“Too Much for Human Endurance”: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg

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Ronald D. Kirkwood

“Too Much for Human Endurance”

The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg

Ronald D. Kirkwood

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English

Savas Beatie
15 January 2021

American Civil War; Battles & campaigns

"The bloodstains are gone, but the worn floorboards remain. The doctors, nurses, and patients who toiled and suffered and ached for home at the Army of the Potomac's XI Corps hospital at the George Spangler farm in Gettysburg have long since departed. Fortunately, what they experienced there, and the critical importance of the property to the battle, has not been lost to history. Noted journalist and George Spangler farm expert Ronald D. Kirkwood brings these people and their experiences to life in ""Too Much for Human Endurance"": The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg.

Using a large array of firsthand accounts, Kirkwood re-creates the sprawling XI Corps hospital complex and the people who labored and suffered there - especially George and Elizabeth Spangler and their four children, who built a thriving 166-acre farm only to witness it nearly destroyed when war paid a bloody visit in the summer of 1863. Stories rarely if ever told about the wounded, dying, nurses, surgeons, ambulance workers, musicians, and others are weaved seamlessly through gripping and smooth-flowing prose.

A host of notables spent time at the Spangler farm, including Union officers George G. Meade, Henry J. Hunt, Edward E. Cross, Francis Barlow, Francis Mahler, Freeman McGilvery, and Samuel K. Zook. Pvt. George Nixon III, great-grandfather of President Richard M. Nixon, would die there, as would Confederate Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, who fell mortally wounded at the height of Pickett's Charge. In addition to including the most complete lists ever published of the dead, wounded, and surgeons at the Spanglers' XI Corps hospital, this study breaks new ground with stories of the First Division, II Corps hospital at the Spanglers' Granite Schoolhouse.

Kirkwood also establishes the often-overlooked strategic importance of the property and its key role in the Union victory. Army of the Potomac generals took advantage of the farm's size, access to roads, and central location to use it as a staging area to get artillery and infantry to the embattled front line from Little Round to Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, often just in time to prevent a collapse and Confederate breakthrough.

""Too Much for Human Endurance,"" now in paperback, introduces readers to heretofore untold stories of the Spanglers, their farm, those who labored to save lives, and those who suffered and died there. They have finally received the recognition that their place in history deserves.

8 maps, 70 images"

By: Ronald D. Kirkwood
Imprint: Savas Beatie
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781611215311
ISBN 10: 1611215315
Pages: 408
Publication Date: 15 January 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ronald D. Kirkwood is retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer in newspapers and magazines including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, and the York (PA) Daily Record. Ronald edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He has won numerous state, regional, and national awards for his writing and editing and he managed the copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ronald is a native of Dowagiac/Sister Lakes, MI, and a graduate of Central Michigan University, where he has returned as guest speaker to journalism classes as part of the school’s Hearst Visiting Professionals series. Ronald has been a Gettysburg Foundation docent at The George Spangler Farm Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013, and he explores the Gettysburg battlefield dozens of times a year. Ronald and his wife, Barbara, live in York. They have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren.

Reviews for “Too Much for Human Endurance”: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg

A rather different perspective on Gettysburg that will both increase readers’ understanding of the battle and also remind them of the awful human cost of the Civil War that is not recreated on their tabletop battlefields. * Miniature Wargames - Arthur Harman 31/08/2021 *