Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust

Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story
2013-11-13 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Duportail House, 297 Adams Drive, Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, 19087
Released during this 150th anniversary of the epic battle of Gettysburg, Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story tells the story of the heroic defenders of the Union and especially the Philadelphia Brigade and its commander General Alexander Webb. Webb won a Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor that afternoon and later became President of the City College of New York. With the outcome of the Civil War in the balance, Webb and his fellow soldiers stopped the Confederates at a spot known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy and saved the Union.

J. Howard Wert was a soldier, educator and author born in Gettysburg in 1841. During the Gettysburg campaign, Wert who was a special scout for the Union, was detained by Confederate troops but escaped and aided General Meade’s Union troops. After the battle Wert and Frank Haskell, a member of General Gibbon’s staff, rode over the battlefield and Wert began collecting items from the battle. He continued collecting for years. Wert wrote a guidebook and authored other articles about the battle of Gettysburg. Noted Civil War author Ed Bearss wrote of Wert, “Wert walked in the very footsteps of history … but most of all he was a patriot.” Pickett’s Charge explores what the Union soldiers endured during the charge by the Southern forces.

“About four years ago I stood near what is known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy and looked across the field where the charge took place. I knew a lot about why Lee had to make the charge, General Longstreet’s reluctance to make the charge and the Confederate soldiers that took part in the charge,” said author Bruce E. Mowday. “As I looked to my left I realized I knew little of the Union defenders. They had a gallant story to tell.” Mowday spent three years doing research at the Gettysburg National Park, PA Historical Society, Union League in Philadelphia and other reference libraries.

Copies of Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story and other Mowday books (price range $17 – $22), will be available for purchase and author signing at the lecture

Pennsylvania Keystone Markers … Symbols of our Past and Bright Future
2013-10-16 19:00 - 21:00
The Keystone Marker Trust was founded in 2010 to protect the historic keystone-shaped town marker signs of Pennsylvania. These signs, typically painted blue and yellow, are found throughout the Commonwealth and were installed starting in the mid-1920s by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways, the predecessor to PennDOT. Though many towns have adopted and cared for their markers, there was no central group to advocate for them until the formation of the Trust. In addition to documenting and restoring historic markers, the Trust has also begun making new Keystone Markers for the first time in about 70 years, which are accurate in appearance to the originals.

Founding members of the Trust, Nathaniel Guest and Greg Prichard will speak about the history of Keystone Markers, their meaning, an overview of Keystone Markers found on the Main Line, the work of the Trust, and the process by which new reproduction markers are created.
