Hallowed Ground
I rousted the family out early, ignoring their grumbling. The weather report promised highs in the upper 80s, but without too much humidity. Still, I thought it would be good to arrive early and beat both the crowds and the heat. So I prodded them along, fed them breakfast and arrived at the new Gettysburg Visitor Center shortly after it opened at 8am.
We had heard that hiring on of the tour guides available at the center was well worth the money. So, we made arrangements to book one. This turned out to be a good move, since he knew his way around the battlefield and its history. Even better, he drove so we were all free to look around.
We set out to tour the site in chronological order, starting with the stand by Buford’s cavalry northwest of the town of Gettysburg that precipitated the general battle that followed.
We traveled south along an access road and saw where Longstreet’s Corps had massed for the attacks of the second day. These are the North Carolina and Virginia markers.
We saw the Peach Orchard, all replanted recently with new trees.
We saw the Wheat Field. Then we reached Plum Run and the Devil’s Den. Tourists scrambled over the boulders where men once fought and died. Up and into the woods to where the far left flank of Meade’s fishhook was anchored on Little Round Top by a few men from Maine.
We saw the spot where the 20th Maine stood, fought and finally charged into the men from the 15th Alabama, driving them back and holding the flank. On up the hill we saw where the 140th New York, from Rochester, New York plugged the hole when the Confederates breeched the lines. Their colonel, Patrick O’Rourke fell there, leading his men from the front.
We stood on the rocky little hill and saw the vast battlefield spread out all around us. The Devil’s Den was taken by the Confederates, but the little hill remained the anchor for Meade’s line.
Onward then to the place that marked the high water mark of the Confederacy on Cemetery Ridge. We stood on the spot where the few men from Pickett’s charge that survived the bloody advance across almost a mile of naked ground briefly broke the Union line.
Pickett’s men and the reserves Lee was able to muster charged into the artillery hell and rifle crossfire that the Union had waiting for them. It is a wonder any of them made it to the top of the hill. More than half of the 12,000 who made that advance did not return from it.
I would like to go back when I can spend more time.
Because I Felt Like It, Personal Thoughts | Gaius Sunday, 13 July , 2008
By Anthony (Los Angeles), Sunday, 13 July , 2008 @ 2:03 pm
Looks like a great tour. One of these days, I’ve going to have to make a circuit of Civil War battlefields.
By Gaius, Sunday, 13 July , 2008 @ 2:05 pm
My wife has already informed me that we will be doing that after the kids are grown and away in college. Funny thing is, I’m the civil war buff, she isn’t.
By Jess, Sunday, 13 July , 2008 @ 3:07 pm
The thing that has always struck me was the feeling one has when standing on the battlefield at Gettysburg. There is an almost eerie, sacred silence all about the place. I know I always felt as if it was proper to speak in hushed tones.
By Gaius, Sunday, 13 July , 2008 @ 3:20 pm
You’re right, Jess. Even with all the people and traffic, it seemed very, very quiet there.
By rightwingprof, Monday, 14 July , 2008 @ 4:38 am
Both the Valley Forge and Gettysburg pics from our trip (and Philly pics) are <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/r1ghtw1ngpr0f/collections/72157600950745874/">here</a>.
By Sylvia, Monday, 14 July , 2008 @ 11:57 am
Oh, thank you! It’s a trip DH and I have been talking about for years and will someday do.
By Andrew X, Tuesday, 15 July , 2008 @ 11:11 am
I stayed there one night on the way back to DC from the north, for the sole purpose of walking the entire battlefied (about 17 miles) the next day, guidebook in hand.
I began in the morning about 9am. It was late August, so it was hot and humid, but Fall was coming so it wasn’t crushing hot, just uncomfortable. I was wearing shorts and a light summer shirt.
I made it to noon. And that was it. I was done.
By the way, it was NOT the first three days of July, with summer in full force, I was NOT wearing some Gawd-awful thick wool uniform, and I did NOT force march 20 miles just to get there, for the honor of fighting a ferocious multi-day battle for my very life.
These were different people than you and me. Simple as that.
And now – back to the unutterable misery of high gas prices, 5% unemployment, and that bitter "unending war" that cost as many lives as were lost, say… at the Peach Orchard… in a couple of hours.
Life is just awful these days, isn’t it.
By Quilly Mammoth, Wednesday, 16 July , 2008 @ 8:04 am
Pickett’s Charge: The effects of rifled fire power and the failure of a staff system to look into the future of warfare. From this and other battles Emory Upton would make the first steps to set up a staff system that planned ahead. And, more or less, it has served us well.Last weekend we drove to Chattanooga and visited the battlefields there. The Battle of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Interestingly these are the counter to Pickett’s Charge because the terrain made fighting in typical formations impossible. Instead trickles of men climbed narrow gullies out of much of the defender’s fire.1600 miles round trip in four days…I feel your pain!