Landis’ Independent Battery

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Landis’ Independent Battery Pennsylvania faced a dire predicament in mid-June 1863. It needed to raise troops quickly to help protect the Commonwealth from invasion by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin issued a call for emergency troops on June 15, 1863. His proclamation raised the specter of the impending invasion, “I now appeal to all the citizens of Pennsylvania, who love liberty...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake By Jack Brubaker Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002 (288 pages, cloth, $34.95) As the largest river on the East Coast, the rolling Susquehanna River is the indispensable tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. Gathering strength from the scores of streams along its four hundred and forty-four mile journey – ­three...
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The Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project Imagine, nearly a century and a half ago, an entire company of soldiers mustering out at the end of their service. A hundred or more war-wearied men line up and, one-by-one, give a personal accounting to field clerks as they leave the army to return home. Company officers sitting at a makeshift table huddle over a huge sheet of heavy ruled paper and list each soldier and record what happened to...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns by Tom Huntington Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2007; 150 pages, paper, $14.95 As the 2011 opening of the American Civil War Sesquicentennial draws near, the national observance is guaranteed to produce a spate of weighty tomes analyzing the epic event of the nineteenth...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter Topics in the Fall 2007 Newsletter: Signature Series: Dr. Guion S. Bluford Jr. at the State Museum of Pennsylvania Seats Available for Two-Day Excursion to Western Pennsylvania New PHS Board of Directors Drake Well Receives Generous Gift Calendar for October – December 2007 Gift Memberships for the Holidays Summer Professional Development for Teachers 2nd Annual Holiday Marketplace  ...
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Reviving – and Revising – the Reputation of Ralph Elwood Brock

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Reviving – and Revising – the Reputation of Ralph Elwood Brock On May 31, 1966, D. S. Nace of the state Department of Forests and Waters, now the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), scrawled a note to Joe Hill of the Mont Alto Nursery, in Franklin County, and attached it to a stack of documents. “Might find something of interest in these. Don’t Destroy,” he cautioned. Those nine words ultimately proved to be an invaluable...
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Bucktail Monument, Driftwood, PA.

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bucktail Monument, Driftwood, PA. This sounds as if the Bucktails were coming don’t it?” asked an unknown writer to Miss Bessie McPhee of Pittsburgh in a postcard mailed on April 6, 1908, at Driftwood, the second — and last — incorporated borough in Cameron County. Today a community of one hundred residents, Driftwood was incorporated as a borough in 1872; the county seat, Emporium, was incorporated in 1864. The postcard bears a...
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The Union’s Forgotten First Defenders

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Union’s Forgotten First Defenders Throughout the four years of the American Civil War, more than two million men served the Union, some for months, others for years. The vast majority were volunteers, young boys and aging men who willingly left home behind to fight for the preservation of the Union and the eradication of slavery.1 Historians have documented the stories of countless citizens-turned-soldiers, recalling the...
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From The Editor

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From The Editor Welcome to our special commemorative edition of Pennsylvania Heritage underscoring the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s annual theme for 2010, “Black History in Pennsylvania: Communities in Common.” In this edition, you’ll find informative, thought-provoking features on the Keystone State’s African American experience, heritage, and culture over a...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Dapper Dan Flood: The Controversial Life of a Congressional Power Broker by William C. Kashatus published by the Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010; 350 pages, cloth, $29.95 William C. Kashatus’s Dapper Dan Flood: The Controversial Life of a Congressional Power Broker brings to life one of the most quixotic individuals to ever have served in the U.S. House of Representatives. His subject,...
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