupola.

*Please note that virtual registration is currently unavailable.*

Click here to register today!

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

Though it was Gettysburg’s longest-occupied space by either army in the summer of 1863, until rather recently the Seminary campus was relatively unmarked as a battlefield. Still, the grounds remained a common place for veterans’ returns. Trek the ground where old soldiers held reunions, dedicated memorials, and shaped the tourism of today.

- Free, donations appreciated-

Outdoors Weather Permitting - **Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.