Ready to Serve It Up... and You Can Use Your Time ...Is Host LBG Eric Lindblade at the Annual ALBG Picnic
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Photo by John Armstrong ASSOCIATION OF LICENSED BATTLEFIELD GUIDES GETTYSBURG, PA Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides Vol. 37 No. 4 August 2019 Battlefield Dispatch 717•337•1709 “I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, The ALBG was founded in 1916 flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” – John Brown as the official organization to represent and promote licensed guiding at Gettysburg. Interested individuals who do not hold guide The licenses may join the ALBG as Associate contributed by LBG Les Fowler members by submitting annual dues of $25. Council NEWS FROM • FOR • AND ABOUT YOUR ASSOCIATION Membership includes a subscription to the Battlefield Dispatch and covers the fiscal year AT THE JULY BUSINESS Center, and more than 30 give it. This manual will July 1– June 30. MEETING it was de- Guides are participation. govern guiding here for the cided that five former Contact LBG Eric Lindblade foreseeable future, so we all EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Guides should be or LBG John Baniszewski if have a stake in the decisions. TERM ENDING IN 2019 – LBGs Les Fowler • Fred Hawthorne • appointed as Emeritus you’re interested in utilizing Please keep in mind that Mary Turk-Meena • Joe Mieczkowski ALBG members due this venue. these discussions are ongoing TERM ENDING IN 2020 – LBGs to their long and faithful and no decisions have been Rob Abbott • Chuck Burkell • Deb Novotny • Therese Orr service to the ALBG. These WE HAVE ALSO HAD TWO finalized. We have all been LBGs are George Newton, WORKDAYS on Little Round TERM ENDING IN 2021 – LBGs given the opportunity to ex- John Baniszewski • Jim Cooke • Walter Powell, Kathy Show- Top to clear some of the press our positions, so make Eric Lindblade • Jessie Wheedleton vaker, Thomas Stenhouse brush away. While a great your voice heard. and William Troxell. job was done by those who ALBG Battlefield Dispatch c/o ALBG, Inc. came out, we would like to THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL has THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (EC) PO Box 4152 has been working hard to see more folks next time. a lot of irons in the fire Gettysburg, PA 17325-4152 repair the daily draw system. Thanks for those who gave at present, and some of up a couple of Sunday morn- the Committees could use Newsletter .... Dave Joswick (ALBG) We have finally achieved a [email protected] breakthrough in our rela- ings to improve the view! some help. We have a new [email protected] tions with the Foundation Facebook page, a Seminar The Battlefield Dispatch is the official com- DISCUSSIONS ARE STILL ONGO- coming up, the Annual munication of the Association of Licensed and are achieving some Battlefield Guides, published bimonthly in ING concerning the updating long-overdue results. In ALBG trip, outreach efforts February, April, June, August, October, and of the Guide Manual. If you and many other ways that December. meetings with the Founda- haven’t participated in the Material for potential publication should be tion President Matt Moen, you can participate. Please forwarded to the editor via e-mail or standard open meetings yet, please contact us if you would like mail to the addresses listed above. Submis- we were able to convince plan on doing so. The Park sion deadline is the 5th day of the month of to help out in our efforts to the publication. All items published will be the Foundation to go back to wants our input, and as the way the daily draw used support and improve guiding credited with byline. Articles without byline many of us as possible should in the Park. are the editor’s work. to be run. This doesn’t mean © 2019 by ALBG, Inc. • All rights reserved. there will be more tours in No part of this publication may be used or re- produced without the prior written permission the morning, just that you’ll of the publisher. know your place in the draw Ready to serve it up... and you can use your time ...is host LBG Eric Lindblade at the annual ALBG picnic. LEGAL NOTICE more effectively. A great big Story and more photos on page 4. The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides (ALBG) website and the written newsletter thanks to LBG Rob Abbott known as the Battlefield Dispatch are the only of- ficial communication vehicles of the Association for his efforts in this. We are of Licensed Battlefield Guides. continuing to work with the Any officially sanctioned document, publica- tion, class material, class schedule, field presenta- Foundation to fix the prob- tion schedules and communications—public and lems that we’ve had with private—contained in these communication ve- hicles are copyrighted for the exclusive use of the Tessitura, so watch this space ALBG and its members. Any unauthorized use of for more updates. said materials for any reason without the specific written permission of the Executive Council of OUR OPENING OF THE HERI the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides is - strictly prohibited. TAGE CENTER AS A NEW VENUE for Guides has been vey successful. It is an alternative Don’t forget to like to working out of the Visitor ALBG on Facebook! 2 Battlefield Dispatch Thoughts on Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides contributed by LBG John Baniszewski he Gettysburg National Military Park (GNMP) is With the passage of so many decades, it has become dif- unique in America’s national park system. Most of our ficult for modern visitors to understand the story that the Tnational parks, such as Yellowstone or Yosemite, were veterans were trying to tell us through the preservation of the created upon land that was already owned by the federal gov- land and the building of the monuments. The last of those ernment. The GNMP, however, was initially created upon veterans passed away more than a half-century ago. Those land purchased by the veterans that fought here. Thousands veterans can do no more to tell their incredible story. Visi- of those veterans shed their own blood upon that land in tors today need help, they need someone who can interpret July, 1863. Those veterans saw thousands of their friends die the land and the monuments for them, so modern visitors upon that land. As the 19th century neared its end, those can hear and understand the story of the veterans who veterans expended their time and personal treasure to pur- survived the battle, and the story of the soldiers who did not. chase the land that would eventually become the GNMP. We, the Licensed Battlefield Guides, must do our best to tell the story that the long-gone veterans can no longer tell. We the Guides do not tell our own stories, but by using the land and the monuments given to us by the veterans, we can re- tell the veterans’ stories. I remember one time overhearing a park ranger reply to the question of some first-time visitors. Those visitors asked how to best spend their limited time at the Gettysburg Na- tional Military Park. The ranger said that we have a wonder- ful movie at the Just a few months after the battle President Lincoln spoke GNMP. The ranger about those veterans and said that the world “must never said that we have a forget what they did here”. In the late 19th Century, those wonderful museum. Little Round Top veterans expended their personal time and treasure to carry But the ranger then out Lincoln’s admonition. They wanted future Americans to said “There are know what happened upon that land. They wanted future many movies in this Americans to remember what they personally did upon that world. There are ground. They especially wanted future Americans to remem- many museums. But ber their thousands of friends who did not survive the great there is only one and horrible battle that was fought upon that ground. Little Round Top. The veter- There is only one ans could have Wheatfield. There built a building is only one Angle”. to help visi- That ranger recom- The Wheatfield tors understand mended that the the story of visitors made sure the Battle of that they took the Gettysburg. time to stand upon They could and see the battle- have filled field, as the long- that building dead veterans hoped with museum those visitors would exhibits and do. That ranger is paintings. They chose, however, not to do so. The veterans long gone. I think I chose to help visitors understand the Battle of Gettysburg by never heard anyone placing monuments upon that battlefield, monuments that give better advice to were unique and that told the many different stories of the first-time visitors. The Angle many different regiments in which those veterans served. In 1895 the veterans made an incalculably precious gift of their land and monuments to the federal government. That is why we today have the Gettysburg National Military Park. We must remember those veterans as we make use of their gift. August 2019 3 Fall 2019 Seminar... Gone But Not Forgotten is in the planning stages contributed by LBG Joe Mieczwokski PLEASE JOIN US for a weekend-long visit to locations, landmarks, and areas that used to be on the Battlefield, but are no longer there. Many of these features still actually have remnants on the field. There will be five programs, one indoor on Friday, November 8, and four separate tours on Saturday, November 9. Check out the details of these programs below. Friday, November 8, 6:30 PM Noon: Lunch – HGI’s Garden Grille and Bar Heritage Center, 297 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg Welcome and Reception with snacks and beverages 1:00 PM – 1913 Reunion (and Camp Colt) Presentation by LBG Eric Lindblade 7:00 PM – World War I at Gettysburg In the summer of 1913, over 50,000 Civil War veterans returned to the fields of Gettysburg to commemorate the 50th Presentation by LBG Dave Weaver “Images of Gettysburg from the National Archives with Dave’s anniversary of the battle.