Who is the Angel of Gettysburg? This and More on Stories & Myths.
Who was the 'Angel of Gettysburg?' Why did Union soldiers give their lives to save High Bridge near Appomattox? All this and more on this week's Stories & Myths with Dr. Craig von Buseck and his special guest, Aaron von Buseck.
Watch previous episodes of Stories & Myths on Craig's YouTube page.
Order your copy of Victor! The Final Battle of Ulysses S. Grant
Order your copy of Forward! The Leadership Principles of Ulysses S. Grant
More books by Craig von Buseck
Stories & Myths Transcript: June 24, 2021
and good evening good morning good
afternoon wherever you are tuning in
around the world
we are so glad for you to join us
tonight
on stories and myths and you might
notice
in the lower part of the screen uh
that the last names of both people
are the same this week and even though
he looks a little bit like
john c farrell this is not john c
farrell this is my son aaron
c von busick and we want to welcome
aaron to the program tonight so glad
that you could be with us
thank you yeah this is awesome i'm
really excited to be a part of this
this is uh well i am excited to have you
as well
and uh for those who are tuning in
um aaron has just uh made some history
himself
in the last couple of weeks and uh
you're coming up on the two-week
anniversary am i right
yep me and my wife we tied the knot
literally
we did the not tying ceremony in our
wedding and
yeah it's been it's been amazing so it's
certainly a new
season so it's been really awesome so
that is exciting and uh
we uh we did this uh and
very wisely uh aaron and his
wife julie are both
graduates of the regents school of
communication
where they studied tv and film and video
and so this wedding was prepared
uh as you know from through the eyes of
filmmakers
and so because of that uh
they wanted us there uh for golden hour
at sunrise and we were right on the
shores of
lake erie and the sun rose behind us
as uh well i say behind us
i mean um because i co-officiated
the ceremony with julie's father who's
also an ordained
minister so what gave you guys the idea
to uh to do this cinematic
type of wedding
yeah it certainly is cinematic um yeah
we just you know we both
we you know we've worked on plenty of
film projects in the past and
you know there's just something about
early morning light that is just
incredible and lake erie
uh they have a bang that it's like the
third most beautiful sunrise
you know they don't set the standards
too high but it's but it's certainly
amazing
and so we just knew that it would look
gorgeous and
you know from a
you know from an emotional standpoint in
our connection we wanted to look at this
as a new season
and so we wanted to start it at the
beginning of the day so we wanted it to
symbolize as much of a new beginning
for the two of us as possible which you
know was
kind of always the idea so there's an
element like that there to it but it was
also
simply because we knew that the photos
and videos would look pristine and
and so far yeah everything that we've
seen from our amazing photographer uh
daryl morgan i'll give him a little plug
has been amazing um so we're we're
really thrilled
and really excited to see the rest of it
so
uh i am as well as you said the uh
photos that i've seen in the one little
clip of video that i've seen
have been amazing and i can't wait to
see
more so that is very exciting
yeah so uh one of i was going to say my
uh that was there she was saying that it
was amazing because as soon as
julie got down the aisle the clouds
parted and the sun shone through it was
really
kind of spectacular the way that it all
came together so
yeah it it really was it was uh
for me uh it was almost like a dream
moment or a movie moment uh living it
felt like it was we were in a movie
yeah right i was waiting for someone to
shout cut
yeah well hopefully no one will ever do
that so let me just let the movement
absolutely keep playing yeah
that's awesome well uh we said earlier
that you and julie
attended the regent film school uh tell
us
what the two of you are are doing now in
the film and video
and television industry
so uh currently julie is working
um as a producer uh for cbn
um specifically with the uh
show gizmo go and uh the soup and
also on the side uh super book show
where she does a lot of editing but also
you know a lot of producing and so
that's kind of been
where she's been going but she's also
excellent uh behind camera like as an
operator
and so uh we've been able to work
together actually on a couple projects
which is really cool
you know you know a lot of people you
know don't necessarily get the
opportunity to go to work with their
wife you know
it's really cool to be able to be on set
and to collaborate
because you know film is such an
artistic medium you know and so there
have been a couple opportunities that
we've had where it was really great
getting to work together um and getting
to see her shine in that way because
you know i've only ever seen the product
i've never gotten to see
up until recently gotten to see operate
that one
as for me i just got done working on um
a show up in richmond
uh called swagger uh it's
produced through apple tv and it looks
like it's gonna be amazing i'm really
excited to see it
uh the you know it's a show about um
basketball and youth programs and and
and
the struggles that you know young people
go through
trying to carve their way you know
especially in something as
huge as a sport you know that and you
know national sport like basketball you
know
the competition is so high and so it
makes for a lot of good drama
so uh i'm excited to see that i was a
part of that on their lighting team
um started as a set lighting technician
and then moved to the rigging electric
team
and uh it was very rewarding being a
part of such a large production
uh and now now i just got to work on the
pilot for
a uh a tv series that they're trying to
make
for uh history it's called hidden
history and the episode that we made for
the pilot
uh was about the train that was buried
in richmond uh when they the tunnel
collapsed
and it you know buried like four or five
um
people that are confirmed and then they
think that there might have been
you know up to a dozen or so you know
workers
that were buried as well and so it's
this kind of almost titanic like
story but he hit it you know hidden in
richmond's
ground you know it's kind of incredible
yeah i have never heard this story
before you
worked on this project yeah i mean
either it was really kind of incredible
but uh when i was talking to the
um the producer and uh the
cinematographer ryan pace uh we were he
was telling me the story
about how they've been trying to make
this show
for like 10 years and just now i've
gotten
uh the green light to go make this hook
and then they're working on the second
one which will be happening soon and so
i'm
waiting to hear about that that one too
so it's gonna be cool i love these
stories of you know not well-known
stories
you know from our history but they have
really great lessons i mean
lessons of hubris you know you can be
overstated
you know so well that's what the stories
of this program
is all about to tell those kind of
stories that are amazing interesting
thought-provoking informative sometimes
they make you furious
but then on the myth side you know
the program is meant to also debunk
some of the myths that are out there as
well because
not all history is completely
what happened so there are some things
that we call history
that we find out later as uh further
documentation is discovered
were not exactly what we thought that
that it was
so i'm so glad to have you on the
program uh tonight aaron
yeah no i it's awesome i'm excited to
hear
more about these things i saw your uh
your post on uh the angel of gettysburg
and i was immediately like
well that sounds like a movie
oh my gosh what a title it it really is
so just before we go into the questions
and do you have those questions ready
yeah yeah i have some questions here
that uh okay you know got me thinking
here
before we go into those questions we
want to um announce that
um aaron and i are actually
working on developing one of my books
into a video project the details of
which
will be announced uh in further
upcoming episodes once we get further
down the road
but we are taking the things that i have
been working on
and combining with aaron's video skills
and both of our writing skills because
aaron is also
a talented writer and uh we are
developing a very interesting project
uh so we will announce more about that
as
time goes by yeah i certainly think so
already
like my mind has been blown so many
times i'm like how has this
how are we the first ones to be talking
about this
coming to being a project like this is
that type of thing where you know
in my mind it's in the ranks of you know
the stories that we hear of like you
know george washington crossing
you know and like all that stuff like
all these huge historical stories
that make american history so rich
and i'm very excited to bring more light
to it
so yeah me too and it's also exciting to
be working together
as father and son but in this capacity
as partners
yeah no it's it's amazing it's funny you
know um
growing up in a you know you definitely
didn't hide history from us
so uh i guess it was inevitable that we
would eventually work together when
you shared so much and you you know talk
so much of you know the lessons that can
be learned and
you know and to value what we've gone
through and to learn from our mistakes
but to also
honor you know the good that has been
done
and you know the times that humanity's
goodness has shown through you know
especially in a world that can be so
dark and you know unpleasant
so absolutely well one of those stories
of light
uh is the angel of gettysburg that you
talked about
earlier so what's your question about
the angel of gettysburg
well number one that monument the photo
of the monument
is stunning oh my goodness it's the
artistry behind that alone
was enough to keep my interest much less
you know i know that there's an
incredible story behind it
but i wanted to hear like you know what
is that story and
you know is there some you know other
significance to the monument
itself absolutely well
elizabeth thorne is the woman that is
now known as the angel of gettysburg
she was the mother of three children and
she and her husband
had been hired in 1855
they were immigrants from germany and so
they were hired to be the caretakers of
the new
evergreen cemetery in gettysburg it was
newly established and laid out and they
had just
built uh the archway
entrance and if you've ever been to
gettysburg or you've ever seen the
cemetery
you see that that archway entrance has
on the two sides
uh they were basically two apartments
so there was an apartment on uh one side
where elizabeth and her husband lived
with their three
boys and then on the other side of the
archway was another apartment
that was housed that housed elizabeth's
parents her elderly parents now in 1862
i'm sorry 18 yeah 1862
i believe it was that her husband
um felt that
he needed to join the union army
and so he joined the army
and he went off uh to fight and was