Pattye Benson

TREDYFFRIN HISTORIC PRESERVATION TRUST
FALL 2013 LECTURE SERIES

Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story
~ Bruce Edward Mowday ~
Award-Winning Journalist & Author

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Cost: $15/person
Refreshments 7:00 PM – Lecture 7:30 PM
Duportail House, 297 Adams Drive, Chesterbrook, PA 19087

Released during this 150th anniversary of the epic battle of Gettysburg, Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story tells the story of the heroic defenders of the Union and especially the Philadelphia Brigade and its commander General Alexander Webb. Webb won a Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor that afternoon and later became President of the City College of New York. With the outcome of the Civil War in the balance, Webb and his fellow soldiers stopped the Confederates at a spot known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy and saved the Union.

J. Howard Wert was a soldier, educator and author born in Gettysburg in 1841. During the Gettysburg campaign, Wert who was a special scout for the Union, was detained by Confederate troops but escaped and aided General Meade’s Union troops. After the battle Wert and Frank Haskell, a member of General Gibbon’s staff, rode over the battlefield and Wert began collecting items from the battle. He continued collecting for years. Wert wrote a guidebook and authored other articles about the battle of Gettysburg. Noted Civil War author Ed Bearss wrote of Wert, “Wert walked in the very footsteps of history … but most of all he was a patriot.” Pickett’s Charge explores what the Union soldiers endured during the charge by the Southern forces.

“About four years ago I stood near what is known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy and looked across the field where the charge took place. I knew a lot about why Lee had to make the charge, General Longstreet’s reluctance to make the charge and the Confederate soldiers that took part in the charge,” said author Bruce Mowday. “As I looked to my left I realized I knew little of the Union defenders. They had a gallant story to tell” Mowday spent three years doing research at the Gettysburg National Park, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Union League in Philadelphia and other reference libraries.

Copies of Pickett’s Charge will be available for sale ($20) and signing by the author at the lecture.

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Bruce Edward Mowday is an award-winning journalist and author. He has authored 15 books on history, sports, true crime and business. His latest book is Pickett’s Charge: The Untold Story and was released in June by Barricade Books of New York in time for the 150^th anniversary of Gettysburg. The book took almost four years to research and write.

His Jailing The Johnston Gang: Bringing Serial Murders To Justice was published by Barricade Books of and is in its third printing. The book tells the tale of three brothers who were convicted of six murders – but Mowday believes they were involved in at least 10, including the cold-blooded assassinations of two law enforcement officers.

Mowday is a frequent contributor to business and lifestyle magazines and is a frequent guest on radio shows and has hosted his own shows. He was named a “Literacy Hero” by the West Chester, PA library. After more than 20 years in journalism as a reporter, columnist and editor, in 1997 he founded The Mowday Group, Inc. a full-service media relations company.