VANITY: Gettysburg - In harm's way? (advice requested)

I am watching a documentary on Gettysburg and the point was made that the town was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I know there are countless military reasons/theories why 160,000 forces met there.

But the point about wrong place... got me to wondering - Do FReepers know of any books on what it must have been like to be a resident of Gettysburg, knowing that all hell was about to decend upon your town?

I think, at least, that would make a great fictional story. Darn near like a Hitchcock movie with tons of building tension

Here they are marching towards you and you, say a simple store keeper, can not do a darn thing about it.

I doubt if many residents would have had any idea what was coming their way until the battle started. Both armies were largely ignorant of the other’s movements and civilians would not have had broader tactical knowledge than the armies had.

The newspapers of the time would have given some basic and very outdated information on the movements of both armies prior to the battle but nothing that would have indicated Gettysburg as being a potential epicenter of subsequent events. Locals would have been aware of a Confederate Army presence in the Adams County region but little else.

Very few residents who remained in or around town would have seen much of the battle itself. They were sheltered in place in basements etc. for protection and only would have ventured out for very short periods during lulls to get water or other neccesary items.

Most of the detailed civilian accounts deal with the period on July 1 when the fighting moved through the town or immediately after the battle when it was safer to leave their homes and view the carnage.

On the Bloodstained Field 1 & 2 are excellent non fiction booklets that have a number of military and civilian anecdotes from the battle and aftermath.

“Jennie Wade was the only civilian casualty of the battle of Gettysburg.”

Jennie Wade was the only civilian “fatality” of the battle. There were several civilians wounded, the most famous being John Burns.

There was no long warning, other than a couple of days before June 30th, Confederates marched through Gettysburg enroute to Harrisburg, PA. BG John Buford’s 1st Cavalry division arrived mid-day on June 30th and established control of Seminary Ridge and the routes from the west that the remainder of Lee’s Army was marching toward Harrisburg, PA. The battle began on the morning of July 1st. Many townspeople fled that day, but there was no real warning of a battle to be fought there.

The entire battle of Gettysburg was not planned by either side for that location, but was the result of a “meeting engagement” where two enemy forces suddenly run into each other and a fight begins, grows and ends with one side losing and the other winning.

As Buford said “it is good ground, very good ground” and the Union got hold of it first and let Lee do the attacking against Union troops on a good defensive position. But it was the 2 brigades of Buford’s cavalry division that found and seized that ground on June 30, 1863

There are still licensed battlefield guides for the Gettysburg. I believe they can be hired through the city travel center, and/or at the National Park Center Museum. We had a licensed guide when we went there in 1962. They are still there and for hire.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.