October Event To Recall Confederate Evacuation From Gettysburg
By Deborah Fitts
July 2005
WILLIAMSPORT, Md. — A nonprofit group in Maryland is planning a first-ever event in October to commemorate the remarkable flight to safety of the Confederate wounded following the battle of Gettysburg.
A wagon train 17 miles long carrying 13,000 wounded Confederates over 42 miles of country roads represented “one of the more stunning mass evacuations in U.S. history,” declared Rick Lank, president of the nonprofit Forest Glen Commonwealth (FGC) of Kensington, Md.
In the days after the close of battle, July 4 and 5, 1863, Confederate Brig. Gen. John Imboden, under orders from army commander Robert E. Lee, directed the pullout and the march south. Imboden later called it a “vast procession of misery.”
The trains began pouring into Williamsport July 6. A crossing of the Potomac River was delayed for several days as officers waited for the storm-swollen waters to recede. The town became a hospital.
Lank said education is the nonprofit’s purpose in commemorating the Imboden march.
“We want to make people understand how serious warfare is,” he explained. “There’s a lot more to Civil War reenacting than just the battles fought; it was also the mending that had to take place later. This is a reminder of the sacrifice that people made.”
Joining Lank in putting on the event will be Richard Imboden, of Silver Spring, Md., the general’s great-great-great-grandson. Lank said Imboden, 55, had undergone “an epiphany” when his mother “gave him a satchel of relics” from his ancestor. He now portrays Imboden at reenactments, displaying some of the general’s items.
Lank plans to retrace Imboden’s original 42-mile trek from Gettysburg to Williamsport — only with a procession of cars and trucks instead of horses and wagons. Anyone can join, Lank said, and he hopes that many will be descendants of the wounded Confederates.
The procession to Williamsport is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8. That day and the next, Lank is planning an array of events throughout the town.
He said that members of the Town Council, which voted to participate in the event on May 9, were even urging him to schedule an annual event. “They also want to be included in the planning,” he said. “They’ve never done anything quite like this. We’re telling the story of their town, how a town of 1,000 people put up with 13,000 coming in for awhile.”
Lank is touting the uniqueness of the event. He cites growing interest in the Confederate withdrawal and what he called “the travails after the battle.”
The caravan will depart Gettysburg at 10 a.m. on Oct. 8 and arrive in Williamsport around 11:30. Ride participants will be asked to contribute $35 to defray the cost of the weekend event, according to Lank. He was also considering a silent auction in Williamsport. “It’s going to take a lot of money to put this on,” he said.
Once participants arrive in Williamsport, there will be living history with about 300 reenactors, plus talks, music, book-signings, ghost tours and other entertainment, Lank said. Reenactors will participate by invitation.
Lank said they been assigned to work with certain townspeople in Williamsport who are avid reenactors and amateur historians, “people who reside in homes that were lived in by folks in 1863 who saw much of the action."
FGC was founded in 1999 with a focus on historical interpretation and education. Paid staff comprises two full-time workers (including Lank) and one part-timer. Lank said another 20 volunteers, mostly historians, are also actively involved. Money raised through grants and events goes toward educational projects, including programs aimed at students in Washington County. “We’re trying to make history mean something to kids,” Lank explained.
FGC is also working to establish a heritage education center in the old Victorian-era Cearfoss School on the Greencastle Pike, along Imboden’s route.
More information about the October event is available from FGC toll-free at (866) 588-6503.
