Gettysburg Battlefield Walks: The Rose Farm, Tim Smith and Gary Adelman, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 2003. DVD format, $20.
The Pennsylvania Cable Network, owned and operated by the Commonwealth, broadcasts NPS Rangers' and LBG tours of the Gettysburg National Military Park. There are over sixty tours available on DVD format available from www.pcntv.com. At $20 to $25 each, they are an affordable means of learning more about the battle. These tours,filmed on the battlefield,work best with a battlefield map on your lap as the tour plays on your television. Recommended are the McElfresh water color maps that show only the roads, fences, buildings and crops at the time of the battle.
The Rose Farm tour, presented by Licensed Battlefield Guides Tim Smith and Gary Adelman, focuses on the bloodiest farmstead in the Civil War. The Rose Farm is located on the southern end of the battlefield, between Devil's Den an the Emmitsburg Road. The program is an enjoyable 70 minute tour of that portion of the battlefield and covers: the owners and tenants of the farm, Longstreet's attacks on the Wheatfield and the Stoney Hill, the successive attacks by U.S. through The Wheatfield and the Stoney Hill, the burials around the Rose Farm buildings, the post-battle photography on the farm, the first monuments and their mistakes, early tourism and the creation of the National Battlefield Park by the U.S. War Department.
Adelman and Smith, support and interrupt each other. At times the tour becomes a conversation between them; their congeniality avoids the common pitfall of 'the talking head' or 'the monotone' of public discussions presented in video format. Their tour offers period photography, maps, and portaits, enlarged for the audience. Anyone preparing for the Licensed Battlefield Guide exam would do well use this PCN tour in their studies.
