Gettysburg

This was not my first visit to Gettysburg. Jack and I were here in July 2013 for the 150^th anniversary of the battle. That was an incredible experience, but the weather was extremely hot and it was really crowded. So, I always wanted to come back to Gettysburg with cooler weather and smaller crowds to experience it in depth as well as do all the things I didn’t get to do the first visit.

After a dramatic Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, Gen. Robert E. Lee began marching his Army of Northern Virginia northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania in the early days of June 1863. On this second attempted invasion of the North, Lee’s goal was to get a decisive victory against the Union and force a peace agreement that would secure Southern independence. The Confederates were initially pursued by the Army of the Potomac under the command of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, but in the days leading up to the battle he was fired by Lincoln in favor of Maj. Gen. George Meade. The town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania wasn’t of any strategic importance, but it was a major transportation hub with ten roads leading into the town: perfect for moving armies and supplies. The Army of Northern Virginia was approaching Gettysburg from the west, but they were advancing without knowledge of their enemy’s position and strength due to the absence of their cavalry. The two forces briefly clashed the afternoon of June 30 on the outskirts of Gettysburg and the scene was set for a major battle the following morning.

Day 1: July 1, 1863

Confederate infantry began moving east up the Chambersburg Pike towards Gettysburg early in the morning. They were met by dismounted Union cavalry under the command of Gen. John Buford who observed and orchestrated the battle from the copula of the nearby Lutheran Seminary. Union forces were greatly outnumbered, but theirs was a delaying tactic because Union infantry under the command of Gen. John Reynolds was speeding to the battle to relieve them. Buford’s men held their position at McPherson barn just as Reynolds arrived ready to fight. The battle spread to the north towards Oak Ridge and to the south along Seminary Ridge as fresh Union infantry entered the fight. Reynolds, the highest-ranking Union officer in the battle that morning, was shot dead as he was leading men along the wood line.

By noon, both armies were fully engaged with the battle line stretched between McPherson Ridge and Oak Ridge just to the west of the town. Confederate forces moved in artillery to start helping to break the Union lines. Around 3:30pm, the Union lines began to crumble and Union forces fled through the streets of the town to the high ground of Cemetery Hill. As night fell on the July 1, 1863, the Confederates had achieved a key victory. Against the protest of his second in command Gen. Longstreet, General Lee decided to continue the offensive in the morning committing his smaller force of 70,000 soldiers against Meade’s Union army of 93,000.

Day 2: July 2, 1863

The second day of the Battle of Gettysburg began with Confederates positioned south of town on the high ground of Seminary Ridge, through town, and north of Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill on ground they had gained the previous day. Union forces continued to hold the high ground of Culp’s and Cemetery hills, and down along Cemetery Ridge to the Round Tops. The positions of both armies on Day 2 were similar to two parallel fish hooks. Throughout the day, Confederate forces repeatedly attacked the Union right flank at Cemetery Hill and were repealed each time.

Gen. Longstreet’s troops began attacking the far-left flank of Union flank at positions defended by Gen. Dan Sickles. Confederate charge and countercharge in the Wheatfield were fought off by Union infantry and artillery leaving the field strewn with over 4.000 casualties. Union lines extended down from the Peach Orchard to Devil’s Den and fought off Confederate attacks until evening when their position was finally overrun. Some of the worst hand-to-hand combat was fought amongst the boulders of Devil’s Den and there are many famous photos that were taken at this position. The days fighting ended with a finally assault on the Union left flank at Little Round Top which was repealed by the 20^th of Maine under the command of Col. Joshua Chamberlain who received the Medal of Honor for his heroics.

Day 3: July 3, 1863

After the previous day ended in a virtual stalemate, General Lee decided to try a new tactic: attack the Union center. Again, Longstreet protested the frontal assault as suicide, but Lee felt fully committed to the battle. For this attack, Lee was depending on fresh troops he had held in reserve under the command of Gen. George Pickett. The plan was for Confederate artillery to bombard Union positions along Cemetery Ridge for two hours prior to the assault to soften the Union defenses. Following the artillery bombardment, Lee sent in 12,000 Confederate troops over an open field of roughly three-quarters of a mile. As the Confederate troops came within firing range of Union position on Cemetery Ridge, they were mowed down by infantry fire and canister shot from Union cannons. A small group of Confederate soldiers led by Gen. Lewis Armistead actually broke the Union lines at The Angle, but they were quickly killed or captured. Utterly devastated, Confederate soldiers retreated back to Seminary Ridge. When asked by Gen Lee about the status of his division, Gen. Pickett replied “I have no division”. General Meade quickly repositioned his forces to strengthen the Union center in preparation for a counterattack which never came. The Confederates had suffered a devastating defeat and Gen. Lee ordered a full withdraw back to Virginia on July 4, 1863.

During the Battle of Gettysburg civilians were also greatly impacted. The only civilian casualty of the battle was a 20-year-old woman named Jennie Wade who was working at her kitchen making biscuits when she was struck by a stray bullet. I visited the Jennie Wade house on Baltimore Street and the front door is riddled with bullet holes as is the fireplace mantle. I also visited the Shriver House which at the time of the battle was a residence, tavern, and bowling alley. The family fled the home during the battle, but Confederate sharp shooters took residence in the home ransacking it and using the attic as a sniper’s nest. It was fun to walk the streets of downtown Gettysburg looking for period homes marked with a plaque and trying to find battle damage!

After the armies withdrew from Gettysburg, they left behind a community in shambles with over 51,000 dead, wounded, or missing soldiers. The wounded and dying occupied virtually every building in the town. The dead were often buried in hastily dug and inadequate graves. It was a humanitarian crisis that was quickly recognized by Pennsylvania Gov. Andrew Curtin who created a commission to find a plot of land for an appropriate resting place for the Union’s dead. A 17-acre plot of land was acquired adjacent to existing Evergreen Cemetery for a Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Within four months, the Union dead were being reinterned in the new cemetery and the Confederate dead were being returned to the South. The dedication for the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery was held on November 19, 1863 with the keynote address delivered by Edward Evertt lasting over two hours. He was followed by President Abraham Lincoln who delivered the most famous 272 words in American history: we know it as the Gettysburg Address.

Surrounding the Soldiers’ National Monument are the final resting place of over 3,500 Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Graves are arranged in neat rows by states with the soldier’s name and unit listed or a simple “Unknown” for those never identified. Outside the perimeter of the Gettysburg burials are graves of American service personal from wars up to Vietnam. I came across the grave of a native Pennsylvanian Seaman First Class George Joseph Stembrosky who was killed at Pearl Harbor where he was stationed on the battleship USS Nevada. Another grave I found was of a Captain William E. Miller who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism repealing Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg on July 3^rd.

The last major reunion of Gettysburg veterans occurred in 1938 for the 75^th anniversary of the battle. Some 1,800 veterans from both sides were invited back to Gettysburg for multiple days of celebrations highlighted by FDR’s dedication of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial over on Oak Ridge. Men received free train tickets to attend from the War Department and I’ve heard that the oldest veteran attending claimed to be 112 years old!

In 1918 as the United States entered World War I, newly commissioned West Point graduate Dwight D. Eisenhower was sent to Gettysburg instead of Europe. He was given command of Camp Colt which was training American tank crews ironically on the field famous for Pickett’s Charge! Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, fell in love with Gettysburg, but a military career and a second world war sent them all over the world. However, when it was time to start thinking about retirement, the Eisenhowers returned to Gettysburg and purchased a 189-acre farm in 1950. President Eisenhower would visit the farm frequently while serving eight years as President. He entertained numerous heads of states at his farm over the years including Churchill, de Gaulle, and Khrushchev. When he left Washington in 1961, he retired to his farm in Gettysburg where he painted, ate TV dinners in front of the television, and ran a successful Angus beef operation. General Eisenhower died in 1969 and Mamie followed a decade later, but they left their Gettysburg farm to the National Park Service who operates it as a national historic site today.

The Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park is one of the finest in the national park system. It was fully refurbished for the 150^th anniversary back in 2013 and in addition to a fantastic museum, they have the spectacular Cyclorama. The cyclorama is a 377-foot painting by French painter Paul Philippoteaux that depicts Pickett’s Charge. It was completed in 1884 and first displayed in Boston to bring the images of the battle to the masses. The national park service has done a wonderful job preserving and displaying this epic piece of art.

During my visit to Gettysburg, I stayed at a private RV called Gettysburg Campground. I had a nice big shady site right along Marsh Creek which was ironically the path of the Confederate withdraw on July 4, 1863. There is no doubt retreating soldiers marched right through this campsite!