This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, September of 2024. It was penned by Wendy Allen of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg, 2024
Gettysburg National Cemetery
Gettysburg National Military Park
Gettysburg, PA, 2024
To these most gifted musicians Brian Poffenberger, Kaitlynn Gaff, Doug Rudisill, Robert Hawke, Mark Young, Graham Bentley, Jeff Stockham, Mitchell Mummert, Jeff Miller, Alan Ashley, John Charow, Howard Billig, Albert Lilly, Robert Roll, Lou Dileo, David Bufalini, Kevin McCarty, Steve Snyder, Thomas Sneeringer, Shirley Ann Walker, Jim McDevitt, Kevin Paul, Nathaniel Bauder, Jamie Cope, Kevin Czarnik, John Baker, Greg Murphy, Ron Glazer, Robert Beaver, Amy Gabriele, Evan Frantz, Ryan Bowden, Andrew Bisnett, Priscilla King, Jocelyn Hammond,Thomas Herman, Ron Ciasullo, Mitchell Hourt, Vince Pettinelli, Ken Bair, Ralph Brodt, Howard Billig, Katie Gaff, Brian Wilkie, Cameron Sands, Damon Morris, Stephen Bottom, Keith Lippincott, Liam Gallagher, George Boyd, Neil King, Judy Shellenberger, Anthony Nunes, David Apple, Randall McGuire, Warren Prender, Ian Monaghan, Michael Krauss, Scotty Clark, Robert Slamp, Joseph Dupesko, Drew Podnar, Brooks Brady, Brig. General Jeffrey Newton, John R. Thomas, Joshua Cooper, Landon Rosekrans, Aaron Robertson, Peter Sharrock, Jim Shufelt, Henry Dillon, Benjamin McClelland, Albert Trapani, Tom Hehman, John Lupp, Anthony June, Keith DeFontes, Nicholas Brown-Cáceres, Max Osborn and Lucas Fleming,Wes Snyder, Ryan Fox, David Beier, Erin Bannon, Debra Skripkunis, Tom Beaver, Michael Wood, Chris Myers, Donald Roeder, Russ Ebersole, Rick Barnes, Jim Steele, Jari Villanueva, Harold Collins, Jay Copenhaver, Jim Steele, Robert Balmer, and Jay Copenhaver,
and the most talented and dedicated program volunteers John Tuskan, Sandy Tuskan, and Scott Burkett,
and our special co-sponsor, Gettysburg National Military Park and our gifted program partners, Taps for Veterans, Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, and Eisenhower National Historic Site,
the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania extends its profound praise and gratitude for making One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg, 2024 a great and meaningful success.
Join us next summer when the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania will present, One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg, 2025. For the ninth year, beginning on Memorial Day (Monday, May 26, 2025) and running through Labor Day (Monday, September 1, 2025), the notes of “Taps” will once more fill the air every evening as the famous 24-note call is sounded in Gettysburg National Cemetery.
Each evening will feature two educational components. Beginning at 5:30 P. M. each evening representatives from Gettysburg’s Licensed Battlefield Guides will offer a free interpretive program exploring the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg and the creation of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, concluding at the Soldiers’ National Monument. During the formal Taps program beginning at 7 P. M. representatives from the Lincoln Fellowship, guest National Park Service Rangers, and Licensed Battlefield Guides will again offer brief historical vignettes. Called Enduring Pathways, these focus on Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, the history of Taps, and the Soldiers’ National Monument, with topics changing nightly.
And, of course, we will welcome the volunteer buglers that include active-duty military musicians, military veterans, Civil War living historians and musicians, community band members, high school and college students, and music teachers, to sound Taps.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, August of 2024. It was penned by Scott Burkett of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
President Abraham Lincoln spent time with many soldiers during the Civil War. Few, if any, received the attention and kindness the boy bugler experienced.
Gustav Albert “Gus” Schurmann was just 12 when he volunteered on June 26, 1861, as a musician with the 40th New York Infantry. A chance meeting with Abraham’s son, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln in April 1863, brought him to the White House
Gus was serving as Dan Sickles’ bugler and aide when the president’s son saw the boy, just two years older than young Tad. The younger Lincoln implored his father to bring the boy bugler to Washington, but the president said, “he’s a soldier, he must do his duty here.” However, General Sickles responded, “Mr. President, if you desire, the bugler may accompany you. I will give him a two-week furlough.
During their fortnight at the White House, the two boys “had the run of the town” and White House, where they had free rein to play and, in some cases, create quite a bit of mischief. Taking a hand axe, thought at the time to be the one George Washington used to chop down a cherry tree, Tad and Gus hacked at furniture and sawed away the banisters of the main stairway in the White House.
When the boys were taken to Lincoln for the misadventure, the president didn't rebuke them. Instead, he told them tales of his time as a Captain in the Black Hawk War of 1832.
Later, the boys knocked loudly on the door of the Executive Office and burst in where the president was meeting with Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of War Edward M. Stanton.
Tad hugged his father and then ran from the room. Gus saluted and followed Tad out into the hallway.
Secretary Seward asked, “Mr. Lincoln, are you not annoyed by those boys?”
The president smiled and said, “Oh, never mind. It’s a diversion, and we need diversion at the White House.”
Mary Todd Lincoln would later say their child-rearing philosophy was that children should be “free, happy and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to his parents.”
On a second visit to the White House, Tad and Gus rode horses throughout Washington and attended several plays. At one, the boys went backstage to meet the cast and were greeted and each given a rose by actor John Wilkes Booth.
Gus Schurmann would survive ten major battles and serve four Major Generals, including Dan Sickles at Gettysburg, and lived until 1905. He was 56 when he died.
The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania’s “One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg” program features buglers of all ages – including several the age of the boy bugler – from across the country.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, July of 2024. It was penned by Wendy Allen of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
On July 4th, 2024, Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey delivered a moving keynote address for the “One Hundred Nights of Taps” ceremony. Dr. Luskey is the Assistant Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. She is also a member of the board of directors for the Lincoln Fellowship. Here are excerpts from her speech.
On July 7, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln emerged from the White House to address a crowd of supporters who had come with a brass band to celebrate the recent dual victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. "I would like to speak," Lincoln said, "in all praise that is due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of this country from the beginning of this war, not on occasions of success, but upon the more trying occasions of the want of success.... I say I would like to speak in praise of these men...but...I should dislike to mention the name of a single officer, lest in doing so I wrong some other one whose name may not occur to me.”
In his refusal to spotlight the names of even just one individual, Lincoln revealed his steadfast belief in the foundational ideal of our Declaration of Independence, whose anniversary they had just commemorated—the equality of mankind. To Lincoln, the suffering of the soldiers knew no distinction between rank or commission. Their sacrifice, demonstrated in Gettysburg and on the other Union battlefields, he believed, were shared by men who were equals, on behalf of securing the equality of all.
Reflecting on the legacies of the fallen of Gettysburg some 20 years after the battle, Brigadier General Alexander Webb similarly recalled, “This three days’ contest was a constant recurrence of scenes of self-sacrifice on the part of all....The dead knew not, it may be, all that they have done; but they died for us, and for our country.... We approach their graves in reverence and in tears. We now know how much we owe to them. Rest, patriot spirits, rest.”
Like Lincoln, Webb refrained from singling out the names of any particular individuals, rather he spoke of the equal sacrifice shared by all: “We live to know how great was your sacrifice—how great was our gain...you have died that we might live, and this nation.” And in his closing remarks, he called forth upon the collective spirits of the dead to inspire the collective living to carry forth that torch of freedom and equality.
And so, on this 248th birthday of our country, let us also pause to remember the sacrifices that were at once both deeply personal, yet profoundly collective. And, from both the named and the nameless, may we take up the solemn responsibility as torchbearers of equality and freedom, and may we continue to find meaning in the reason why they died. And may we long remember the equality of their shared sacrifice.
Rest indeed, patriot spirits, rest.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, June of 2024. It was penned by Rev. Stephen Herr of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
When we think of Abraham Lincoln and Gettysburg, our thoughts often turn to his famous address delivered on November 19, 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. To be sure, Lincoln’s speech remains his enduring legacy at Gettysburg. Yet, Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief contributed in important ways to the Gettysburg Campaign throughout June and July of 1863. Although he was not physically present in Gettysburg during this time, his impact was still felt.
Most significantly, on June 28, Lincoln appointed General George Gordon Meade to serve as the Commanding General of the Army of the Potomac. The President and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton selected Meade, and, unlike General John Fulton Reynolds who had been offered the position and turned it down, Meade had no choice. Meade’s selection proved to be a good one. The new commanding general immediately began studying the locations of both the Army of Northern Virginia and his own army. Lincoln, along with General-in-Chief, Henry Halleck made it clear that Meade and his army were to stay between the southern army and the cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Meade also began preparing his army for battle.
Though often overlooked, Lincoln’s restraint during the battle of Gettysburg in allowing Meade to fight the battle on his terms had a significant effect on the way the battle played out. Lincoln remained in Washington, D.C. and often visited the War Department telegraph office for updates and news. The President displayed mature leadership by resisting the urge to send communications to Meade on how to conduct the battle, and thus let Meade’s responses to the ebb and flow of combat, rather than executive orders from afar, dictate the fighting. His address to the press and others on the Fourth of July noted that the laudable results of the battle were such “as to cover the Army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union and to claim the condolence for all of the many gallant fallen.”
Following the battle, Lincoln expected Meade to aggressively pursue a crippled Confederate army. However, Meade was forced to navigate between healing his own badly beaten-up army and maintaining a position that still protected Washington. As a result, he was slow in pursuing Lee, much to the chagrin of Lincoln. After more than two years of war, Lincoln had come to the realization that driving the southern army from the field no longer would secure an end to the war; the Army of Northern Virginia, he believed, must be so heavily pummeled that it would eliminate the Confederates’ capacity to continue the struggle.
Lincoln conferred with his cabinet and General Halleck about a more aggressive pursuit of Lee by Meade. By July 14, Lee had escaped across the Potomac River and was back in Virginia. Meade received a message from Halleck indicating that Lee’s escape had “created great dissatisfaction in the mind of the President.” Meade responded by offering his resignation. Interestingly, throughout this closing portion of the campaign Lincoln did not communicate directly with Meade. On July 14, he penned a letter to Meade, both expressing gratitude for his victory at Gettysburg, and outlining his rationale for his frustration and anger at the missed opportunity to end the war; however, Lincoln never signed or sent the letter. Though we will never know for sure, it is possible that, had Lincoln decided to send his letter, and had he communicated more frequently and directly with Meade throughout the battle itself, he might have seen strikingly different results from the campaign, and from the war itself. Thus, Lincoln’s overall absence from the battle just may have been his most significant contribution to it—for better or for worse.
What is certain is that Lincoln’s greatest contribution to the enduring legacy of Gettysburg was his few appropriate remarks delivered four months later, in November. However, we cannot forget that his selection of Meade and his decisions both during and after the battle contributed in no small way to the military campaign itself.
Throughout the summer the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania remembers the sacrifice of the soldiers who died at Gettysburg and the enduring legacy of Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address. Join us each night through Labor Day at the Gettysburg National Cemetery for 100 Nights of Taps Gettysburg, 2024. This educational opportunity, in partnership with the National Park Service, begins at 7:00 p.m.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, May of 2024. It was penned by John Tuskan of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
According to Jari Villanueva, Musical Director for 100 Nights of Taps Gettysburg and an expert on military bugle calls, the custom of honoring the dead at burials and memorial services with trumpet and bugle calls dates to Biblical times. Ancient trumpets were used at religious ceremonies and were associated with magical rites. The tradition of playing at sunrise (“Reveille”), sunset (“Retreat”), and at burials (“Taps”) may have evolved from these ancient services. In the military of many nations, it is now customary that a bugle or trumpet sounds the last call of the day and ceremonially honors the dead during military funerals.
In the United States, “Taps” was first sounded in a military funeral in July 1862. Beginning in 1891, the playing of Taps became standard at military funeral ceremonies. Today, “Taps” is sounded as the final call every evening on military installations and at military funerals. In 2013 “Taps” was legislated as our “National Song of Military Remembrance.” Although “Taps” is unique to the U.S., other nations have also developed bugle call that are performed at military funerals.
In England and the British Commonwealth Nations, “Last Post” “is the bugle call sounded during military funerals and other solemn occasions as a final farewell. It symbolizes that the duties of the dead are over and that they may rest in peace.
During French military funerals, the bugle call “Sonnerie Aux Morts” is sounded. This call was composed for use by the French after World War I. During the war, French military leaders were impressed by the impact that the “Last Post” and “Taps” had on participants and observers during military funerals.
In Italy “Silenzio d’Ordinanza” is sounded at night when soldiers have gone to sleep, and it is also performed at military funeral services.
In Germany, no bugle calls are sounded at military funerals. Musical support may consist of a band or three drummers and one trumpet player. At the end of the ceremony, the band plays the chorale “Ich hatt einen Kameraden” ("I had a comrade").
The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania cordially invites you to attend 100 Nights of Taps Gettysburg to hear the sounding of “Taps” and join us in honoring those buried there, as well as all those who have served our nation. The program will begin every evening at 7 PM between May 27 and September 2, 2024, at the Soldiers’ National Monument in the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, April of 2024. It was penned by Therese Orr of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
“I leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return.”
On November 6, 1860 telegraph lines spread the news across our still fledgling country: LINCOLN ELECTED! Thus began Lincoln’s journey to our nation’s capital that culminated in a serpentine trip of thirteen days from Springfield, IL to Washington, DC. It would be four long months before Lincoln’s inauguration.
During those months, Lincoln worked on his inaugural address; greeted the hordes of citizens who traveled to the Mecca that Springfield had become; learned of wild rumors of plots to prevent him from being officially declared President (perhaps even stealing the boxes containing the electoral vote certificates from the states); and, most alarmingly, received warnings of plots to kill him.
On January 30, 1861, Lincoln visited his elderly stepmother, Sarah, who declared that she would never see him again, that his enemies would assassinate him. Lincoln assured Sarah that all would be well, to trust in the Lord.
Finally, on the cold, rainy, gloomy day of February 11, 1861, Lincoln boarded the Presidential Special train and began his trip east. Before a crowd that was estimated to be between one hundred and one thousand people, Lincoln gave a farewell speech. In two minutes, nine sentences, he thanked friends and family for their support, spoke of the daunting challenge before him, and asked for their prayers. Then the train was off, with a very precise to the minutes schedule.
A direct route to Washington was risky as it would take him through hostile Virginia. Instead, he would journey into New York state before turning south towards his ultimate destination. Due to the precise schedule, crowds lined the route and waited at stations when the train paused, even if only for a few minutes. He delivered brief remarks at many small towns along the route. Receptions occurred and he gave even longer speeches at cities and overnight stops in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Troy, Poughkeepsie, New York City, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
Despite avoiding Virginia, danger still lay ahead at Baltimore. Informants learned that plans were underway to assassinate Lincoln as he traveled through the city. Railroad detective Allan Pinkerton was hired to foil the plot. He and eight detectives learned many more details of the assassination plot and finally informed Lincoln late on the night of February 21. However, he declined their recommendation to travel directly to Washington from Trenton, as he believed it was important to visit Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
As he left his final meeting in Harrisburg on the evening of February 22, Lincoln donned a soft wool hat and an old coat. A small train replaced the Presidential Special and it sped towards Baltimore, its lamps extinguished. The train reached Baltimore around 3:30 a.m., where the cars would be pulled by horses through the downtown streets to reach the next station and continue the journey to Washington. This was the most dangerous part of his journey. At approximately 4:30 a.m. the train eased out of Baltimore and arrived safely in Washington at 6:00 a.m. on February 23.
Lincoln had arrived. The long journey was over.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, January of 2024. It was penned by Ken Kime of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas’s famed 1858 debates on the issue of slavery helped both men achieve popularity in their pursuit of the White House and are often remembered as the early proving ground of Lincoln’s political career. However, the public generally declared Douglas the victor of those debates, and it would not be until two years later, at Cooper Union, that Lincoln would come to convince the American public of the dominance of his political aptitude.
In 1859, Lincoln campaigned in Ohio, where he gained accolades for his ability to deliver speeches in dramatic fashion. He spoke in Dayton, Columbus, Hamilton, and Cincinnati. Because of one particularly powerful address in Cincinnati at the Fifth Street Market and the ensuing widespread press coverage it garnered, residents in the northeast started to pay more attention to the man from Illinois. At that time, the front runner for the presidential nomination in New York was William Seward—ironically, the man who would later become Lincoln’s Secretary of State. Lincoln was becoming better known in the East, but still wasn’t popular enough to gain any momentum over Seward.
However, in February of 1860, the Rev. Henry Ward invited Lincoln to speak in New York City. After Lincoln accepted the invitation, an estimated 1500 people expressed an interest in attending and the venue was moved to The Cooper (Institute) Union Hall instead of Rev. Ward’s church. Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon said that Lincoln worked harder on this speech than on any that he had written before. The speech was delivered on February 27, 1860. Noah Brooks, a New York Tribune journalist, took special note of the applause that interrupted the speech, as well as the enthusiasm generated amongst the audience.
The Cooper Union speech was a huge success for Lincoln’s push for the White House. During his stay in New York City, he also met popular figures, William Cullen Bryant, Noah Brooks, Horace Greely, Gideon Wells, and Mathew Brady. The extensive newspaper coverage of the program produced an estimated 170,000 copies of the speech that circulated widely, furthering increasing Lincoln’s popularity. After delivering the speech, Lincoln had Mathew Brady take a formal picture of Lincoln, which remains an iconic image to this day, and printed a formal copy of the speech itself.
While out east, he made appearances and delivered speeches in New Haven, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island. While in New Hampshire, he also visited his son Robert at his prep school for Harvard, in Exeter.
Lincoln went on to make additional speeches in Chicago that March and in Council Bluffs, Iowa in August, but his Cincinnati appearance and the Cooper Union speech in New York City were doubtless fundamental for helping to secure the Republican nomination for the Presidency.
For more information on Lincoln and to learn about The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, visit lincolnfellowshipofpa.org.
Ken Kime is the Vice President of The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania.
I suspect there are few adults in the world today who don’t know what the current United States presidential candidates look like. That was not always the case. Just prior to the Republican National Convention in mid-May 1860, there were many Americans who did not know what candidate Abraham Lincoln looked like, but he was rumored to be quite unattractive. Reports of his ugliness proliferated. The Houston Telegraph stated that he was “the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms and hatchet face ever strung upon a single frame.” When Lincoln’s nomination was announced on the third ballot in Chicago, streams of hand-colored wood engravings of Lincoln were scattered throughout the convention hall like confetti. For many, this was the first time they had seen his image. Soon, there was an instant desire from the public to see more pictures of Lincoln, and printmakers were eager to meet their demands. They were also now filling the need for carte-de-visite photographs, which debuted in America in 1860.What became of all those prints and photographs? Well, of course, surviving prints are in museums and private collections. Here is a fun story that sheds some light on one special private collection. In the 1920s, a group of young American artists took up residence in Paris. Among them were Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and the then-famous society couple Gerald and Sara Murphy. Calvin Tomkins, an art critic for the New Yorker magazine, recounted a story that Gerald had told him. One day, the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso invited the couple to his apartment. Over drinks, he gave Gerald and Sara a tour, showing them room after room, each crowded with half-finished masterpieces. Then Picasso "led Gerald rather ceremoniously to an alcove that contained a tall cardboard box.” Murphy recalled, “It was full of illustrations, photographs, engravings, and reproductions clipped from newspapers.” Every one of the images was of the same person — Abraham Lincoln. “I’ve been collecting them since I was a child,” Picasso told Gerald. “I have thousands—thousands!” From the box, Picasso retrieved a portrait of Lincoln taken by the photographer Mathew Brady. Murphy remembered “the great feeling” with which the artist declared, “Voilà la vraie élégance américaine!” (“This is true American elegance.”) Did anyone in Lincoln’s time consider him handsome? We need to look no further than to the good people here in Gettysburg. In 1863, when Lincoln appeared on the steps of the Wills House on York Street, thirteen-year-old William H. Tipton, a photographer's apprentice, was among the crowd of spectators. He recalled, “In my eagerness to see and hear the President, whom I regarded as much above all other men, and second only to the Almighty, I centered all my attention on Mr. Lincoln, and no word or movement of his escaped my notice. I had heard that Mr. Lincoln was the homeliest man in the country. But when my eyes beheld that sad but kindly countenance, those strong rugged features seemed handsome to me." It seemed that way to Picasso, and it seems that way to me too.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, February of 2024. It was penned by Wendy Allen of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
On Sunday, February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin about 18 by 16 feet, with a dirt floor, one window, one door, and a small fireplace, Nancy Hanks Lincoln lay close to the fire on her bed of cornhusks and bearskins. The family, in the words of Carl Sandburg, "welcomed into a world of battle and blood, of whispering dreams and wistful dust, a new child, a boy." He was named Abraham after his grandfather. To honor President Abraham Lincoln’s 215th birthday, the Lincoln Fellowship hosted over 70 preschoolers with a tour of the David Wills Home provided by Gettysburg National Military Park rangers. The children serenaded the “Return Visit” statue with “Happy Birthday.” They also met mounted police officers and (GNMP) rangers and then were treated to celebratory cupcakes at the students’ respective preschools following the ceremony. Bugler signup starting on March 15th signals the upcoming 8th season of One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg. Visitors to Gettysburg National Cemetery can experience the sounding of Taps every evening from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The opening ceremony will be on Memorial Day, May 27, at 7 p.m. The distinguished retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Burne will be the keynote speaker. Every evening, a Union soldier buried in Soldiers' National Cemetery is honored through the Taps program. This soldier is a representation of all the soldiers buried in the cemetery. This year's commemorative coin bears the image of 2nd Lt. Edmund Dascomb, Co. G, 2nd N.H. Vols. He was a student from Tufts College, who was killed during the battle on July 2, 1863, when the Confederate forces overran the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry at the Joseph Sherfy Peach Orchard. The regiment lost 190 of its 354 officers and men, and Lt. Dascomb was one of them. We are planning the 161th Dedication Day ceremony on November 19th. We can share that this year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Craig L. Symonds. He won the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s 2023 Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. In 2009 he shared the Lincoln Prize with James M. McPherson. Dr. Symonds is Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as History Department Chair, and is the author of seventeen books. As we approach the 250th birthday of America, we cannot forget that Lincoln was the natural outgrowth of the newly designed free institutions (then only afforded to its white citizens) that preceded him, e.g., democracy, constitutional government, individual rights, market economics, religious freedom and tolerance, and freedom of thought and inquiry. His character and confidence could never have been fully developed amid the deep-rooted, limited social constraints of the European society of his times. He is an original. America forges originals. It is one of many reasons this country is so great and celebrated. The Lincoln Fellowship is committed to creating meaningful events that honor the extraordinary contributions of this amazing American original.
This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, December of 2023. It was penned by Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.
“These people gave us a chance…so that we can do better than we have before.” These poignant words, uttered amidst the American graves at Normandy by former president, General Dwight D. Eisenhower on the 20th anniversary of D-Day, were again recited by the President’s granddaughter, famed policy analyst and author, Susan Eisenhower on the stage of Gettysburg’s Majestic Theater before a crowd of 800 this past November 19th. The date marked the 160th anniversary of both Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and the dedication of Soldiers National Cemetery, and began with the procession of the leading program participants by horse-drawn carriage from Gettysburg National Cemetery through town to the Majestic. Ms. Eisenhower’s keynote reflection provided a powerful and resonant connection between the seminal centennial commemoration of Dedication Day, in 1963, at which her grandfather had also delivered the keynote speech, and the 2023 program. This year’s program featured not only the traditional elements of the yearly Dedication Day event, such as the recitation of the Gettysburg Address, wonderfully delivered by actor, Graham Sibley, but also incorporated numerous elements from the centennial event of 60 years previous, which helped the audience contemplate both the continued and evolving legacies of Lincoln’s eloquent words since November of 1863.
A deep admirer of Lincoln’s leadership and personal character, General Eisenhower clearly appreciated the linkages between the sacrifice of Union soldiers during the Civil War for, what Lincoln eulogized, the preservation of democratic government and individual freedom, and the sacrifice of U.S. troops on D-Day in the name of global democracy. No doubt, as he gazed out from the rostrum in Soldiers National Cemetery on November 19, 1963 at the 3,500 graves of Union dead, the image of the graves at Normandy superimposed themselves upon the small, whitewashed stones. Susan Eisenhower’s call for all citizens to re-seek common ground, re-embrace the human dignity of all people, and revive the art of civil debate with which to try to iron out the myriad conflicts and disputes dividing our nation in the present hearkened back to the call of her grandfather—to do better than we have before, in the name of all who have died on the battlefield to give our nation another chance.
Lincoln himself famously referred to America as the “last best hope for democracy on earth”—a last, best hope for which the 3,500 Union soldiers buried in our cemetery gave their lives---another chance for democracy at home, and as a guiding beacon for governments abroad. This past Dedication Day saw that beacon of democracy celebrated in the naturalization of 16 citizen candidates representing 8 foreign countries--- a perennial highlight of the ceremony and an emotional moment for candidates and the audience alike.
However, one of the most memorable and perhaps defining moments of the entire ceremony was delivered by Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano, J’Nai Bridges, who performed the two hymns sung by famed contralto, Marian Anderson at the 1963 Dedication Day event. Ms. Bridges’s breathtaking renditions of “Lead Kindly, Light” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” brought the audience to their feet. Like Anderson’s, Ms. Bridges’s sublime performance elevated the program with a powerful inspiration to, indeed, do better than we have done before, to ensure that the fallen of Gettysburg—and their fallen successors since—shall never have died in vain, and to make the most and best of the second chance they selflessly gave us here at Gettysburg. Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey is the Assistant Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and a member of the Lincoln Fellowship’s Board of Directors.
Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania is a 501(c)3 OrganizationP. O. Box 3372, Gettysburg, PA 17325Email: lincolnfellowshipofpa@gmail.com
