by Mike Koziski
For the past 43 years, the upkeep and installation of Civil War hospital signs in and around Gettysburg has been a labor of love for the volunteers at Historic Gettysburg Adams County.
During the three-day Battle of Gettysburg many homes, barns, churches and public buildings were pressed into service as Union and Confederate field hospitals. While the battle lasted three days, the pain and suffering of those in the field hospitals continued until November 1863, when the last hospital, Camp Letterman, closed. The ordeals of the wounded soldiers and those who cared for them in the field hospitals deeply affected the Gettysburg community.
Beginning in 1983, HGAC undertook a project to install signs marking the sites of these field hospitals, many of them outside the boundaries of the National Battlefield Park. The original signs were metal and by 2001, needed replacement with new metal signs. Twenty years later, many of those updated signs once again needed replacement.
A new partnership was then forged in 2022, as HGAC began working with students from the Gettysburg Area High School (GAHS) Technology Education Program to fabricate the new hospital signs. This partnership grew out of HGAC’s Bonnie Braun Investing in Youth Initiative program, with the goal of fostering interest in historic preservation and restoration among the younger generation — and encouraging appreciation for our area’s history.
Under the direction of GAHS Technology Education teacher Stan Licharowicz, students Elliott Walker, Cole Redding and Logan Moseley designed and constructed a prototype sign using Corian, a solid surface material made from a combination of acrylic resin and natural minerals. After seeing the results, HGAC requested the students take on producing replacement signs, which were then installed by HGAC volunteers. This year, the replacement program which began in 2022 was completed, after students finished making 43 signs.
As part of those 43 manufactured signs, 11 have been placed at various sites throughout the Gettysburg National Military Park. Placement was coordinated with the National Park Service and two more signs were placed on Gettysburg Foundation property at the George Spangler Farm.
Many sincere thanks go out to all the GAHS students who participated in HGAC’s project since 2022!
HGAC is pleased to announce that not only has it completed the sign replacement project, but also that its long-awaited updated “Battle of Gettysburg Civil War Field Hospital Guide” has now been published.
The new guide includes 48 field hospital sites, 13 more than the 2001 edition, as well as an updated map created by HGAC Preservation chair Curt Musselman. New photographs in the booklet have been taken by award-winning photographer Andrew Muenzfeld. To order, check the webpage at HGAConline.org for more information.
Back in 2001, HGAC and the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania published the “Gettysburg Civil War Field Hospital Tour” booklet for those who wished to visit the area’s hospital sites. The new guide by HGAC replaces that booklet.
The new guide concentrates on listing the sites that were designated field hospitals by the commands of both the Union and Confederate armies. The wounded from the battle were treated in dozens of homes and buildings in Gettysburg, but many of these locations were not awarded field hospital status (where surgeries and amputations were performed) and therefore are not listed in the guide — including HGAC’s headquarters, the Grand Army of the Republic Building on East Middle Street, where wounded soldiers were treated, but did not serve as a field hospital.
— Mike Koziski is the coordinator for HGAC’s Civil War Hospital Signs project