12/14/2023 0 Comments Unity park gettysburg![]() ![]() Larry Redding said with a smile, recalling the school board meeting Andrew attended nine months ago to pitch his idea. "When we looked at those plans, certainly they were ambitious," Gettysburg Area School District Supt. After being turned down near his home in Mechanicsburg, he brought the proposal back to the place where the idea started: Gettysburg. The bronze statue that would serve at its centerpiece, he figured, should be made in America, but many monument companies wanted to have the work completed overseas.Īnd, finally, he needed a place to put the park. The park required hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete. ![]() But as the project grew, so did the challenges. That conversation between Andrew and his brother evolved into a big idea: the creation of a park to educate the public and honor these musicians. Some gave their lives before their 18th birthdays. Many of those boys, some as young as 12, used their drums, fifes and other instruments to direct troops, he explained. Andrew, who portrays a drummer boy for the United States Volunteers re-enacting unit, and his brother noticed that few memorials existed to recognize the Civil War's musicians. The idea for the park originated from a trip his family took to Gettysburg for the 150th commemoration of the town's battle. The small plaza includes criss-crossing walkways, benches, flags and informative boards and is brought together by a central bronze statue of a Civil War drummer boy.įor Andrew, a ninth-grader and Eagle Scout candidate from Mechanicsburg, the $200,000 project is the culmination of two years of fundraising, research and planning. More than 150 years later, 15-year-old re-enactor Andrew Adam stood in that sliver of no man's land between the Union and Confederate positions to dedicate a monument he hopes will show visitors what the country can accomplish when it stands together.Īndrew unveiled Unity Park to a crowd of dozens of re-enactors, family members and wandering tourists Sunday, one day after the end of the 152nd anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. More than 9,000 men were killed in the three days fighting at Gettysburg. A tiny patch of land now tucked between a Gettysburg school and an ice cream shop was once in the crossfire of a town literally divided by war.Īs Confederate sharpshooters took position in houses off of what is now Lefever Street, Union troops gathered just a couple hundred yards away on Cemetery and Culp's hills. ![]()
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