This past weekend I made what has become an annual visit to Gettysburg. A little background info: I first visited Gettysburg in 1979, that’s what sparked my interest in the American Civil War. My first reenactment was there in 1981. I’ve been back MANY times. Every year for many years some of the North Carolina reenactors are invited to participate in a "living history" program for the National Park Service, on the second weekend of August. I've been lucky enough to join them a few times, including the 150th anniversary year. This past weekend they put 60+ men in the field (the size of an actual Civil War era company at that time in the war) and did an excellent presentation.

At the 150th (13 years ago now), after completing our part of the program, my friend Brian D and I left camp in our uniforms to tour the battlefield. We made our way to Little Round Top. Armed with our cameras, we walked to the top and discovered a group of five Union soldiers, in full gear including muskets. I commented to them that the odds didn’t seem quite fair. It turned out that they were a local Pennsylvania unit, just visiting the area where their predecessors had fought. We had quite the conversation up there, talking about history and reenacting. Before Brian D and I moved on we exchanged contact info with them and shook hands all around.

I’ve kept in contact with the unit commander there, Brian B, ever since. Over the years we’ve established a pretty good friendship online. I also had the pleasure of “meeting” his wife online and becoming friends with her too. They are an impressive couple. Active in their local government and historical society. They even found time to have a little girl, so I keep up with her activities too. But I never got to see them face to face.

In 2021 I toured the battlefield with my niece and her family. Brian B volunteered to come over and act as a guide, giving us a great program on the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield parts of the battle. That was the first time I’d seen him since 2013.

In 2025 Brian D, with his son, and I went up to Gettysburg to see the NC troops’ program. Brian B’s family came to meet us for a day. It was just like a family reunion. We toured and shopped and ate and then ate some more. Everyone enjoyed it so much that we discussed making it an annual event.

This past weekend was our reunion. We met on Saturday to tour a part of the battlefield, Culps Hill, that we’d missed last year. A pretty heavy thunderstorm hit right as we met so we sat it out at O'Rorke's Family Eatery and had a good lunch. Gettysburg has some great shops so we visited a few of those, including Dirty Billy’s Hats, which makes museum quality reproduction head wear. Back on the field we found the “rooster monument” (7th Ohio Infantry Regiment) and “Coble Rock” (a boulder featuring a historical inscription carved by Private Augustus L. Coble of the 1st NC Infantry, indicating his position during the battle. He apparently carved it there during the 50th anniversary event in 1913). Coble Rock now carries a patch of skin from my elbow too! After the rain those rocks were slick!

To finish our day, we had ice cream at Mr. G’s. Brian B’s daughter helped me pick out a souvenir coffee cup to remind me of our trip. She got the same one, because coffee cups are also excellent for eating ice cream. Plans for next year’s meeting are already under way.