The Fall National Battlefield Coin Show™ will be September 11-12, 2026 with the show open to the public from 9am until 5pm on Friday, September 11, and from 9am-3 pm on Saturday, September 12. The show will open to Early Birds for $25 per person from noon-5pm on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Please check our website at: www.americascoinshows.com for dealers attending. _**FOR SECURITY REASONS, A VALID PHOTO IDENTIFICATION IS REQUIRED FOR EVERYBODY WHO ATTENDS AND ENTERS THE SHOW.**_ The show will be at the Eisenhower Hotel Ballroom, 2634 Emmitsburg Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325. If you cannot find the venue, please call me at 301-788-6232 and I'll provide you directions. There is plenty of FREE parking, FREE admission and dealers will be glad to provide FREE appraisals on your coins. Gettysburg Website
Would've loved to combine this with a trip up to MD to work on Dad's house, but I'm still a month away from driving.
That is one place I'd really like to visit, so rich in American history. Is Paddyman banned from there with his metal detector?
Pretty sure everybody's banned from detecting on battlefields. Too much like grave-robbing. I still think, though, about that cornfield behind our house in Williamsport, MD, back when I was a little kid. The one where the plow turned up a Civil War shell one year. My brother used to have it on his dresser. Looked like a smallish, rusted-metal bowling pin. They scraped that land down and built apartments on it around 1970. But there are still lots of fields and woods in the area that haven't been developed. (We were about 5 miles from Antietam Battlefield as the crow flies. I don't think shells flew quite that far, though.)
There were plenty of skirmishes on the outlying areas. Both calvaries had cannonry and were on the move as well. I highly recommend Shelby Foote's trilogy of books about the Civil War if that interests you. Be warned, it's about 3000 pages of medium small print if you dare.
I read Shelby Foote's trilogy many years ago. I highly recommend it as well. It's the best I've read on the Civil War. Bruce
I'm guessing Williamsport got a good bit of ink in that trilogy. It was a major Potomac crossing during the Civil War. It's got a lot of history. https://williamsportmd.gov/about-us/our-history/
I guess I have always been a Bruce Catton guy. I enjoyed Shelby Foote's books but like so many historians he seemed to fall in love with his topic; Gen. Lee in particular. I have the same problem with much of Ken Burn's works. You learn some very interesting facts and insights but at a certain point you can't help but wonder if the person in question could walk on water. James
Every time I drive across the Susquehanna River on route 30 I can see the old pilings from the Union forces burning the wooden bridge down to prevent the Confederates from crossing into Columbia.
All the times I drove (and even once or twice bicycled!) that bridge, and I never was aware of that history!
There is also a rail trail for biking and walking fairly close to my house. It goes from York to Baltimore and it’s quite a bit of history for that trailer as well. About a mile and a half from where you park you can walk to a small train tunnel, about 250 feet long. The top of the tunnel has trees a lot smaller than all the trees in the woods on either side of the tracks. That’s because the union forces cut all the trees on top of the train tunnel down and hold cannons up on Top of the tunnel. That was to protect the train from Confederate forces. Lotta civil war history in my area as Gettysburg is only 30 minutes away, if that. On the western side of Gettysburg the main highway US 30 runs right through the middle of the battlefield. You can see Stone memorials on both sides. I’ve read some of the post you’ve replied to and glad to hear that you’re healing nicely. I know you have a long recovery as that’s not something that’s easy to recover from. Lotta muscle tissue to rebuild.
