THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER EDITOR’S NOTE: IN MEMORIAM If you received this issue of the Harry Dorsey BCWRT Newsletter in the mail, 12/9/43 – 8/29/07 please check the mailing label on On August 29, 2007, the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable’s long-serving the outside page. If there is a RED Treasurer passed away. Harry Dorsey had been active in the BCWRT almost X you will continue to receive a since the group’s inception. His dedication and interest helped to make the copy of the monthly newsletter via Roundtable what it is today. On behalf of the members of the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable, The Board of Directors and I offer deep condolences to Harry’s the US Postal Service. If there is family. He will be missed. no RED X, next month’s He is survived by his wife Ruth and his brother Joe Dorsey. newsletter will be the last one you will receive in the mail. Please resembling their appearance when exist at the time of the battle, and notify me if you wish to continue they were the scenes of bloody replant 115 acres of trees that were struggles between the forces of North there but have since disappeared. to receive the newsletter via and South. "If you can think of an This year, work is focusing on USPS. I can be reached by mail at historic landscape the same way that clearing out trees around Devil's Den, 17 Fusting Ave, 1W, Catonsville, we're used to thinking of historic a rocky outcropping that saw bitter MD 21228 or by phone at 410- structures, the whole reason for doing fighting, and along a section of the 788-3525. this follows suit," said John Latschar , Confederate line on Seminary Ridge. superintendent of the 6,000-acre In the course of the project, foresters Gettysburg National Military Park. "It's are working to preserve "witness" Gettysburg undergoes as important at Gettysburg as not trees, which were present on the major renovation adding stucco to Independence Hall." gently rolling Pennsylvania hills when By Stevenson Swanson, Chicago At the heart of these rehabilitation the forces of Confederate Gen. Tribune, September 2, 2007 projects is a task that would seem an Robert E. Lee and Union commander GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Stacks of odd undertaking for the National Park Gen. George Meade collided. recently cut tree trunks wait to be Service, which administers many of The ambitious plan also calls for hauled away from the area around the battlefields: cutting down rehabilitating or reconstructing nearly Devil's Den. A modern building on hundreds of acres of trees. 10 miles of historic farm lanes and Cemetery Ridge that sits close to the In the 142 years since the war's end, roads and restoring 39 miles of scene of Pickett's Charge stands fields that were once farmed have fences, hedgerows and other field empty, facing demolition. On another fallen fallow, allowing trees to grow boundaries. And one of the most part of the battlefield, construction and obscure what were clear lines of pervasive anachronisms on the workers are building a large structure fire in 1863. At Gettysburg, where battlefield--overhead power lines--are shaped like a round barn. Civil War cannon are placed in the being buried. With an estimated $131 million in locations that artillery occupied during Similar but smaller efforts have been projects under way, the fields and the battle, that has given rise to some undertaken at many other Civil War farms around this small town in odd juxtapositions. battlefields, including Antietam in southern Pennsylvania probably "We had batteries of artillery pointing Maryland, Chancellorsville and the haven't seen this much sustained straight into mature stands of trees," Wilderness in Virginia, Chickamauga activity since the three crucial days in said Gettysburg spokeswoman Katie in Georgia and Vicksburg in July 1863 when 165,000 Union and Lawhon. "And over the years, we had Mississippi. Confederate troops clashed here in lost a lot of fences. At Gettysburg, a "It's much more difficult to explain the what is widely considered the turning fence could be the difference events that occurred on these point of the Civil War. between life and death." Under a battlefields if they don't look like they Gettysburg is at the forefront of an 1999 restoration plan, the park did during the Civil War," said Jim effort to restore many Civil War service will cut down 576 acres of Campi of the Civil War Preservation battlefields to something more closely woodland at Gettysburg that did not Trust, a non-profit group that works to BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER preserve Civil War battlefields. "If On such a historic site, controversy is on the Civil War Preservation Trust's people can't see what decision- almost bound to accompany any list of the top 10 endangered Civil makers could see, they can't grasp change. A group of architectural War sites earlier this year because of what happened." But the park service preservationists has sued the park what's happening outside the and the non-profit Gettysburg service over its plans to demolish the battlefield's boundaries. Housing Foundation, which is raising $125 building that used to house the development is threatening the million toward the project's overall cyclorama, a striking 1962 concrete region's rural character as more cost, are doing more than restoring structure designed by famed people move to the area who the landscape at Gettysburg. Modernist architect Richard Neutra. commute to Baltimore or Washington. A new $103 million museum and The building is on the National Saving survivors from visitors center, designed to resemble Register of Historic Places. a Pennsylvania farm to help it blend "It's too important a structure to the field of battle at into the historic landscape, is under demolish and just throw away," said Gettysburg construction to replace the park Christine Madrid French, president of CWi, August 12, 2007 service's cramped and outdated the Recent Past Preservation The field desk looked as if it had been facility, which sits across the road Network, the Arlington, Va., group cobbled together without much from the national cemetery where that filed suit, charging that the park thought of making it attractive. It was Abraham Lincoln delivered the service did not study alternatives strictly functional and probably would Gettysburg Address later in 1863. such as moving the building. "The not draw much attention at an antique The new building, which will open in building has a lot of life left in it, and a shop. But at the Harpers Ferry April, will contain more extensive and lot to give to people in terms of conservation lab for the National Park updated exhibits, telling the story of helping them understand the Service, it was treated as a treasured the battle from the standpoint of the architecture of the time." But park icon: It had belonged to Gen. Robert commanders, the common soldiers, service officials say the Neutra E. Lee and was most likely used at the citizens of Gettysburg and the war building never functioned well, citing the Battle of Gettysburg. correspondents who covered the a leaky roof and inadequate Larry Bowers, who specializes in battle. temperature and humidity controls conserving wooden objects, was in Among the highlights of the new that contributed to the cyclorama's charge of the desk. museum will be the newly restored deterioration. "It is very modest and fairly crude, but Gettysburg cyclorama, a 360-degree Latschar, the Gettysburg it is what a soldier would have wanted painting that depicts the key moment superintendent, said about 970 Union in the field," Bowers said. "It is not of the battle, Pickett's Charge, when soldiers were killed, captured, or high style. The coolest thing about it Rebel soldiers came close to wounded in the area around Neutra's is that General Lee used it." breaking through the center of the cyclorama building and the current The worn and chipped black desk, Union army's position on July 3, the visitor’s center, adding to the with its interior pigeonholes for notes last day of the battle. importance of returning that part of and writing paper, will ascend to star The massive 1884 painting, by Paul the battlefield to its 1863 condition. status next year when it is Philippoteaux, measures nearly 360 No major action took place at the site prominently displayed in the $103 feet long and 27 feet high, and it of the new museum and visitor’s million Museum and Visitor Center at weighs more than three tons. A team center. Gettysburg National Military Park, of conservators is repairing extensive Latschar said moving the cyclorama scheduled to open in April. The damage and adding a missing 14-foot building would be prohibitively complex will also house the park's strip to the top of the cyclorama. expensive, but French said she is 365-foot cyclorama painting and its Foundation spokeswoman Dru Anne getting more detailed proposals from collection of more than 300,000 Neil said the $11.2 million project, companies that specialize in objects and artifacts and 700,000 which will be finished in September of relocating large buildings. documents. 2008, is the largest art conservation Despite the effort and expense that is project in America. being devoted to preserving the battlefield, Gettysburg was included BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER taken from phrases Abraham Lincoln stone wall, known now as the Angle, used in his famous address. during Pickett's Charge on July 3 Bowers said that when conserving when a bullet slammed into the book the desk and other objects, the plan and his chest, killing him.