In creating its new historical program, "Roads to Gettysburg," Carroll County's Office of Tourism is employing a variation on the saying, "All roads lead to Rome." With the help of volunteers, the office has created a guide and brochure for a driving tour that retraces the route of thousands of Confederate and Union troops through Carroll to Gettysburg, Pa.
Route 97 may not be the Appian Way, but the guide reveals that many of the county's roads were indeed well traveled by soldiers and played a significant role in the prelude to that epic Civil War battle. Many of the same roads still exist.
While the guide was intended primarily for tourists, Carroll residents may also find it extremely interesting. Places they pass every day take on added significance. John Street in Westminster was the site of a large Confederate encampment in September 1862 during the Antietam campaign. Manchester Road (now Manchester Avenue) was used by 10,000 members of the Union's Sixth Corps, along with their wagons, horses and artillery, to march to Manchester. Even though Union Bridge was miles from southern Pennsylvania, soldiers brought the body of Union Maj. Gen. John Fulton Reynolds of Lancaster, Pa., to a funeral home in the Carroll town after he was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during the first day's fighting at Gettysburg.
A number of people contributed time and energy to developing these materials, but Dan Schaeffer, a recent graduate of Western Maryland College, deserves special mention. As an intern in the tourism office, Mr. Schaeffer unearthed a wealth of details about the Civil War period by reading through diaries and letters preserved at the Historical Society of Carroll County.
Using history to market tourism is not new, of course -- it has been Gettysburg's bread and butter for a century-plus, after all. But county officials deserve credit for producing an informative set of material. With Hagerstown all but out of the running for a national Civil War museum, this self-guided tour is a way for the state to gain at least some share of the historical tourism pie. As important, the map will help Marylanders and visitors enhance their understanding of the events that led to the battle known as the "high watermark of the Confederacy."