For quite a few years now, the descendants, members, families and friends of the 62nd Pennsylvania Living History Family have been participating in the Volunteer Work Day event on the Gettysburg Battlefield…the event, sponsored by the Gettysburg Foundation, to support the National Park Service in the never-ending process of preserving and maintaining the battlefield, Soldiers National Cemetery and the Eisenhower Historic Site, is an opportunity for folks to volunteer for a day, and contributing by working on selected sites as determined by NPS…

We have participated in numerous events, and have painted historic structures [Codori Barn, McPherson Barn, Eisenhower HQ house], painted historic fences at many sites, built fence lines, cleared brush along fence lines, cleaned headstones in the Soldiers National Cemetery, and painted the engraved names of the Union Civil War dead in the cemetery…

This year, we were once again honored to get to paint the names that are engraved in the flat grave markers…this is definitely the most personal duty we have been assigned, and this was probably our third or fourth time doing it…as you move from grave to grave in the rows, each one is one of “these honored dead”–the fallen of Gettysburg, 1863…

“The Wall of Faces: Gettysburg Visitors Center”

If you have ever gone to the Gettysburg Visitors Center Museum, you will see a map of the original burial sites, a map of the Soldiers National Cemetery, and, the Wall of Faces, where you can look into the faces of the many, many men [boys] from both sides who died in the Battle of Gettysburg…on several occasions the Gettysburg Foundation members have visited us while we painted these names, and would read the story of the soldier who’s name you are painting, which is a very emotional experience…unfortunately, the most common name in Civil War cemeteries remains “UNKNOWN”…this is due to the lack of personal identification during the Civil War, especially the early battles…it was documented that by 1864, in the hours leading up to the Battle of Cold Harbor, that the men were sewing slips of paper with their names into their jackets…

And so, with solemn hearts and minds, we entered the cemetery on Saturday, June 1st, 2024, nearly one hundred and sixty-one years after the battle at Gettysburg, to add some fresh paint to the names of the men from New York, Michigan and Maine, the sections selected to be done this year…while we worked, we shared some stories from our studies of the battle, and reflected on how the men from the 4th Michigan that we were painting had died in the Wheatfield alongside the men from the 62nd PVI…and the “Maine Boys”, whose men would have tramped ahead of or behind the 62nd on many marches…on July 2nd, 1863, those from the 20th Maine held the end of the Union line “at all costs”…many of them are buried in the Maine section that we painted…

It was a very rewarding day, especially for those in our family who were painting names for the first time…for all of us, it wasn’t hard to imagine the words of President Lincoln echoing across that solemn field of honor “we must never forget what they did here”…

And after our duty was done, we continued another tradition, by gathering at our cabin site at Drummer Boy Camping Resort for our “post work day cookout”…what better way to end the day than to enjoy food, friends and fellowship together and watching the evening set in over the pond, and the bullfrogs begin their chorus, while we discuss the events of the day, the weekend, and the thirty years that we have been together!

We look forward to returning to Gettysburg for the 161st Anniversary in a few weeks, where we will conduct our annual “Wheatfield Tribute Ceremony” at the 62nd PVI monument on Saturday, July 6th, tentatively at 10:30 AM…hope you can join us!

May God bless,

The 62nd Family