It was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. But the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg proved to be both the turning point of the war, and a battle in which Vermont soldiers played a pivotal role. We're listening back to a conversation which first aired in 2017 with historian Howard Coffin about the role of Vermonters at Gettysburg and other battles in the Civil War.
Coffin is the author of several books on Vermonters and the Civil War, including Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont, Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War, Nine Months to Gettysburg, and The Battered Stars.
Coffin talks about Vermont sharpshooters and how their remarkable marksmanship became a formidable force in the Union's arsenal, the decisive role Vermont soldiers played in the final day of Gettysburg in defeating Pickett's Charge and his own research about what those sharpshooters did during the battle's second day that helped secure the Union victory.
We'll also hear from Bill Kaigle of the Milton Historical Society about efforts to preserve the home once owned by Vermont General George Stannard.
Since the program originally aired in 2017, Kaigle says the General Stannard House Committee completely disassembled General Stannard's house and in the spring of 2019 placed the building into storage at the Town of Milton's historic Bombardier Barn.
Kaigle says the organization hopes to raise about $150,000 toward re-siting — and reconstructing — the house on its original site along Bombardier Road, pending approval from the Town of Milton.
Broadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
