Drummer boy Tommie Wood died of pneumonia. Matthew Nunnally fell at Gettysburg. My trips to a Georgia county and 2 photos put their stories together

Pvt. Thomas G. Wood (left, courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection) and Matthew and Josiah Nunnally (Findagrave)

I had an “aha moment” this week that came after two road trips, a phone call, email exchanges and online research into two young Georgians who died during the Civil War.

Months after I traveled through Walton County on two occasions, I was able to connect young drummer Pvt. Thomas “Tommie” Gaston Wood and Capt. Matthew T. Nunnally. 

Photographs of the two clinched the deal by showing they were in the same unit. The gray frock coats are single-breasted, bear seven buttons, a black collar and distinctive black striping, or scallops, on the sleeves. I realized both were members of the Walton Infantry, better known as Company H, 11^th Georgia Infantry.

The portrait of Wood is very well-known and haunting: Tommie is 17 years old, but looks even younger. The orphan’s expression is innocent. “You can see the sweat around the hat and sideburns,” said David Wynn Vaughan, who collects Civil War portraits. Tommie’s is one of his favorites.

I knew nothing about either soldier when I trekked through Walton County in September and October. I live in adjoining Gwinnett County and I thought it would be interesting to check out Civil War markers and sites in Monroe, Jersey and Social Circle, where young Tommie lived.

The Federal army caused mayhem in Social Circle twice in 1864. Kenner Garrard’s cavalry burned a depot and warehouses in July and the 20^th Corps destroyed much of the railroad in November during the March to the Sea

The town’s welcome center has a section on its Civil War ties, and affixed to one wall is a July 2007 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Picket photo, below). My former colleague Jim Auchmutey did an excellent job describing Vaughan’s collection of Georgia soldiers, including Tommie Wood.

A few days later, I called Vaughan about the photo -- a 1/9 plate tintype taken by an unknown photographer -- and asked what drew him to purchase it more than 20 years ago. He described Tommie’s expression and lack of tinting on his face, often applied by photographers. Regarding the uniform, “his buttons have been gilded.”

Took a while for me to put 2 and 2 together

As is (way too) often the case, I did not immediately write a post about Tommie, who sadly died from pneumonia a few months after his portrait was taken. As I write this post, I have several good stories in the hopper, but have not found time to finalize reporting or get around to writing them. The procrastination nags at me.

But back to our story ...

During an October trip to Athens, a month after I spoke with Vaughan, I stopped by Monroe’s post office. As I drove off, I spied a monument at Rest Haven Cemetery.

Matthew Talbot Nunnally stands at attention, half of his hat brim lost to time. His sword is broken. I read that he was killed, age 24, at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.

Several tablets, commissioned by one of the young officer’s sisters, describe his life and service. I posted a few a photographs on the Civil War Picket’s Facebook page and moved on.

On neither road trip did I remember references to Wood and Young serving in the 11^th Georgia. I was more interested in Tommie’s portrait and Nunnally’s statue.

Two photos show members of 11th Georgia

After a recent email to Vaughan on another matter, I decided to get back to the Wood post.

Auchmutey’s article mentioned Keith Bohannon, a professor of history at the University of West Georgia. The author is an expert on Georgia troops, the Army of Tennessee and Reconstruction and has an interest in portraits.

Pvt. Thomas Gaston Wood (Courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection)

Bohannon has assisted Vaughan with research, including when the latter purchased the Wood portrait for thousands of dollars from an individual in 2004.

Vaughan, an Atlanta Realtor, is well-known in Civil War photography circles for his premier collection of hundreds of images and his precise research. About 50 of his photos and biographies have been published in Georgia Backroads magazine, with 8-12 hours of work going into each profile.

Bohannon provided information on the young musician that was included in a spring 2015 Georgia Backroads article about the compelling portrait of Tommie.

A review of my notes and Vaughan’s emails on the portrait led me to reach out to Bohannon this week. The professor replied as a teen he first saw the plate at an antique mall in metro Atlanta.

“I seem to remember that the seller said that it was a photograph of a drummer from Walton County, but I am not sure. That was a long time ago. I seem to remember that he wanted somewhere between 70-100 dollars for the image, which was far more than I could afford.

“I do remember noticing the initials on the underside of the bill of his kepi. The coat he is wearing matching those of two other uniformed members of the ‘Walton Infantry,’ Co. H, 11^th Ga.”

Wood’s initials are painted on the underside of the brim in the image.

Bohannon’s reference to two other uniformed members of the regiment sent me scurrying to the internet.

Estate record mentions Tommie Wood as serving under Capt. Matthew Nunnally of Monroe.

And there was a picture of Capt. Nunnally, standing next to his brother Sgt. Josiah Nunnally. You can clearly see the same black sleeve stripes on Josiah’s frock coat as the ones on Tommie’s uniform. 

Josiah lost a leg after Second Manassas. The farmer died back home in 1908 at age 73.

So there it is: The connection between Nunnally and Wood. The former commanded the latter. It may be of no real interest to anyone but me.

Still, you should read the following section, which focuses on the brief life of Tommie Wood.

Tommie drummed but for a short time

Bohannon said Thomas G. (Tommie) Wood appears on the 1850 Walton County census as a student in the home of his parents, Baptist minister Thomas G. Wood and Emily J. Wood. His father died in 1852 and his mother died in 1858. (Image below)

The boy appears on the 1860 census a boarder in the household of Social Circle schoolteacher J.M. Smith. (Tommie’s brother William lived until 1924).

Tommie enlisted in early July 1861 and the 11^th Georgia Infantry traveled north to serve in the Army of Northern Virginia. After missing the battle at Manassas, the regiment went into quarters at Center Hill, where it spent most of the winter at the camp and lost men due to discharge as well as death resulting from illness, according to Wikipedia.

An ill Tommie landed in a Confederate hospital in Richmond. He died on Dec. 13, 1861, at age 17 or 18, without every being in combat. He is believed to be buried in Richmond’s Oakwood Cemetery.

During his research, Bohannon came across a January 1862 article in the Augusta Constitutionalist by Dr. William W. Crumly, a chaplain of Georgia military hospitals in Richmond.

Crumly wrote this poignant passage (left):

“In taking my morning round through one of the hospitals, I find in one of the wards a youth of more than ordinary beauty and intelligence. His name is Wood, the drummer boy, from Social Circle. Young Wood was the pet and idol of his regiment. And he is struggling with pneumonia, that terrible scourge of the camp and the hospital. When asked whether he was afraid to die, he calmly answered: ‘No. I joined the church when but eight years of age; my father and mother are both in heaven, and I would rather go and be with them there, than to stay and suffer here.’ He was beautiful in death – lovely as the fresh cut rosebud, dripping with the dew of morning. Taking his post in the centre of the long line of the dead at Oak Wood, no sound of his drum shall ever awake the sleepers there.”

Records on Fold3 and Ancestry.com indicate Tommie’s maternal grandfather, Gresham Herren, settled the teen’s estate. Online records indicate the estate was due $91.76 from the Confederate government.

Historian long displayed Wood's portrait

Civil War photo collector Lee Joyner of Madison, Ga., remembers seeing the Wood portrait at the home of a man, since deceased, who subsequently sold it to Vaughan.

Joyner noted the dark trim typical of early-war Georgia uniforms. I asked him what is special about the image.

“You don’t see many Confederate drummer boy images. And, secondly, it is an identified one. It is kind of a poignant image.”

Bohannon told the Picket he has always had a fascination with Georgia Confederate soldiers and units, including the Wood portrait (detail, right, courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection).

“I did have an enlarged black and white print of the image up for a long time in dorm rooms, apartments, etc., but now I have it stuck in some files. I've always found the photograph particularly poignant given the extremely youthful and delicate appearance of Wood. I also like the initials on the bill of his kepi and the uniform of the Walton Infantry which exhibits characteristics of many jackets worn in 1861 by Georgia Confederate soldiers.”

Joyner and Vaughan, who has about 300 images, are part of a small, but dedicated community of Civil War photo collectors. They realize they are caretakers of a piece of history.

“The image collecting world is not very big. Sometimes, another collector will tell you about them,” said Vaughan. ”Of course, we are competitors, though we are friends.”

After South Carolina's capital went up flames, state leaders burned papers in new capital 70 miles away. Now there is an effort to preserve that house in Union

The Thomas Dawkins House in Union dates to about 1845 (Photos: Preservation South Carolina)

It’s not every day you get an enticement this juicy while looking up a residential property on Zillow:

“In one of the home's eight fireplaces, papers were burned that would have hung many a Southerner if they had fallen into Union or Federal hands.”

The real estate overview of the Dawkins House at 117 N. Church St. in Union, S.C., included this and other nuggets about its history – notably service as the state’s capital for a few weeks toward the end of the Civil War.

Gov. Andrew Magrath, before fleeing Columbia as Federal troops closed in, got in touch with college chum Judge Thomas Dawkins about using the home and others nearby to conduct business amid the chaos.

From about Feb. 15, 1865, until sometime in early March, Magrath tried to run the state from the Dawkins House as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman sacked Columbia and moved on other cities, bent on destruction and submission of Confederate troops.

Judge Thomas Dawkins, Mary P. Dawkins and Gov. Magrath (Preservation SC)

Nearly 160 years later, the two-story clapboard is in pretty rough shape and in need of a rescue.

That’s happening now through the nonprofit Preservation South Carolina, working with supporters and $300,000 from the Legislature

Bennett Preservation Engineering of Charleston is studying the structure and the feasibility of its restoration, says Joanna Rothell, director of outreach and preservation for Preservation South Carolina. The group acquired the long-vacant property last year.

The hope is for the home – nicknamed “The Shrubs” by Dawkins and his wife Mary -- to once again be occupied, this time as an alumni and event center for nearby University of South Carolina-Union.

A need to hide evidence from the Yankees?

Extensive repairs, upgrades are needed in structure (Preservation South Carolina)

Andrew Kettler, an assistant professor of history at the small campus, has amassed a lot of research about the town’s history and Dawkins, a prominent political figure who came from a wealthy family. While a unionist before South Carolina seceded, he came to support the Confederacy.

His old pal Magrath was elected governor by the Legislature in December 1864. Before the Civil War, Magrath had served as a federal judge, and made a ruling that certainly made him unpopular with the North, as an article about him states.

“Although opposed to the trade personally, Magrath nevertheless handed slave-trade proponents a signal victory in 1860. In a decision associated with the cases surrounding the Echo and the Wanderer, ships seized for illegally transporting African slaves, Magrath stated that the 1820 federal statute on piracy did not apply to the slave trade.”

In his brief tenure as governor, Magrath knocked heads with the main Confederate government. At the Dawkins House and other places where he fled until his arrest in May 1865, he sent and received correspondence about military and economic challenges.

The University of South Carolina Libraries has a fascinating Feb. 27, 1865, published message from Magrath to South Carolinians. It was likely composed during his time in Union. (Public domain photo, left. Click to enlarge)

The governor describes Federal troops who took Columbia as exhibiting hate and causing wanton destruction as women and children suffered. He encouraged citizens to come to the aid of those left in the ravaged city.

“They are destitute, they are in want, they need food, give what you can, sell what you cannot give. Let your succor be promptly offered, for such suffering will not brook delay.”

According to histories and local legend, Magrath and his subordinates burned possibly incriminating documents and correspondence in the Dawkins House fireplaces. (The home served as South Carolina's capitol while the city was briefly is capital.)

Kettler told the Picket in an email nothing in accounts he has seen show anything about the contents of those papers.

Confederates burned documents for a lot of reasons, he said. Many went up in flames in Richmond, Va., as President Jefferson Davis fled.

“Generally, burning would be to avoid military secrets getting into the enemies hands,” Kettler said. “But, at the late stages of the war, such secrets may have become secondary as Confederates may have also wanted to hide evidence of the original treason of the Confederacy in the first place, and any other actions that could have led to prosecutions and trials after the war.”

When asked about the significance of preservation of the Dawkins House, Kettler said such buildings are retained for their importance to historical memory. (Photo, right, taken decades ago. Courtesy: Preservation South Carolina)

“The historical memory here is about those who committed treason against the Union finding their way to an escape house as fugitives and attempting to hide their treason through burning incriminating materials,” he wrote.

“Historical memory works to honor the past and critique its most problematic histories. This site is retained for those purposes and as a clear reference point from the community of Union that existed well before the Civil War and was important well after outside of those contexts," said Kettler.

What happened to the targeted town?

William Waud's illustration of Columbia's capture (Library of Congress)

Before Magrath traveled 70 miles to Union, South Carolina was the symbol of rebellion. 

Sherman and his troops entered the state from Georgia with an eye on a full prosecution of the war. While they are behind some fires that ravaged Columbia, others were caused by other parties.

Union was a community with a business district and nearby plantations. “Many Quakers left the county in the first few decades of the nineteenth century due to their general stance against the institution of slavery,” said Kettler. Enslaved people became a majority in Union County during the 1840s. (The area became a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity during Reconstruction.)

It’s evident that many papers associated with Magrath were not burned in Union or elsewhere.

The Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina contains many letters sent to Magrath at Union and elsewhere. One, dated March 16, 1865, informed him of the total loss of state ordnance in Columbia. (Image: A.G.Magrath Papers, #467-z, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, click to enlarge)

Magrath and his staff raced away from Union as Federal troops moved in. He was eventually captured on May 25 and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Ga., until release that December. (Interestingly, President Davis stopped by Union in April 1865 after he fled Richmond.)

As for the town of Union’s fate?

It was spared burning, as the story goes, because the Broad River was flooded and Sherman turned away.

Group thinks house can be 'brought back to life'

Rothell, with Preservation South Carolina, said the short-term goal is to stabilize and prevent further deterioration of the Dawkins House while assessing how much can be saved.

“This is what the $300,000 from the state legislature is geared towards, though, that funding will likely not cover stabilization plans and work,” she told the Picket.

The group is looking at other legislative funding and grants, specifically from the South Department of Archives and History. And it is likely that local sources in Union will need to help pay for refurbishment.

The home's exterior in 2011 (Preservation South Carolina)

“While it seems that the task of renovating may be daunting, we have seen buildings in far worse condition brought back to life," said Rothell.

Kettler said the foundation and standard structural integrity appear to be solid. “Some of the bones of the house date to the late eighteenth century, which is partly why it was granted National Historic Register site status in 1973.”

Mary Dawkins lived in the home until 1906, and there has been a succession of owners since, including the Faucett family for many years.

Rothell said the goal is for the Dawkins House to be preserved and used by the community

“We are currently working closely with USC-Union, the city of Union, and the County of Union in developing a plan for its future. We hope that USC-Union will purchase it from us and use it as an alumni center, but we do not have an agreement with them yet,” she said.

Sherman's March to the Sea: Experts weigh myths, realities of morale-busting campaign

(Library of Congress)

(Part 1) -- Nov. 15 (Saturday) marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of a military campaign that remains seared in the memory and consciousness of the South. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea, splitting 62,500 men into two principal columns marching and foraging through a swath of Georgia, covering 250 miles, and arriving in Savannah a few days before Christmas. The march, which had a large psychological impact on civilians, would continue into South Carolina in early 1865.

The Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the Georgia Battlefields Association, will dedicate a marker about the march on Wednesday (Nov. 12) at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Other events are planned later in the month at the site of the Battle of Griswoldville and in Madison, Ga. (More on those in the second installment of this report).

The Picket recently asked Civil War experts, historians, an archaeologist and a living historian/re-enactor about their thoughts on myths and realities of the march, what associated sites should be visited and the episode's legacy today. Today, here are their responses to the first question. The other responses will be published Tuesday and Wednesday.

Q. What are the myths/realities of Sherman's strategy/leadership in the march and the performance of his troops?

CHARLIE CRAWFORD, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association

One myth is that Sherman and his troops burned everything. This is often followed by the visitor’s center or historical society representative asking if you would like to take their antebellum house tour. In fact, very few private homes were burned. Certainly, barns, corn cribs, smokehouses, farm implements or anything of that sort were first looted, then destroyed.

A second myth is that all women were threatened and many were raped.  It’s understandable that any person (woman or man) would feel threatened when thousands of enemy troops are on your land or even passing nearby; but incidents of physical abuse are rare and of rape even more rare.

Sherman can be criticized for not keeping better control over his troops and for sometimes turning a blind eye to their excesses, especially regarding theft; but his attitude is consistent with his belief that the war would end sooner if the people of the South lost the will to fight and wrote to their husbands, sons, and brothers in Virginia to come home.

ANNE SARAH RUBIN, history professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of “A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868”

The main myths about Sherman’s March involve its scale and scope: the idea that it cut a swath fifty miles wide of utter destruction, that Sherman was the sole author of a new form of total war, and that the troops were either entirely out of control, or (contradictorily) entirely directed by Sherman himself.  

In actuality, the March covered a vast area, but because it progressed in four columns it ebbed and flowed, missing some spots as it went through others.

Sherman’s March represented an evolution of the broader Union policies of “hard war.”  

DAVID EVANS, historian and author of "Sherman's Horsemen"

At the time, Sherman's decision to abandon his line of communications and cast off for the Georgia coast was looked upon as extremely risky. Sherman, however, had seen Grant to something very similar during the Vicksburg campaign, when he moved his army down the west bank of the Mississippi, crossed the river at Bruinsburg, and then marched inland toward Jackson.

Grant's army had lived off the land and Sherman was confident his troops could do the same thing. Sherman's army was larger, had a longer distance to travel, and the potential for disaster was much greater, but Sherman was confident he could make this march and as he said, "make Georgia howl."

HERB COATS, Georgia living historian/re-enactor

Myth: Sherman destroyed everything from Atlanta to Savannah.

Reality: Sherman’s army group destroyed government warehouses and buildings used to store government goods, railroad related buildings and structures and tore up sections of railroad tracks. The railroad destruction wasn’t impossible to rebuild. The train companies had rudimentary service set up a few months later.

Some homes were burned, but this is by far a minority. However, foodstuffs were “foraged” aka stolen. Many soldiers stated that they did not want to put out the yeomanry of middle Georgia and the fall line areas. These men had less compassion when getting to the coastal plain region where there were larger plantation homes. “Southern Storm” by Noah Andre Trudeau is a great and recent narrative chock full of primary sources of the Savannah Campaign. Major Henry Hitchcock’s journal is a wonderful firsthand account of one of Sherman’s staff officers, without the postwar era “fluff” that clouds more prominent historical figures works.

Sherman's "Necktie": Rails rendered useless

Soldiers did pilfer items like spoons, clothing, blankets, money, etc. during the campaign. I don't want to paint a picture of the army being saints. Also, Wheeler's CS cavalry which was supposed to keep Sherman's armies in check, was bad about taking food and other items from the civilian population as well.

Myth: Sherman wanted his army to rape and murder the civilian population of Georgia.

Reality: Sherman wanted to wage a total war, one of destroying the CS forces means to support their army. So livestock, foodstuffs, and government storage, manufacturing, along with railroad capabilities were targeted. Granted civilians were murdered and raped, but this was a small minority. Not the “EVERYONE” mentality that Lost Causers go with.

Note: Sherman’s Army in South Carolina is a whole other subject, and “all bets were off” in the Cradle of Secession.

Anthony Winegar and his wife, Carlie.

ANTHONY WINEGAR, chief ranger, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

The myths and realities of Sherman's march through Georgia are numerous, but perhaps the biggest myth is that Sherman destroyed much of the property along his army's two-pronged route. The reality is that if you drive either of the routes today, there are still a great deal of antebellum homes remaining. You will not see, however, cotton gins, etc that were used to promote the Confederacy's infrastructure or manufacturing capabilities. This would also include bridges, etc. that allowed for mobility.

Another myth deals with the notion that Sherman had girlfriends and mistresses along the route and spared certain cities, such as Augusta, from destruction because they lived there. Sherman summed that one up best after the war when he addressed the myth of the sparing of Augusta by stating that "If the people of Augusta think I slighted them in the winter of 1864 they are mistaken; or if they think I made a mistake in strategy let them say so and with the President's consent, I can send a detachment of 100,000 or so of Sherman's Bummers and their descendants who will finish up the job without charging Uncle Sam a cent. The truth is these incidents come back to me in a humorous vein."

DAN ELLIOTT, president of the LAMAR Institute, which conducts archaeological research from its base in Georgia

My expertise on Sherman's march boils down to four locations in Georgia (where I have conducted battlefield archaeology surveys), but they are very diverse and epitomize the range of experiences that Sherman's soldiers (and their Confederate opponents) would have experienced.

At all of these sites the Union generals made blunders. At Dug Gap, the Union tried to assault the Confederates up a nearly sheer cliff face, not too bright, and despite being vastly outnumbered the Confederates held the high ground. At Pickett's Mill, many Union troops found themselves as sitting ducks in a ravine and a bloody slaughter ensued. I did not work in that particular part of the battlefield but was on the periphery. At Lovejoy, where there were four battles from July to November 1864, the most remembered one was Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's charge on August 20th. Kilpatrick commanded the 3rd Cavalry Division and, by August, Maj. Gen. Sherman already had suffered defeats of his 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions, so Kilpatrick was not his first pick. Kilpatrick, who was willing to sacrifice many lives to save his own skin, had his troops race directly into the Confederate line and this bold move saved his division. Had Kilpatrick remained boxed in at Lovejoy the March to the Sea, without any cavalry, might have been a very bloody one for the Union. Sherman had faith in the cavalry but his faith was tested in their failures (and Kilpatrick's near failure) south of Atlanta.

At Monteith Swamp on the Monteith Road (and also at Doctor Cuyler's plantation at the junction of the Middleground and Augusta roads) two of Sherman's wings encountered bottlenecks along a narrow causeway. This traffic jam, caused by fewer than 750 Confederates, delayed more than 20,000 Union troops by several hours. That delay allowed Confederate Maj. Gen. Beauregard to escape capture and it gave the Confederates in Savannah more time to prepare for a siege. Given the swampy landscape and transportation problems, Sherman's men were able to surround Savannah and lay siege to the city without major losses. And his capture of Fort McAllister demonstrated what Sherman's infantry could accomplish in 45 minutes that the U.S. Navy could not do in more than two years of bombardment.

The reality is that Sherman had superior number of troops, he and his generals made some serious blunders but managed to keep it together across the state of Georgia.

• Part 2: Places you can visit today
• Part 3: Legacy, 150 years later
• 37 Weeks: Sherman on the March

Step into history: How you can be part of Pickett's Charge commemorative march

1882 view showing ground Pettigrew’s and Trimble’s brigades walked (NPS).

It was an incredible sight: Some 12,000 men lined up in a one-mile arc, regimental flags before them, barely fluttering on a hot Pennsylvania day. Then they came forward, down into a slight valley, beginning a 20-minute march that became part of the lexicon of America’s military history.

Pickett’s Charge, meant to break the Union center, ended in bloody failure on July 3, 1863, dashing the hopes of the South to extinguish the North’s will to continue the war. Only a few Confederates soldiers made it the Union lines.

This year, on the exact spot, at about the same time, visitors flocking to Gettysburg National Military Park for events marking the 150^th anniversary of the momentous battle will have an opportunity to stand where the Federal defenders fought or take part in the mile-long march across undulating fields.

“For the Confederate groups the interpretive experience will be the march itself; moving in line of battle, seeing the other groups moving about you, and walking in the footsteps of the men who made this march under the fire of shell, shrapnel and bullets,” writes park supervisory historian D. Scott Hartwig in the “From the Fields of Gettysburg” blog, posted Friday.

High water mark of Confederacy monument (Wikipedia/public domain)

Park rangers and volunteers will lead groups representing each of the nine assaulting Rebel brigades.They will put those commemorative marchers in the actual line of battle.

"We don't know how many will do it," Katie Lawhon, management assistant at the park, told the Picket. "We're getting a lot of interest but the weather will play a role in how big the event becomes."

Rangers also will assemble groups where men of Alexander Hays’, John Gibbon’s and Abner Doubleday’s Union divisions waited to receive the attack, according to Hartwig.

“The idea is there is somewhere for everyone to participate in this program,” wrote Hartwig.

Artillery fire at 3 p.m. will launch the July 3 commemorative march program, which will last about an hour. When the Confederate brigade groups reach Cemetery Ridge the march will stop for the playing of echo Taps, which will conclude the event.

The commemorative march has never been done to this scale, according to Lawhon.

• How you can participate in the march

• List of 150th activities at Gettysburg

VMI cadets marching as to war

A handful of Virginia Military Institute cadets are undergoing an arduous history lesson, marching up the Shenandoah Valley like a group of their forebears did in 1864, to a muddy, bloody battle. • Article | • Fund-raising effort