And and an historian at the adams county Historical Society. He is the coauthor of numerous articles and books of history on the civil war. He is lucky that civil war roundtables has appeared on Television Documentaries including the popular pcn battle walk series. Integralon, he was an part of our storyline here. Lets give a warm welcome to tim smith. [applause] you have my book. [laughter] i was waiting to show it later. Dr. Today, i am going to talk about some of the farms around the battlefield of gettysburg. I did do a book called the farms of gettysburg. I have always been interested in the people who lived here at the time of the civil war. A lot of people who read about the battle and understand the general story when you start reading deeper into it, you come across the names of the people who lived in the area. When i moved to gettysburg and became a licensed battlefield guide instead of working at the adams county Historical Society, i had the Resources Available to learn a
Tim smith talks about the subject of his book, farms at gettysburg. He talks about how families were affected by the battle. This talk is hosted by the gettysburg heritage center. Onto our program. Many of you are probably familiar with tim smith because he has been in gettysburg for a number of years. He is a native to baltimore maryland, a battlefield guide here at the Military Park, and they historian at the adams county Historical Society. Coauthor ofhor or numerous articles and dozens of books on local history and the civil war. He has lectured at civil war roundtables and seminars and has appeared on television documentaries, including the popular battle walk series. Ouras an integral part of storyline here. Give a warm welcome to tim smith. [applause] you have my book. [laughter] thank you. Today i am going to talk a little about some of the farms around gettysburg. Years ago i did a book called farms of gettysburg. I have always been interested in people who lived here at the t
That lament goes Something Like this. Young people are not interested in the civil war anymore. Civil war military history is on lifesupport. Nobody cares about the civil war after the sesquicentennial. Every time i hear that i have to politely push back. And the reason i do so in large part is because of the emerging civil war. It is a great honor and privilege for me to be here to support your work to support emerging civil war and all it has done in a remarkable space of five or six years. Truly incredible. I hope this weekend can be a real celebration of those efforts. First, a copy spine of marylands South Mountain. Sunday, september 14, 1862. Woefully outnumbered soldiers saw to stem the tide of a federal offensive. If successful it would defeat an already divided Confederate Army and curtailed and finish off robert e. Lees first invasion of the north. And three mountain passes almost unrivaled in its ferocity at , least in this point of the war, ensued. Breathless union and conf
Slaveholding capital pennsylvania from the 1770s on until almost the 1820s and 1830s. Even though it was abolished in a gradual abolition act by the state it still lingered in this local area which was very close to maryland and had more southern ties. It made the area very distinct from the rest of the state as time went on this area transitioned from a slaveholding capital to one of the greatest places on the underground railroad because of geography and the people who lived here. It was on the weight almost distinct. This area which is west was settled more recently. Slavery have taken root here therefore a lot of the owners did not feel that it was at their best interest to make a change they continued and persisted in this. It was the first state to pass a legislative abolition of slavery. That was passed by the legislature in philadelphia. All slaves born the only people would would be free would be those born after the passage. In that day and age the average would be 40 years o
South central pennsylvania. I have always been interested in the local history and particularly with the involvement of slavery in this area of pennsylvania. We often think of slavery as a southern institution. In my research i found this area of pennsylvania i called southcentral pennsylvania which is cumberland, franklin, york and adams counties was the slaveholding capital of pennsylvania from the 1770s on until almost the 1820s and 1830s and even though slavery was abolished in a gradual abolition act by the state in 1780, it still lingered in this local area which was very close to maryland, closer to southern markets and more southern ties and it made this area very distinct from the rest of the state what we tend to think of is east of here in the philadelphia area. I thought that was interesting and as time went on this area transition from a slaveholding capital to one of the greatest and most frequent places on the underground railroad because of the geography and the people