A collection of 100 original, rarely seen photographs of identified
Union and Confederate soldiers and other participants in the Gettysburg
Campaign, each accompanied by vivid accounts of their personal
experiences based on letters, journals, newspaper reports, regimental
histories, and other documents.
The photographs are wartime portraits of men and women presented to
families, friends, and comrades in arms. These unique artifacts, once
found in parlor photo albums, fireplace hearths, and bedstands, somehow
survived the ravages of time and today are in the hands of private
collectors. The faces of the individuals reveal the romance and horror
of a generation at war.
The stories that accompany each image detail triumphant and tragic
events before, during and after the three-day fight. These individuals
hailed from all walks of life--rich and poor, urban and rural, native
born and immigrant, with varying levels of education and perspectives on
life.
Each profile is a microhistory. Together, they tell the larger story of
Gettysburg in human terms.
Among those you'll meet: James M. "Roe" Reisinger of the 150th
Pennsylvania Infantry, who suffered a wound and later received the Medal
of Honor for his actions at on July 1; Helim S. Thompson of the 44th New
York Infantry, severely wounded and left for dead on Little Round Top;
Zachariah Angel Blanton of the 18th Virginia Infantry, wounded and
captured in Pickett's Charge; and Harriett A. Dada Emens, a nurse who
cared for desperately wounded and sick in the Union army's 12th Corps
Hospital.
