Tag Archives: Gettysburg

The Big Blue and White World

The 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry memorial at Gettysburg.
The 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry memorial at Gettysburg. (Photo by William Ames)

I’ve heard anecdotal evidence about how big the Penn State network is.

For instance, there’s a rumor that if you yell, “We Are!” in a crowded LAX airport, someone will invariably yell back, “Penn State.” I have never tried this. I’ve seen the scowls and piercing stares on some of those Transportation Security Administration agents, so I don’t intend to test this theory anytime soon.

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History: Alive and Well in Gettysburg

The North Carolina Memorial on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg. A few feet from this memorial, park restoration experts are working to make the battlefield look like the way it was in 1863. The work is giving visitors and historians a fresh look at how the battle was fought. (Image: Flickr Creative Commons, Ron Cogswell)

One of the highlights of covering research at Penn State is meeting with some of the nation’s — and, often, the world’s — leading experts in their fields.

It’s a little intimidating, too.

OK. A lot intimidating.

Recently, I had a chance to travel to chat with noted Civil War historian Carol Reardon, Winfree Professor of American History, in Gettysburg. Reardon wrote Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory and is wrapping up her year as visiting professor at the Army War College in Carlisle. We talked about her new book, With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other, about the strategic challenges that the North faced during the Civil War and how those challenges may have caused the war to be longer and more deadly.

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