Seminary Ridge Symposium 2007 to Explore Devil’s Den and Little Round Top

(10/1) The 2007 Seminary Ridge Symposium will explore Devil’s Den and Little Round Top, two of the most fascinating places on the civil war battlefield at its annual two day program to be held October 5 & 6, 2007.

The symposium, hosted in Valentine Hall on the Gettysburg Seminary campus, will include presenters Glenn LaFantasie, Tom Desjardin, Tim Smith and Wayne Motts, with a "guest appearance" of Harriett Tubman, portrayed by Millicent Sparks.

Sponsored by the Seminary Ridge Historic Preservation Foundation, the symposium is in its 7th year and is directed by scholar and author Kent Gramm who teaches English literature at Wheaton College in Illinois. Kent Gramm is the author of several books on Gettysburg, Lincoln and the Civil War.

Glenn LaFantasie will open this year’s Symposium with "Little Round Top, Then and Now." Prof. Lafantasie is the author of two acclaimed, best-selling books related to Little Round Top: Twilight at Little Round Top and Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William B. Oates. Formerly the deputy historian of the U. S. State Department, LaFantasie is Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History and director of the Center for the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University. He has written for North and South, Civil War Times Illustrated, American History, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, America’s Civil War, and The New York Times Book Review.

Tom Desjardin, an entertaining and compelling speaker and tour leader, has worked as a battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park and is the author of Stand Firm, Ye Boys from Maine, a meticulous study of the engagement of the 20th Maine versus the 15th Alabama on Little Round Top. He is also author of These Honored Dead and Through a Howling Wilderness. Examining memoirs, letters, dispatches, and battle reports, Dr. Desjardin has concluded that during the "hottest moments" of the desperate fight for the Union flank, the odds were "close to even" on what is today the most-visited location on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Special features of this year’s symposium will include a Saturday morning tour led by guides Timothy Smith and Wayne Motts exploring both Devil’s Den and Little Round Top. Harriet Tubman, the former slave who led many others to freedom and will be portayed by Millicent Sparks a staff member of Philadelphia’s Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum.

For more information call Linda Hess at 717-338-3030, on the web at www.seminaryridge.org or email at director@seminaryridge,org.

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