Bonus: Gettysburg

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[00:00:07] This is BewilderBeasts, an infotainment show dedicated to inspiring curiosity for all ages

[00:00:14] by investigating the ways animals intersect at humanity.

[00:00:17] I am not a historian, an ethologist, a researcher, a scientist, a zoologist, a trained audio engineer

[00:00:24] or an expert in... well... anything.

[00:00:26] Y'all, I'm lucky if I can remember to put my clean laundry in the dryer before it gets

[00:00:30] funky.

[00:00:31] And while I make every effort to present things as accurately as I can with a fun flair, I'm

[00:00:36] going to mess up!

[00:00:37] And that's okay.

[00:00:38] I hope I've given you a nice place to jump off from on your own adventures into curiosity

[00:00:42] or at the very least, I've given you the key to win your next round of trivia.

[00:00:56] Hello and welcome to BewilderBeasts.

[00:01:10] I'm your host, Melissa McKee McGrath, recording 515 miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

[00:01:15] And today we are visiting on this Patreon exclusive an unusual museum that tells the story

[00:01:20] of the United States Civil War with 5,000 soldiers.

[00:01:24] With a twist.

[00:01:25] Ready?

[00:01:26] Let's go!

[00:01:40] Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,

[00:01:45] conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

[00:01:50] You have heard these words before, right?

[00:01:53] Especially if you've spent more than a cursory look at a history book in the United States.

[00:01:58] These were the first words in the famous Gettysburg address by President Abraham Lincoln after the

[00:02:02] bloodiest battle in the Civil War.

[00:02:05] This battle solidified the death nail in the Confederacy.

[00:02:08] Well, so we thought.

[00:02:10] It turns out the ghosts of the Confederacy are alive and well in 2023.

[00:02:14] I'm just waiting for 30 states to ban this in history books too.

[00:02:18] What's interesting about this speech is that it carries so much weight and heft in history

[00:02:23] books.

[00:02:24] Every kid recognizes four score and seven years ago, even before they even know that

[00:02:29] a score is 20 years.

[00:02:31] They've heard parodies of this in cartoons or made up their own versions at an all-you-can-eat

[00:02:37] breakfast.

[00:02:38] Four scones and seven bites to go.

[00:02:40] This is the definition of an iconic speech.

[00:02:43] And I don't know about you, but when I hear that speech, I assumed for my entire

[00:02:47] life that this weighty, heavy, hefty speech that was intended to dedicate the ground where

[00:02:53] 7000 men lost their lives, countless more injured or missing and were forever changed in a world

[00:02:59] before antibiotics or medicine that was not just alcohol and handsaws was an hours-long

[00:03:06] oration.

[00:03:07] I mean, the freaking president was giving this speech and I have yet to see a president

[00:03:13] at a podium give a speech that is less than 35 minutes long.

[00:03:17] They can say a whole lot without saying nothing at all in some cases, but not this guy.

[00:03:22] No, the most famous speech in presidential history at the sacred ground in which 7000

[00:03:27] men fell to never stand again under the command of Grant and Lee was the after-party speech.

[00:03:34] There was a two-hour speech that was given by orator pro-speech dude Edward Everett,

[00:03:39] widely thought to be the best speaker of the day.

[00:03:43] And Abe Lincoln followed up that speech, which lasted longer than Monsters Inc., longer than

[00:03:48] Mad Max Fury Road and a little movie called Cat People.

[00:03:52] Honest Abe's speech, the most famous in history was only two minutes long, shorter than the

[00:03:57] Kentucky Derby Race.

[00:04:00] In fact, after Lincoln's address on the field, Edward, two hours ever, it wrote,

[00:04:04] I hope, a shorter letter to the president that said, quote,

[00:04:09] I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the

[00:04:13] occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.

[00:04:17] On that first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a Union soldier was felled by a

[00:04:23] bullet near ominously Cemetery Hill when he was found by the local pub's daughter,

[00:04:28] Yke, he was holding an ambro type.

[00:04:32] This is an old-timey way of photography where an image is taken not on film,

[00:04:36] but on a glass negative.

[00:04:39] That glass was pressed onto black backgrounds, which would, with magic, I guess, make the

[00:04:45] image appear in black and white. Y'all, glass negatives.

[00:04:49] These images were often put in what the time believed to be fancy bougie special,

[00:04:54] but for today we'd probably just say it's gaudy or dated.

[00:04:58] This image in the fallen soldier's hand was of three children, but there was no

[00:05:02] identifying name plate or jewelry or identification on this man's body.

[00:05:07] No one knew who he was or who these kids were.

[00:05:11] Desperate to find the family, the pub owner spoke with a traveling physician.

[00:05:15] The physician, Dr. John Bornes, went back for the photograph and printed it in

[00:05:19] northern newspapers. The idea was that the kids in the photo would maybe be recognized

[00:05:24] and then they would be able to find this man's identity.

[00:05:27] This was some old-timey CSI business right here, y'all, and it worked.

[00:05:32] Word got back to the Humiston family in New York. About the photo, and because of that

[00:05:36] technology he was holding at the time of his death, this nameless soldier was given back his name.

[00:05:42] He was Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Infantry, and by tracking movements

[00:05:48] and interviewing survivors it was deduced that Sergeant Humiston was positioned behind a

[00:05:52] picket fence and a brickyard covering a retreat of Union soldiers at Cemetery Hill.

[00:05:58] It's here that they were attacked by two different Confederate brigades,

[00:06:02] and while it appears Amos initially escaped he was mortally wounded.

[00:06:07] In his dying moments Amos pulled out the now famous photo of his three children from his pocket

[00:06:12] and held it. In his last letter home prior to this battle he had written, quote,

[00:06:17] How I want to see them again and their mother is more than I can tell.

[00:06:21] I hope that we may all live to see each other again.

[00:06:24] You would think that the story stops here, but it doesn't. His wife, now with three children on

[00:06:32] her own was going to need help and lots of it. Dr. John Bornes decided that he would help

[00:06:37] in an unusual way. Again using the photograph. He sold copies of the picture to raise money

[00:06:43] to help the kids in the photo with support along with Sergeant Humiston's widow,

[00:06:47] Felinda. I'm guessing when Felinda was born the family probably thought she was going to be a fill?

[00:06:55] Definitely going to be a fill. For sure going to be a fill and then come out

[00:06:59] a lady fill. And then they probably tried to scramble and feminize fill in a very creative

[00:07:05] manner. Fill Linda. Not only did Dr. Bornes make enough money from selling these photographs

[00:07:10] to support the three kids, but he raised enough extra money to support other children

[00:07:14] of Union soldiers orphaned or left without a parent in the war. Y'all he started a whole

[00:07:20] orphanage to help these kids in Gettysburg. Three years later, Felinda took charge of

[00:07:26] the orphanage with her own kids and all of the others under the roof, which is both sweet and

[00:07:31] honestly kind of rough right? This woman might have had enough on her plate handling three

[00:07:39] children without a dad and this could go either way. And I would love to hear her take on this.

[00:07:46] Was she cool taking on like 130 kids or was she just like, um, okay, I'll take on all of these kids.

[00:07:55] But Felinda had the kids engage with the community and march in parades and be active in town

[00:08:00] and all of these things were looking so good for the orphanage until Felinda remarried. Good for

[00:08:08] her. And then she moved with two of her three kids. Never fear the other was attending college.

[00:08:12] She wasn't just like left behind because he was her least favorite or something. He went on to do

[00:08:18] good things. But the new management of the orphanage was awful and I will spare the details,

[00:08:25] but in just nine years after founding the orphanage, things took a turn.

[00:08:31] The kids started showing up missing in the community. Some went missing completely.

[00:08:37] Allegations of mistreatment of these kids were rampant through the city.

[00:08:41] And eventually after some of the rumors were discovered to be true,

[00:08:45] the orphanage shut down in 1877, 11 years after the orphanage was established to help kids who

[00:08:52] were suffering. It took about 26 more years for this building to get a new purpose. In 1903,

[00:08:59] almost 30 years since the orphanage shut its doors, it became a duplex. But I don't know if chopping up

[00:09:05] this building that was certainly haunted made people feel good about their living arrangement so

[00:09:10] it became a bed and breakfast in 1915. Nearly 100 years later, this orphanage in 2013 found

[00:09:18] its true spirit. It's calling. It's ninth life, if you will. This building has been

[00:09:26] converted into a diorama museum. You know dioramas, the middle school presentation medium of choice.

[00:09:32] A diorama is at its crudest, a shoebox or other multi-sided structure with the front wide open

[00:09:38] so a spectator can peep inside and see a scene. A mini or trized dollhouse could be considered

[00:09:43] a diorama assortment but with maybe more interaction than intended for the art form.

[00:09:49] You can play with Barbie in her dream house but you probably shouldn't play with

[00:09:52] the ones at this museum. Even if you really wanted to, you see this diorama museum at this historic

[00:09:59] building in Gettysburg PA USA, the seat of the tide turning in the civil freaking war

[00:10:05] is accurate. It's historically correct. Is all cats? Yep, you heard it right. These figures

[00:10:13] in Confederate and Union uniforms are all cats. Canons operated by cats, guns aimed by cats

[00:10:21] and other cats. Cats who used up lives one through eight are upright or mostly so on the field while

[00:10:26] those who used up their ninth life lay on the mossy ground. If you, like me, are asking what the

[00:10:35] what then let's get into it. This newest and I'd say most unharmful to Orphan's iteration

[00:10:42] of this historical building is owned run and curated by mega cool twin sisters Ruth and

[00:10:47] Rebecca Brown. They don't just love cats and thought this would be funny. They really truly

[00:10:51] have a passion for history, storytelling art and have a deep intricate knowledge of the battles

[00:10:57] of the US Civil War. They also just happen to love clay making dioramas and cats. And they say

[00:11:04] if you love something try to make it your life's work. And if you love like 10 things you should

[00:11:10] definitely mesh them all together or something. And that's what they did. But let's take a

[00:11:15] step back. If I combined chickens behavior work with animals podcasting playing Drunken Sailor on

[00:11:20] the ukulele because it really only has two chords and a C only song I can play and dark beers with a

[00:11:26] super high alcohol content and poor timing of auto-correx and texting, I'm quite confident

[00:11:32] it would not work out at all professionally speaking or would it be financially profitable?

[00:11:38] But somehow Ruth and Rebecca got super into making their own clay figurines as kiddos which

[00:11:44] is like a great little creative outlet. But they also happen to be as teenage girls the opposite of

[00:11:50] what most would consider the target demographic for people interested in Civil War history.

[00:11:56] I know an 11 year old boy who was super into battles and war strategy

[00:12:01] and the rest are grown ass men who run around fields and knickers will socks and reenact historical

[00:12:06] battles. But Rebecca made her dreams come true by purchasing the historical homestead,

[00:12:11] the former orphanage and turning it into a historical museum with a twist.

[00:12:16] All of the soldiers put the mew in historical museum. I'll see myself out.

[00:12:24] There's not just one diorama, there are several each depicting a different battle in the Civil

[00:12:29] War. And while I applaud their accuracy and storytelling through these dioramas,

[00:12:33] I'm super disappointed that the battle for the iron clads was not renamed

[00:12:38] Battle of the Iron Cats. But hey, it's important to be accurate. In the Battle of the Iron Clads piece,

[00:12:45] Atlas Subscurit describes a view from underneath the water and a peek inside the ship that has

[00:12:51] cat sailors. Pickett's Charge has almost 2,000 teeny tiny cat soldiers each hand made by Ruth

[00:12:58] and Rebecca. The entire scene is five and a half feet by seven and a half feet long.

[00:13:05] Y'all, I'm 5'5". This diorama is a whole me deep and a Shaquille O'Neal long.

[00:13:12] And they didn't just make kitty magic happen. Everything is handmade by these women.

[00:13:17] Each stone in a stone wall and its history, history loved it some stone walls.

[00:13:23] But each stone is a tiny ball of clay shaped and formed to fit into the wall.

[00:13:28] The weapons, the cats, the artillery, the ships, the horses, the cannons…

[00:13:32] And can I just back up on the horses for a minute? These are not cat horses. That would be a bridge

[00:13:38] too far. These are real horses shaped and looking like horses, just the riders or cats.

[00:13:45] This particular piece was started in the year 2000. Pause for all the millennials to reminisce.

[00:13:51] In the year 2000. And done. Y'all, they didn't finish this diorama

[00:13:59] until 2013. It took them 13 years. And they got it done just as the museum was opening its doors.

[00:14:08] The attention to detail these women put into the pieces is a feat of amazing.

[00:14:14] The twins have been working diligently on one of the most famous battles of the Civil War,

[00:14:18] the Battle of Little Round Top. Not only is each soldier cat going to be

[00:14:24] in as historically accurate a place as it can be, but the degree of research that they're

[00:14:28] putting in to get the specific topography correct that hills, the trees, the dips in the land,

[00:14:33] all of it correct for this piece is intense. And the plan is to have this diorama be 11 feet long.

[00:14:40] That is longer than a basketball net is tall. And by the end of it, it should have 5,000

[00:14:46] individually created kitties in historically correct clothing. Each cat will be under one

[00:14:52] inch tall, hand painted and if you've ever worked with clay, you know the smaller

[00:14:57] the pieces, the more likely the rate of explosion in a kiln. And if you haven't played the card game

[00:15:03] exploding kittens, this is by interjection to say go do that stat. To divvy up the work equitably,

[00:15:11] Rebecca makes the Confederate soldiers and Ruth makes the Union soldiers. The amount

[00:15:15] of time the twins have spent on any one diorama far exceeds the actual reign of the Confederacy,

[00:15:21] which was only four years. But while you can get ghosts towards of the area that discusses

[00:15:26] the homestead orphanage and the other theoretically haunted places near these bloody grounds of yesteryear,

[00:15:32] the only ghosts that I know are real are the ones coming back to ban books, gays and women's rights.

[00:15:38] While the reign of the Confederacy turned and eventually ended because of Gettysburg,

[00:15:43] the ghosts are alive and well in every state that bans progress or people.

[00:15:49] I think I'll revisit some choice words for my homie Abe Lincoln. Maybe some words

[00:15:53] in here will resonate. Some of it, yes sure, it's a lot dated. Okay I'm not gonna lie. The patriarchal

[00:16:00] idea that just the fathers brought us to North America and there's that little bit in there that

[00:16:06] there were people already here who were doing just fine until we colonizer showed up and

[00:16:11] continued to do them dirty. Eh, alright, it's not a perfect speech but in these words in this

[00:16:17] speech I wonder if you'll get the message that he was trying to say, the piece of it that stands

[00:16:23] the test of time through all nine of our country's lives. Uh, quote.

[00:17:18] Far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember

[00:17:25] what we say here but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be

[00:17:31] dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

[00:17:38] It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task of remaining before us

[00:17:43] that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their

[00:17:49] last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in

[00:17:56] vain. That this nation under God shall have new birth of freedom and that government of the

[00:18:03] people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth. Meow.

[00:18:21] So thank you Patreons for supporting this show. This is your June episode and we are back on track

[00:18:27] for the rest of the year after a computer malfunction in May and an end of the year

[00:18:31] shenanigans for kiddo's school. I have a few stories that will fit well over here in the Patreon

[00:18:36] land and the Patreon feed and I am excited to bring them to you. If you did have a story you want me

[00:18:41] to tell or you find a silly clip on the internet like my friend Lydia did, hi Lydia go ahead email

[00:18:47] it to bewilderbeespot at gmail.com or use the handy dandy message button in Patreon to go directly

[00:18:53] to my inbox. I will see it. I may not get a chance to respond but I do read everything and I

[00:19:00] love hearing from you and if you have an idea please pop it in there. There are only a few more

[00:19:06] months left of bewilderbees so now is the time to get those story ideas in and I want to hear what

[00:19:12] you want to hear about and with that I'm Melissa McHugh McGrath with Mudstuff Media and the Podfix

[00:19:17] Network. Now go get curious. I got today's information from my friend Lydia what's up

[00:19:24] who sent a tiktok about the Civil War Cat Museum which is actually called Civil War Tales

[00:19:30] the Cat Tale version not the storybook version and god I love a good placed pun. Education.nationalgeographic.org

[00:19:39] Civil War Tales.com YouTube.com which I will link in a separate piece the YouTube video on

[00:19:48] the Civil War Cat Museum so you guys will see that in the Patreon feed coming up soon.

[00:19:52] WashingtonPose.com Civil War Tales.com again just because it was a really useful thing and

[00:19:58] I think I probably put the link in here twice at lissapscura.com. The National Soldiers Orphans

[00:20:05] Homestead NPS.gov on Gettysburg and the full text of the Gettysburg address took up less

[00:20:12] space on a page than my fifth graders five paragraph essay that is located at loc.gov.

[00:20:20] Intro and outro is Tiptoe Out the Back by Dan Liebowitz. Interstitial music is by MK2

[00:20:25] and extra music and sound effects is by Pixabay and freesound.org and if you feel so moved and I

[00:20:30] hope you do my former district elected some people to the school board who want to remove books from

[00:20:36] libraries and I vehemently disagree with that notion all books might not be great or your cup of tea

[00:20:41] but that's the very basis of freedom of speech it's one of those foundational stones at our

[00:20:46] democracy the very thing Abe Lincoln was talking about so without that without our voices the

[00:20:52] voices of the people by the people for the people we fall so if there is a way you can get active

[00:20:58] locally not just liking a facebook post or saying these saying something to a friend at lunch but

[00:21:04] really showing up and getting active locally to stop some of these big dominoes falling in your

[00:21:09] town district state and nation step up at the very least show up in vote in our little town of

[00:21:17] 20,000 people less than 2,000 people showed up to vote last week that's abysmal that is super pathetic

[00:21:26] we can and must do better so go get your sticker and fill in some bubbles get involved and get

[00:21:33] someone else to get involved too you got this stay curious i'll see you next time

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