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Gettysburg program will examine letters from families seeking Civil War dead

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A Gettysburg program later this month will focus on letters written by families searching for relatives who disappeared during the Civil War. The Gettysburg History organization says “The Lost Letters of Dr. J.W.C. O’Neal” is scheduled for Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The event will take place at the Battlefield Overlook Event Center, 625 Biglerville Road. Gettysburg History lists admission at $10 for members and $20 for the public, with advance registration required.

The letters were donated to the Gettysburg History collection in August 2026. The organization says the group includes more than 40 original letters connected with Dr. John W. C. O’Neal and the families who sought information about missing soldiers.

O’Neal was a Gettysburg physician who became involved in efforts to identify and recover soldiers’ remains after the battle. The collection’s background page says the letters document families’ attempts to learn what happened to loved ones.

The program is planned as a panel discussion with historian Tim Smith, Adams County Historical Society executive director Wayne Motts, and Gettysburg History executive director Andrew Dalton, according to the event listing.

Attendees are also expected to have an opportunity to view selected original letters. The organization says the papers offer a window into the difficult work of locating the dead and communicating with families in the years after the battle.

The Washington Post’s report on the donation described the letters as an unusual record of families continuing to search for missing relatives long after the fighting ended. That broader context makes the collection relevant beyond the biography of one local doctor.

The program will bring together the letters’ local history and the personal questions they preserve: where a soldier died, whether his body was found, and what could be told to the people waiting at home. Gettysburg History says registration is required; readers can check its event page for availability.

Sources: Gettysburg History event page · Gettysburg History collection background · The Washington Post report on the donation

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