The following may feel like a high school history lecture. Some of the information may be factual. At least I know its based on fact. You may find out later that some of what is written is, in fact, nonsense. I offer the disclaimer that if that is the case it is of ignorance rather than any deliberate attempt to deceive. What would be the point of that anyhow? Now, did your high school history teachers offer the same disaffirmation?
Some basics:
Union: armies of the northern (for the most part) states under President Abraham Lincoln.
Confederate: armies of the southern (for the most part) states under confederate president Jefferson Davis.
Gettysburg was not an important location necessarily. It just happened to have ten roads meeting in the town so it happened to be where the two armies met. This is the field the first Union cavalry defended to slow the approach of the Confederates from the NW. The small group of Union men needed to buy time for the rest of the army to arrive and set defenses on the high ground south of town. This vantage point is looking into town from the NW. The union soldiers retreated from here through Gettysburg on the first day of the battle. Many were captured because the Confederates were moving so fast and greatly outnumbered them. Sounds really bad for the Union but this group of men did exactly what they needed to do to allow the bulk of the army to establish the lines in the best positions.
These were Union guns on the first battlefield. Don't worry. We made sure the barrel wasn't hot before we put the baby on it.
This is part of the same artillery battery. These were only fifty yards from the woods in the next photos. The sounds of war can still be heard to those with sensitive ears.
The fence in the next two photos is the same. The open field is to the right of the fence and the woods to the left. The cannons in the previous photos were pointed in this direction. The barn in the right of the photo is just SW of the main road (kind of visible to the right of the barn) the Confederates used in their approach to the town (which is directly behind you). The first shots of Gettysburg were fired at the Union soldiers in the position I am standing in (where the cannons are). The Confederate soldiers emerged from the woods to the left of the fence. For the buffs out there this is McPherson's Ridge.
Heidi is standing in front of those same woods. She is standing next to where the highest ranking Union officer was killed, defending McPherson's Ridge.
Replica of the stone fences hastily built by the armies as defenses.
This is the area called Oak Hill/Ridge. Gettysburg is visible in the background (you are looking SE). The first Confederate soldiers to attack here were destroyed but the Union soldiers were eventually overwhelmed and retreated through town. This was during the afternoon of the first day of fighting.
This a view from Little Round Top. Fighting began here on the second day of the battle, July 2, 1863. This is the left end of the Union line. If Confederate forces are able to take this hill the entire Union line would be exposed to Confederate cannon because of the fishhook shape of their line south of Gettysburg. Fighting here was fierce. The woods to the left is where much of the fight took place as the Confederates pushed to flank the Union lines. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand. Many of the soldiers on both sides were sharpshooters. On a side note, in order to be a sharpshooter a man had to hit his target (small one, too) five times at over 200 yards. Best not to be in the sites of one of these guys. Needless to say many died or were wounded here. The area to the right of the woods within the angle made by the roads is called the Slaughter Pen.
This is from the same hill looking down onto the Valley of Death. It is just to the right of the Slaughter Pen. From a military standpoint highground is good. Attacking highground...not so good.
This is a view of Little Round Top from the base. You are looking up at the hill from the area called the Valley of Death.
You are now looking at the area called the Slaughter Pen (no, not the Park Ranger shed). The area in front and left of the trees. A part of Little Round Top is visible in the left of the background.
This is at the top of Little Round Top. Google this name...key figure in the battle.
To this day Gettysburg is taking casualties. This one was a faceplant into the mud at Devil's Den.
Devil's Den is at the base of Little Round Top. You can see it from the top of LRT in the photos above (just above the Slaughter Pen and the Valley of Death). Confederates quickly overtook the Union defenses here. The Union army here was actually supposed to be positioned on Little Round Top.
A view of LRT from the rocks of Devil's Den. Confederate sharpshooters were very effective at keeping the Union heads low on LRT from these rocks.
The barn on Trostle Farm took a direct hit from a cannon (visible in the gable). This is the actual barn and cannon shot. It is still a private farm and not part of the park.
This is taken in the woods at the right end of the Union line at Culp's Hill. The fighting on this end took place in the woods. No wide open areas. The wall is part of the defenses set up by the Union soldiers who were outnumbered 6-to-1. The Union army here was led by a general from the corp of engineers. Had this not been so the number of defensive positions may have been fewer and poorly constructed. With the odds against the Union this was a crucial position to hold. The Confederates took portions of this ground on the second day of the battle but due to some miscommunication and a pre-emptive Union counter-attack the ground was held by the Union at the end of the battle on the third and last day of the battle (July 3, 1863).
Sorry if this has been long. You may not have been in the mood for a blog from the History channel. Some photos of the last "paddlefield" are below. You may have heard of Pickett's Charge. This is the field. 12,500 Confederate soldiers crossed this field under heavy Union fire. Both ends of the Union line had held their positions. The last day of the battle the Confederates attempted a final assault at the middle of the Union line.
You are looking at Gettysburg and what would have been the Union line along Cemetary Ridge (skyline) from the confederates position along Seminary Ridge. The landmark for the point of attack for the South was the clump (copse) of trees at the very right edge of the first photo below. That same clump is visible in the second photo. It is the first tall group of trees on the left of the tall skinny white monument visible in the center of the photo.
Some of cannon positions of the Confederate line along Seminary Ridge. The guns in this position fired on the Union center for two hours prior to the infantry advance of Pickett's charge. The smoke from these guns was so thick the artilleryman were not able to effectively adjust their aim due to poor visibility. The counterpart Union gun batteries withheld many of their rounds in order to be able to fire into the lines of the infantry that they figured would be coming soon. As you can imagine, this wasn't good for the soldiers advancing across the wide open field.
Now you are looking at Seminary Ridge, the Confederate position, from the Union position along Cemetary Ridge. The tree is the right background is part of that same copse of trees in the photos above, the landmark aimed for by the Confederate advance. A unit of the southern soldiers actually made it through the Union defenses at a point near here. Their general, however, was shot from his horse and the advance quelled.
Some brave Union artilleryman.
A view of the same copse of trees. Only a couple yards away is where the Confederate general fell. The point of the Confederates greatest advance in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Today this area is known as the High-Water Mark because the defeat of the Confederate Army here on the third and last day of the Battle of Gettysburg marked the point at which they became and remained on the defensive throughout the rest of the Civil War.
The final photo is the Lincoln Monument in the military section of the cemetery on Cemetery Hill. In this cemetery is where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in Nov. 1863.
I realize I may have lost many of you at the second photo. My apologies. This was a very real experience for me. The feelings here at Gettysburg are palpable. One of the significant points I thought about during my time here is how the decisions of a few individuals can have such a substantial impact not only on a microscale but on an historical scale as well. We are, in part, a direct result of the events on these fields. Any different result would be difficult if not impossible to imagine due to the profundity of the outcome. Decisions such as which place to attack, defend, to retreat or advance sometimes made in split seconds.
Many times Heidi & I commented how the Union Army triumphed on the thinnest of margins and arguably should have been defeated in this battle. I realize that this is history: decisions by a few of which have resulted in life as it is today. Any different potential outcome the result of many options at the time of choice and therefore a different world today.
Jon
No comments:
Post a Comment