With a longtime contributor to cwi. Jen murray is currently an assistant teaching assistant professor in the department of history at Oklahoma State university and she is, as you know, an expert in the civil war and also a specialist in military history in general. She has, i would say the full publication resume, the most important book in the most recent, entitled on a great battlefield, the making, management and memory of Gettysburg National park, published in 2013 by the university of tennessee press. She is currently working on a biography, general George Gordon meade that will hopefully be published in the civil war america series. As i mentioned, she is a veteran faculty member and many of you have been on her battlefield tours which are outstanding, largely because she cut her teeth as a young historian the seasonal here at gettysburg for nine years. So, it is my pleasure to welcome jen murray who will be speaking about her book on the creation of the Gettysburg National park. Jen murray. [ applause ] go get him. Thank you pete. Thank you pete for the very kind introduction. Good morning everybody, can you all hear me okay . You are more excited than my 8 am western class. [ laughter ] so happy fathers day, i hope my dad is watching this back in maryland im super excited to be here with you this morning to talk to about my book as pete mentioned its a history of the Gettysburg NationalMilitary Park and the battlefield. Traditionally when i do this talk to, it is around around tables and ive asked people how many of you been to gettysburg and people raise your hand but i dont need to ask that this morning, right . [ laughter ] how many of you have been to gettysburg . There we are you are veterans of this field which is terrific. So, i want to spend some time with you this morning, talking to about the history of the gettysburg battlefield. I always like to preface the stock with a comment about how i got interested in this topic, i think it is fascinating to see how people come to the topics of the books or the topics of projects they are working on. I grew up in western maryland, pretty close to gettysburg in the and tina battlefield and as pete mentioned i got the opportunity in 2002, as an undergraduate to do an internship here at Gettysburg NationalMilitary Park. That summer i spent 12 weeks on the battlefield, giving tours to thousands of people from around the country and ultimately around the world. I was interested in history at that time but i didnt know i wanted to be a civil war historian and that internship turned into more summers of working for the National Park service at gettysburg and ultimately defined my professional career. Any undergraduates or High School Students in the audience are listening to this, do an internship, there is no experience like it. So i got my phd from auburn and i was talking to my dissertation director about a topic i wanted to write on and after you complete all your coursework are your dissertation could be a culminating project of the original. I was sitting in the office and i said i have an idea for my dissertation, i do something on the battle of gettysburg. He is light, great, like thats never been done before. I dont want to talk and write about the battle i dont want to talk about the 72 hours of fighting, want to talk about the battlefield and the history of the landscape you guys are gettysburg experts, the group of the books you own in gettysburg, not books, not articles or magazines just monographs, how many books do you think of been written on this threeday battle . Not enough. [ laughter ] hey, that keeps me in business and it keeps my colleagues in business, thank you for buying our books. So just monographs, there are at least 6000 books written on American History, 6000, campaign studies, books on the first day, third day, leaders, geography, horses, flowers, you get the idea, so i wrote book 6001 and my book is an exploration of the history of the battlefield. The National Park service owns and manages 70 site civil war related and this reverses the battlefield from antietam to vicksburg to sites like clara barton to frederick douglass, and none of the sites are as special or as plain as gettysburg. We can agree nsn dr. Gallagher and pete talked about this two nights ago but the power of place and what gettysburg is like and how this place resonates so deeply in the misty chords of memory and records over 1 million visitors this year, its the most popular civil war site and for many people this threeday battle and in this landscape defines the american civil war. So, what i was interested in is not the battle but how the battlefield has been preserved over time or how its been managed. The questions i asked in my dissertation and ultimately my book were if you could visit gettysburg in the 1930s, what with the battlefield look like, if you could visit gettysburg in the 1940s, what kind of interpretive experience would you get a how did the National Park service commemorate gettysburg in the 60s, what did tourism look like here at this battlefield in the 1950s . How has preservation philosophy changed over time and how has the nexus of fact and interpretation to have they blended together. What does that look like . So what i wanted to do with you today is take you on the greatest hits and so we are going to start in july 1863 and move through 160 years of history and look at the battlefield has changed its not static, the landscape is not static, the memories of the battlefield and the battle are not static, this landscape evolves over time, significantly. So, if you are looking at the photograph on the top right of this is an aerial view of the Peach Orchard on july 2, one of the most commercialized areas in the 40s and 50s. The image on the left should be familiar to many of you, perhaps you had the opportunity to go up into the tower put up in the 1970s, how the battlefield has been commercialized and how its changed over time. One of the questions that i reconcile with or try to reconcile is what makes gettysburg different this battle, the battlefield particularly is different than antietam or perryville or shiloh , this battle, producing 51,000 casualties is the bloodiest conflict in American History. In massachusetts he was wounded at the fighting gettysburg and he was wounded by exploding shrapnel and got hit at least 48 times and loses his arm and as i in the process, 58,000 casualties making the battle the bloodiest of the american civil war. For many men in the army of the potomac, gettysburg becomes the defining point of the civil war, this is the battle that defines their experiences. You see that play out in the years after the civil war, during the commemorative era. Unprecedented carnage should be a familiar photo, this farm shows the devastation of the hard hand of war the impact on civilians, over 10,000 horses and mules die here in this battlefield. The men, union and confederate soldiers are buried where they fell, shallow trench graves, Something Like this. Then finally, after the fight is over, when the guns in the artillery fall quiet, northern newspapers start to record to reflect on the battle of gettysburg and the headline of the Philadelphia Inquirer days after the fight see waterloo eclipse. Weve seen the headline more than once and its so important to think about the comparisons that americans are making in 1863, they are comparing the battle of gettysburg to waterloo a fight in 1815 that completely change the landscape of western europe, a fight that brought permanent consequences. This puts a lot of expectations on the army to completely destroy lee as he pursues them down to the potomac river. The northern public, just days after the fight at gettysburg thinks this is a battle unlike anything else theyd ever seen. So, about 7000 men so about 3000 dilator of their wounds in their left out of the battlefield in graves like this where they are laid to rest. The northern pennsylvania governor comes to gettysburg near the end of the month and, he takes a carriage ride, touring he hates to use that word but he rides around the battlefield rides around the union of confederate lines and the governor of pennsylvania is so appalled that the union, the men who sacrificed their lives who gave the last full measure of devotion, are buried in such primitive ways. So, the governor of pennsylvania initiates the idea for a permanent Burial Ground for the union dead. You know, the next step in the story to when the state of pennsylvania purchases ground on Cemetery Hill, to set aside as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that nations might live. Months after the battle, in november, a very cold, fall pennsylvania day, about 20,000 spectators come for the dedication of the Soldiers National cemetery. Abraham lincoln comes up from washington d. C. To deliver, as you know, a remark and consecrate this battlefield in a way no other civil war sites have been consecrated. He attaches to it through the use of the gettysburg address and different than any other Civil War Battlefield. Local gettysburg residents immediately realize that the fight is worth preserving. So, the history of the gettysburg battlefield follows three very clear phases. Three different preservation entities have held responsibility stewardship to this battlefield you guys know this. The first is the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association , which takes hold in 1864 and manages the gettysburg battlefield until 1895. And, in 1895, the u. S. War Department Steps in, gives federal money and federal backing to the gettysburg battlefield and manages it until 1933, when president fdr, dines an executive order that transferred stewardship from the War Department to the National Park service. What i want to do you this mornings walk you through a site or two and walk you through the for the best the War Department and a few slides and really, this is the focus of my book, spend time looking at the gettysburg battlefield in the 20th century you will get a taste of what the landscape look like in the 20th century, would it look like over the last 150 years. So, one of the local entrepreneurs are investors of the gettysburg battlefield is a man named david mcconkey, he is a local lawyer and in august 1863, just a month, six weeks after the fight at gettysburg is talking about preserving the battlefield there could be no more fitting and expressing memorial of the heroic valor and triumph of the army, George Meades army, then the battlefield itself. So, mcconaughey gets together with some prominent locals in the town of gettysburg and they establish the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. This is monumental. This is 1863, hes writing this, 1864 the gbm a is established and this is the nations first Civil War Preservation organization. Think of how love revolutionary this is, 1864, the fighting in virginia and the overland campaign, the civil war is still going on, hard buddy fighting is yet to come but, people in gettysburg think the battlefield is worth preserving. So, the organ so they organize and preserve 522 acres. This is a historic photograph so were standing on the union lines in this photograph, the king west and you can see the farm in the top left part of the photo. The gbm a is gonna purchase over 500 acres of land, mostly the land that they preserve his lines on the union army. Cemetery ridge, they dont do well in preserving land along seminary ridge, over 500 acres. They will also oversee the erection of the first monument and memorials on the battlefield. This is a cool historic photograph you can recognize the monument that is the Soldiers National monument in the National Cemetery. Then you can see in the background you can see some of the early figurations of the Soldiers National cemetery seeing the monument placement, they oversee the over early road construction, about 20 miles laid during their tenure. They do a good job. 1864 through 1895 that they are hampered and they have constraints. The biggest constraint is fiscal, they dont have a lot of money. So, in the letter decade of the 19th century, they gbm a appeals to the u. S. War department, and the War Department happily sepsis and assumes control of Gettysburg NationalMilitary Park. Then, the timing here is opportune and if you think about what is going on in the United States in the latter part of the 19th century, the problems of reconstruction, unfilled promises and reconstruction, social and political issues, discord, racial issues, the entrenchment of jim crow, the war Department Steps in and preserves five Civil War Battlefields. Chattanooga in 1890 antietam same year, shiloh in 1894, gettysburg becomes preserved or federal status at least on february 11, 1895 and i bet you know the individual who initiates or spearheads the legislation to make gettysburg a National Military park. Sex and the last is going to be vicksburg. Now, we all, during the Civil War Institute talk about books you should read like i tell my students, im writing it down. Read david blights recent reunion. This is a beautiful conversation, an important conversation of how Civil War Battlefields or National Memories are created and talks about reconciliation. Battlefield that gettysburg tangible manifestations of reconciliation. So, the War Department preserves the battlefield first and foremost as a memorial to the men who fought there. And, the battlefield, gettysburg particularly, the iconic Union Victory becomes a place where Union Veterans and confederate veterans can meet and you can see some of the historic photographs before and you know some of the stories, this is a photograph on e Cemetery Hill of union and confederate veterans, april 29, 1893 and ive overlaid some of the names and you can recognize these, general James Longstreet prominently in the center into his right is ep alexander who we hear about tonight from gary gallagher, howard to the right with the governor of pennsylvania, william mahon, the famous confederate general coming to gettysburg to reconcile, to bind the nations wounds as lincoln says in his second inaugural battlefields are opportunities for union and confederate veterans northern southern whites, so if you could drop yourself into one of the conversations you would hear the men talking about the fight at Little Round Top or the fight at east Cemetery Hill, the tactics and the strategies , the generals , the soldiers , the officers, the miseries of campaign, but you would not hear them talking about the wars Divisive Political and social issues. They are not talking about the session they are not talking about reconstruction. They are not talking about jim crow but they are not talking about the failure of polity for African Americans in newly freed men. That is important. You know that but it becomes important through the 20th century. So, the tangible landscape, the power of place, the manifestation permeates permeates through the 20th century. The discourse to the 20th century in 1913, one of the grand reunions of the civil war occurs here in gettysburg. About tens of thousands Union Confederate veterans will camp out on the field of the battle and they will talk and share stories to the president of the United States the First Southern born president since the civil war is born in stan virginia comes to gettysburg and calls it a piece jubilee and, all across the battlefield are echoes of stories of bravery , valor, of heroism and courage of the union and confederate soldiers. One of which i will give you an example, this is the governor of virginia, hes here 50 years later and he gives a typical reconciliation and were not here to talk about the origins of the war and were here to talk about the battle and you can see the images before and you can imagine with the union and confederate veterans are doing to each other with hands across the wall with the iconic image of them picketing years ago, a reconciliation of the civil war. So, the War Department era, the david blight reconciliation devoid of causes and consequences, permeates americas interpretation of the civil war, it permeates americas consciousness of what the civil war and the battle of gettysburg is about. That stands the test of time to today. You know it stands to the 20th century through the 1920s, let me show you a few other photographs into the early part of the 20th century and right to 1933, the War Department uses the battlefield one of the grea