Hear an overview of the life and military service of James J. Archer of Harford County. Gen. Archer was the first general officer in the Army of Northern Virginia captured during the Civil War. His infantry brigade opened the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, and one of his soldiers killed Union Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, commander of the Army of the Potomac’s First Corps.

Archer and his brigade were imprisoned during a Union counterattack. Archer survived but died of illness in October 1864. “Archer’s Brigade” as his command was known, fought in all major battles of the eastern theater of war, including the Maryland Campaign of 1862.

Presenter, Dr. Mark A. Snell, himself a resident of Gettysburg, is writing a biography of Archer based on the Archer Family Collection at the Maryland Historical Society. Dr. Snell’s biography spans Archer’s boyhood along the banks of the Susquehanna, to his service in the Mexican War, to his casting his lot with the Confederacy. Dr. Snell is the founding director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University, where he taught history for 20 years before retiring in 2013.

Bring your lunch to this free event.