FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2014
Contact: David Cheever or Tammy Marks
207-287-5790

Maine State Archives hosts Historian Jerry Desmond

AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine State Archives will host historian Jerry Desmond on August 20, 2014, at 7 p.m. Desmond, author of “Turning the Tide at Gettysburg– How Maine Saved the Union,” will speak and conduct a book signing.

Many people may recall Desmonds writing in Maine, The Pine Tree State from Prehistory to the Present, and know him to be extremely knowledgeable and engaging about the Civil War, State Archivist David Cheever said. With his latest book, he delves into one of the greatest battles of that conflict and tells of the vital role Maine soldiers had in it.

Desmond is a Maine native and a graduate of the University of Maine.  He is currently the executive director of the Birmingham History Center in Birmingham, Alabama, and lives in Hoover, Alabama.

Having toured the battlefield more than 100 times, Desmond in ‘Turning the Tide at Gettysburg,’  uses maps and photographs to recount the courageous actions of Maine regiments, location by location.

Desmond takes us to well-known places, such as Little Round Top, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard, Devils Den, and Cemetery Ridge. They were sites of extraordinary valor, struggle, tragedy, and triumph during the three-day battle, and Maine soldiers were present at each of them, Cheever said.

The presentation will be free of charge and open to the public.