Gettysburg is the historic field of the war, and has become a pilgrimage ground for a larger number of citizens and ex-soldiers than any other field of the late strife. A national interest has been awakened in its decoration by monuments contributed by the various States whose soldiers fought and fell on this historic site. Every year exercises are held on these grounds that are participated in by representatives from every State in the Union; to such an extent that the Gettysburg celebration has come to be a matter of national attention." [1]

Could this statement have been written in 1995 as a tribute to the park's centennial, or in 1988 on the occasion of the 125th battle anniversary, or at the film debut of the movie "Gettysburg?" To many Americans, Gettysburg's legacy is limited to their own personal perceptions, perhaps based on a visit to the battlefield, or from watching a televised documentary, or from years of study about the military tactics and minutiae of the 1863 battle itself. But the phenomenon of Gettysburg's popularity with the general American public is not a new or trendy event, it is merely a reflection of a century or more of continual regard for Gettysburg as the battleground of the Civil War. The above quotation, dating to 1890, took place in what we may regard as a watershed year for battlefield preservation.

In that year, the Congress authorized Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park and the movement was initiated to bring Federal oversight to the marking and preserving of Gettysburg's battlefield. In January 1890, Pennsylvania Congressman Henry H. Bingham introduced "A Bill for marking the lines of battle and the positions of troops of the Army of Northern Virginia." [2] Bingham, a former officer in the Army of the Potomac, was a Gettysburg veteran who is most widely recognized today because of his role in aiding the mortally wounded Confederate General Lewis A. Armistead and receiving from him personal items and messages after the repulse of Pickett's Division at the Bloody Angle. Although General Daniel E. Sickles would later be regarded as the "Father" of the park for his sponsorship of legislation that would eventually create a national park at Gettysburg, it was Colonel Bingham who first introduced a bill on the floor of Congress calling for Federal direction of the preservation of the battlefield.

Within a week, Pennsylvania's Senator Matthew Stanley Quay introduced the same bill in the upper house of Congress. [3] Quay, who had commanded the 134th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War, was also a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his services as volunteer aide on the staff of General Tyler during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Quay's role throughout the next five years was perhaps even more significant than that which has heretofore been given to General Sickles. It would be up to Senator Quay to shepherd the Gettysburg bills through the Senate and, as we shall see, to recognize the need for compromise in order to assure the eventual success of making Gettysburg a national park.

This first "Commission Bill" recognized the fact that the positions of the troops of the Union Army of the Potomac had been marked by many monuments and the opening of avenues along them, and had been preserved and protected by the purchase of land and the construction of fencing. All of this had been done under the auspices of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, a private State-chartered association whose goals were the preservation of battle remnants such as breastworks and the memorialization of the Union success at Gettysburg. Since its charter was explicit in limiting its expenditures towards the Union lines, there had been no effort to either mark Confederate positions or to preserve the lands on which those Southern units fought. This early bill noted that "the proper exemplification of that great historic event, for tactical and historical purposes, requires that the lines of battle of both armies be marked." If the positions were not soon determined and permanently marked, it was feared that they would be "forever lost to history."

As a result, the bill called for the preservation of Confederate battle lines and the marking of them with "plain, enduring tablets" of granite and bronze, "each bearing a brief historical legend, compiled without praise and without censure." Other provisions of the bill included the purchase of land which had been occupied by these positions, the construction of avenues, which would be enclosed with fencing, and the completion of a survey of the Confederate positions. Up until this point, it appears that the bill was a parallel of what would eventually happen at both Chickamauga and at Gettysburg. But a special provision within the bill would eventually bring about its demise. This provision centered on determining the 417 tactical positions of regiments, the 31 positions of artillery battalions, and the 214 positions of brigades as they were formed in line of battle for the three days, so that the markers could be erected. All of this was "to be done by, or under the supervision of John B. Bachelder, Government historian of the battle of Gettysburg, and author of the position of troops on the official maps of that battle."

When the bill went to committee, this last provision was scrutinized and criticized. The committee's report noted that

"the entire works was to be placed under the charge of, and the appropriation to be expended through, a single individual named in the bill, with no discretion left in any executive officer whatever, except that it was to be done 'under the direction of the Secretary of War.' Your committee has not considered it best to intrust so great a discretion to a single individual, however competent." [4]

The committee recommended and amended Bingham's H.R. 4972 so that it included three commissioners, all of whom should have been battle participants and one of whom should have served in Lee's army. Although the committee thought that the appropriation as recommended ($310,000) was excessive, causing them to lower the recommended appropriation to $125,000, that was not to be interpreted that the committee did not endorse the concept. In fact it went out of its way to elaborate on why the work of a battlefield commission ought to become an imminent reality:

"The field of Gettysburgh is the scene of the greatest battle of modern times. Not more fierce or prolonged than some others, yet in the numbers engaged, the courage exhibited, the valor of the assaults, and the stoutness and inflexibility of the resistance it was the equal of any, while in its pivotal character and the greatness of the issues at stake it was the greatest of all. . . . [The] committee would beg to submit that if this work is to be done, it ought to be done now while so many survive who took part in that great struggle. Meade, Reynolds, Hancock, Warren, Williams, Sedgwick, Hunt, and many more are gone, but Howard, Slocum, Sickles, Newton, Longstreet, Alexander, and many others that might be named, survive, though how long this will remain true is uncertain.... [What] grander evidence of magnaminity and strength could the nation give when thus to preserve the historical data of the great turning battle of the war." [5]

It may be well at this point to examine the man at the center of this controversy, this man who has often been cited as the "Government historian" of the battle. John Badger Bachelder was born in New Hampshire in September 1825, where he received his education. He moved briefly to Pennsylvania where he was principal and instructor at the Pennsylvania Military Institute in Reading (1849-1853). While a Reading resident, he was appointed a colonel in the state militia, from which he received his only military title. After resigning from the Institute, Bachelder pursued a career as artist and engraver. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Army of the Potomac in the field as a civilian observer, awaiting the opportunity to record visually and graphically the most important battle of the war. He explained later that he regarded the Battle of Gettysburg as that "great and important battle" which would be "the turning point" in the war. Although he was not physically with the army at the time of the fighting, he arrived at Gettysburg on July 7, and spent the next 84 days

"in going over and studying the battlefield, conferring with wounded soldiers of both armies and going over the Field with them, and gathering the details of the great battle, with the purpose of having it marked by the government as a Monumental Battlefield." [6]

At the end of 1863 he was advertising his new isometrical map of the battlefield, on which troop positions for all three days had been superimposed. He would spend the winter of 1863-1864 with the Army of the Potomac, consulting with officers of "every regiment and battery," noting and preserving the conversations. After the war, Bachelder invited officers of both armies to Gettysburg "for historical purposes," to mark and record positions and events which transpired on the battlefield itself. [7] In 1870, he was responsible for providing the concept and technical advice for a large painting of the repulse of "Pickett's Charge" by James Walker. And he became the "Government historian" by contracting with the War Department to overlay troop positions for each of the three days of the battle on the 1868-1869 G. K. Warren topographical survey maps.

These maps, released to the general public in 1876, elicited letters from "all sections of the country," many coming to the Chief of Engineers urging "the importance of compiling in text form the knowledge which the maps embody." Generals Hancock, Longstreet, and Warren each urged such a narrative, and General Hunt added that "much of the information, collected and noted under unfavorable circumstances, would be undecipherable and unintelligible for others, and under no circumstances could another make as good use of the material as the man who collected it." Endorsements for such a historical study by Bachelder flooded the War Department, from such Civil War notables as Slocum, Webb, Graham, Wright, Shaler, Barnum, Ward, Robinson, Neill, Torbert, Carr, Carroll, Wells, Stannard, Tilton, McCandless, Carman, Kemper, Fitzhugh Lee, Maury, Lane, W.H.F. Lee, Walker, and Alexander. [8] This almost universal outcry for yet more historical data from Mr. Bachelder prompted Congress to appropriate $50,000 for a written history and revised maps in 1880, entrenching him as the Government-endorsed historian of the battle.

During these same years, Bachelder's reputation grew amongst the general public as well as the veteran soldiers. He traveled widely as a lecturer about the battle, was still employed as an illustrator, and was a resort promoter (including Gettysburg's own Springs Hotel with its medicinal springs). The same year he received the Government contract to begin his official history and battle maps, he joined the board of directors of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association—a board on which he served until his death in 1894. While a member of GBMA's board, Bachelder's influence was enhanced by his appointment in 1887 as Superintendent of Legends and Tablets. In that capacity, Bachelder became the final judge when it came to inscriptions or locations for proposed regimental monuments or commemorative markers. His decisions often seemed arbitrary to many survivors associations, whose memories of battle events and sites sometimes conflicted with the "historical data" interpreted by Bachelder. It was personally galling for them to be told they did not know or did not remember correctly the places, events, numbers, or names of those things which they personally experienced July 1-3, 1863, when Bachelder himself was not present and was miles from the battlefield. Nevertheless, many perceived that Bachelder was "the active spirit" of the Memorial Association. [9]

The minor feuding between survivors associations and John Bachelder reached its nadir when a dispute arose as to the site for the state-sponsored monument of the 72d Pennsylvania Regiment (a.k.a. Baxter's Fire Zoutaves). Bachelder and the Board of the GBMA wished for the monument to be placed on its original line of battle, as it had been enforcing elsewhere on the field, whereas the regiment had selected a site at an advanced position. The clash became heated and soon extended to the courts. It eventually was to be settled by a ruling in the state supreme court which was unfavorable towards GBMA and which coerced that organization to permit the location of the monument at the regiment's forward position in the Bloody Angle. The litigation was underway at the same time that the Bingham-Quay bills were wending their ways through Congress, endorsing Colonel Bachelder for yet another position of responsibility on the Gettysburg battlefield. With such controversy surrounding him, it may be no surprise that the Committee on Military Affairs decided to back-pedal and recommend another course for the marking of the Confederate battle lines.

On August 27, 1890, H.R. 11868 replaced Bingham's original bill. This amended bill, as well as a similar bill (S. 2188) in the Senate, authorized the Secretary of War to appoint three commissioners, all of whom were to be battle veterans, to be known as the Gettysburgh Battle-field Commission. It was recommended that one member of the Commission should be an engineer, taken from either the active or retired list of the army, and that one should have been an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia. The Commission would be charged with negotiating for purchase of land, opening and constructing avenues, marking lines of battle, approving contracts, and disbursing appropriated funds. No acquisition of land would be undertaken without a prior determination of which "lines of battle, or any part of them, or the positions of any particular commands, should be preserved as possessing historic value." [10] It was of no avail, however. It appears that it was impossible to divest Colonel Bachelder from the bill, since it was widely interpreted that the only who could make the "determination" about the historic value of battle lines was Bachelder himself. The bills were tabled.

In December 1891, at the first session of the new Congress, there was another attempt to revive the concept, and S.897 was introduced to mark lines of battle and positions of troops of the Army of Northern Virginia "and for other purposes." It was identical to the tabled bills, but it too was to be scrutinized closely and was eventually amended itself. On March 9, 1892 Senator Joseph Hawley of Connecticut introduced the amended bill as S. 2536, "A Bill to appropriately mark and preserve the battle field of Gettysburg." [11] Hawley, like Quay and Bingham, was well known to the soldier veterans of the country. A North Carolina native, Hawley had moved to Connecticut while still a boy, had been an organizer of the state Republican party, and had commanded two state regiments during the war. He joined the Army of the Potomac before the close of the war, by which time he had been promoted to division command and had attained the rank of major general. Hawley, with Quay, would be the most vocal and strongest supporters of the Gettysburg park concept in the Senate. Both names have been relegated to relative obscurity. Matthew S. Quay and Joseph R. Hawley rightfully deserve to share the centennial platform with General Sickles. In many ways, Sickles benefitted from his longevity, his association with the battle, and his colorful career. Quay and Hawley were both dead within ten years of the establishment of the park. Neither survived to see the 50th Anniversary, and neither was associated with Meade's army during the 1863 battle. Thus, by circumstance, their significance to the park's creation has been obscure if not forgotten altogether. Yet, they were there in the beginning and they would be there, as it turned out, when they were needed. Both, especially Senator Hawley, were heavily relied on by the later Park Commission in endorsing legislation beneficial to Gettysburg.

Hawley's Senate bill was, in reality, the Gettysburg National Military Park bill in its infancy. Its provisions included many of those undisputed portions of former bills, and added the following:

1. Land could be acquired as already provided for at Chickamauga, including the authority to condemn property for the purposes of the bill.

2. The Secretary of War could enter into agreements with landowners, similar to today's easements, but reserved the power of "ejecting the occupant and taking possession of the property when in his opinion the interests of the United States require it."

3. Regulations were cited which would prohibit the destruction, mutilation, or removal of battlefield resources such as markers, trees, breastworks, and which banned hunting.

4. An annual report to Congress would be required of the Commission.

Section 4 of the bill, however, sounded all too familiar. Three commissioners were to be appointed by the Secretary of War to execute the work, but only two were required to be participants in the battle. One of these should serve as secretary of the commission and the other should be "versed in the law and competent to attend to its legal requirements." The third commissioner should be "the person generally recognized to be best informed in the details and history of the battle of Gettysburg and best qualified to consult with veterans engaged in that battle." This person would not only be the historian for the commission, he was to be its president as well.

As the bill entered committee again, it was inevitable that Colonel Bachelder's seating on the commission as its historian would once again be contended. Even the office of the Secretary of War was beginning to flag in its support of its "Government historian." The official history for which he had been paid $50,000 proved to be worthless to the Department, as it relied heavily on the Official Records (which were simultaneously being edited and published). Bachelder used very little historical data which was unique to his own interviews with battle veterans, and his official history was a redundancy in face of the already published Official Records. Mistrust of his motivations abounded in the War Department, when it solicited from him a price quotation to assist in the marking of U.S. Regular Army positions on the Gettysburg Battlefield. His original verbal quotation offered more for the money than his ultimate written quotation, but the War Department, reluctant as it was to do so, was compelled to accept it. The Secretary of War was told by his advisor on the subject that:

"Were it not for Col. Bachelder's statement that reliance cannot be placed upon the positions of the regular troops as located by him on the Gettysburg maps prepared by him for the Govt., I would not be willing to recommend his employment.. . . Either Col. Bachelder must be employed or officers who were with the different commands must be sent to Gettysburg to determine the positions. . .. It appears to be an easier matter to depend upon Col. Bachelder who not only claims to know every position occupied, but to whose criticism we must be subject in case any other plan is adopted. . . . The price is high, but Col. Bachelder is the only expert available; he know it, charges accordingly and if the positions are to be located with accuracy we must accept his offer." [12]

The State of Pennsylvania also made its move against these provisions to reward Bachelder with a seat on any Gettysburg Battlefield Commission. Its assembly voted 98-50 to recall its previous resolution of support for the bill, in which it had urged its senators and representatives to vote for the bill when it first was introduced without the historian position. One of the most vehement opponents of this provision blasted Bachelder as someone who had "been persisting in his attempts to falsify history" by depriving the 72d Pennsylvania Volunteers of its rightful location on the battlefield, and then by "making intemperate speeches, denouncing the action of the court and vilifying" the regiment. The Philadelphia Inquirer implied that it was Bachelder himself who was lobbying the Committee to make these changes to create a position for himself on the Battlefield Commission as its chairman and historian. The newspaper asserted that Bachelder's "intemperate speeches and mental bias showed that he was not qualified to fill the position of historian. The whole [Philadelphia] brigade and the Grand Army posts of Pennsylvania denounced him in round terms for his improper conduct." Gettysburg's assemblyman attempted to defend Bachelder from these attacks by reminding all that no one in the state or country knew more about the battle as Bachelder did, and that he would "earn every dollar that he gets." [13]

With such opposition, the measure was doomed to failure again, even though it was sent to committee and amended again as S. 2914. The committee saw much good in the bill's purposes, and endorsed the marking of positions so that the history "of this momentous battle may be written upon the ground itself, where the imperishable deeds of its participants were performed." There was strong support for salvaging what was left of the battle lines on the Confederate side, still in private hands, before their "obliteration by the lapse of time and the inevitable changes wrought by an active people." It was evident to the committee that "no great battlefield in the world presents the opportunities to study the operations of great armies that will be here presented for all time. . . . Military students of the New and of the Old World will be able to trace upon the very ground the evolutions of two immense armies." And, although the Committee had high regard for the "work of love and grateful pride by the loyal States" and the GBMA, they recognized that future generations would want to know the entire story—Confederate as well as Union. The committee urged the appropriation of funds toward the ultimate purpose of the bill: to embrace "the most important portions of the whole field of operations in a national park under Federal jurisdiction." [14]

Bachelder's interference with and entreaties to the House Military Committee, however, were to be his own and its undoing. The Committee Report itself acknowledged that many of its members had visited the battlefield in the course of their deliberations, "and devoted much time to a personal inspection of the lines of the respective armies, under the guidance of an accomplished historian of the battle." After its visit, the committee amended the bill so that Bachelder was included therein, pointing out the need to secure yet additional historical data "now available beyond that now in possession of the Government." As a result, there was considerable hostility engendered to the measure, "aroused by the impropriety of Bachelder's importunities," and it appeared that this bill, too, was on the point of failure. Congressman Edward McPherson, of Gettysburg, enlisted the services of Senators Quay and Hawley who, at the last moment, were able to insert a clause in the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill which did not address the composition of the Battlefield Commission but still embodied most of the other purposes of all of the other previous bills towards the marking and preservation of Confederate battle lines. This amendment was passed unanimously by the Senate, and a United States Commission was finally to become a reality for the Gettysburg battlefield. McPherson, like Quay and Hawley, has faded from the limelight of history's stage, but his services were recognized by at least one national newspaper of the day, when the Philadelphia Inquirer congratulated him on "knowing where to go to save the measure from defeat." The Inquirer could not resist one last blast against the paper colonel:

It will be observed that this leaves out the plans of Mr. John B. Bachelder to provide himself with agreeable occupation for some years and the pay of twenty-five thousand dollars. The money appropriated by Congress will now be expended in marking the Confederate line. . ., and the work will manage to get along without Mr. Bachelder's maps, without Mr. Bachelder's history, and, it is to be hoped, without Mr. Bachelder's services.... While Bachelder had any connection with it the measure stood no chance of success. When the load was taken off the appropriation went through without a dissenting voice.... It is not likely that Bachelder will give up his hope of controlling the work and of getting a subsequent Congress to make an appropriation in his behalf. He will probably seek the support of Daniel E. Sickles, Butterfield, Tammany and those New York troops which received the prisoners sent to the rear by the Pennsylvania Seventy-second at Gettysburg; but if the soldiers of Pennsylvania see that Secretary [of War] Lamont is informed of the facts Bachelder's future movements will be headed off in that direction, while the Pennsylvania Senators and Congressmen may be relied upon to head him off in the other in his raid upon the Treasury." [15]

With the passage of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act on March 3, 1893 [27 Stat. 599], the Secretary was authorized to establish a Commission. As at Chickamauga's park and in conformance with some of the previous bills, Secretary Daniel Lamont decided to appoint three Commissioners. As it turned out, Bachelder got part of his wish anyway. Although he did not get his $25,000 ($10 a day for each day of actual work was the limit set by Congress) and he did not ever chair the Commission, he was at least given an appointment as one of the three representatives of the War Department to plan for the future preservation of the battlefield. Even the hatchet-toting Philadelphia Inquirer was ultimately subdued in its reaction to the news; it conceded that the Secretary of War—like the Inquirer—had to acknowledge that Bachelder had been "one of the most active advocates of the plan of marking the Confederate lines" and that "his intimate acquaintance with the minor details of the battle is precisely the kind of information which will prove useful in indicating the regimental positions." [16]

But Bachelder (or his friends) apparently never gave up on his quest for the $25,000. In the "Never-Say-Die" Department, we find that yet another bill was introduced, almost a year after the passage of the Commission Act, "Authorizing the Secretary of War to employ a historian to execute maps illustrating evolutions of troops on the battlefield of Gettysburg." [17] This bill was deemed an absolute necessity in order to enable the Secretary of War to execute the provisions of the March 3, 1893 act, "to determine tactical positions . . . with reference to the study and correct understanding of the battle, and to mark the same with suitable tablets." To do this, the Secretary would need to "employ the person as historian who is recognized as best informed in the detailed history of that battle, whose knowledge has been derived from distinguished officers of both armies at Gettysburg." If passed, Congress would authorize payment of up to $25,000 for these historic maps.

The bill did not pass, but Bachelder seemed outwardly to not show disappointment or resentment in his defeat. He labored strenuously on behalf of the Commission from the date of his appointment on May 25, 1893 until his death at age 69 from pneumonia and heart failure on December 22, 1894 at his Hyde Park home. He was courteous (or at least politically savvy) enough not to pursue the chairmanship of the Commission, and could be found instead out on the battlefield he knew so well, in his shirtsleeves, personally supervising the survey of the route of the new Confederate avenues. To the end, however, his personal guardianship of his historical data was consistent.

At his death, he still had at his Massachusetts home the maps and official history which had been purchased by Congress for $50,000 and it took considerable doing on the part of the Commission to get his widow to return them to the park. The historical data which he alone had acquired as early as July 1863, and for which he felt entitled to the $25,000, would never be given to the Government.

Bachelder's companions on the Commission were both battle veterans and former officers. Representing the Army of Northern Virginia was William H. Forney, a North Carolina native who had migrated to Alabama with his family in 1835. After service in the Mexican War, Forney practice law in his hometown of Calhoun, Alabama, and eventually entered politics. He was elected to the state legislature in 1859 but quit politics to volunteer for military service in the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War. Forney was, without doubt, the most "shot up" of any of the park commissioners or superintendents ever to steer the Gettysburg battlefield. He had been shot in the right arm at Williamsburg in 1862, was captured there and exchanged some four months later. He received a slight leg wound at Salem Church in the spring of 1863, and then fell with six wounds while commanding the regiment as its colonel at Gettysburg. His Gettysburg wounds, one of which shattered the same arm which had been wounded in 1862 and another which carried away part of his heel bone, crippled him for life. He was once again captured, and spent more than a year at Fort Delaware and at Morris Island before he was once again exchanged. Resuming field service again, Forney was commissioned brigadier general and commanded a brigade until the surrender at Appomattox in 1865. After the war, Forney again reentered politics and practiced law. He served continuously in the House of Representatives from 1874 until he voluntarily resigned due to his failing health on March 4, 1893 (one day after President Harrison signed the law which established the Battlefield Commission). His appointment on May 25, 1893 to the Commission was no doubt a tribute in recognition of his war wounds and his political service. Forney's contributions to the Commission were quite limited. He was often ill and confined to his Gettysburg hotel room during meetings of the Commission, but he still "took great interest in the work of marking off the points on the battlefield of Gettysburg, where the Confederate met the Federal soldiers." He undertook the writing of narrative texts for some Confederate tablets, but his failing health restricted his ability to make a lasting impression. Upon his death on January 16, 1894 at the age of 71, little more than seven months after his appointment, the Alabama newspapers eulogized his character:

"In all the relations of life, General Forney was everything that he should have been. He was a good neighbor, an upright citizen, an unspotted public servant, always true to his convictions, and moved by considerations of the highest and noblest kind. Alabama mourns a son who can justly be called her best beloved."

On July 3, 1893, the "young pup" of the Commission was elected its chairman. Lieutenant Colonel John P. Nicholson, at age 50, was nearly 20 years younger than his fellow Commissioners. His life, however, was as full as theirs and his credentials were impeccable. It may be noted as significant that he was born in 1842 on the Fourth of July in Philadelphia, a city which he called home until his death in 1922. He enlisted as a private in the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers, but spent most of the war as lieutenant and quartermaster.

At the time of the regiments muster-out in July 1865 he had attaned the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel. He was a comrade of G.A.R. Post No. 2, and was member of the Societies of the Cincinnati, the Army of the Potomac, the Army of the Cumberland, and was an elected fellow of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (the latter of which he attained in 1870). From 1879 until his death, Colonel Nicholson served as Recorder of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He would become trustee and vice president of the Soldiers' and Sailors Home at Erie (1893-1922), and was trustee and President of the War Library and Museum in Philadelphia (1888-1922). He had been appointed one of the State's five unpaid members of the Gettysburg Monument Commission under provisions of the act of June 15, 1887 (a post which he finally resigned in 1917 after 30 years of service to the Governor), and had thereby come to know and work with Colonel Bachelder in the location of the various Pennsylvania regimental monuments on the battlefield. He was eventually elected Secretary of this Commission at the death of the original secretary (Major Samuel Harper of Pittsburgh) on May 25, 1889, and thereby was charged with editing the two-volume "Pennsylvania at Gettysburg" report of the Monument Commission. [18] He also translated and edited the English edition of the Comte de Paris' "History of the Civil War." Nicholson was perhaps the most educated of the park commissioners, holding a M.A. and Litt. D. His personal library, begun shortly after the war, was perhaps unrivalled among all Civil War collectors because of the quality of the contents and the number of first editions and personally autographed copies inscribed to him. More than 10,000 volumes were subsequently acquired after his death and are now part of the collections of the Huntington Library. He would become the longest surviving of the park commissioners. At the time of his death on March 8, 1922, he was the last to hold that position.

Endorsements for Colonel Nicholson's appointment to the Commission were almost universal, especially among Pennsylvania's old soldiers. Resolutions were unanimously adopted, for instance, by the 73d Pa. Vols. Association, acknowledging Nicholson as "a thorough and accomplished soldier," as a "writer of more than ordinary ability," and as "a conscientious and courteous gentleman." There was no doubt but that Colonel Nicholson "would give to the world such a fair, manly and impartial scientific and military history as would be accepted by the combatants on both sides, and would reflect credit upon our people and our government." [19] And the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bachelder's inevitable foe, was unlimited in its approval of the appointment of Nicholson to the Commission: "Colonel Nicholson will bring to the commission a broader mind, accurate information and the much-needed executive ability, and having been placed at the head of the commission his appointment is a guarantee that no intentional or unintentional inaccuracy will be committed, and that the work will be faithfully and intelligently performed." [20] Some even hoped that he would become the Commission's historian and not Bachelder. The Harrisburg Telegraph stated that the appointment of Bachelder over Nicholson would be "a fake of the fakest kind," since no man in or out of the state had given the field of Gettysburg already "more intelligent and particular attention than he." [21]

With the deaths of Bachelder and Forney, new appointments had to be made by the Secretary of War. Forney was to be replaced by Major William McKendree Robbins, yet another North Carolina native. Robbins had served in and attained the rank of major in the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, and lost four of his five brothers during the Civil War. After the war he returned to Statesville, where he practiced law and resided until his death in 1905. On March 14, 1894, he was notified of his appointment to fill Forney's position on the Battlefield Commission, an appointment secured for him without his knowledge by Senator M. W. Ransom of North Carolina. Within five months of his appointment, Robbins was the man responsible for taking distinguished visitors over the field (General Henry Heth, Secretary of the Navy Hillary Herbert, and Colonel Thomas Kenan) . He also accompanied the Florida and Louisiana State commissions in staking positions for future regimental markers. It was usually the duty of Major Robbins to accompany important battle veterans and other visitors over the field, and to him usually fell the responsibility of attending battlefield ceremonies and reunion exercises on behalf of the park.

One such ceremony was a dedication of the tent-shaped 32d Massachusetts Monument, which was noted by Robbins in his daily journal:

A number of the surviving Veterans of the Reg't with their wives and grown children came from Boston and other points in Mass, to attend the dedication ceremonies, bringing with them a gray-haired and venerable Minister of the Gospel, Dr. Dan'l L. Furber of Newton. . . . As I was the only member of the Park Commission in Gettysburg at that time, I drove out and took part simply as a silent participant in the exercises as seemed to be my official duty as a Commissioner. I joined in singing the patriotic songs. The Veterans present were as friendly to me as if we had fought on the same side in the Civil War and I felt quite at my ease among them. I afterwards went over the Field with them taking some of them in my carriage. Soon after we started they told me that Dr. Furber the minister had said to some of them (aside) 'What does that rebel mean by making himself so free and familiar among us here today?' and one of the old Vets. replied to him, 'Well, I guess he thinks the war is over.' We all had a good laugh together over the lingering prejudice of the preacher, the only man there who felt so." [22]

While Commissioner, he was instrumental in healing the wounds of war, encouraging former Confederate comrades to support park goals and Union veterans to acknowledge the national spirit of the newly established national park. He was responsible for researching and drafting the narratives on the majority of Confederate tablets which would mark battle units and positions along the Confederate avenues. His legal background made him the natural choice as the unofficial lawyer for the Commission, fulfilling one of the provisions in earlier versions of the Commission bills. He was called upon time and again to draw up drafts of bills for the national and state legislature, including that one which ceded jurisdiction of public roads within the park to the U.S. Government in 1894. He also gave advice to the Commission relative to transfer of property from the GBMA at its demise in 1895 and to the various condemnation cases in which the Commission would subsequently become involved. As it would turn out, the appointment of Major Robbins was as fortunate for the Commission as was that of Colonel Nicholson.

Bachelder's replacement was another fortunate choice. Major Charles A. Richardson, formerly of the 126th New York Infantry Regiment, was appointed on April 25, 1895. Born in Freetown, New York, on August 14, 1829, Richardson was a school teacher before studying law at Canandaigua. He moved to Nebraska in 1856 after being admitted to the bar, but returned to Canandaigua in 1859. In 1862, he was active in recruiting Company D or his regiment, and was made first lieutenant. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed captain and commanded the company which he had helped to raise. At Gettysburg, Captain Richardson was wounded in the foot and was hospitalized in the town for several weeks. He returned to his regiment but was once again severely wounded at Petersburg on June 16, 1864, when he was shot through the face. He was commissioned major of the 126th New York to date from June 16, but was never mustered with that rank on account of his wound and the reduced numbers in the regiment. After honorable discharge, he returned to the practice of law and became active in local Republican politics. He was one of the leaders in establishing and developing Woodlawn Cemetery at Canandaigua and became trustee of that cemetery and the Ontario County Orphan Asylum. He was a member of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and was a charter member of the Scientific Association and the Botanical Society. In 1886, Richardson was appointed as one of the five commissioners on the New York Monuments Commission, to determine the positions and movements of state troops at Gettysburg. It was no doubt his service on the New York Commission with General Sickles that brought him his appointment as Gettysburg National Park Commissioner in April 1895. (It is of considerable interest that the two Union states with the largest numbers of troops at Gettysburg, and thus the most monuments—New York and Pennsylvania—were represented on the Park Commission.) Richardson's interest in farming, gardening, landscaping, and botanical subjects was to be reflected in his personal supervision of woodlot reforestation and planting of ornamental and specimen trees within Gettysburg's national park. Major Richardson, along with Nicholson, was responsible for the composition of narratives for the Union brigade, division, and corps tablets. Declining health after 1915 would prevent Richardson from spending as much time at Gettysburg as previous, and he died at Canandaigua on January 24, 1917.

The fourth member of the Commission to be appointed was its engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Emmor Bradley Cope. Although not formally a Commissioner, it would be Cope who ultimately had considerable influence on the shaping of and subsequent appearance of the battlefield park since it was he who designed much of which was constructed and laid onto the battlefield's topography. Like his comrades, Cope was a Gettysburg veteran with an unusual background. He was born of Quaker parents in 1834 and grew up in a Quaker community in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was engaged in the manufacture of machinery at East Bradford at the time the Civil War broke out, and enlisted with other Quakers of the town in the 30th Pennsylvania Volunteers (1st Reserves). As sergeant he saw detached duty with a regular army battery in 1862, but returned shortly to his old unit. At the close of that year he was detached by special orders to the Topographical Engineers Corps of the Army of the Potomac, where he first served as a mechanic. He was under orders of General Warren during the Gettysburg battle, and returned in October 1863 to make the first topographic map of the battlefield (included in the military atlas to accompany the Official Records). Cope continued in service beyond the muster-out of his old company as a captain and aide-de-camp to General Warren, and was breveted lieutenant-colonel at the close of the war.

Cope's initial duties upon reporting for duty on July 17, 1893, were to acquire the necessary engineering and surveying equipment for the Commission so that it could start the survey of existing conditions on the battlefield and lay out the lines for new or improved avenues, which was under his immediate charge. Over the next quarter of a century, Colonel Cope was entrusted with the day-to-day operations of the park work force of laborers and technicians who would eventually be hired. He was also instrumental in the design and/or construction of many major structural features, some of which remain to this day (observation towers, granite and bronze brigade tablets, the U.S. Regulars monument, the avenues and their adjoining paved gutters, headwalls and culverts, Spangler's, Menchey's and Codori's springs housings, headquarters markers, Hancock Avenue entrance gates, storage and roller building, shell stones and guard chains, regulatory and informational signs, and the wooden topographic relief map of the battlefield). During much of his employment at the park, he was a cooperative observer for the United States weather bureau and reported local weather conditions to the bureau daily by mail.

Cope was the only senior member of the Park Commission to acquire property and permanently reside in Gettysburg. When commissioners left town during the winter months, Cope supervised all aspects of park management. Upon the death of Colonel Nicholson in 1922, it was only fitting that Cope be appointed by the Secretary of War as the first superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park—a post he held until his own death in 1927 at the age of 93. At the time of his death, he was the oldest United States Civil Service employee still in active employment.

With the Commission installed, it was inevitable that Gettysburg's battlefield would become a national park. Two bills preceded the one which eventually became law, the first introduced again by Henry H. Bingham in February 1894 and the second in December of that year. [23] It was the latter bill, introduced in the House by General Daniel E. Sickles, which would form the basis of the law which eventually established Gettysburg as a national park. Features dropped from the original bill included a section which incorporated the national cemetery as part of the park and a lengthy verbal description of the tracts which were recommended for acquisition by the park. This description was made more accurate by laying out the lines themselves for each of thirteen large battle or topographic sites on a map which was developed by the Battlefield Commission and approved by General Sickles. This "Sickles Map" showed the limits of the park as well as the areas considered most essential for land acquisition. The establishing law, however, permitted the acquisition of "such other lands" within or adjacent to the limits of the park that may be deemed necessary to preserve the important topographic features.

President Cleveland's approval of the amended Sickles' bill officially established the Gettysburg National Park on February 11, 1895. The old Battlefield Commission was retained as the Park Commission, and it was during the next ten years of its tenure that the most visible changes were made to the battlefield. The team of Nicholson, Richardson, Robbins, and Cope worked well together perhaps because of their shared Civil War experience, their common regard for each other and for the special place where they worked. The park that they created was not the product of any approved written grand design or plan, but what was expected by the society in which they lived. The park's story would be presented in a dignified and formal manner, just as proper society was to be dignified and formal. The personal relationships of these gentlemen were such that, although they worked together for a decade, usually six days a week and sometimes twelve to fifteen hours a day, they never were on a first-name basis with each other. To the very end they addressed each other as Colonel and Major; once in a while, in less formal correspondence they were "my dear colonel," but they never, ever were Jack or Mack or Brad or Charlie. There was a comradeship, to be sure, but there was great respect for each other just as there was great respect, almost reverence for the battlefield, and for that for which each was responsible.

What they did was to transform the battlefield from its undeveloped rural character to an urbane landscape which met Bachelder's original dream of a "Monumental Battlefield." The cartpaths and meandering rutted drives of the GBMA were replaced with Telfordized grand avenues, enclosed with post and pipe fences, whose shoulders were protected by paved gutters, shell stones and guard chains, and regulatory signs. Cannon were mounted on cast iron carriages and attached to foundation stones as permanent markers of the artillery units who were engaged there. Observation towers were erected at the four corners of the battlefield and at its center in Ziegler's Grove to afford the military student and the casual visitor alike a comprehensive view and appreciation of the entire battlefield and its tactics. Monuments along public roads were enclosed and protected with special fencing which proclaimed the authority and ownership of the Government. Everywhere was to be seen a reminder of the formal military nature of the place— upraised cannon for headquarters markers, artillery shells mounted on stones to serve as "guardrails" and hitching posts, and war eagles mounted on entrance gates.

But the Commission also strove to preserve and restore topographic conditions which existed at the time of the 1863 battle. Where possible, they avoided blasting boulders or cutting historic trees and rerouted the design of avenues to save as many of those features as they could. Before excavating a grade, the Commission invariably raised the grade and erected retaining walls in order to maintain historic conditions, boulders, vegetation, and any archeological resources. Trees were planted to restore denuded portions of the battlefield, such as at Ziegler's Grove, Pitzer's Woods, and Schultz's Woods.

Although there were some detractors they were few. One such commentary was provided in a 1903 letter to a newspaper, deriding the "bad sculpture" and the "forest of monuments and markers" on the battlefield, making it unrecognizable to the veteran participant. According to this observer, "it is easy to overdo and overelaborate; and so American! Gettysburg has been elaborated until its topography is lost and its atmosphere is no longer its own. . . . The field at Gettysburg has been obscured and made grotesque, and the people have become mercenaries and extortioners. . . ." [24]

But the overwhelming opinion of the public was supportive, and everywhere they looked upon the improvements by the Commission they were electrified by the changes. Even the local citizenry was gratified by the "new look." One Gettysburg newspaper looked forward to the increase in visitation because the battlefield was being made "a great park with its fine drives and interesting monuments." [25] Another local paper wrote that

"No one can fail to notice the marked improvement of the field in recent years. The Battlefield Commission deserves a great deal of praise for the faithful work done on the field in recent years. Visitors to Gettysburg universally go away with an excellent opinion of the field. It is a fact also that the veteran organizations after visiting the field have praised the work of the Commissioners in unstinted terms." [26]

The local G.A.R. Post, Corporal Skelly Post No. 9, wrote to the Secretary of War, wanting to add its "commendation to the many tributes of respect and esteem, already sent to you in behalf of the Commissioners. . . ." The Post took "great pleasure" in commending the Commissioners "in the highest terms" for the "substantial and thorough manner in which the work is conducted." [27] And yet another town paper was quick to note that the battlefield was "rapidly becoming recognized as the most thoroughly marked, most beautiful and altogether the most interesting of the battlefields of the Nation." [28]

The national press was just as electrified and just as enthusiastic for the changes wrought by the Commission. Of the many tributes to this work, one of the most representative is the following:

"To the Gettysburg Commission is due the great credit of beautifying and converting into a grand picture this historic field, and of perpetuating it as a great patriotic lesson for all time. The Government and the various States and Secretary Root have given ample and substantial ad in the work, but the great success of the execution of the task is due to the commission's intelligent and untiring labors." [29]

Men of note also endorsed the exertions which were being made by the Commissioners. Charles L. Young, a former member of the board of directors of the GBMA, wrote to Colonel Nicholson in 1903 to let him know, "I fully appreciate the magnitude and value of the work. Your Commission has certainly not wasted time nor money. No such accomplishment as that, in the world, has been achieved equal to yours. We sincerely congratulate you." [30] After a visit to the field, distinguished visitors such as Postmaster General Payne and Treasury Secretary Shaw expressed "pleasure in the work and manner in which the field was being improved." [31] And the Secretary of War, who oversaw the work at this and the other battlefield parks, had to state that "without disparaging others, he thought he could safely say it was the best and most economically administered branch of the War Department." [32]

But it was the veterans and the military who were most effusive in their high regard for the new appearance of the national park. As a newspaper had noted:

"It has only been within a few years that the government has taken this great work in hand, and it is most fortunate in having as commissioners Colonel John P. Nicholson, Major Charles A. Richardson and Major William A. [sic] Robbins, who are not only thoroughly competent for the task, but have made their work a labor of love. . . . Especially are the veterans of the war interested in the progress of this work. . . ." [33]

Resolution followed resolution as veterans' associations vied with each other in becoming the most ardent and vocal supporters of the Commission. The Society of the Army of the Potomac, the State and National Grand Army of the Republic, the United Confederate Veterans—all praised the work that was being done by the Commissioners and urged that it continue. The Army-Navy Register proclaimed in its columns that the "development of the old battlefield into one of the most picturesque of parks is a work which reflects great credit upon the commission." [34]

Battle veterans such as corps commander General O. O. Howard and battery commander Captan John Bigelow also wished to express personal satisfaction over the changes. Howard, who had visited the battlefield during GBMA days, wrote to Secretary of War Eilihu Root on October 30, 1899 to tell of a recent visit: "Everywhere I saw evidence of faithful work on the part of the Commissioners." He noted the newly completed avenues, the Confederate batteries, the "fine" tablets with appropriate inscriptions, the 200 or more cannon mounted on the field where they were located during the battle. "Of course I am not an inspector, but I wish to congratulate the Department on this wonderful object lesson of Gettysburg, and to express my appreciation of the diligence and effective efforts of your Commissioners." [35] Captan Bigeilow, earlier a vocal opponent of the Commission over the naming of United States Avenue, examined the annual report of the Park for 1900 and found himself writing to the Commission:

"Many friends from this section of the country have visited the Battlefield and all return enthusiastic over the object lesson you have prepared for them and future generations. . . . The good work done by your Commission in making points of interest easily accessible; in preserving the natural surface and appearance of the country as it was in 1863; in the dignified and appropriate character of your markers, tablets, iron gun carriages, etc., and in your making roads along the Confederate lines. . . is very satisfactory and receives general commendation." [36]

And, after a visit to the park in 1903 by Acting Secretary of War Robert Shaw Oliver with ranking officers of the British Army, an even more imaginative type of commendation was received by the Commission. Colonel Nicholson was eager to inform Colonel Cope of this commendation the day after the party returned to Washington:

"It will, I am sure, be a satisfaction to you to know that never did people visit Gettysburg who were more enthusiastic over the Field than the Acting Secretary of War and General [Ian] Hamilton. General Hamilton assured me at Antietam yesterday that the contrast was so wonderful and lifted Gettysburg up to an extent that was indescribable in his mind, and he stated to the Acting Secretary of War that in his entire visit to America nothing had impressed him so much as the Battlefield of Gettysburg and the system and arrangement of the same; whilst the Acting Secretary of War stated that it was the happiest day of his life, not even excepting his wedding day." [37]

To Colonel Nicholson, especially, was due special praise. His Philadelphia community was proud of its native son and the press proclaimed that "when his great work shall have been completed it will stand as a monument to his patriotic and enlightened efforts, as enduring as the monuments on the field to the great actors of that desperate conflict." [38] Of all the commissioners, he is the only one to have his own personal memorial at Gettysburg, located on the most spectacular of the avenues created by the Commission—Hancock Avenue.

The reporter for the soldiers' orphans school in nearby Scotland, Pennsylvania, had the last word when it came to praising and assessing the contributions of the Commissioners to the battlefield of Gettysburg:

"No other state or nation has adorned and beautified a battlefield or made it such an object of interest to the future generation as has been done to Gettysburg. . . . It would be a matter of interest to know what effect this vast expenditure of money, historic study and the creation of hundreds of permanent works of art, will have on the future generations of the American people. It cannot fail to keep alive a martial spirit, to encourage the study and effect a more perfect understanding of the greatest war epoch in the history of the country, and to stimulate a love of art in a crude but popular form. The people at large have as yet not a full knowledge of what has been done in the way of marking and adorning these battlefields, but their knowledge is widening each year and their acquaintance with it will become more perfect as time rolls on." [39]

NOTES

"Monument at Gettysburgh, Pa." Report No. 2069 of Committee on the Library (May 21, 1890), 51st Congress, 1st Session.

2 H.R. 4972 (January 14, 1890), 51st Congress, 1st Session.

3 S. 2188 (January 21, 1890), 51st Congress, 1st Session.

4 "Battle Lines at Gettysburg," Report No. 3024 of Military Affairs Committee (August 27, 1890), 51st Congress, 1st Session, p. 2.

5 Ibid., pp. 3, 6.

6 Journal of William McKendree Robbins (December 22, 1894), GNMP archives.

7 Report No. 382 of the Committee on Military Affairs (March 17, 1880), 46th Congress, 2d Session, p. 1.

8 Ibid., pp. 2-3.

9 The Press (June 22, 1888).

10 S. 2188, "A Bill for marking the lines of battle and positions of troops of the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburgh, Pa." as amended (December 15, 1890), 51st Congress, 2d Session, pp. 2-4.

11 52d Congress, 1st Session.

12 Colonel John M. Wilson to Secretary of War (May 2, 1888), in Payments Made to J.B. Bachelder, Gettysburg NMP archives, pp. 1, 3.

13 "Legislative Record" (February 15, 1893).

14 "Gettysburg Battlefield. Report to accompany S. 2914," Report No. 2188 of Committee of Military Affairs (December 21, 1892), 52d Congress, 2d Session, pp. 1-2.

15 Philadelphia Inquirer (March 9, 1893).

16 "A Practical Remedy for the Gettysburg Trouble," Philadelphia Inquirer (May 31, 1893).

1717 H.R. 5772 (February 13, 1894), 53d Congress, 2d session.

18 "The Gettysburg Monument Commission," Ledger and Transcript (December 30, 1887, May 27, 1889); The Times (April 11, 12 and June 6, 1888).

19 "A Boom for Colonel Nicholson," The Press (April 29, 1893).

20 "A Practical Remedy for the Gettysburg Trouble."

21 The Tribune (Snyder County), (March 15, 1893).

22 Journal of William McK. Robbins (October 25, 1895).

23 H.R. 5835, "A Bill to provide for a national park and military reservation, embracing the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania" (February 16, 1894); H.R. 8096, "A Bill to establish a National Military Park at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania" (December 6, 1894), 53d Congress, 3d Session.

24 W. H. Shelton, "Overelaboration of Our Battlefields," The Sun (September 30, 1903).

25 "Battlefield Land Condemnation" The Gettysburg News (n.d., May-June 1903).

26 "Work of the Battlefield Commission," Star and Sentinel (December 12, 1900).

27 Simon P. Stover, Post Commander, to Secretary of War (January 14, 1900), in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 80.

28 "Visiting Gettysburg," The Compiler (April 24, 1900).

29 "The Gettysburg Commission," The Press (December 7, 1900), in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 79.

30 "Compliment to Battlefield Commission," Star and Sentinel (February 11, 1903).

31 The North American (May 25, 1903).

32 "Gettysburg Field," (c. 1901) in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 98.

33 "The Gettysburg Battlefield," The Times (October 25, 1899), in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 12.

34 (December 1, 1900), in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 78.

35 "Gettysburg Park," The Compiler (November 7, 1899).

36 "Gettysburg National Park," The Compiler (March 5, 1901).

37 John P. Nicholson to Colonel E. B. Cope (October 14, 1903), GNMP archives.

38 "Complete the Gettysburg Work," Philadelphia Times quoted in the Adams County Independent (December 15, 1900) in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3, p. 82.

39 "The Gettysburg Battle-field," Industrial School News (November 23, 1899), in Gettysburg Newspaper Clippings, vol. 3. p. 16.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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"Visiting Gettysburg," The Compiler (April 24, 1900).

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