2014 Summer Guiding Season

Now that July is wrapping up, I have most of the 2014 guiding season behind me to look back on.  All in all it's been a good year so far.  My tours have been for folks from all across the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand and Canada.  In the last few weeks it's been mostly families on their summer vacation, with a few retired couples or individuals here and there.

Among some of my more notable tours was a family from Oregon consisting of a father who took over a month off to travel to all 50 states with his two kids and a their husky.  By the time they reached me Pennsylvania they were a little past the halfway point, maybe about state number 30 or so.  They were gracious folks who had stopped at a few other Civil War sites along the way and we had a great time on the field.

Me on the battlefield in 2013.  Taken facing south from Oak Hill near the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.

Just last week I had a family of four from Illinois consisting of a father, mother, and their two kids.  The kids made it quite clear to me that they weren't really interested and the tour was pretty much all for their dad.  Keeping this in mind I kept the Civil War buff in the group happy by going a bit more in depth about certain things than normal, but always making sure to include lots of context along the way should the others in the group be paying attention.  I'd like to think that everyone walked away with more of an interest in the battle than they arrived with, even if they didn't show it.

That tour for the family from Illinois had a feel good moment on Little Round Top.  The father had clearly done a lot of reading on Gettysburg, however not having been here before some things didn't really make sense to him.  He knew that there were massive confederate assaults on the union left flank on July 2, but their chronology hadn't been well laid out for him.  Standing on Little Round Top I always take advantage of the view to go over July 2 at a high level, clearly outlining James Longstreet's echelon assault that afternoon.  As I was explaining this, I saw this guy's mind click, and suddenly all of the detailed tellings of the battle he had read now made sense as he looked over the actual ground.  He was then able to weave them all together in a larger narrative.

Knowing that big picture, or just wrapping your head around the overall flow of these events makes all the smaller stuff so much more dramatic and interesting.

Probably my biggest feel good moment this year however just happened this week.  I was contacted by a family who toured with me back in May.  They have relatives coming in from their home country of New Zealand (they now live in Virginia), and wanted to know if I was available.  I always give top priority to my return tours, so we'll be on the battlefield again next week.  Adding to that, they also sent me a link to their own personal blog, where they had some great things to say about their time in Gettysburg.

Once we get into August there is usually a lull in visitor traffic as families get into back to school mode, so I'm looking forward to the fall to get in many more tours, and some cooler weather, too.

Monocacy 150th

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Monocacy, fought just to the south of my adopted home Frederick, MD.  Sadly, I wasn't able to be out on the field today, however this past weekend I did get a chance to do some living history on the battlefield.  It was great to get out and be a part of the hobby once again.  My last living history event was Cedar Creek back in 2011, so it had been a while.

Myself and about a dozen other living historians portrayed Alexander's Battery of Baltimore Light Artillery on the historic Thomas Farm.  The Thomas farm is located on the south side of the Monocacy, and surrounded on three sides by the river, Baker Valley Road, and Interstate 270.  It was on the Thomas Farm the Jubal Early's Army of the Valley assaulted Union positions the afternoon of July 9, 1864.  Skirmishing had taken place earlier in the day on the north bank of the river, however Early decided against a direct assault on union forces comfortably positioned near the Gambrill Mill.

Instead the bulk of Early's force forded the Monocacy near the Worthington Farm, maybe a mile west of the Thomas Farm and began what turned into a general engagement with Rickett's Division of the federal VI Corps.

The general plan of the Battle of Monocacy, with some minor discrepancies.

Alexander's Battery was the only artillery unit attached with the small Union force that fought at Monocacy.  They occupied a hill (right about where the R is in Ricketts on the map above) on the Thomas Farm for most of the battle, delivering a slow deliberate fire against advancing confederate infantry columns and artillery batteries positioned to the north and west.  After expending all its ammunition, the battery withdrew from the field in good order.  Alexander's Battery had the additional distinction of leaving with more guns that it arrived with.  The federal garrison force that guarded the Monocacy River crossings had a 24 pound howitzer, and a mountain howitzer attached to it.  Not wanting these guns to fall into confederate hands, Alexander's Battery brought them off the field before they left.

Yours truly talking a bit about Civil War artillery at Monocacy.  Taken July 5, 2014.

Artillery has always fascinated me, so I enjoyed being able to get out and work the guns.  Sadly though, the place the National Park Service located us was a full mile away from the nearest parking area.  When I was there on Saturday only about ten people ventured out to see us.  Otherwise though, the event seems to have been well attended by spectators, and many good photos of the various groups and demonstrations are available on Monocacy National Battlefield's Twitter and Facebook pages.

Me hard at work as the '6' on the Napoleon crew.

We did three demonstrations throughout the day.  For the first two I was selected to be position number 6.  Now if we were live firing with actual shells this might be a cool thing to do.  The 6's and 7's on Civil War gun crews were tasked with preparing ammunition for the gun.  So if a battery commander ordered 'Shell, 1000 yards' to be loaded, the 6 of each gun would adjust the round accordingly.  Historically, for a 1000 yard shell I would have cut the fuse for a burn time of 3.5 - 4 seconds, screwed it into the shell, and then handed it to the '5' to be delivered to the '2'**.  However for just firing blanks, all I did was take a tinfoil package filled with black powder out of the limber and hand it to the 5.  It wasn't the most glamorous work.

For the third demo however, I was put in the '1' position.  This is probably the most dangerous position on the gun, because it's the guy who rams the round to the back of the gun.  If anything goes wrong and the round prematurely explodes the 1 could have a very bad day.  I made it out fine though, and the experience has made me want to get back into the hobby.  But with guiding taking up my weekends, that'll be a challenge to fit in.

**If you're interested in how to load a cannon, check out this video.  I might put it on mute when you watch it because of some corny music, but it does a good job of covering the fundamentals of the process.