HIGH POINT, N.C., Aug. 5, 2009 – Dr. Frederick Schneid, professor of history at High Point University, recently took a group of students on a historical field trip to Antietam and Gettysburg.
The field trip – the Antietam-Gettysburg Staff Ride 2009 – was part of Schneid’s graduate course, History 566: Great Military Leaders. The course examines command in war and the variables related to generalship and warfare from the 17th century to World War II.
The Staff Ride was led by John H. Gill, a retired colonel in the United States Army who now serves as an associate professor at National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
The experience, which is typically used by the army to teach officers the complexities of command in battle by looking at historical experiences, offered the students a first-hand perspective of the dynamics and difficulties of 19th-century warfare.
The students visited Antietam – the site of the bloodiest single-day battle of the American Civil War. The group then traveled to Gettysburg, where the students were able to compare and contrast the scope and conduct of the battle that took place just 10 months after Antietam.
“The field trip provided a vivid illustration of the changing nature of military leadership and the practical problems of command within the context of the American Civil War and then contrasted it to European wars fought during the same decade,” Schneid explains.
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in a fun environment with caring people. HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with 3,700 undergraduate and graduate students from 50 countries and 44 states at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report No. 5 among comprehensive universities in the South and No. 1 in its category among up-and-coming schools. Forbes.com ranks HPU in the top 6 percent among “America’s Best Colleges.” HPU was included in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” 2009 listings. The university offers 68 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and seven graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at www.highpoint.edu. Chris DudleyVice President for [email protected]