MILITARY Writers Society of America's Gettysburg Writers Retreat Tuesday-Thursday, may 24 - 26, 2016 At the Gettysburg Battlefield B&B 2264 Emmitsburg RD - Gettysburg, PA
Open to historians, researchers, authors, journalists, bloggers, photographers, artists, and educators. Opportunity to submit resulting articles, photographs, and essays for Military Writers Society of America publications.
Choose from more than forty topics to research while in Gettysburg or focus on your own topic if you are currently working on a private project. Includes a substantial reading list in preparation for the event as well as maps and expert contacts.
Contact MWSAPresident@gmail.com to register!
- MWSA and AAA Member - share a room and save - $575
- MWSA Members alone or with spouse - single room - $650
- Non-members - $675
Limited to 30 participants! Only 1 suite left. Reserve your place now with $100 deposit. Final payment due April 1, 2016.
Price includes two nights' accomodation at the Battlefield B&B or the Lightner, lectures by local historians and speakers with special expertise and information about the era, two formal breakfasts, a two-hour bus tour of the Battlefield and a walking tour of the historic town of Gettysburg, individual research adventures in private cars, small group discussions on topics of interest to participants, a reading list, and a dinner at the B&B.
Additional and optional costs will be small group lunches during research and explorations and an introductory brunch at a local restaurant on May 24, 2016.
If you are new to Gettysburg, you are entering a fascinating microcosm of human drama that arcs across centuries. If you've researched the area before, you know there is an unending number of perspectives to enhance your storytelling. Discover new tales or aspects of known events. Visit the actual sites pertinent to your investigations. Question experts. Explore the town, National Military Park, Visitor Museums, and other locations with small groups of like-minded writers or photographers. Work on your own or with others as you please.
Meet MWSA Moderators
Bob Doerr
Before becoming a full time author, multi-award winning author Bob Doerr specialized in military counterintelligence and criminal investigations for 28 years. His published works include eight mystery/thrillers that have garnered a variety of awards and three fantasy novellas for middle grade readers. One of his Jim West mysteries, No One Else to Kill, was a winner in the 2013 Eric Hoffer Awards. The Military Writers Society of America selected Bob as its Author of the Year for 2013.
Jack Woodville Londom
MWSA Director of Education, MWSA Programming Committee, multi award-winning author, MWSA Author of the Year 2011
Joyce Faulkner
Chair of Programming Committee, award-winning author, Designer of MWSA Dispatches and MWSA annual anthology, MWSA President 2009-2013.
Meet Florence March, owner of the Battlefield B&B and your host.
Battlefield Bed and Breakfast is an 1809 Pennsylvania fieldstone farmhouse. This farmhouse was a quiet observer as history swirled around its peaceful farmland. Innkeeper Florence March will tell the stories of abolitionist Cornelius Houghtelin, architect Frank Furness, and cavalry commander and military governor of the Philippines Wesley Merritt. In one brief interval of time, the lives of all these people touched this quiet farmhouse.
Meet Dale Fetzer
- Author: numerous articles, columnist Daily Local News 1997 - 1999, Unlikely Allies 2000.
- Film Advisor: Lincoln, the Mini Series
- Glory (Assistant Technical Advisor)
- Ironclads (Assistent Trchnical Advisor)
- The Life and Times of Charlie Putz (Associate Producer, 1st Assistant Director)
- The Last of the Mohicans (Technical Advisor and Reenactor Coordinator)
- Gettysburg (Historian and Military Choreographer)
- Avenging Angels (Technical Advisor)
- Andersonville (Historian and Military Choreographer)
- Silo 3 Jane (Technical Advisor)
- Ride with the Devil (Historian)
- Historic Site Affiliation: Fort Mifflin, Fort Delaware
- Retired from the History Business 2002
- Employed by Apple, Inc. 2003 - present
Meet Maggie Abbott Fowler
Talk with expert historical fashion expert Maggie Abbott Fowler who will discuss Victorian era styles and enjoy a display of clothing reproductions. Maggie will be available to discuss this topic in detail for those with special interest. Maggie has been a history addict since a child listening to stories of ancestry from both her grandparents and her mother. Also an avid seamstress since the age of 5, she began studying and then constructing period clothing in the 1980's, going on to work professionally in DC theatre, and even has a PBS film to her credit. After 30+ years in the field of teaching, she has gone back to school to start a new career but makes time to speak to those interested in the nuances and depth of 19th century/American Civil War history as it pertains to women, their life styles including fashion and lifestyles.
Learn about the two first ladies -- Mary Todd Lincoln and Varina Howell Davis.
General Research Topics:
- Frank Furness - eab/rb
- The Underground Railroad
- Soldiers' Kit
- Civil War Fashion
- Oliver Wendell Holmes at Gettysburg
- Hettie Shriver
- John Burns
- Seminary Ridge
- The Eternal Flame
- Elizabeth Thorn
- The High Water Mark
- Photography During the Battle
- Gettysburg Artists
- Basil Biggs
- Cornelius Houghtelin
- Lora A. Hudson Bissell
- The Coster Avenue Mural
- Unknown Soldier at the Railway Cut
- Finding an Ancestor who was involved in the great drama of Gettysburg
- 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg
- David Wills House
- Witness Trees
- Penelope On Baltimore Street And the Gettysburg Compiler
- Sachs Bridge
- The Soldiers' National Committee
Union Research Stories:
- Samuel Wylie Crawford and the charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves
- Flag Communication
- Dan Sickles
- Clara Barton
- Union Monuments and Symbolism
- The boy major and Benner Hill
- Sallie the War Dog
- Union Color Bearers
- Paul Revere and the 20th Massachusetts
- Abraham Brian
- Rush's Lancers
- Private John Chase
- George Armstrong Custer
- Alonzo Cushing
- The Pipe Creek Circular
Confederate Research Topics
- Confederate Monuments and Symbolism
- Devil of Devils Den
- Lee's Retreat
- Iverson's Pits
- Gettysburg Shoe Factory
- James Francis Crocker
- Confederate Color Bearers
- "Slave Hunt" of Gettysburg Campaign
- Longstreet's Monument
- Vannoy H. Manning
- Third Arkansas - jrrf
- John Bell Hood
- Confederate Ambulance Corps
- Confederate Dead
Enjoy lectures by local historians.
Meet Gerald Eak
- Retired Judge, State of New Jersey
- U.S.Regular Army Veteran (8 yrs. service)
- Former Captain, Judge Advocate General's Corps
- Instructor at The U.S. Army Logistics Management Center, Ft. Lee, VA
- Former Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ocean County College (NJ)
- Gettysburg Licensed Town Historian
- Member of The Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association
- Graduate St. Peter's College (NJ), Fordham University School of Law (NY), University of Virginia, JAGC School.
The Walking Tour will explore the trials and tribulations of the civilian population of Gettysburg before, during, and after the events of July 1-3, 1863. The first day of the battle was fought in the town and the Confederate Army occupied it until it withdrew after it's defeat on July 3. We will examine the unsung heroes - the women and children of Gettysburg and their interaction with the soldiers. This is a civilian oriented tour to give the visitor the other side of the Battle of Gettysburg. We will also walk in Abraham Lincoln's footsteps on the day of the Gettysburg address.
Meet Michael Vice
Mike Vice lives in Gettysburg, PA where he spent 10 years of his 30 year plus military museum career as Chief Curator of Gettysburg National Military Park, one of the largest Civil War artifact collections in the nation. Mike’s life long interest in Civil War history began in his native Texas with his participation as a teenager in Civil War living history during the Civil War Centennial. Following his service in the VietnamWar as an US Army Infantry Officer he entered the professional museum field working both in the Army Museum System and the National Park Service.
While retired Mike holds several part-time jobs including doing history programs on Confederate and Federal soldier life programs and continuing research in military history. He’s co-authored a book on CrimeanWar artifacts and has just completed research work on a Custer, Little Big Horn, Sioux Campaign 1876-77 artifact book due to be published in the spring of 2016.
Meet Michal Chambers
Learn about what American Civil War footsoldiers wore, what they drank, what they carried in their rucksacks, how they cooked their food, cleansed their wounds, what they smoked, the weapons they used. At the end of Michael's lecture, those who are interested can learn how to fire a musket.
Relax with colleagues on the grounds of the B&B and discuss research, architecture, battle strategies, weaponry, clothing, food, the armies, the townsfolk, medicine, gallantry, failures, triumphs, monuments, written and unwritten history, and ghosts.
Ghosts, Ghosts, Ghosts
Special MWSA Gettysburg Retreat Private Facebook Group where retreat participants can get to know each other prior to the event and retain connections afterward.
Share results of your research before and after dinner in the Atrium at the Battlefield B&B on May, 25, 2016
Enjoy Gettysburg Restaurants.
The Farnsworth
Dobbin House