es in an army service questionnaire that one of his fondest memories was “picnics with family daughters at Gettysburg.”
Chance meetings and social occasions led to countless marriages. One such event was a town dance held on June 7, 1918, at Rosensteel’s Pavilion at the north base of Little Round Top. Rosensteel was actually a museum with a large outdoor porch, says John Heiser, historian with the Gettysburg National Military Park. “It stood on the corner of Sedgwick Avenue and Wheatfield Road,” he says, and it was torn down in the 1980s.
“Any time men and women get together, there will be relationships, and there will be marriages,” says Park Ranger Dennis Flake of the Eisenhower National Historic Site. Charles H. Holder of Huntsville, Ala., “met his bride when he was stationed at Gettysburg” in 1917, according to a Feb. 9, 1918, newspaper wedding announcement. He married Mary M. Bushman of Gettysburg.
Despite Eisenhower’s restlessness, his one joy in Gettysburg was spending time with his wife, Mamie, and their infant son, Doud, whom they nicknamed Icky (also spelled Ikky). The family lived in three places during their short time here. Citing Susan Eisenhower’s book, Mary Burtzloff, archivist with the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kan., says, “The couple first lived in a cramped rented house without gas or electricity. In June, they moved to the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house associated with Gettysburg College, which was empty of students for the summer. That fall, they moved to a brick house at 237 Spring Ave. in Gettysburg, where they remained for several months.”
The Eisenhowers’ house at Gettysburg College, 157 N. Washington St., is not open for tours but has a historic marker and a bronze plaque that states it was their “first family home.”
From Capt. Eisenhower to President Eisenhower
On Nov. 11, 1918, the armistice was signed; WWI came to an end, and so did Camp Colt. When the buildings and tents toppled, so, too, did most of the memories.
Weaver says if Eisenhower had been sent overseas, he only would have commanded about 150 men in the trenches, but at Gettysburg, he commanded thousands. “I think his experience at Camp Colt taught him a lot about management and a lot about political issues. He had to juggle these different headaches at different times while getting his troops ready to go off to war, and he did it successfully,” says Weaver.
For example, the War Department empowered Eisenhower to shut down any establishment within five miles of the camp that was serving alcohol to the troops. One hotel owner defied the repeated warnings, but Eisenhower diplomatically and firmly dealt with the proprietor until he succumbed to the rules.
“His experience here helped prepare him for what would come later. His experience as a general in the army helped make him a great president, and his experience at Camp Colt helped make him a great general,” says Weaver. “You can draw a linear connection from Capt. Eisenhower in 1918 to President Eisenhower in 1960.”