CAMBRIDGE -- Edward McPherson and his family set about their daily chores on the 100-acre family farm on a July morning in 1863. Then everything changed.
The McPherson farm was a fairly successful enterprise, with a house and a couple of barns that sat a half-mile west of Gettysburg, Pa. It was typical of many Pennsylvania farms at the time, said Civil War historian Michael Russert.
"The military events that happened on this 100-acre farm and the battle that took place in their back yard forced the family to abandon the farm. When they (eventually) came back, it was a burial ground," Russert said.
The historian will deliver a presentation of the plight of the McPherson family, and others like them, who lived in the path of the battle and have been virtually ignored by history.
"The family never fully recovered. They were representative of a typical family and of what happened to dozens and dozens of families in that locality," Russert said.
The free lecture will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Cambridge Library, located at 21 West Main St.
Russert, who is a cousin of late television journalist Tim Russert, taught for 35 years in Buffalo and in Hoosick Falls.
More recently, he completed a seven-year stint as the coordinator of the New York Veteran Oral History Program at the state Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.
When Russert's cousin, Tim, died in June 2008, the historian said it served as a catalyst to slow things down in his own life.
"When Tim died, it very much affected me, especially since he was 10 years younger than I was," said Russert, who is retired and living in Cambridge.
"It made me realize that I needed to relax and enjoy myself more."
For more information about the lecture, call the Cambridge Public Library at 677-2443.
Posted in Local on Monday, October 19, 2009 5:20 pm | Tags: Russert, Civil War
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