"Tell Mother Not to Worry": Soldier Stories From Gettysburg's Spangler Farm

Name: "Tell Mother Not to Worry": Soldier Stories From Gettysburg's Spangler Farm
Start: 2024-11-12T19:30:00-04:00
Location: First Congregational Church UCC, St. Joseph

Schedule

Tue Nov 12 2024 at 07:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

First Congregational Church UCC, St. Joseph | Saint Joseph, MI

Militarily, George Spangler owned the most important farm in the Battle of Gettysburg with its location, roads, size and Powers Hill. Additionally, the farm was of critical importance medically with two major hospitals on the property caring for a total of almost 3,000 men. In this presentation and his newly released second book on the Spangler farm – “Tell Mother Not to Worry” – Kirkwood reveals more previously untold events and focuses not just on the soldiers and surgeons at Spangler but also on how a wound or death there impacted families back home for the rest of their lives.
Ron Kirkwood has spent the last eight years researching the George Spangler farm and has written two books on it, including “Too Much for Human Endurance”: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg in 2019. He is retired after a 40-year career in newspapers and magazines including USA TODAY, Baltimore Sun, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, York (PA) Daily Record and Midland (MI) Daily News. Ron edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports, was NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly and managed the Harrisburg copy desk when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ron grew up in Dowagiac and Sister Lakes and spent much time competing against St. Joseph in high school sports in the former Big Six conference. His wife, Barb, is from South Haven, and they are graduates of Central Michigan University, where they met. They reside in Pittsburgh.