Join us on Zoom as we welcome Jonathan Steplyk, author of Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat.

The Civil War was fundamentally a matter of Americans killing Americans. This undeniable reality is what Jonathan Steplyk explores in Fighting Means Killing, the first book-length study of Union and Confederate soldiers’ attitudes toward, and experiences of, killing in the Civil War.

Drawing upon letters, diaries, and postwar reminiscences, Steplyk examines what soldiers and veterans thought about killing before, during, and after the war. How did these soldiers view sharpshooters? How about hand-to-hand combat? What language did they use to describe killing in combat? What cultural and societal factors influenced their attitudes? And what was the impact of race in battlefield atrocities and bitter clashes between white Confederates and black Federals? These are the questions that Steplyk seeks to answer in Fighting Means Killing, a work that bridges the gap between military and social history—and that shifts the focus on the tragedy of the Civil War from fighting and dying for cause and country to fighting and killing.

Jonathan M. Steplyk is the author of Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat and a frequent contributor to the Civil War Campaigns in the West series; he teaches at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has also worked as a historical interpreter at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park. He received the 2023 Grady McWhiney Award from the Dallas Civil War Round Table.

Click Here to Register

In addition to trained medical personnel, dozens of civilian nurses from Gettysburg and surrounding communities tended to wounded soldiers at the Seminary Hospital in the summer of 1863. Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he examines the diaries, letters, and memoirs they left behind.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join us for an evening of dinner, drinks, dessert, and more!

Dinner options include:
Filet Mignon
Baked Chicken
Maryland Crabcakes
Vegetable Pasta

Cost: $100

Click here to secure your seat!

Dobbin House Tavern
89 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg

Featuring Special Guest Speaker
Dr. James Broomall

William Binford Vest Chair in History
University of Richmond

presenting

Trophies of Battle:
Tourists, Relic-hunters, and the Aftermath of Gettysburg

Click here to secure your seat!

Space is limited!

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. Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he explores 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.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

We are excited to once again welcome Gettysburg historians James Hessler, Stuart Dempsey, Eric Lindblade, and Jody Wilson as they join SRMEC's Judy Morley and Codie Eash to examine undervalued individuals whose actions left an indelible mark on the course and consequences of the Gettysburg Campaign. 

This year’s event will feature a mysterious twist: Individual topics will not be revealed until the day of the event, though teasers may be shared along the way. What we CAN tell you is that there will be no presidents or commanders at army or corps level.

In-person registration is now full.
Please contact us to be placed on a waiting list!

Click here for in-person registration.

Click here for virtual (livestream) registration.

**All proceeds support Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center and The Battle of Gettysburg Podcast.**

Throughout human history, nature and environment has impacted the way that people make war on each other. While the United States and Confederate armies clashed with each other at Gettysburg, they both had to contend with this oft-overlooked foe. Join Pete Miele for an overview of how weather and landscape impacted the fighting at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Click here to register!

Pete Miele is Senior Project Leader at Susquehanna National Heritage Area, overseeing the Susquehanna Discovery Center project at the historic Mifflin farm site. He began his career as a public school educator in New Jersey before shifting towards public history and museum work. He spent more than eleven years at Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center in Gettysburg, PA, including four years as President and Executive Director. Miele recently completed coursework towards a Ph.D. in American Studies at Penn State, Harrisburg, where his academic interests include the social and cultural history of the mid-Atlantic, nature and environment, and historical memory. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the region’s cultural and culinary offerings, camping, hiking, and kayaking, all with his wife.

Due to inclement weather and to err on the side of caution, we will be closing the Museum early today and postponing tonight's Tacos and Trivia. All participants will be contacted and refunded, and a reschedule date will be determined soon.

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

A taco bar will be provided by Ragged Edge catering. The evening is BYOB, though water, lemonade, and iced tea will be included. 

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

**Registration is now closed**

Valentine's Day is a time to express appreciation and affection for our loved ones. During the Civil War, this holiday often brought a somber reminder that soldiers might never see their loved ones again. To convey their feelings of love and loneliness, soldiers turned to writing letters to those back home.  

Join Kaleb Kusmierczk, Director of Museum Operations, for this installment of Fridays On the Ridge titled "Dear Wife: Civil War Love Letters." In this talk, he will explore some of the most intimate letters sent from the frontlines to the home front. The aim is to foster a renewed appreciation for the heartache soldiers experienced while separated from their loved ones during sentimental holidays as they answered their nation’s call to arms.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

When Robert E. Lee died in 1870, the former Confederate commander instantly rose to the status of an American deity, and in the 155 years since his death he has remained one of history’s most celebrated soldiers.

Despite such laudations, however, many of Lee’s contemporaries felt his renowned status was undeserved—most notably, the formerly enslaved social activist, newsman, and army recruiter Frederick Douglass. Starting at the end of the Civil War, and continuing mere days after Lee’s demise, Douglass penned a series of articles that reflected negatively on the fallen Rebel general’s legacy and attempted to reconsider his proper place in studies of the past. Join Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, as he explores Douglass’s criticisms of Lee’s morality and prowess, which provide valuable insight to an alternative view of an icon, and serve as a reminder that modern debates over collective memory of the Civil War and its principal players are embedded in unfinished conversations among the wartime generation itself.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, will present “‘If It Takes Three Years More’: Lincoln at the Sanitary Fairs of 1864” as part of Adams County Library’s Perspectives & Pathways Community Speaker Series. The program begins at 6:00pm at the Gettysburg Library (140 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA, 17325). For more information, visit the Library’s Events page.

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln spoke at three fairs benefiting the Sanitary Commission, pleading for a new “definition for the word liberty,” promising “retribution” against Confederates who slaughtered Black U.S. soldiers, and vowing to proceed even “if it takes three years more”—collectively encompassing the most underappreciated orations of his presidency.

THIS EVENT WAS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 19.

Join us on Sunday, February 2, 2025, as we commemorate Dr. King’s life and legacy with a special documentary screening and presentation. Both events are FREE, open to the public (without registration), and hosted in United Lutheran Seminary’s Valentine Hall Auditorium, next to Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center. Donations are appreciated. More information is below.

1:00pm – King in the Wilderness (2018)

Through personal stories of the people who were around him, this HBO documentary film from director Peter Kunhardt follows Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life, from the vital role he played in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to his assassination in 1968.

Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Rated TV-14. View the trailer below or here.

3:30pm – “‘Five Score Years Ago’: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Legacy of the Civil War”

Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he examines Dr. King’s many references to slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and their consequences, utilizing lessons from a century earlier as he battled racism, poverty, and violence in his own time.

Approximately 45 minutes plus Q&A.

Amid calls for secession and threats of violence following the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania’s antislavery newspaper editor James Brisbin prepared to physically combat disunionists even before the Civil War began. “I will march at a moment’s warning,” Brisbin informed Virginia Governor John Letcher, “and, if necessary, give my life for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union.” Join Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, as he explores Brisbin’s and Letcher’s series of back-and-forth public letters—which exposed a political rift in central Pennsylvania, unearthed secret Southern sympathies in Centre County, and launched Brisbin’s own military career as an eventual wartime colonel of Black cavalry and a brigadier general in the United States Army.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

On Monday, January 20, 2025, our fourth and final Community Free Day, we are offering FREE Museum Admission (and Cupola Tours at a discounted rate) for residents of Adams County, PA, with ID. One ID per party is fine. This is offered courtesy of The Robert C. Hoffman Charitable Endowment Trust.

The day before, Sunday, January 19, join us for a FREE special screening of the documentary film King in the Wilderness and the presentation “‘Five Score Years Ago’: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Legacy of the Civil War.” More information is available here.

DUE TO FORECASTED INCLEMENT WINTER WEATHER, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. WE WILL PROVIDE UPDATES SOON ON A NEW DATE.

Join us on Sunday, January 19, 2025, as we commemorate Dr. King’s life and legacy with a special documentary screening and presentation. Both events are FREE, open to the public (without registration), and hosted in United Lutheran Seminary’s Valentine Hall Auditorium, next to Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center. Donations are appreciated. More information is below.

The next day, Monday, January 20, we will host our fourth and final Community Free Day for Adams County residents, courtesy of The Robert C. Hoffman Charitable Endowment Trust. More information is available here.

1:00pm – King in the Wilderness (2018)

Through personal stories of the people who were around him, this HBO documentary film from director Peter Kunhardt follows Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life, from the vital role he played in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to his assassination in 1968.

Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Rated TV-14. View the trailer below or here.

3:30pm – “‘Five Score Years Ago’: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Legacy of the Civil War”

Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he examines Dr. King’s many references to slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and their consequences, utilizing lessons from a century earlier as he battled racism, poverty, and violence in his own time.

Approximately 45 minutes plus Q&A.

Safeguarding the Union: The Early Days of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, from Fort Sumter to 1st Bull Run, April to July 1861.  

Many people are aware of the Civil War Defenses of Washington (CWDW) and that it was composed of 68 forts and 93 batteries.  But this was the strength of the defenses by the end of the war.  How did the CWDW begin?  Where was the first fort built and when was it completed?  How many forts were built in the first few months of the war?  And was a Confederate attack on the city, like the British had done in the War of 1812, ever possible?  Park Ranger Bryan Cheeseboro of the National Park Service will present on this topic and look at answers to these questions.

 Join us on Zoom for this presentation by public historian Bryan Cheeseboro.

Click here to register!

Bryan Cheeseboro is a historian of the American Civil War and has been a frequent speaker to the Rock Creek Civil War Round Table.  He is a Park Ranger with the National Park Service.  His site is the Civil War Defenses of Washington, DC.  He is a former employee of the National Archives. 

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