In Gettysburg with Stephen Lang | History Traveler Episode 289

foreign [Music] Gettysburg Pennsylvania and we're out here for the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and holy smokes uh this place has been crazy this is my first time being out here for an anniversary and it has been a blast there's been so much that's been going on I'm standing right over here close to Barlow's Knoll you can see in the background which is right by the Adams County Historical societies beyond the battle Museum all kinds of special things that are going on in Gettysburg this weekend here at the Museum the West Point museum has brought in some pretty cool artifacts that we're going to go in and take a look at they also have a special guest who's going to be here today who contributed a lot to the experience of the museum you probably recognize him from films like Avatar or is Ike Clanton and Tombstone my personal favorite movie or the the flamboyant General George Pickett in the movie Gettysburg today we're going to take a little tour through the museum with uh none other than Steven Lang foreign [Music] so as you can see got some things going on here this morning I think that Stephen Lang is going to be firing off the the new cannon that they have here in the museum and then we're going to go inside and and check out some things that are going on in there and holy smokes yeah looks like uh looks like Stephen Lang just rolled in [Music] very good okay all right same thing I'll say make ready get your head up fire [Applause] over here sure come on fellas who's on this gun crew come on up and do a photo that's great all right all right uh we're getting ready to dodge into the museum now Steven has a few things that he is going to be doing he's going to be taking a tour of the museum uh but first want to go in and show some of the things that the West Point museum has brought out here just for the 160th anniversary [Music] uh we're out at the Adams County Historical Society we've been out here before done a few videos but during the anniversaries there's all kinds of cool things that happen here and one of the things they have going on here at the Museum is a partnership with the West Point Museum and uh I really wanted to show some of the artifacts of the West Point Museum brought out yeah all right so here's what I'm talking about of course the the West Point museum has things here so they're going to be bringing items that are connected with West Point and what we're looking at is a guide on for Battery D of the fifth U.S artillery they were also known as the West Point battery and then also if you are familiar with the Battle of Gettysburg well you're probably familiar with the story of John Reynolds who was killed on the first day of the battle what you may not know is that when hostilities broke out right before the Civil War well Reynolds was actually the commandant at West Point hi everyone my name is Aaron I am here with the West Point Museum at the amazing new facility uh that is the Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg we do want to thank them for having us out and I brought with me today some of our most rare and unique artifacts that are either related to or were present at the Battle of Gettysburg so we've got everything from Cadet life Cadet photographs uh photos and prints of West Point what West Point looks like in West Point life all the way down to Prince of the Battle of Gettysburg and some of the artifacts that were here so I guess as long as I'm down here let me let me give you a little intro what we have so some of you that might have might have been following us here today over the weekend you might have seen well for instance one of my favorite artifacts General Warren's field glasses that he used on a little round top so we took those up to little Roundtop yesterday morning for the first time in 160 years and unfortunately that's the last time they're going up there because Unfortunately they uh they aren't in the greatest of shape so we're honored to have the occasion to bring these items back to us of course we've also got a pistol holster that belonged to Lieutenant George Woodruff a class of 1861 May of 1861 and he graduated he goes on commissions into the artillery but unfortunately during Pickett's Charge on July 3rd he has mortally wounded now I'm going to tie that into another another artifact we have down here but let me go on for some more so speaking of Pickett's Charge we have a cane made for uh General Alexander Webb that was produced by the members of his Brigade out of a Confederate Flag Staff that was captured during Pickett's Charge by Pickett's most advanced Virginia regiment on July 3rd 1863. continuing with our warrant theme we have his General officer sash General Warren sash that is not General Webbs and this is what we believe you might have been wearing with him in this Photograph over or this drawing for instance of him on little round top so General Warren Sasha was donated by his daughter Emily and of course you know one of our our prize artifacts here is the slouch hat that belonged to General Warren uh this is uh this is a hat that was at least in possession of General Warren or I'm sorry General Sedgwick um at the time of his death that the Battle of Spotsylvania courthouse in May you know 1864 so about a year after the uh the battle here so this was donated by another West Point graduate Emory Upton a couple decades after the war it remained in his possession uh for quite a quite a bit of time so now we're kind of straying away from the battle a little bit more but before we get away from the battle let's talk about some of the artifacts that pertain to the battle as well we have a sword here that belonged to uh captain during the battle Captain John C tidbel tidbel was commanding a brigade as a captain of horse artillery here in the uh the Battle of Gettysburg and he would have carried the sword with him to the battle also present at the battle over at sherfy's sherfy's Farm in the peach orchard was this cap that belonged to an officer in the 114th Pennsylvania affectionately known as calluses zuavs now many of you many of our are esteemed uh history history comrades out there are very familiar with other goings-on in the Civil War at this time so we've got The Siege of Vicksburg now we've got this shoulder strap here of Major General Ulysses S Grant he would have been wearing this particular shoulder board during The Siege of Vicksburg Mississippi that's going on concurrently to the Battle of Gettysburg or should I say coming to an end so it'll come to an end on July 4th now what's rewind let's let's talk about a little pre-war stuff so we've got the 1855 epaulets they full address uniform uh that belong to then newly minted Captain Alfred Pleasanton now he uh he was a newly minted Captain the second dragoons in 1855. immaculately preserved and we're very fortunate to have those she was a Cavalry Corps Commander here at the battle [Music] foreign to have in our collections the Medal of Honor belonging to General Alexander Webb now Alexander Webb was in command of troops during Pickett's Charge we've got a lot of connection to Pickett's Charge here uh and that's because General Webb his role in in Pickett's Charge he lets troops so successfully that in 1891 the the Congress of the United States awarded him the Medal of Honor for his actions that day now many of you might be wondering hey that's not a civil war Medal of Honor well that's correct so this is uh this is General Webb's replacement Medal of Honor that he would have received the model of 1904. so if you zoom in and you'll look closely you'll notice there are some differences to the Medal of Honor between what we see today so for instance 2008 when uh Alonzo Cushing received his Medal of Honor you'll notice that the stars are kind of obstructed by the brown ass that is hanging from this device well nowadays so that's called a rosary and those 13 stripes or 13 stars are actually now going to be more visible so it looks more neat so we like I said before we've got a lot of items that pertain to the Battle of Gettysburg Civil War history and memory but we also stem to the left and right of it and cover American history that stems all the way back to our war of independence all the way up until the war on terror thank you [Music] all right we just got into the museum here now as you walk into the museum there's a little program that plays on The Devil's Den rocks and it kind of tells a little bit of the backstory of Gettysburg uh well The Man Who provided the voice over for this part of the museum with Stephen Lang so he's going to be coming in in a second and is going to be seeing this for the first time in the beginning was the land unstoried unenhanced [Music] shaped by powerful forces mighty and minute life came Great and Small hopefully then came the dream of a land where we the people are endowed with the right to rise the land and the dream Drew us here the dream became the pursuit of life Liberty happiness here on this land and so the Story begins [Music] foreign [Music] we've done a few videos here at the beyond the battle Museum and if you've watched those videos you know that there's an immersive experience inside of the museum called caught in the crossfire where you're literally in the shoes of a family whose home is like right in the middle of battle so you're kind of seeing things as they see it anyway uh Steven and his crew just went in there to check that out I decided to kind of hang back and just let them enjoy that experience but yeah anxious to hear what he thinks about it [Music] on my first visit to the museum I don't think that I showed this one of the well-known residents of Gettysburg was Thaddeus Stevens he was played by Tommy Lee Jones in the movie Lincoln and here they have a chair that sat in the law office of Thaddeus Stevens and they also have some books that belong to Thaddeus Stevens yeah pretty cool when you walk out too you'll see the back wall the back wall we had uh Scenic artists from the museum designed this to kind of appear as a battle damaged house would have appeared and we invented real bullets from the battle in the walls and canister and shells what did you think of the immersive experience it's Unique a totally unique experience very convincing it makes your heart palpitate a bit I think a lot of it the sound is is is is is very very uh effective but also the the Tremors the physical Tremors and the floor and everything the pounding and everything is is very dramatic it has the same kind of effect on you that um uh you know that a really good movie has on you kind of gets you going but what's so unique about it is that this is not primarily a visual experience there is no movie here it's it's it's really kind of operating on different senses you know it's really operating on the ears and on the on the kind of the lack of of sight and uh um and I guess on the uh on just the power of the imagination because you're imagining what's going on outside you know it's very Vivid beautiful thank you so much beautiful really beautiful yeah and this is never experiencing like it uh quite like it before yeah yeah I think it's going to be very very popular with people thank you [Music] proud of the head to church around [Music] it's the ending thank you hi it's terrific Museum thank you so much thank you for what you've given to it it's not really enhanced it I had no idea I'll send the bill soon I thought we'd give you a slice of pizza right that was that Margarita Pizza no it's just great thank you it was great it means a lot really it's gonna do just great it has we've opened in April we've already had 10 000 visitors so we're doing well wow so much [Music] all right well that was uh pretty dang cool I don't get to hang out with Stephen Lang very often and by very often I mean ever but it was really neat to see this guy who has really contributed so much to uh you know the the town of Gettysburg and you know people's uh interest in the battle he's also written a children's book on the the wheat field that you definitely need to check out but it was really interesting to kind of be able to hang out with him and see his reaction uh to the museum for the first time which he made a lot of contributions to but anyway that was right here at the beyond the battle Museum in Gettysburg Pennsylvania [Music] [Music]

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 122,000

Keywords: history, history traveler, history underground, gettysburg, gettysburg museum, wheatfield, battle of gettysburg, history traveler gettysburg, civil war, civil war documentary, gettysburg documentary, army of northern virginia, travel, gettysburg things to do, daniel lady farm, civil war reenactment, civil war living history, stephen lang, avatar, avatar the way of water, adams county historical society, george pickett

Id: DJBdKWNFz7c

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023