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 | 
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