OVERSIGHT HEARING ON GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK GENERAL MANAGEMENT PLAN AND PROPOSED VISITORS CENTER

Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands of the Committee on Resources, US House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress � First Session.

FEBRUARY 11, 1999, WASHINGTON, DC

Serial No. 106�4 - Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources

Available via the World Wide Web:

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/resources/hii55029.000/hii55029_0.htm

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES � parts of Pages 119 and 120 of these documents

STATEMENT OF DESCENDANTS OF THE NY 136TH INFANTRY REGIMENT

    The Descendants of the 136th New York Infantry Regiment respectfully request, from the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands of the U.S. House of Representatives, that this statement be entered into the Congressional Record during public hearings scheduled to be held on February 11, l999. Our organization has a unique perspective concerning the Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Gettysburg National Military Park [GNMP]. We feel compelled to speak, not only from our own point of view, but also, for the veterans of the 136th New York Infantry Volunteers. These brave men defended the exact position of the current National Park Visitor Center in Gettysburg National Military Park, some with their very lives.

    We have included photographs and human interest pieces from the men of this regiment, some of whom were our ancestors. These were the real people spoken about in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. We have included an account by an officer detailing the regiment's viewshed during the battle, maps of the battle lines the regiment defended, and comments and contact information for a few of us.

    We feel strongly that the removal of the current Visitor Center and Cyclorama, and all of their associated roads and parking lots, is long overdue. Removing these buildings will restore the view down the battle line, looking south from the Visitor Center. The 136th NY lost 109, out of the total of 971 men, who became casualties of the over 6,000 men who fought in this area. These buildings should not have been built on the main Union battle line of 1863 in the first place. We are decidedly FOR the National Park Service plan to restore Ziegler's Grove and the Visitor Center area to its 1863 historical appearance. This is federal land and it is the duty of this government to fund the restoration of this hallowed ground.

     Much of the lines of battle of the 136th New York are sadly not within GNMP boundaries. Steinwehr Avenue (named after General Von Steinwehr, who led the Second Division of the XI Corps, of which the 136 NY was a part) and the Colt Park Subdivision, were developed where men died, some horribly. Gettysburg veterans did react to the loss of their battle lines. 

   The first challenge from a developer occurred in the same year the park was created. A trolley company had constructed a rail line through the center of the battlefield to Devil's Den, despite objections by veterans of the battle and others, and they immediately brought a lawsuit against the government to block the acquisition of their land by the park. In a case that has been used countless times since as a precedent in federal condemnation actions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 in United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Co. ''that the government had the right, indeed an obligation, to protect such areas. ''Can it be that the government is without power to preserve the land, and properly mark out the various sites upon which this struggle took place, or even take possession of the field of battle, in the name and for the benefit of all the citizens of the country, for the present and for the future? Such a use seems necessarily not only a public use, but one so closely connected with the welfare of the republic itself as to be within the powers granted Congress by the Constitution for the purpose of protecting and preserving the whole country,'' the justices' opinion read in part.

    Has the passage of time allowed some to forget ''what they did here''? The sacrifices made at Gettysburg, and the entire reason there is a National Park there to commemorate it, are getting lost in controversy. This Congress has in its power the opportunity to correct a great wrong, and at the same time, fund this project in a way that would make Lincoln and these veterans proud.

Respectfully,

Elizabeth Stead Kaszubski,
Founder, Descendants of the 136th New York Infantry Regiment