GETTYSBURG, Pa. — It’s said the Civil War pitted brother against brother. For the ancestors of Eddie Roberts of Tennessee, that phrase was all too true.
“My grandfather, Brigadier William P. Roberts [was] the youngest general in the Confederate Army. That’s on my father’s side,” Roberts said. “On my mother’s side is Jacob Pressley. He fought for the 5th East Tennessee Regiment Army of Ohio, which was Union. His two brothers fought Confederate.”
Roberts said Jacob Pressley ended up being killed during a battle in which one of his brothers fought for the opposite side.
That history is the reason Roberts now portrays both of his grandfathers at Civil War reenactments. In a presentation given on Sunday, he talked to an audience first as his Union grandfather, then as his Confederate grandfather.
“Confederate comes in last because he wants to correct all that misinformation the Yankee just gave,” he said.
That presentation was just one of the many activities through which visitors could learn about the Civil War at the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association’s annual reenactment.
The event honors the 159th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg.
Every year, the event is held on the Daniel Lady Farm in Straban Township, which during the Battle of Gettysburg was the site of artillery placements and infantry preparations for the Confederate attack on Culp’s Hill. The house and barn on the farm became a Confederate field hospital.
When the fighting was done, historians said, soldiers and locals came together to tend to the wounded.
“We all became family. Everybody came together and it truly ended up being a war of brothers and people helping each other, civilians helping soldiers, soldiers helping soldiers,” said Bruce Kottke, the Daniel Lady Farm house’s curator.
Organizers of the reenactment hope the message of unity that followed the battle reached the event’s 6,000 expected daily visitors and 900 reenactors.
Reenactors say especially amid the Fourth of July holiday weekend, it's important to honor the country many soldiers fought to defend and preserve. For some, remembering those soldiers’ sacrifice is well worth bearing the summer heat in thick woolen uniforms.
“We get a lot of relationships with people that you build with the people that are here,” said Jonathan Bernard, a Union artilleryman reenactor from New York State. “For us, we have a lot of our men in the original unit that we come and we go to the gravesites of that are in the National Cemetery. We lay pennies on their headstones, for instance, things like that. Being here on hallowed ground obviously is a huge difference for us. It means a lot to use as reenactors.”