In Search of Lost Treasure

I've always had a fascination with the strange and mysterious. Tales of lost treasures enthralled me as a boy (and beyond). Perhaps that is why I majored in archaeology in college, and it is no great surprise that a particular show caught my eye.

I've become addicted to The Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel, which is an admittedly overly dramatized docu-drama about a few guys throwing tremendous amounts of money into the search for whatever is hidden on Oak Island (Nova Scotia). I won't attempt to detail the history of this treasure hunt (click the link above), but it began in 1795 and has captivated people ever since. All sorts of odd things have been found on the island, and theories of what is buried there (which assumes that anything is buried there of course) range from the lost Templar treasures including the Holy Grail, Spanish conquistador treasure, pirate booty, and the lost manuscripts of Shakespeare (along with the theory that they were written by Francis Bacon).

Wanting a little more history and background than the show provides, I picked up The Secret Treasure of Oak Island and another related book or two. This is the first one I have gotten through, and it is exactly what I was looking for. It's an easy read, and it is fun to think about all the weirdness related to this island and what it might mean. And maybe it means nothing at all. But it is entertaining. I would heartily recommend both the show and the book.

The Oak Island Mystery

If you are going to read stories about treasure hunting, then one thing will surely lead to another. I know that there are a multitude of tales and legends about lost Spanish mines and native american treasures in the southwestern United States, so I browsed the ratings of some books on the subject and picked up Four Days From Fort Wingate by Richard French.

Lost Treasures of the Southwest

I'm happy to say that this was another very fun read. It is the story of what have become known as the Lost Adams Diggings, located somewhere in eastern Arizona or western New Mexico. This is another treasure hunt that has fascinated a great many people over a very long time (click the link for a good summary). The 259 pages flew by very quickly, and were a nice recounting of the legend, the various interpretations of the clues, and the searches of various individuals over the years. It is rounded out by a summary of the author's own investigations, explorations and conclusions. Like the Oak Island mystery, it may be real, partly real, or completely legend, but it is an entertaining read.

With these two books under my belt and another one or two on the nightstand, there was always Christmas coming soon and people looking for gift ideas, but that is a story for another post.

Christmas Gifty Goodness

It was primarily a book year this year for me in terms of gifts. Trolling Amazon identified a likely list of candidates, and these are the ones that ended up making the cut.

Christmas library additions

The history books are a pair by Desmond Seward (The Demon's Brood; A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty and The Warrior King and the Invasion of France - an Agincourt campaign book). The first is new in 2014, the second is a new 2014 edition of a 1988 book. There is also The Hundred Years War; A People's History by David Green and The Greatest Knight (a life of William Marshal) by Thomas Asbridge (both new in 2014). I have read some of Seward before, and have read Asbridge's Crusades books as well as Green's Poitiers book, so I am pretty sure I will like all of these.

As for the fiction, I like Johnson, and the Anthony Doerr book is one of the best regarded books of the year. I think I read one of Doerr's short story collections a few years back and liked it. As I write this, I am 45 pages into All the Light We Cannot See.

I also got a few packs of miniatures to fill in gaps in some periods, and hopefully will make some painting progress on some of those before too long (house guests leave for home tonight and I can put my painting area back together again). These new packs include muslim infantry and archers, Bedouin light cavalry and Arab armored cavalry (all of which can be used for Crusades or southern Italy) as well as a couple packs of early crossbowmen and German foot knights (mainly to be used as commanders on bases of common infantry).

Watching the kids enjoy the holidays is by far the best part of the season, but getting some presents is always nice too.

Book Review - The Tank Killers

Earlier today I finished yet another history book that I have been working my way through over the past few weeks (ok... months): Harry Yeide's The Tank Killers; A History of America's World War II Tank Destroyer Force (Casemate, 2004).

Sideways again.... sigh...

I think I first cracked this book open sometime shortly after the Fireball Forward! miniatures games with Leo earlier this year, and a subsequent trip to Baldwin's Book Barn in West Chester that turned up a number of good deals on WW2 books.

I enjoyed this book very much. The opening section details the formative years of tank destroyer doctrine in the US Army and the training phases prior to actual combat experience. The bulk of the book works its way chronologically through the various campaigns in Africa and the European Theater of Operations. In addition to being a wargamer's treasure trove of small unit action scenario ideas, the descriptions of the combat experiences at a micro level are woven into a story of the evolution of tank destroyer doctrine at the macro level, and how the role of tank destroyers as envisioned differed so dramatically from the actual role that the TD units ended up playing.

There were also a number of things that I learned from this book in the area of equipment used and dates of service. I had always been under the impression that the self-propelled TDs in service for the bulk of the war in Europe were M10 "Wolverines" with their 3 inch (76mm) guns. This is somewhat true, but this book shows that M18 "Hellcats" (very fast, lightly armored TDs with 76mm guns) and M36 "Jacksons" (basically M10s but with 90mm guns) were in widespread use much earlier than I had thought. The first M18s were delivered in Italy in April 1944 and the M36s began replacing M10s in northwestern Europe in September 1944. By the Battle of the Bulge and subsequent operations, a mix of M10s, M18s and M36s would have been commonplace. This greatly expands the possibilities for the miniatures gamer...

There are two other Harry Yeide books that I picked up at Baldwin's at the same time as this, and I am especially glad that I did. These are Steel Victory; The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions in the War in Europe (Presidio Press, 2003) and The Infantry's Armor; The US Army's Separate Tank Battalions in World War II (Stackpole, 2010). If they are similar at all to The Tank Killers, I will like them very much. Steel Victory is already on the night stand.

Book Review - Victory at Poitiers

The second history book I finished recently was Victory at Poitiers; The Black Prince and the Medieval Art of War, by Christian Teutsch (Pen and Sword, 2010). This is another in the Campaign Chronicles series, and much like the Shrewsbury book, the title is misleading in the sense that the book covers much broader subject matter than just Poitiers itself.

This is another relatively brief book, at 141 pages. It starts with a simple overview of France and England at the start of the Hundred Years War, covers the first invasion and the battle of Crecy in 1346, and the period between Crecy and Poitiers, including events in England and the battle of Neville's Cross. This all takes up the first 65 pages.

Sorry...tilt your head

The next 64 pages or so detail the campaign leading up to Poitiers and the battle itself, with the final 12 pages covering the aftermath. A very interesting and thought provoking section for the wargamer is the detailed discussion on identifying the exact location of the battlefield itself. As is the case with many medieval battles, the general site of the battle is known, but the exact location in terms of troop deployments and lines of battle, as well as the progression of events across the terrain, is not. This can be especially debatable in areas where low lying swampy areas have been drained, woodlots cut back (or expanded), etc... Teutsch presents a compelling case for where he thinks troops were deployed and how the battle progressed topographically. I am inclined to think his interpretation makes a lot of sense and if wargaming Poitiers (which I have the armies for), I would use his version to recreate the battlefield on the tabletop.

I was very satisfied with this volume in the series overall, and would be inclined to pick up other titles in the same series that would be of interest to me, as I have now read two of them by different authors and both were quite good. Recommended.

Book Review - War For the Throne

I have finished a number of medieval history books over the past few weeks. The first of the three was War For the Throne; The Battle of Shrewsbury 1403, by John Barratt (Pen and Sword, 2010). The subtitle is a little misleading, as it seems to be for the Campaign Chronicles series in general.

As the series title would indicate, the book is about more than the battle of Shrewsbury itself, and indeed about way more than even the campaign culminating in the battle. It is really a short history of the entire period in which this campaign and battle is a part. It begins with a brief overview of the reign of Richard II, continues into Henry Bolingbroke's coup of 1399, and his subsequent murder of Richard II and ascension to the throne as Henry IV. In a brief book of only 128 pages, this "Background" section goes all the way through page 56, or almost half the book.

The campaign itself, and Henry "Hotspur" Percy's rebellion, is set in the context of events in Wales and the Scottish marches, which are described in detail. Prince Henry (later Henry V) has his exploits covered as well. Lots of Henrys...There is more about Owain Glyn Dwr's Welsh rebellion than anything else. Shrewsbury itself takes a mere 12 pages, but given the lack of details on most medieval battles, this is to be expected.

Overall, this was a quick and informative read on a period that I did not know a whole lot about. As my  first reading of a book in this series, I expected a more narrow focus on the events of the title, but in retrospect I am glad that the book covered what it did. In the future I will have a better idea what to expect. If you are looking for a book on this battle and campaign in a narrower focus, you are likely to be disappointed. If you are content with a brief but effective overview of an 8-10 year period, then you will find this book worthwhile, as did I.

Book Review - Bloody Buna

A few weeks ago I saw something that caught my interest in a big way. It was the announcement that the Flames of War folks would be releasing Pacific War rules and a supporting line of figures, beginning with Japanese infantry in late July. From what I have seen, FoW doesn't interest me in the slightest, but the figures they put out are very good, and when they do a range they tend to be ridiculously extensive about it. That announcement gave me visions of all the little Japanese tanks and tankettes, Australians in slouch hats, CBI Brits... More on that later.

The other thing the announcement did was make me want to pull out a Pacific theater book of some sort to really get the imagination ramped up. My choice was one of my favorites from my high school days (and a friend Leo favorite as well), but a book I had not read since; Bloody Buna (1974) by Lida Mayo. A few years ago I searched out a copy on eBay for old times' sake, and am very glad I did. Mayo was a historian in the Army's Military History division, and she worked with the same group of people who wrote many of the Army's "green book" official history series.

This campaign, from July 1942 until January 1943, and running concurrently with the Guadalcanal campaign, covers the first campaign in Papua, New Guinea. It includes the Japanese invasion of Milne Bay and the drive towards Port Moresby, including the vicious fighting along the Kokoda Track and in the Owen Stanley Mountains. Subsequent to the Japanese withdrawal back towards the north coast, the fighting for Buna, Gona and Sanananda are covered in adequate detail. This isn't a shot by shot recap, but is an operational overview, covering the troops movements, attacks, successes and failures. It does a good job of placing the fighting here into the overall context of allied operations elsewhere, and paints a clear picture of the difficulties faced by both sides. The terrain here was rugged inhospitable jungle, and the allies were not at all prepared for this kind of fighting, either from a training, leadership or equipment standpoint. There is a very valid conclusion that the allies won here not so much because they were able to defeat the Japanese, but because they were able to out-survive them. Allied air and naval presence was literally able to bring the Japanese to the brink of starvation, to the point where evacuation was the only option. Very few got out, and the casualties to the allies were horrific (far worse than at Guadalcanal, which was bad enough). This was a campaign that taught the allies many lessons on how to fight the Japanese in their well-hidden coconut log bunkers, tree tops and mangrove swamps, but those lessons came at a very steep price.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for a great introduction to a campaign that may not be as well known, but is fascinating in many regards.

History Book - Protecting the Flank

Protecting the Flank: The Battles for Brinkerhoff's Ridge and East Cavalry Field, by Eric J. Wittenberg (2002).

I finished this smallish book over the weekend, and liked it very much. It's been sitting on the bookshelf for quite a while, and I was in the mood for a Civil War book, so I started it last week and finished it in a matter of a few evenings.

The book covers the actions on the northeast flank of the Gettysburg battlefield on July 2nd and 3rd, 1863. On the 2nd, David Gregg's Union cavalry division contested Brinkerhoff's Ridge against Walker's "Stonewall" Brigade of Johnson's Division of Ewell's Corps, which was feeling for the Union flank. On the 3rd, Gregg's division (reinforced by other Union cavalry elements) successfully held off a substantial attack by Stuart's cavalry, which was attempting to turn the Union flank and get into the Union rear in conjunction with the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge occurring elsewhere on the field.

This is the second or third of Wittenberg's books that I have read, and he has an easy to read style. This particular book is a relatively light 132 pages (not including the substantial section on the driving tour of the battlefield today), but has a nice amount of detail on a part of the battle that is generally glossed over quickly in the histories of the overall battle, and a part that I didn't know much about. It was informative, and taught me some things, which is always what you want.

There are lots of good maps, and pictures of many of the officers and men from units on both sides. As always, there are the repetitive quotes about "the toughest fight ever in the history of mankind", "bullets flying thick as hail", and "Captain XYZ was most gallant soldier ever", but not excessively so. A very good read.

Recommended for those with those with an interest in Civil War cavalry actions and/or a deep interest in Gettysburg.

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Selected Pictures, July 28, 2012

Mercury 7 capsule

Apollo 11 command module

Me262

SBD Dauntless

F4F Wildcat

Spitfire Mark VII

P51-D Mustang

bf 109 G-6

A6M5 Zero

It's good for the rest of us that there are those select few crazy enough to ride a tiny hunk of metal into outer space, perched atop enough combustible material to blow up a small city...

Smithsonian American History Museum

Selected Pictures - Saturday July 28, 2012

Regimental Colors - 84th US Colored Infantry

Gunboat Philadelphia

Italianate Renaissance armor

British Grenadier bearskin - American Revolution

French 4 lb Cannon

ACW - 6 lb cannon bored out for 12 lb shell

I took many more pictures than this, but these were some of the nicer items.

July 3rd

3:45pm...

149 years ago at this moment, the last shattered survivors of the failed Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge would have been making their way back across this open field, singly and in small groups, effectively ending the Battle of Gettysburg. Many thousands of their comrades would be dead, wounded or captured, ending the 3 bloodiest days in American history.

It is good to remember.

Dallas, Texas

National Meeting and a little Sightseeing

Texas School Book Depository

I spent the week in Dallas, Texas for an annual national sales meeting, and as much as it pains a Philadelphia Eagles fan to say this, it's a nice city. The meeting was great, the hotel was very nice (the Hilton Anatole), the food was terrific, and I had a chance to see a few historic sites (however briefly). And I also managed to squeeze in 5 geocaches, making Texas a new state for me, my 19th.

Over the course of the week, we ate very well. The food at the hotel was terrific, and we had a couple dinners out at places that I really enjoyed. One was at an upscale Mexican restaurant named Javier's, and another was at a place called Gilley's (after Mickey Gilley, country music star of days gone by). Javier's was fantastic Mexican cuisine (not TexMex tacos and the like), while Gilley's was a touristy Texas roadhouse place complete with line dancing lessons, calf roping (from a fake horse, on a fake calf) and mechanical bull riding. It was pretty hokey, but had a certain charm I guess, and the barbecue was pretty good.

View down Elm Street (Grassy Knoll on right)

The business trip was a Tuesday through Friday meeting that required a flight down on Monday afternoon due to available flight scheduling. The meeting didn't actually start until Tuesday around lunchtime, so that left Tuesday morning mostly free. As any good geocacher would, I had figured out where my hotel was located and what was nearby, and was happy to find that there were a number of geocaches within reasonable walking distance of my hotel. Additionally, the historic district of the city was less than two miles away, and was an easy $10 cab ride away.

I got up at a reasonable hour on Tuesday morning and got a cab to Pioneer Plaza in the historic district. There were two virtual caches there within a couple hundred yards of each other, and virtuals are rare enough that they are worth seeking out. The first one, Rush Hour, was a giant group statue of a cattle drive,  complete with separate life sized statues of a trail boss, his herd, and other cowboys. It was a cool thing to see, and was my first Texas cache. On the other side of the Plaza, beyond a very old cemetery, was Men in the Gray Flannel Suits, a virtual that brought me to a very nice Confederate monument. Being a history buff in general, and a Civil War history buff in specific, I always love it when a cache brings me to a place like this.

Fence corner on the Grassy Knoll

After spending some time looking at the old graves and marveling at the history laid to rest here, I began the three or four tenths of a mile walk to Dealey Plaza. My third and final virtual cache was to be The Grassy Knoll, a monument at the site of the John F Kennedy assassination. I intentionally saved this as the last of the three virtuals I was trying to get in this area because I was afraid (and rightly so) that if I went to this one first I might well just spend all my time wandering around... looking... thinking... taking pictures. I am glad that I went in the order that I did, or that may well have been true.

As a history buff, there are certain places that evoke a very strong feeling, and despite the fact that the JFK assassination happened before I was born, this location was very powerful.

Kill Shot?

Approaching from the southeast, I had great views of the current County Administration building that was the Texas School Book Repository at the time, with the 6th floor windows in plain view. Elm Street itself bends in an "S" curve down the slope from the intersection below the building, passes beneath the slight rise of the Grassy Knoll, and passes under a train bridge before merging into the highway on-ramps on the other side. At the top of the Grassy Knoll is the famous fence corner at the edge of the parking lot behind, the spot from which conspiracy theorists say the actual kill shot on JFK was fired. In the picture I have included as a view from the fence corner, I tried to capture a single vehicle at the exact spot the presidential limo would have been when the obvious shot in the Zapruder film struck. I did a pretty good job, as there is a white "X" painted at that spot on the road, and you can see it just behind the shadow of the SUV in the picture.

I spent about a half hour wandering around, taking pictures, and just soaking in the feeling of the place. It was odd that a place I had never been to before could in some ways seem familiar. I can honestly say that this was one of the coolest places that geocaching has ever brought me to. I would have liked to see this no matter what, but if I were not looking for caches in Dallas while I was here, I probably would not have gone out of my way to come here with only a little time to spend. I am glad I did.

Remember Pearl Harbor

As a history buff and wargamer, it is all too easy to think of battles, campaigns and wars as abstract events; things to enjoy reading about, painting figures for, and playing games about. But a day like today reminds us that war is indeed terrible. It was terrible before we had the written words to record it, it was terrible 69 years ago, and it is still terrible today.

Rest in peace all those who have fallen throughout our long and violent history.

Book Review - Gettysburg: A Journey in Time

Attending the spring seminar out at Gettysburg last weekend got me excited about reading some Civil War history, and before I left to come home a couple of trips to the visitors center bookstore netted me five books. After hearing Tim Smith's talk on the history of Devil's Den, which spent most of its time on the photographic record of the site in the days/weeks/years following the battle, I was interested in starting with this book.

Gettysburg; A Journey in Time (1975) by William Frassanito is a history of the early photography of Gettysburg, focusing on those pictures taken between the immediate aftermath of the battle in July 1863 (before the dead were completely cleared from the field) and an end point of 1866. Many of the pictures detailed here were taken by two of the most famous photographers of the day (or at least by their studios): Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. Frassanito gives a brief history of the various photographers, discusses photographic methods of the day, but then gets into the real meat of the book, which is a detailed look at the photos themselves.

The book reads at times a little bit like a detective story as Frassanito attempts to unravel the exact timing of when the pictures were taken, by whom, and of exactly where on the battlefield. Wherever possible, he has found the exact spot each picture was taken, and taken a modern one to put side by side with the original. In many cases, a definitive case can be made that many of these pictures were mislabeled in terms of location and even subject matter. Specific geology, unique rock formations, and a pretty good knowledge of the itineraries of the photographers as they moved around the battlefield allows for this to be done with absolute certainty in many cases. This is possible because the photographers were very diligent about numbering their negatives and plates sequentially. Given the cumbersome equipment required to make these photographs and the resulting difficulty in moving about, a "trail" across the field can be constructed, and anomalies can often be pinpointed. These anomalies often help prove that the captions on the photos as published at the time were wrong.

This is a fascinating read for what it is, but this level of minutiae is not going to be for everyone. I will admit that by the end of the book, I was getting a little overloaded on some of the detail. Frassanito has done several other similar and equally well regarded books on both Gettysburg and other Civil War subjects, and I will consider them must-reads in the future. For now, this all needs to sink in, and I will not dive into the next one just yet.

As an aside, the other four books purchased were:

• Early Photography at Gettysburg, by William Frassanito (1995).
• Devil's Den, A History and Guide, by Garry Adelman and Tim Smith (1997).
• Confederate Monuments at Gettysburg, by David G Martin (1986). I probably wouldn't have gotten this encyclopedia style volume if it had cost much more than the $14.99 that it did, but I am a sucker for a nice cheap hardback, and there is a lot of good information in here.
• Gettysburg Campaign Atlas, Philip Laino (2nd ed, 2009). This is the real gem of the bunch. 482 pages of map after map after map covering everything from the operational overviews of the larger troop movements before and after the battle down to the movements of regiments and batteries minute by minute across individual fields and fences. A treasure trove of detail for a wargamer or map geek.

Gettysburg - Union Defense of Devil's Den

Saturday Afternoon Session - LBG John Winkelman

The morning session followed the attack of Hood's division, with an emphasis on Robertson's Texas brigade, and a particular focus on the 1st Texas regiment. The afternoon session was similar in that it nominally covered the Union defense of Devil's Den, but really focused primarily on Ward's brigade and Smith's Battery. In fact, while the program was subtitled "The Struggle for Devil's Den", it just as easily could have been called "The Struggle for Smith's Battery".

As in the morning session, there was a tremendous amount of great detail, and in addition to the very knowledgeable session leader, there were a half dozen other guides tagging along in support and contributing as well. Most of the walk was spent on and in the immediate vicinity of Houck's Ridge, but we began by following the route Ward's brigade would have taken to arrive on the field in this location. We started at the brigade bivouac in the yard of the G Weikert house a ways to the northeast. We walked the short distance down the farm lane to the J Weikert house, and then continued southwest across Plum Run. We then skirted the eastern edge of the Wheatfield and into the east end of the Rose Woods. Here we saw where the right flank of the brigade (99th PA and 20th IN) would have been posted in the woods, where they would end up facing the 3rd Arkansas. We then continued on to the top of Houck's Ridge. Most of the rest of the session was conducted from this location with brief side trips up and down the various slopes of the ridge as we tracked the progress of the battle.

Once again I will not outline the history here, but have attached another batch of photos of some of the more important and interesting views.

Gettysburg - Confederate Assault on Devil's Den

Saturday Morning Session - LBG Rich Kohr

The morning walking tour followed the route of the Confederate attack on Devil's Den. We started from a spot on Warfield Ridge near where the junction between Law's Brigade and Robertson's "Texas" Brigade would have been. We walked east downhill to the Bushman farm, northeast to the Slyder farm lane, southeast to the Slyder farm, and then east to the lower shoulder of Big Round Top. This would have been roughly the path of the right flank regiments of Robertson's brigade (the 4th and 5th Texas). Due to the soggy ground conditions after recent rain and a wet spring, rather than wade across flooded fields to Devil's Den, we rode a bus to Rose's Woods and picked up the walk from the area near the Timbers farm (also known as the George Weikert farm). From there we walked east up the slope of Hauck's ridge following in the footsteps of the 1st Texas and 3rd Arkansas. Extensive discussion and Q and A happened all along the route, which took about 2.5 hours in total. Rather than try to recreate the walk, I will just show a bunch of pictures taken on this overcast walk. Out of the multitude of pictures I took, I have tried to select those which represent the most important and interesting views.

Gettysburg - ALBG Spring Seminar

"Into the Jaws of Hell"
The Struggle for Devil's Den
The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides
Spring Seminar, April 8-9, 2011

A few months ago my friend Phil called and told me about this event, and asked if I wanted to go. With advance warning to be able to plan for it I said "sure", and I am extremely glad that I did. The Gettysburg ALBG apparently does two of these a year, one in the spring and a full weekend one in the fall. This specific one focused on the attack and defense of Houck's Ridge and Devil's Den.

The first part of this was a lecture and slide show at 7pm on Friday evening at the Grand Army of the Republic hall in Gettysburg. Just being in that building on that site was pretty cool. The talk was given by LBG Tim Smith, a guide who I have seen several times on the PCN channel's battlefield walks that are shown every year around the anniversary of the battle. I also have one or two of his books, including one titled "Devil's Den; A History and Guide". The talk focused on the history and legacy of Devil's Den, with a major focus on the contemporary and near-contemporary photographic record of the site. Truly fascinating stuff, and a talk which made me go out and buy a couple of William Frassanito's books on the photographic history of Gettysburg.

The Saturday part was the main event, and was to consist of three hours of walking the battlefield from the Confederate point of view in the morning, followed by lunch, then three more hours of walking the battlefield from the Union point of view in the afternoon. The weather, which had rained on my geocaching Friday during the day, was not supposed to be an issue on Saturday (although the forecast was for cool and overcast), but there was a more serious threat. The government budget was set to expire at midnight, and if the budget impasse could not be broken and a settlement reached (however temporary), the park would be closed, as would all other federal facilities, and we would be unable to walk the field. Which meant that the Saturday program would be conducted as a series of lectures in an indoor room. Ugh. Fortunately, that would not come to pass, as a one-week extension was reached at 11:45 pm that would keep the government from shutting down.

I will follow this up with a post on each of the morning and afternoon sessions, with pictures, but suffice it to say that this was a FANTASTIC day and a half of hardcore history geekiness. I can't stress enough what a wonderful job these guides do, and what a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are. I would strongly recommend that anyone with a serious interest in Civil War history in general, or Gettysburg in particular, do whatever they can to attend one of these. They are well worth the modest cost of about $100 for a day-plus of immersing yourself in the history of the battle with people who know it all, inside and out.