MANSFIELD — The historic 1863 Civil War battle in Gettysburg was not planned by the probing Union and Confederate armies.
It ignited as the result of a skirmish that began between scouting parties, colliding in the eastern Pennsylvania community of about 2,400 residents.
A friendship echoing a lifelong respect for the single bloodiest battle of that four-year war began in a similar unplanned fashion, resulting from the meeting of an electronics salesman and a camera store stockroom employee in Columbus many years ago.
That’s where Mansfield resident Gary Jakubick — a salesman who earned a history degree at Kent State University who already had an interest in the Civil War — and future legendary Gettysburg historian Wayne Motts met during a sales visit to a shop on Lane Avenue.
“I was in there trying to sell things and the Civil War came up in conversation. They said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy in the stockroom who is into the Civil War.’ That guy was Wayne Motts,” he said.
That friendship has helped lead Jakubick to recently complete his own battlefield mission of photographing every monument on the 6,000-acre battlefield that saw more than 50,000 casualties in just three days in July, a historic battle that turned the tide of the war and perhaps saved a nation.
Celebrating his 74th birthday on Friday, the 1969 Mansfield St. Peter’s High School graduate reached his goal in April by finding and taking a photo of a small monument placed in honor of Brown’s Battery B of the 1st Rhode Island artillery.
Fittingly, Jakubick was joined in the moment by Motts, who began his work as a Gettysburg tour guide in 1998 and later became president and chief executive officer of the Gettysburg Foundation. He also served as director of the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg and director of the National Museum of the Civil War in Harrisburg, Pa.
“That (Rhode Island monument) was my white whale,” Jakubick said. “I looked all over for that darn thing. We had the coordinates and we’re walking all around and you just didn’t see it.”
After a failed attempt, Jakubick sought out Motts, a central Ohio native who had earned a bachelor’s degree in military history at The Ohio State University.
“I bet him dinner he couldn’t find it because I sure couldn’t,” Jakubick said. “Sure enough, he goes right to it. He is like the Sheldon Cooper of Gettysburg. He has that eidetic memory.
“He doesn’t just know Corps, he knows Division, Brigade and Regiment. He knows these things and he can bring them to life,” Jakubick said.
(Below are some of the Gettysburg battlefield monuments photographed by Mansfield resident Gary Jakubick. The story continues below the photos.)
Jakubick’s love for Civil War history was fanned by Kent State Prof. John Hubbell, editor of Civil War History for 35 years, from 1965 to 1999.
The friendship with Motts added more fuel. A salesman with responsibilities in multiple states, Jakubick would try to arrange his sales call days to end at Civil War battlefields, including Gettysburg.
It was during one of those visits his friend helped connect him with famed Civil War artist Dale Gallon, who moved to Gettysburg in 1984.
It was a time when the Civil War had again captured the American interest with the success of the movie “Gettysburg” in 1993 and the Ken Burns’ documentary series “The Civil War” on PBS in 1990.
Ever the salesman, Jakubick saw an opportunity for a side business and took a meeting with Motts and Gallon at Tommy’s Pizza in Gettysburg.
“Gallon gave me thousands of dollars worth of framed prints on consignment to take back to Ohio to sell … all on Wayne Motts’ word. I was flabbergasted,” he said, opting to begin selling the artwork for the first time at the Civil War Show at the Richland County Fairgrounds in 1994.
“I sold a print there … a big one. I started going to Civil War shows. I went to Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Virginia,” said Jakubick, whose home is adorned with many of his prized, framed Civil War prints.
At one point in his electronics sales career, Jakubick was servicing 81 HHgregg stores in seven states, an area that included the battlefield-rich state of Virginia and also Pennsylvania.
“I would make calls all week and on Friday nights I would stay in Gettysburg. I ate and stayed in a nice hotel and it was all paid for (by the company),” he said, estimating he has visited the town around 50 times over the years.
He began taking photos of the monuments as he visited the battlefield during visits. His initial goal was never to photograph them all, as identified through the popular Guide to Gettysburg Battlefield Monuments book.
“Every time I came in, Wayne and I would just go to this place or that place. I respect the battlefield. It’s sacred soil. There are still soldiers buried there. They all gave their last full measure, as Lincoln said,” Jakubick said.
Some websites claim there are more than 1,300 monuments at Gettysburg, a number Jakubick disputes. He has photographed 466 monuments, including four not in the book he used, along with 367 plaques, almost all with his phone.
“I can start a conversation anywhere,” he said with a laugh.
“If someone says there are 1,300 (monuments), they are counting flank markers,” he said, referring to small rectangular stone markers that indicate the left and right edges of a regiment’s battle line during the battle.
“If I wanted to photograph all of those, I would need to have started in high school,” Jakubick said.
His love for Gettysburg has been shared with his wife, Cindy. The newly-married couple stopped there on the way home from their honeymoon many years ago.
Jakubick doesn’t plan on stopping his visits to the battlefield even after he dies.
Cindy Jakubick has also agreed to help her husband fulfill his final request to have some of his ashes scattered at the battlefield, which is allowed, but requires obtaining a permit from the Gettysburg National Military Park.
“He wants to be cremated and have half of his ashes scattered at Gettysburg and the other half with his family in the Lexington cemetery,” she said.
“I told him I could just poke a hole in my pocket and let him slide out as I walked around,” Cindy said with a laugh.