2026 Winter Lecture Series: Outside of Lincoln's White House- Civil War Era Men and Women of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia

Featuring some of the best Rangers, historians, and authors from across the country, this popular eight-week Winter Lecture Series will once again return to the Gettysburg National Military Park (NMP) Museum and Visitor Center in 2026!

The Winter Lecture Series is held at 1:30 p.m. on weekends in the Gettysburg NMP Museum and Visitor Center from January 10 through March 8, 2026. Seating is available on a first come – first serve basis. Free tickets are available day of at the Gettysburg NMP Museum and Visitor Center. Schedule is subject to change.

This week:

Ranger Bryan Cheeseboro, Civil War Defenses of Washington DC
Most histories of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War only talk about President Lincoln, Congress and the familiar national landmarks of the city.  Most people know very little about the District of Columbia (which in 1861 was the same size as Gulfport, Mississippi today) and the ordinary people who called Washington City and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia countryside home during the War of the Rebellion.  Using photographs, original writings and other researched information, U.S. Park Ranger Bryan Cheeseboro brings to light the stories of “everybody else” and presents a diversity of Union and Confederate men and women, Blacks and Whites, and free and enslaved in and around Washington during the war.