Home to a U.S. president, Hall of Fame  pitcher and  a classic automobile inventor, there’s so much more to Gettysburg than just a three-day battle  Sure Gettysburg is best-known for the epic Civil War battle that was fought there in 1863. It tends to overshadow many of the other interesting and important stories that have taken place in Gettysburg and the vicinity.  Gettysburg was also home to one of the first tank training camps in the country during World War I. This camp brought a young army officer to Gettysburg who would play a very important role in town but also the world. His name was Dwight David Eisenhower.  Hall of Fame pitcher Eddie Plank called Gettysburg home. He even owned a garage in town after he retired.  Gettysburg is filled with stories of the famous and the not so famous, the curious and the cute, the mysterious and the deadly. Together they will tell you the story of a Gettysburg that you don’t know. It is a town with a rich history that spans many years before and after the Civil War.

Beyond the Battlefield: Stories from Gettysburg's Rich History

History

Rada Jr., James

Americas

A I M Publishing Group

The Civil War split the United States and now it has split the Fitzgerald Family. Although George Fitzgerald has returned from the war, his sister Elizabeth Fitzgerald has chosen to remain in Washington to volunteer as a nurse. The ex-Confederate spy, David Windover, has given up on his dream of being with Alice Fitzgerald and is trying to move on with his life in Cumberland, Md. Alice and her sons continue to haul coal along the 184.5-mile-long C&O Canal. It is dangerous work, though, during war time because the canal runs along the Potomac River and between the North and South. Having had to endured death and loss already, Alice wonders whether remaining on the canal is worth the cost. She wants her family reunited and safe, but she can’t reconcile her feelings between David and her dead husband. Her adopted son, Tony, has his own questions that he is trying to answer. He wants to know who he is and if his birth mother ever loved him. As he tries to find out more about his birth mother and father, he stumbles onto a plan by Confederate sympathizers to sabotage the canal and burn dozens of canal boats. He enlists David’s help to try and disrupt the plot before it endangers his new family, but first they will have find out who is behind the plot.

Lock Ready: A Canawlers Novel

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

The war between the North and the South takes hold on the Freeman. As the Fitzgerald family struggles to make it through the winter of 1862-63 after a poor year of boating on the C&O Canal, the Civil War draws closer to being fought about the Freeman. George Fitzgerald's unexpected return from the battles of the Civil War pits him against David Windover, an ex-Confederate spy, who now works and lives with the Fitzgeralds. Alice Fitzgerald struggles to hold her family together as a vindictive sheriff and a haughty doctor's wife work to tear them apart. Tony, the street urchin from Cumberland, has found a life aboard the Freeman, but Sheriff Lee Whittaker has other ideas for the ex-thief. Elizabeth is growing older and finding herself torn between the canal and becoming a lady.Together, the Fitzgeralds have met every obstacle, but how will they fare if the divisive forces around them separate them?

Between Rail and River: A Canawlers Novel

United States

There's more than one way to fight the Civil War.The 1863 Battle of Gettysburg resulted in horrific slaughter that ultimately ended the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania. But after the Allied victory of World War I in 1918, people began to wonder what if some of the post-world war military technology had been available to the armies during the American Civil War?The marine officers who were debating these questions had the capability to test their theories. The purpose and results were supposed to be safe. The exercises and associated reenactments were meant to merely serve as being training maneuvers, along with strikingly realistic, horrific battle, by substituting their "modern-day" military equipment for that which had been used during the Civil War.On June 19, 1922, more than 5,000 marines left Quantico, heading north to the battlefield of Gettysburg. They would reach the battlefield on June 26, but their arrival would be marred by the sudden, tragic deaths of two of their numbers, when a de Havilland fighter would crash, resulting in the plane's pilot and observer being the last U.S. soldiers killed in the line of duty on the Gettysburg battlefield.But even as a pall, following in the wake of the deaths, descended upon the encampment established on the Codori Farm, the marine mission had to proceed as planned. For ten days, battle would rage once again on the fields and ridges where thousands had perished 59 years prior... climaxing on July 4 when the marines would fight the Battle of Gettysburg... with "modern" weapons and tactics.Includes more than 155 photos (some of which have never before been published), maps, and illustrations to help recreate this historic march for the reader.

The Last to Fall: The 1922 March, Battles, & Deaths of U.S. Marines at Gettysburg

Fulton, Richard D L

Military

He talked with Civil War soldiers, fought against the Japanese in WWII, and chased mushroom clouds after atomic bomb explosions. Chuck Caldwell was always fascinated by history, so much so that as a 14-year-old boy he traveled to Gettysburg, Pa., in 1938 to meet with Civil War veterans at the last, great Civil War reunion. Besides the 75th anniversary reunion, he would go on to attend the 100th, 125th, and 150th anniversaries of the Battle of Gettysburg. Joining the Marines at the beginning of WWII, he went on to fight in some of the most-harrowing battles of the Pacific ... Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Guam. He survived with two wounds, a Purple Heart, and malaria. After the war, he worked for the American Museum of Atomic Energy in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and spent summers at the Nevada Test Site collecting data at Ground Zero after atomic bomb detonations, sometimes standing beneath mushroom clouds as they rose into the sky. Through it all, Chuck had his art. He drew, painted, and sculpted miniature figures that have become sought after by collectors around the country. Clay Soldiers is the story of a man who became part of the history of America and chronicled it through his art. It is the story of an ordinary man who has lived an extraordinary life.

Clay Soldiers: One Marine's Story of War, Art & Atomic Energy

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

October Mourning: A Novel of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

At a time of war, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was caught in the crossfire between two nations. Hugh Fitzgerald proudly calls himself a "canawler." He works on the C&amp;O Canal transporting coal nearly 185 miles between Cumberland, Maryland, and Georgetown. For nine months a year, he and his family live on their canal boat, working hard to get them through the lean winter months. The year 1862 was a hard year to live on the canal, though. The Civil War was in full swing and the canal, which runs along the Potomac River, marked the border between the Union and Confederacy. To this point, the Confederacy has stayed south of the canal, but now the Confederate Army intends to go on the offensive and take the war into the north. Not only are the Fitzgeralds' lives endangered by the increased activity of warring armies and raiders on the canal, but the Fitzgeralds' secret activity as a stop along the Underground Railroad only endangers their lives all the more. Then fate takes Hugh away from his family, leaving his wife, Alice, to hold the family together. With the help of her children; Thomas, George and Elizabeth; Tony, an orphan from Cumberland; and David Windover, a disillusioned Confederate soldier, they will face the dangers presented by the war, nature, and the railroad together. EDITORIAL REVIEWS: "Come 'canawling' with the Fitzgeralds and experience the joys and dangers of life on the C&amp;O Canal. You'll almost hear the horn blowing as they approach another lock." - The Potomac Review "A powerful, thoughtful and fascinating historical novel, 'Canawlers' documents author James Rada, Jr. as a writer of considerable and deftly expressed storytelling talent." - Midwest Book Review "James Rada, of Cumberland, has written a historical novel for high-schoolers and adults, which relates the adventures, hardships and ultimate tragedy of a family of boaters on the C&amp;O Canal .... The tale moves quickly and should hold the attention of readers looking for an imaginative adventure set on the canal at a critical time in history." - Along the Towpath: The C&amp;O Canal Newsletter

Canawlers: A Novel of the C&O Canal

Legacy - A I M Publishing

The rain began on March 16, 1936, and with it, the rain came pain. Raymond Twigg hates the rain because it gives the Rain Man power. It is a power to bring Raymond to his knees or drive him to deadly action. As the March 1936 rains bring the St. Patrick’s Day Flood, the worst flood ever seen in Cumberland, Maryland, it also unleashes the power of the Rain Man on the citizens of the city. While most of the police force is diverted trying to deal with the flooding in the city and the problems it is causing, Sergeant Jake Fairgrieve is called out to investigate a murder. Murders are unusual in Cumberland, but this one is more unusual than most. The dead man’s head has been crushed on the left side with no apparent weapon and the body is laid out on the street as if it was in a casket. Jake throws himself into tracking this murder with no motive. The search keeps him from having to deal with his own fears about the approaching flood until he comes face to face with the Rain Man. With the Jake trailing him, the Rain Man turns from hunted to hunter. He kidnaps Jake’s girlfriend, Dr. Chris Evans. In order to save Chris, Jake will have to face his own fears and the Rain Man in the flooded streets of Cumberland where the Rain Man is at his most powerful.

The Rain Man

Contemporary

The war between the North and the South takes hold on the Freeman. As the Fitzgeralds struggle to make it through the winter of 1862-1863 after a poor year of boating on the C&O Canal, the Civil War draws ever closer to being fought aboard the Freeman. George Fitzgerald’s unexpected return from the battles of the Civil War pits him against David Windover, an ex-Confederate spy, who now works and lives with the Fitzgeralds. Alice Fitzgerald struggles to hold her family together as a vindictive sheriff and a haughty doctor’s wife work to tear them apart. Tony, the street urchin from Cumberland, has found a life aboard the Freeman, but Sheriff Lee Whittaker has other ideas for the ex-thief. Elizabeth is growing older and finding herself torn between the canal and becoming a lady. Together, the Fitzgeralds have met every obstacle, but how will they fare if the divisive forces around them separate them?

Between Rail and River (Canawlers)

Legacy Publishing

From the unsolved to the unusual. From the historical to the hysterical. From the famous to the friendly. This is life in the Maryland mountains.Did you know that a Russian prince once worked as a priest in Cumberland?Have you heard the story about the German POW camp near Flintstone during WWII?Do you know about the mining wars that were fought to try and unionize the coal mines in the Georges Creek region?Do you know the story behind Cumberland's only lynching?Have you heard the story about the baseball game played between the Cumberland Colts and the New York Yankees?These are the stories of Allegany and Garrett counties in Maryland found in old newspapers, history books and other places. It's the stories of people who tamed the mountains, established cities, raised families and lived their lives.Journey back in time and look beyond the photos that so well document the region's history. This collection of 40 stories spans 220 years of life in Western Maryland. Originally published in the Cumberland Times-News and Allegany Magazine, some of these stories have been expanded as new information has been uncovered and new photos accompany some of the stories.

Looking Back: True Stories of Mountain Maryland

Legacy Publications

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