Debunking myths

I've worked at the Visitors Center at Gettysburg as both an employee and a volunteer and am always amazed at some of the questions that I am asked. Stories get started and somehow you wonder how they manage to keep going around because they are so outrageous. But other stories seem to have merit although they aren't real. The one myth that I'm thinking of started out this way.

So often I've been asked "Where was the shoe factory?" Huh? It seems that the story is that the battle was started over a search for shoes....precisely, they were looking for the shoes in a shoe factory. There was no shoe factory in Gettysburg. The Confederates did not come to town specifically to raid a shoe factory. They came looking for supplies....but there were none. Jubal Early had come through town just a couple of days before and took all the supplies.

How did this story start though? Harry Heth went to A.P. Hill asking for permission to come into Gettysburg looking for supplies. Hill gave Heth permission but told him not to start an engagement. Here's the strange thing: Heth took his men into Gettysburg with artillery leading the way....to "look" for supplies. Instead, they found Buford and his Cavalry....an engagement started and, as they say, the rest is history.

In his memoirs (which is a great book....VERY funny) Henry Heth states that he came into town looking for supplies, especially shoes. Heth had to cover his butt....because a general engagement was started....so to keep himself out of trouble, this was his story. Trouble is, Early had come through town....took up a "collection" from the townsfolk (a story all by itself) and then moved on. Didn't Heth or Hill know this? And if not, why not?

As the years progressed, the story took on a life of its own. People tend to leave out the "supplies" part and just leave in the "shoes" part. Gettysburg does not and never has had a shoe factory in town. The closest thing to a shoe factory were a few cobblers....but that is it....no large scale shoe manufacturing. This has become a well-known fact, yet the truth never spreads like a rumor. So, far fewer people know that this is not the truth and the number of people who know the myth. It's frustrating to those of us who know and understand the beginnings of the battle. People come to Gettysburg insisting that they know the "Truth" and when you try to explain to them that it isn't true, they get mad at YOU for being ignorant. I'm just hoping that they ask enough people and keep getting the same answers so that one day everyone will know the truth about the shoes in Gettysburg.