The American Civil War Museum Complex will host the New Hampshire Gold Star Mothers Monument Association and sculptor Andrew Chernak for a ceremony honoring our Nation's Gold Star Mothers.  On August 14, at 1:00 pm, the public is invited to a special unveiling and service honoring the Gold Star Mother statue that is in transit to permanently reside in New Hampshire.  This is the only time the monument will be on display in Pennsylvania. 

Numerous civic and social groups from the community will be involved in the ceremony, including Gettysburg's own VFW Post 15, and the Allied Veterans Council of Adams County.  Jim Getty, nationally renowned Lincoln actor and historian, will read the famous letter President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Bixby, a Civil War "Gold Star Mother".  In addition, many Gold Star Mothers will be in attendance at the ceremony.  The keynote speaker for the event will be Major General Wesley Craig.  Following the ceremony, the monument will travel to New Hampshire, escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders. 

The event will be held on the grounds of the American Civil War Museum Complex located at 297 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA, 17325.  For more details about the event, contact sculptor Andrew Chernak at alc199@comcast.net or the American Civil War Museum at 717-334-6245.

The American Civil War Museum will honor our First Responders the weekend of September 10 - 12.  All first responders, including police, firefighters, and EMTs will receive complimentary admission to the museum when they show their membership card.  

There will be additional promotions throughout Gettysburg for first responders.  For more information please visit the Eisenhower Hotel at www.eisenhower.com

Let's face it, what is one of the most difficult things about planning a trip for youth groups? Finding something that is educational, yet fun and engaging. Competing with Play Stations and Nintendo DSI is difficult.  Instead of lecturing kids about life during the Civil War, why not immerse them in activities that will teach them what life was like more than 150 years ago, and keep them focused and entertained.

• Life as a new recruit in the union army
  
• Children's activities and chores in 1860
  
• Clothing of the Civil War era
  
• Food - such as making hard tack
  

This month our guest writer is author J. David Petruzzi. Petruzzi is widely recognized as one of the country's leading Gettysburg experts. He is the author (with Eric Wittenberg) of bestsellers "Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg", and (with Wittenberg and Michael Nugent) "One Continuous Fight: The Retreat From Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863".  Most recently he and Steven Stanley completed "The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and Other Topics of Historical Interest." The book is now available as a driving tour.

Young Corporal Cyrus W. James of the 9^th New York Cavalry in Gen. John Buford's cavalry division is often cited as the very first soldier, of either side, to be killed in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.  James was mortally wounded north of Oak Hill very early that morning as the fighting began, but the first soldier to die at Gettysburg during the campaign was actually a young local man, newly married, and who had just enlisted in a local home guard cavalry company - and he was killed by Confederates four days before the battle started, on June 26, 1863.

            In late June, the Confederate corps commanded by Gen. Richard S. Ewell left Virginia and marched ahead of the rest of the Southern army into Pennsylvania.  The infantrymen were accompanied by two units of Virginia cavalrymen.  On the morning of June 26, from a short distance east of Chambersburg, Ewell sent the division of Gen. Jubal Early and the cavalrymen to Cashtown and on to Gettysburg.  After burning outspoken abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens' Ironworks at Caledonia, Early marched toward Cashtown.  There, Early heard that some type of Pennsylvania militia was posted at Gettysburg, just eight miles to the east.

            The militia was comprised of the 26^th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia, raised in Harrisburg and tasked to try to disrupt the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.  With them was a few dozen local boys and men, a mounted cavalry unit called the Adams County Cavalry raised by Gettysburg farmer Robert Bell.

            Early and his Southerners marched on to Gettysburg, and encountered the militia a few miles west of Gettysburg.  After capturing many of the inexperienced militia and scattering the rest, the Confederates continued into the town.  The 35^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, escorting Early's men, began reconnoitering the roads radiating out from the town square.  A mile southeast of town along the Baltimore Pike, some of the Virginians saw two mounted men exit a field near McAllister's Mill.  One of them was Pvt. George Washington Sandoe, a member of Bell's cavalry.  Bell had just been married a few months before, and he and his comrade were trying to make their way out of Gettysburg and away from the Confederates.

            From perhaps 50 yards away, one of the Virginians yelled for Sandoe to halt.  Sandoe raised his pistol and fired at the mounted Southerners and missed.  As Sandoe attempted to gallop to safety, a Virginian raised his gun, took aim at Sandoe, and fired.

            His comrade escaped, but Sandoe fell to the ground with a bullet in his breast.  The Virginians galloped to Sandoe and, seeing the young man was dead, took his horse and rode back into town with their prize.  A short time later, James McCallister rode his wagon from his nearby mill and came upon Sandoe's body.  After a neighbor identified Sandoe and described the location of his home, McCallister took the lifeless body a few miles south to Mt. Joy (today known as Barlow) and the home where Sandoe lived with his new bride, Diana.  Only a few days later, a fresh grave in Mt. Joy's Lutheran Church cemetery along the Taneytown Road ominously greeted thousands of Federal soldiers marching toward the developing Gettysburg battle - many of them marching toward the same sad destiny as that of young George Sandoe.  Thousands more would fall on the battlefield like Sandoe, the very first to die at Gettysburg during the campaign.