Looking Back
Adams County’s Forgotten Centennial by James Rada When Adams County, Pennsylvania, turned 100, no one cared enough to throw a party. While surrounding counties celebrated various anniversaries in the late 19th century, Adams County’s big anniversary—its centennial—went relatively unrecognized and uncelebrated. As Adams County’s centennial approached, a group of public-spirited citizens met in the mid-1890s…
The Great Divide
How the Breakup of a Continent Helped Prevent the Breakup of a Country Richard D. L. Fulton The Battle of Gettysburg, which resulted in an important stalemate between Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac on July 1 through July 3, 1863, prevented…
Battle of Gettysburg
The Day the South Won Richard D. L. Fulton Based on The Last to Fall: The 1922 March, Battles, & Deaths of U.S. Marines at Gettysburg by Richard D. L. Fulton and James Rada, Jr. We have all been taught that the South “lost” the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, fought when the Confederate Army of…
The Great Fire of Emmitsburg
June 15, 1863 Robert M. Preston This article was written in 1989 by Emmitsburg’s then-Mayor for the Emmitsburg Chronicle’s Town of Emmitsburg 1989 Directory & Map. It is printed here with permission from Robert M. Preston and family. As one looks at the beauty of downtown Emmitsburg today, try to picture the Square area 125…
Looking Back-1913
by James Rada, Jr. Thurmont’s Part in the 50th Gettysburg Reunion Three hundred cavalrymen rode through Thurmont on June 25, 1913. They arrived on Western Maryland Railroad from Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia. They unloaded their mounts from the train and rode through the town on Wednesday morning. They were part of the second invasion…
mountain talk
by Chris O’Connor A Sketch of An Artist Artists are visual historians with the ability to record, enhance, or influence the human condition with a variety of media—paints, charcoal, pencil, pen, ink—on a variety of surfaces, from cave walls to homes to houses of worship to the polished corridors of galleries all over the globe.…
New Museum Remembering Battle of Monterey Pass in Blue Ridge Summit
James Rada, Jr. As the Confederate Army retreated from Gettysburg on July 4, 1863, they encountered Union troops in the area of Blue Ridge Summit. A two-day battle ensued in the middle of a thunderstorm that eventually spilled over the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland. “It is the only battle fought on both sides of the…
looking back
by James Rada, Jr. — 1938 — The End of a Generation in Thurmont When Thomas H. Shelton died on February 19, 1938, Frederick County lost its last Veteran of the Civil War, seventy-three years after the war ended. Shelton died at the home of his daughter-in-law, Stella Shelton, who lived near Rocky Ridge. The…
