The Gettysburg Battlefield

In June of 1863 Confederate General Robert E. Lee led an army of southerners fresh from victory at Chancellorsville, up through the countryside of Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was hoping to lead the Union Army of the Potomac out of the south during the summer growing season to allow respite from the foraging of both armies. In addition, he hoped to catch the Union army out in the open and force a decisive battle where he would destroy them on northern soil. Surely then a war weary north would sue for peace and concede southern independence and European recognition of Confederate legitimacy would follow.

Tribute statue to the Union dead in Gettysburg Cemetery.

On the Evening of June 30, 1863 Union cavalry troopers entered Gettysburg and spotted a detachment of Lee's infantry. They had been sent to the town in search of shoes for the Confederate troops. Lee had not planned to fight the Union at Gettysburg, but, as they say, the rest is history....

I found myself entering Gettysburg down the Chambersburg road, which I had read about a hundred times as I studied the Battle of Gettysburg. The place names were not new to me, but were familiar friends though like in an internet acquaintance sort of way. Having never met, but having interacted in the books, articles, movies and television documentaries through years of interest, I knew these places and names. 

I stayed in Gettysburg for three days and two nights, and I shall return at some point in the future to see more and explore more. I was unable to satisfy my need to experience this ground, to feel the past. I took quite a few photos, some from the top of the National Tower that has now been knocked to the ground to restore a more natural look to the area. Now if they would just tear up the asphalt and put in dirt roads it would be even more like it was in the days of the battle. The tower was ugly, yes, absolutely, and should have been redone to make it more palatable, but it allowed a unique perspective of the town and the battlefield that I am very glad I took advantage of. 

It is easy to look on this site as "just another Civil War battlefield" but you would make a grave mistake if that is what you did. This battle was the turning point in a conflict that was to either make or break the Union. What transpired here was a battle for the very existence of the United States of America. 

I have two personal heroes in this battle, although there are heroes galore on either side. Mine are General George Pickett and Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. As far as I am concerned these are two of the lesser figures of the conflict that made the most lasting impression on me as I read of the battle. Neither was in charge of great armies, but both led heroic efforts to further the cause of their respective side. Chamberlain's bayonet charge probably saved the Union left flank from collapse, while Pickett's charge to the Union center was one of the most glorious military actions of that or any age. 

As I stood on Little Round Top near where Chamberlain stood while commanding his unit, I felt as though I could hear the shots, the yells of the attacking troops, and the calls for more ammunition from the defenders. I could imagine the thoughts of Chamberlain as he realized that the ammo was gone but there were still enemy soldiers to the front, and the only option left was to go and meet them with the cold steel blades of the bayonet.

On the other side of the fields from where the Union center was situated, I looked at the long march, over a mile, that the soldiers in Pickett's Division had to make in order to reach their goal. All of the units in Longstreet's attack were to converge on a copse of trees near the Union center and form a concentrated attack. It was a very ambitious attack, and it took near perfect execution in order to pull it off... and unfortunately for the Confederates, they did not experience anything like near perfect execution that day. Pickett's charge failed to take it's objective, but at the same time, it became the most famous infantry charge in all history. Though facing near impossible odds some elements of Picket's Brigade actually made it to and across the stone wall of the Union line. It was an accomplishment unlike any other in warfare to that time, and has no equal to this day. 

The tribute statue to Pickett's Charge.

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(you should be hearing "Let It Be" right now)