Grenville Dodge—The Indispensable Man
The Battle of Gettysburg is probably the most well-known battle of the Civil War: Gen. Meade versus Gen. Lee, Pickett’s Charge, Little Round Top, Cemetery Hill, and the Devil’s Den.
Come to our March 17th meeting and hear a very different story about Gettysburg. Learn why Ron Kirkwood has chosen to focus on the George Spangler Farm in Gettysburg, and why he says that it is a place of reverence. Kirkwood researched thousands of pensions and military records, hospital files, letters, newspapers, and diaries of those present at the hospitals on Spangler land during and after the battle.
The result is a deeper and richer understanding of what these men and women endured—suffering that often lingered for the rest of their lives. Their injuries and deaths, Yankee and Rebel alike, carried with it not only tragedy and sadness for parents, spouses, and children, but often financial devastation as well. Hear about how the nurses held the hands of dying soldiers, prayed, and spoke last words with them amid the blood, stench, and agony of two hospitals, and how heroic surgeons resolutely worked around the clock to save lives.
Author Ronald D. Kirkwood’s best-selling “Too Much for Human Endurance”: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg, established the military and medical importance of the Spangler farm and hospitals. “Tell Mother Not to Worry”: Soldier Stories From Gettysburg’s George Spangler Farm is Ron’s equally amazing sequel.

Ronald D. Kirkwood
Ronald is retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer for newspapers and magazines, including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, the York (PA) Daily Record, and the Midland (MI) Daily News. Ron edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was the NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly.
He has won state, regional, and national awards, and he managed the copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ron has been a Gettysburg Foundation docent at the George Spangler Farm Civil War Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013.
A native of Dowagiac/Sister Lakes, Michigan, and a graduate of Central Michigan University, Ron has returned to his alma mater as a guest speaker for journalism classes as part of the school’s Hearst Visiting Professionals series. Ron and his wife of almost 50 years, Barbara, live in the deer-filled countryside near Murrysville, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.