for those of you that are taking the tour of for those of you who are taking the tour, it will begin at 5:00 p.m.. for those of you with reservations we have a reception at 7:00 p.m. and a reception at 8:00 p.m.. thank you very much. [applause] >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> the battle of gettysburg in 1863 was a turning point in the american civil war.

up next, jared frederick, a penn state instructor discusses a different account of women during the gettysburg and how the residents, mainly women and children, were affected and shaped by the battle. the journey through hallowed ground partnership. >> welcome, everybody. my name is shawn butcher. i am the director of journey through hallowed ground partnership. welcome to the afternoon session. we are pleased that this session is being taped and aired on c-span so welcome our c-span viewers. for those in the audience, you can follow along or learn more on twitter. i am pleased to introduce our speaker, jared frederick. jared has been highly involved in the world of public history conducting oral history interviews, writing grants, in interpreting sites.

receiving a masters from west virginia, he is served as a seasonal part ranger at gettysburg national park. an artist as well, he has completed projects and been recognized by organizations such as the smithsonian, civil war trust, nasa, several other national organizations. he has published a number of books and is a living history interpreter for the civil war and world war ii periods. we are thrilled to have him with us. jared: good afternoon. i am glad to be here for the 10th annual conference in waterford, virginia. like shawn said, for a number of summer seasons, i've had the pleasure of serving as a park ranger. and as i work of their more and more, i found out how complex and how fascinating the story of

the battle of gettysburg was. we think of it from the military perspective and also from a social perspective as well. i try to delve into a lot of that. something that has been overlooked by many historians until recent years is the story of the women, the civilians and children who called gettysburg home. when many people go, they think it will be a big open field. it was a thriving, bustling community in 1863. people's lives were dramatically shaped by all of that. like most communities in the 1860's, a community of women and children because all of the men were off to war for the most part. and they are going to go through

a number of very dramatic transitions and transformations once the two armies are going to defend upon their community. central to all of this and what i would like you to keep in mind is the notion of family. this is really at the heart of the matter. both on a national perspective and the local perspective. history is the story of people. battle of gettysburg is a much more than blue and red bars moving across a map. we will go beyond and look deeper at the human story. let's set the stage a little bit. by the summer of 1863, the american civil war has gone on longer than anybody anticipated including president lincoln, commander-in-chief.

he initially starts it off in the name of union. the united states is one of the few democracies and the entire world at that time and a very fragile thing, a very fragile idea. over time and as the aftermath of gettysburg is going to show us, it continues to evolve. the war has different meanings. it continues to evolve as are the people involved in it. by the summer of 1863 over 250,000 lives have been lost and a far cry from the three-month the war many thought they would be fighting in 1861. it had reached stalemate. in the eastern seaboard, the union army, things are going poorly. president lincoln is trying to find a successful military commander to score victory in the field. in the midst of all of this, american women are becoming increasingly involved on the military stage. for the most part, many of the medical aspects and logistical aspects of the united states military, going through growing pains and civilian organizations and civilians who are still stepping up efforts, including serving as nurses.

we see one of the most famous nursing photos possibly. annie bell and up here we see dorothea dix, who was a very high-minded nurse. she demanded all of her nurses be between the ages of 35 and 50 so they would not be tempted to fraternize with the soldiers. we see the big social divide. the gender gap here in the

1860's. these females are making great strides of a calming more active in american society that's becoming more active in american society. come the summer, june to the exact, the confederate army commanded by robert e. lee is doing well.

robert e. lee wins one of his biggest victories. riding off of the success of that victory, he is going to decide to capitalize and do something he is only done once before at launch an invasion of the north. he wants to do a lot of things. he wants to live off the land and we can the will of the north to fight and destroy his opponent. preferably on their home soil and that would strike a crushing

blow to the union war effort. in early june of 1863, his army is going to march into the fredericksburg area and the army is going to be in pursuit. they work through western maryland and marching into pennsylvania and the confederate army is forging and scavenging throughout these areas of southern pennsylvania. pennsylvania has largely been untouched at this point. as we can see from the map, one of the great ironies when these two forces meet up with one another, the southern of approach from the north and the north from the south. gettysburg was a very enterprising, bustling little town. and as far as 19th-century goes, it was fairly progressive compared to others. it had a college, a lutheran seminary and two female academies which was rare for a relatively rural community. what is really going forth is the road system that builds up here. 10 major roads that intersect. in the years leading up to the war, these roads brought prosperity and travelers. in july of 1863 instead of bringing prosperity, it will bring a war. up until this point, it seemed everything had been going well for gettysburg. they had new infrastructure and all of these educational aspects and the railroad come in. it is only one of two railways coming through gettysburg. the other one is more secretive. i am speaking of the underground railroad. as one of my colleagues likes to put it, gettysburg is kind of in the red zone of the underground railroad and that borderland between slavery and freedom. gettysburg is seven miles north of the mason-dixon line and became a highway of source other freedom seeking slaves trying to escape the slave state of

maryland. unfortunately for the community of 300 african-americans who lived in gettysburg at this time, they lived in a vulnerable geographic position you could say. mags paul known as maggie bluecoat found out the hard way. most found out the hard way. she was one of the conductors and she gained this nickname maggie bluecoat because reportedly she wore an old 1812 uniform when she would go out on these expeditions. something that would happen quite often throughout the 1840's is you would have slave catchers and bounty hunters come in this area and they were kidnapped, free african-americans, take them back into the south and try to gain a sum off of them. this is what almost happened to mags. one night in 1858, a number of men approach her and bound her hands and she is symbolically representing here in this photograph.

she is a very tough, very strong woman. she actually bites off the thumb of one of her assailants. a local store owner heard her cries for help and comes and assists her and she maintains her freedom. a very close call and speaks of the growing tension between north and south in the years leading up to the war. let's go ahead and fast forward to june 30, 1863, the east of this great battle in a sizeable community. we have confederates throughout southern pennsylvania from the banks of the susquehanna and in bedford county going over to the west. needless to say, creating a lot of anxiety and frustration for a lot of the civilians in that area including this five year old boy pictured and he lived in york, pennsylvania which is not to our away from gettysburg. he got the word the confederate

were coming and decided to put all of his coins and pennies in a tin can and very in his backyard. the confederates go through and do not find his money and do not know about it. after the confederates leave town, the boy cannot remember where he put his coins. that little boy was milton hershey.

do not feel too bad for him because he saved a lot of coins later on. it's one of his first memories. a lot of soldiers beginning to converge and the stage for battle is now set. this fight is going to erupt an early morning hours of july 1, 1863. there are approximately 3000 union war soldiers on the outskirts of this community anticipating and confederate

attack. that attack is going to come from the west and from the chambersburg pike toward town. after these first shot of the battle are fired, almost like the domino effect. more and more troops are called in. by the end of the first day, 50,000 soldiers engaged in this fight in this community of 2400 people. more people that what these town folks had ever seen. out of the 50,000 soldiers fighting on the first day, one out of every three is going to become a casualty. a mind-boggling carnage. in many ways, only the beginning. two more days to come. a great sense of uncertainty among the civilians as they are being engulfed in battle. this was certainly true of the shead family who lived in this brick house along the chambersburg pike and is still there this very day and in the far left-hand corner, we do see where the building was originally located. by the afternoon of july 1 1863, at union soldiers are losing the field. they are outnumbered and they cannot hold on much longer. on this first line and behind that house, union soldiers are going to retreat and start to fall back. we now have the retreating union soldiers running through the farm yards, including that of

the shead family. and it home state was a young teenage girl by the name of carrie shead at one of the female academies i was talking about. and in the ensuing chaos of union soldiers falling back, one is an officer trying to maintain his men as best as he can and keep them calm. charles waylock led the 97th infantry. by this point, about 75 men taking shelter in the shead homestead. the confederate soldiers started to go through them looking for soldiers and among all of this

they wanted to take colonel shead's sword. it is a symbol of honor. to lose it is one of the greatest embarrassments an officer could suffer. a confederate sergeant who comes into the yard brandishes a pistol and demands the sword. as the story goes, waylock rips open his jacket and said have at it. he would not give up his soldier. carrie shead steps in between the men and hides the sword in between though folds of her dress. the confederates never were able to get colonel's sword.

he is able to escape a few days later and the shead family holding onto his sword for him. a true story of defiance and survival in this case. not too far away on nearby oak ridge, the soldiers of the 11th pennsylvania infantry are making a valiant last stand. among them is a rather unlikely comrade. it is in the bull terrier named sally. sally was the mascot of this regiment. the regiment had raised her as a pup and dote on her. she also goes into battle with them. and as these union soldiers are retreating back closer and closer towards town, sally stays with the wounded men, standing over them and barking at confederates. she was taught to hate rebels. she becomes one of these heroes of the first day of the battle. unfortunately, she will not survive the war and will he killed in february 1865. a short time before the american civil war ended. heroism comes in all forms. as the fighting continues, various portions of the union

line begin to crumble apart. what had been a battle from field to field and ridge to ridge became urban combat going to houses with gettysburg civilians trapped in the middle. the big question to ask is what would you do in this situation? these two massive armies are coming to do your communities, will you look after your family, can you do both? these are some the scary questions the civilians have to ask themselves. a number of them made record of

this, including one gettysburg civilian whose name was sarah. she had a great intuition and foresight and kept a diary. throughout the summer of 1863, she keeps it is amazingly detailed record of what she is seeing and what she is hearing. in one excerpt she wrote -- this great sense of foreboding and anxiety these gettysburg civilians are sensing and rightfully so when considering

what is coming next on july 2, 1863. not too far away is another gettysburg family living about more street, a rather handsome brick house they construct in 1869 as the shriver family. headed by george shriver, was actually away fighting in the union army. he is not in the battle of gettysburg. and so, left behind is his wife and their two daughters. they are ages eight and five. and so the mother, the husband not being there, gradeschool aged daughters, what is she to do? the big question that falls upon her. she determines that the safest place to go is to get out of town. unfortunately, she goes to the south of town and the battle essentially follows them. they go from one bad spot to an

even worse spot. when the shriver's come home, their houses ransacked and have been trashed by the confederates. two confederate snipers were killed in their attic and they are never truly able to rebuild their lives. things get worse later that year when of the husband while away

in the union army is captured by confederate and is taken to a rather unpleasant place called andersonville and he will die of disease and never to see his family members again. the larger picture of how this war is shaping these communities in very dramatic ways whether what talking about soldiers or civilians. living next door to the shriver family is the pierce family. in here is a 15-year-old girl by the name of tillie. she is going to evacuate the town with her neighbors the shriver's and they will be taken to a farm not too far away from little round top, some of the deadliest fighting will take place. and the things she sees at this farm is converted into a field hospital is horrifying even to comprehend. she sees surgeries happening in open air. and she later wrote that the high pile of amputated limbs was as high as the picket fence around the property. she is 15 years old. she is not even old enough to drive by today's standards. these are the things she is seeing as a teenager. years later she will reflect upon her experience as just want to write what is perhaps the best civilian memoirs of the american civil war era called "at gettysburg, what a girl saw in the battle." it is still in print today and a very insightful read as to what civilians and children of gettysburg were going through. and so, the battles continue to rage and this is a representation by an artist. and we can see the pierce house in the background and the

representation of what is going on here in the streets of gettysburg on baltimore street especially the southern end of town, confederates are going to barricade a number of streets and houses. union soldiers are a few hundred yards away on the other side of town. we have are rare instance of urban combat. it grows fiercer and fiercer by the hour. throughout the battle, confederates will hold on to the town and gettysburg will be in

occupied community. in the midst of this, civilians are taking shelter in their basements. all day here is a constant roar and they do not know what is happening. all day here are gunshots, artillery and footsteps in the floors above them not knowing if there are union or confederate soldiers. great uncertainty and fear engulfing this community. as union soldiers continue to retreat, the confederates are right behind them. this would a large number are captured. a number of them are trying to evade their captors. among them is a union soldier, a commander which was mainly composed of immigrants named alexander. it does not get more german than that, that last name. he is running in the houses behind baltimore street and eventually take shelter in a wood pile trying to hide from confederates. it is behind the house of the

garlock family, a number of cabinet makers. among them who discover the general, is the 12-year-old daughter anna garlock. throughout the battle, the family occasionally takes the general some bread and water between the fighting. he lives in their backyard essentially throughout the entirety of the battle. he evades capture for days there until july when the confederates eventually abandoned the town. and he owed a true gratitude to the family who hid him. in the ensuing moments, we have one of the great tragic moments and also very so volatile moments on the battle of gettysburg. near the railroad tracks in town, there is a sergeant a retreating along with his men and he is shot in the chest. he knows he is mortally wounded. in the final moments of his life, he will pull out this

photograph of these three children that we can see here and is going to look at them. he will ultimately die clutching the photo to his chest. unfortunately, there is no standardized set of military identification. he has no dog tags, that has not been formalized. a number of days later as recovery and burial crews are going around the battlefield they find at this sergeant and he is still holding on to this photograph. and so the photograph becomes the only means of being able to identify him. this is going to be an image that will be reported of and reproduced in newspapers and

periodicals all across the country. and a woman by the name of philenda is going to read of this story in a magazine she subscribed to and she had not heard from her husband since the battle ended and she has this awful dread that photograph is of her children. indeed it was. it was at that moment that family and nation, it became a national, symbolic story coming out of the battle. it is when they found out the soldier was amos, a sergeant from new york and became clear that his final thoughts were of

his family. this is something we can relate to in regards all more modern tragedies in our own times. if we look at the tragic events of 9/11, with can see what a lot of these victims are trying to do in their final moments. trying to reach out and communicate with their families. amos does not have a cell phone or anything like that. that photo was his means of saying goodbye to his family. a very moving, very symbolic episode of the battle. he will be one of 3500 union soldiers to be buried and the national cemetery at gettysburg. this is when things begin to pick up even more so. like i said earlier by the evening of july 1, 1863, over 50,000 soldiers in gettysburg

and 110,000 on their way. it is like a chain reaction. the sign of a major battle, a major confrontation is becoming increasingly evident to the commanders of both armies. the rallying point for the retreating soldiers as if they are running through town trying to escape the confederate and fighting along the way and trying to maintain their ranks their rallying point is going to be this hill, this slope on the southern end of town called cemetery hill. this is where the union soldiers will dig in and as we can see on this map right here, this comes in the beginning of the formation that union soldiers are going to be constructing. often call the fishhook defense that will go on through cemetery hill and extend the length of cemetery ridge, beginning of the

union a line. another immigrant family named the soren family. the husband, peter, is serving in the union army but is not at gettysburg. the care of the cemetery ground, the town civilian cemetery in the years leading up to the war, the caretaker will be his wife elizabeth. she lives in the building in the back we saw a moment ago. she lives there with her three children or under the age of 10 and her elderly parents. she has to decide what is best for her loved ones. union general oliver is going to urge her to flee the area. she is what of you horrified of what she sees when she comes back. keep her in the back of your mind. once more, sarah is chronicling everything she is seeing and hearing. this takes a lot of current when you think about it. the battle is involved and you and taking the time to sit down

and write what is happening. a great resource for us. on july 2, this is what she had to write. she wrote -- we see there's fierce determination, the civilians are not armed and not participating in combat but they are going to deny the confederates a good meal. they are picking with their food and subsiding themselves. a great little excerpt to put us in the mindset of a lot of the civilians. meanwhile to the south on july 2, this will be the bloodiest day of the battle, a number of engagements are happening. little round top to the wheatfields to the peach orchard. we could spend a bunch of time talking about these everyday engagements. this one quote written by a soldier from massachusetts sums it up about what the fighting was like. he said -- and that is as vivid of a description of the fighting on july 2 we are going to get. a sensory description.

he really writes down what the soldiers are hearing, what they are experiencing and a very accurate reflection because it was hell on earth. and it was especially so for the trostle family. their family was located on the fighting on the southern end. and in this photograph is a testament of the aftermath of this chaotic fight. what happened is a cluster of -- a last stand in front of the trostle farm and a number of their horses are killed.

we can see the members littering their farmstead. the trostle family with a very large family. peter and catherine trostle lived here in the early 1860's. as we can see, they are building an addition onto the side when the battle of gettysburg was ongoing.

along with the nine kids, then they have this happen right in their front yard. so devastating was at the carnage in front of their house that even "the new york times" wrote about it. the horses we see are one of 1500 to 2000 killed during the battle. all of them were heaped in large piles and kerosene were put on top. that is how they were disposed

of, overwhelming, nauseating odor that goes along with battle. it will take the trostle family time to recover. to this day, you can see a lot of the damage and devastation inflicted upon their property. right in the middle of the lines essentially, artillery projectiles are flying everywhere and on their brick barn which stands to this day, you can still see one of the cannonball holes in the side of the barn. over a century and a half later and we can see these very tangible reflections and pieces of evidence regarding all of the devastation. by the night of july 2, the confederates have gained more

ground but for the union army continues to hold onto this key terrain. this high ground as they need to win the battle. robert e. lee believes his of the edge of a victory. the next day he will decide to launch a full out assault, the big victory, pie and a sky has been going for several weeks now. on the opposite ridge line union commander george meade was been in command of this large army for less than a week is also feeling very confident about his chances here after the battle. the room great intelligence and great intuition, george meade will make the most momentous decision of his life and determined that union army will remain in gettysburg and not to be retreating and the army of the potomac will await for robert e. lee to attack the next day. he had a fairly good estimation of where that attack will come and who is going to be involved in it. all of the military minds are at work into the late at night hours of july 2, 1863. the next morning around 7:00 a.m., we have one of the most coincidental, amazing, and tragic stories associated with the town's people of gettysburg and it involves these three people we see on the screen and what happens on the other side of the door.

the person we will start off with is the gentleman in the upper left-hand corner and his name is leslie culp. born and raised in gettysburg. when he was a teenager, he wanted to get away from home and go flex his wings, he and a bunch of friends moved to virginia. when the civil war erupts, he decides he will fight for his adopted state, not his native state. a pennsylvania fighting for virginia in the confederate army. while he is on a campaign in virginia in the summer of 1863 he comes across one of his childhood friends, who has been wounded and now in the confederate field hospital. a young man named jack. and if the two friends share kind words and jack said, if you get back to ginsburg before i do, give my girlfriend my best

and tell her i am coming home. it just so happened that jack's girlfriend is virginia wade, known as a jenny wade, who amazingly is going to be the only civilian fatality in the battle of gettysburg. she is taking care of her sister who has recently given birth in the home is in the middle of this no man's land. there are stray bullets flying every which way. she is in the kitchen making bread and a bullet goes through this door. the bullet hole was here to this day. it struck her in the back under her shoulder blade and goes to her heart and kills her instantly. very tragic but yet amazing that only one gettysburg civilian's life was claimed in this ferocity.

around that same time though not too far away and not too far away from a family farmstead leslie culp is also killed and the only fatality in his only regiment during the battle of gettysburg. just a few weeks later, jack succumbs to his wounds knowing his 2 childhood friends, including his fiancee, had been killed. a story that's almost shakespearean in this tragedy. these three childhood friends all killed in at around at the gettysburg campaign. two of them in their hometown. one of the great irenic tragedies of this three-day fight. and only a few hours later, when robert e. lee is going to strike in that we have this, aiding massive assault of 13,000 men that we know as pickett's charge. a mile-long formation of confederate soldiers trying to punch a hole through the union defensive. in this climatic moment as some

confederate soldiers of breakthrough, the union hold stonewall as some of the fiercest hand to hand combat. men shooting into each other's faces. men are clubbing each other with the butts of their rifles and stabbing each other with the bayonet. they can see the faces of their enemies as they try to take their lives. when war is extremely up close and personal and grizzly. and even for the townspeople inside of the community had an idea of the scale of this large

combat going on. sarah broadhead wrote in her diary that it sounded like heaven and their earth were crashing together so large was the volume during this moment. at this time, the confederates are repulsed. they began to retreat and a follow back from where they had just charged. and it becomes the first time that robert e. lee is soundly defeated by the union forces his opponent. and in the long term, it is going to be called one of the great turning point, if not a turning point of the american civil war. so mauled and damaged are these two armies, it is going to be almost 10 months until they meet

again in the field of battle. that is how long they -- it is taking them all to recover. and this is what we have in the aftermath of the fight. over 11,000 soldiers are going to lose their lives as a result of this three-day battle. another 30,000 are wounded maine, bleeding, in need of medical attention. 30,000, over 10 times the number

of people living in gettysburg itself. and now all of the townspeople have to find a place to put it these wounded man and they are going into barns and farmsteads in every shelter available and imaginable. this community is overwhelmed and almost symbolically, a heavy torrential rainfall begins to fall as well. it was truly apocalyptic. and so horrific is of the

aftermath, especially the odor the smell of the battle will not go away until winter. months after the fight, the civilians will emerge from their home states and put handkerchiefs up to their mouth doused in peppermint oil so they do not have to smell the rotting stench of all of these corpses on the battlefield. truly horrific stuff we're looking at here. and as us the recovery and medical effort begins. this is something that goes on for several months. most of the surgeons and doctors with these armies leave with a armies when they depart. robert e. lee and his farce -- and his forces abaddon a very few doctors a left behind. roughly speaking, one doctor for every 300 wounded men. these are people working around the clock, 48 hours straight, no food, and it must be very painful for them. they realize no matter how hard

it they work, they will never get to everybody who needs medical attention. this was also when we see a number of civilians coming in. people are drawn to gettysburg immediate after the fight comes to an end. they are looking for loved ones. they feel compassion for the people suffering here. and people start coming to gettysburg. some to search for souvenirs but others out of humanitarian. to help the wounded. and surely enough, that assistance is greatly needed. among those answering the call are a group of catholic nuns who live not too far away in nearby maryland, about a dozen or so miles to the south of gettysburg. they go to sound france's xavier catholic church which will turn into a field hospital. in these instances, we see these catholic nuns not only offering comfort but spiritual comfort and to soldiers in the final moments of their lives. and a mini cases, the soldiers remember these catholic nuns and other nurses as angels of mercy, a gift from above. meanwhile, a few days after the battle, elizabeth, the caretaker of evergreen cemetery returns to her farmstead. this is what she finds. you soldiers had constructed fortifications in her front yard, her home is ravaged with the debris of battle. her floorboards and bedsheets are stained with blood and mud. and dozens of amputated limbs and dozens of dead horses on her property. and so, the big question many civilians were asking themselves -- what comes next? how am i going to rebuild my life?

for elizabeth, she is going to engage in the work that she perhaps knows best, she starts to bury the union soldiers area she is the caretaker of the cemetery. it becomes instinct to her. over the next few weeks, largely

by herself, she will bury over 100 union soldiers on her own. she does it while she is six months pregnant. three months later in september, she is going to give birth to a little girl who should one name rose meade thorn, naming her after the union general who won the battle. 15 years ago, a statue, a memorial with dedicated not only to elizabeth thorne, but dedicated to all women who served in various capacities throughout the the american civil war ended them many ways that is a fitting testament of memorial to their sacrifices and efforts conducted throughout 1861 to 1865. and it will be only a few dozen yards away from here were a much bigger cemetery, a national

cemetery, one of the first of its kind will be dedicated in november of 1863. this is one of several photographs taken during the dedication ceremony of the burial grounds that will ultimately have 3500 union soldiers in it. it will be at this time in this place where abraham lincoln will deliver his gettysburg address. and the president will say a number of very memorable and important things in his speech. among most significant in them is this key passage right here.

and abraham lincoln's estimation, a lot a stake in this war. earlier in his life he said if freedom cannot live here, it can live anywhere. this was something, this idea of union, this idea of preserving the country, something worth fighting for. and over 600,000 americans are going to give their lives in it is very deadly contest. abraham lincoln will be among the last of them who gives his life in this tumultuous struggle. but it is these words that live on in very profound ways. not only in the 1860's but 50 years later and 100 years later as women are seeking the right to vote in american society. as civil rights marchers are demanding the ability to live in a sense of equality and liberty. this is what gettysburg comes to represent. and it is especially so for

these few hundred women and children who called to gettysburg home, never anticipated this momentous struggle would happen in their community but as the disaster fell upon them, they rose to the occasion and they looked out of not only for themselves and their families and loved with but they also helped hundreds, if not thousands of others as well overcome this momentous struggle that we know as the american civil war. this is what families did. this is what communities dead. and 150 years later in looking back at the actions upon these women and children, certainly much we can learn from them. thank you for coming to my lecture today. [applause] >> if we have any questions? we have a little bit of time. jared: i would be happy to answer any. yes, sir? >> i learned about journey through hallowed ground partnership and i told my children and grandchildren on their birthday if they would do a report on a soldier who was killed and we submitted it and a tree would be planted with their name on it and the soldier's name.

my wife's birthday from last year and she wanted to do a woman who served in the war who died as a result of the civil war. do you know references, you honestly indicated one at was shot by a stray bullet, was there female soldiers who participated or some who filled in like molly flinders? do you know any references we could go to? jared: records are very slim on that. in most cases, female soldiers hid their identity. they were posing as men, if they were discovered they would be kicked out or punished. records are very few and very slim. one that i know of is sarah emma edmons who wrote of her experiences as posing of a male

soldier. that is one example that i know of. there are also stories of a female confederate soldier, who possibly served in pickett's charge and was killed alongside her husband in that assault. and purportedly as of the story goes, union soldiers who found her remains on the battlefield among the rest of her comrades. unfortunately, if that's true her name has been lost to history. unfortunately, not many tips i can give you because there are so few pieces that allude to it. if you're interested in learning

more about the women of gettysburg specifically and their role in the civil war, there's an as la book called "the colors of courage" by margaret creighton and ias the definitive history. thank you. >> [indiscernible] did any of these people own slaves? jared: there were a lot of lutherans and catholics. this was a part of pennsylvania dutch country, so a lot of people of german ancestry. slavery in pennsylvania largely died off by the 1820's. pennsylvania had gradual emancipation laws they put in place in the late 18th century. by this point, the very few

pennsylvanians, if any, owned slaves. that said, that is not entirely the case with our maryland and neighbors located a few miles to the south. that area of maryland and going eastward still really largely derived off of the labor of slaves. gettysburg finds itself in a very interesting kind of geopolitical cultural landscape in which a lot of people really had to tread lightly. any other questions? thank you for coming out. have a good week. [applause] >> the civil war affairs here every saturday. to find out more at time, visit