FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum"
[ Last | Latest Posts | Latest Articles | Self Search | Add Bookmark | Post | Abuse | Help! ]
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.
- Any News From Gettysburg?
-
Miscellaneous Front Page Miscellaneous Keywords: GETTYSBURG, CIVIL WAR
Source: Various
Published: 06-30-63 Author: Jeremiah Forster
Posted on 06/30/2001 11:48:38 PDT by GRRRRR
Somewhere near Emmitsburg, north of Frederick, in the State of Maryland, June 30, 1863
Dearest Mother,
I pray my letters have been reaching you. I am still whole and well, despite the best attempts of Johnny Reb. For two weeks now General Hooker has been marching northward, since the General was prevented by Washington to launch an attack on Richmond we are gaining a new General. His name is Meade, General George G. Word from our scouts is that General Lee has moved north of us into Pennsylvania. We hear that the Confederates are about 80,000 strong and it will be up to us to stop his move towards Baltimore and Washington.
Earlier, the heat of the day has sapped my strength and resolve and I am greatly tired. I heard a story told by one of our scouts of his visit to Frederick two nights ago. The streets were full of drunken men and the roads foul with vehicles and stragglers camping in the ditches. Raiders from JEB Stuart’s Rebels had been into the town, tossing it for any things of worth to be found. I now believe that we will be up much earlier in the morning, more marching, northward towards Taneytown.
I shall close for now, I remain your loving son,
Jeremiah Forster
[ Reply | Private Reply | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
2 Posted on 06/30/2001 12:05:48 PDT by PatrioticAmerican
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
There is word that Buford's and Gamble's cavalry are headed out ahead of 1st Corps, with the rest of the Army of the Potomic strung out all the way to Pipe creek, where rumor has it new Commanding general Meade intends to face the attacking horde. Buford will pass through Gettysburg and then proceed either to Cashtown or Hanover in his search for the missing Rebels. There is every indication that the Army of Northern Virginia intends to march on Harrisburg, followed by Philidelpia or Baltimore. There is panic in the streets in Carlilse and Lancaster. Governor Curtin has called for the miltia to be raised and to defend to the last extremity.
More to follow on this supreme threat to the Republic...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Tomorrow morning,Gettysburg and history will change forever.
4 Posted on 06/30/2001 12:15:45 PDT by exit82 (BacktoLittleRockNOW!)
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Thanks for this. My great-grandfather was there, in the 5th U.S. Cavalry, serving as a scout. Taken prisoner at Williamsport on July 6th.
5 Posted on 06/30/2001 12:17:27 PDT by redlipstick
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: redlipstick
I used to live in Emmitsburg !!!!
greatest town in the world !!!
6 Posted on 06/30/2001 12:20:21 PDT by CapeFear4W
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Very early on that same morning, George Gordon Meade awoke to find himself in the command of the Federal army. Meade had graduated from West Point in 1835 and devoted most of his life to military service. He advanced to command of the Army of the Potomac from corps command principally because Abraham Lincoln and his military chief of Staff Henry Halleck were unsure of Hooker's capacity to lead the army in this period of crisis. The incident, which provoked the change of command at this moment, was Hooker's demand for reinforcements and his insistence that Lee outnumbered him. In reality, the Army of the Potomac numbered 93,500 men the Army of Northern Virginia marched into Pennsylvania with about 75,000 troops. (Hooker's spies had inflated the number to over 95,000…GRRRR) Lee believed his enemies outnumbered him two to one, but he knew his President would not reinforce him.
As his soldiers assembled on June 29 and 30, Lee still fretted about Stuart and wondered about the strength of Meade's army. But with or without Stuart, Lee was determined to have his battle and directed his concentration accordingly. He had not gone to all this trouble and come this far only to recoil just when a climactic battle seemed possible.
(from: "Robert E. Lee" by Emory Thomas)
If the Union generals were not sure where Lee was going, Lee had no idea where the Union army even was: Stuart was riding too far ahead of the advancing forces to keep him informed. Still, Lee's army pushed north into Pennsylvania, seizing animals, food wagons and clothing from Pennsylvania citizens--promising to pay for them all in Confederate money once they had won the war. Southern soldiers also seized free blacks and sent them south into slavery: a Chambersburg woman saw black women and children being "driven by just like we would drive cattle."
From: "The Civil War", Burns et al.
Here is the wide angle picture of the Battlefield. At the left in the distance, Big and Little Round Tops. Moving toward the right, the Peach Orchard, Wheat Field and on the extreme right, the 1.5 mile wide swath of field of Picket's Charge. Click here to view. In the very center, you can see the Copse of Tree's representing the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy"....the earth there is a deep orange.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Personally, I think Lee is heading for the biggest mistake of his career. To reach his objectives, he'll have to charge Union entrenchments, but with modern rifles, it's insane to charge entrenchments without overwhelming numbers, and the opposing army is in fact larger than Lee's.
At least he has more sense than to march across an open field against the entrenched Union center.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Skirmishes with Rebel forces have been reported Northwest of the city on Chambersburg Pike and Mummosburg Road. More to Follow, suspect Hill and Rodes are camping there tonight north of the Lutheran School. Tomorrow promises to be another hot day, Please beg of General Reynolds to meet us for breakfast, early.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Thanks, you made my day.
10 Posted on 06/30/2001 12:44:43 PDT by motherlydia
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | Top | Last ]
To: 537 Votes
"At least he has more sense than to march across an open field against the entrenched Union center. "
Yeah, but you know how he gets when his "blood is up".
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
I will extend your invitation, but the General does not feel he can be in Gettysburg much before the noon hour on the 1st. The Iron Brigade is moving briskly forward, but they too are being slowed by the enervating heat and the broken down condition of the roads.
General Reynolds believes the Rebel forces are beyond Cashtown, and the skirmishing reported is just a screen to prevent us from seeing past Seminary Ridge. No real fighting is expected until after the 4th...
Have you heard anything from Harry Heth and JEB Stuart? They is rumored to be in the area...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | Top | Last ]
To: 537 Votes
You are quite correct, however, when has the Army of Northern Virginia been turned aside by long odds?
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
DEVIL'S DEN
Photo Left = 1863, Photo Right = 1998
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
You are quite correct, however, when has the Army of Northern Virginia been turned aside by long odds?
Lee's genius has always been in the lightning flank attack, often using woods as cover. Marching slowly up the center out in the open is so ham-handed, it's like something that Grant would do.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Looks to me like Meade ought to consider staking out the high ground. It's reassuring to know that Stuart is lollygagging around up north. And to tell you the truth, it's Longstreet who worries me, not so much Lee.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: Rebelbase
That's just plain eerie.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | Top | Last ]
To: Rebelbase
DEVIL'S DEN
Photo Left = 1863, Photo Right = 1998
Thanks for the photos.
I've not yet visited that hallowed ground.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
For the 'Atlanta Southern Confederacy' newspaper in Atlanta, from our reporter at Greencastle, PA:
We in vain looked for some development of that peace sentiment which we had been told existed here. War! War! to the knife flashed from the bright eyes and pretty lips of the ladies, and the stern, mournful, determined countenances of the men showed that, although captive, the unjust spirit that has waged so cruel a war on us has not yet become broken or submissive. At Chambersburg, the whole population were at the windows, and on the sidewalks to see us, and all breathed alike, in their quiet looks, the most unmitigated scorn and hatred for us. We could afford to be generous. We laughed at their demonstrations, and to the malignant blurt of beauty we had naught but smiles and polite salutations to return. Even amidst their sackcloth and ashes they showed every evidence of their character and we could not belp but admire their firm, unshaken manner in which the uphold their accursed cause.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Dear Mr. Cord, The time is late in the day of this June 30th 1863. Scouts have reported the Confederate General Lee meeting with Longstreet in Chambersburg earlier this afternoon. Pettigrew has returned from his search for a supply of shoes but encountered Federal cavalry on the west of Town and withdrew.
Gettysburg appears to be the gathering place for battle. We have heard of more troops gathering under AP Hill, perhaps Heth's Division?, I am wishful to hear news of the First Cavalry under General John Buford. His two brigades must now occupy the towne. There is no news of JEB Stuart...the dandy must still be riding to redeem himself after his shame of Brandy Station. Please keep a weather eye, on the morrow.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Facing EAST, the Baltimore Pike...as seen from the Tower. There will not be much action tomorrow in this area...
This Tower provided a panoramic view of the Gettysburg Battlefield. Sadly, it either has been or is being removed...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | Top | Last ]
To: PatrioticAmerican
Although I think this letter is really cool (I love history), what is the point here?
Perhaps another INVASION
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | Top | Last ]
To: redlipstick
The campaign in Maryland and Pennsylvania and Maryland was as rare an experience for the men of the Army of the Potomac as it was for those of the Army of Northern Virginia. But while the latter suffered on the hard northern pavements and stony ground, and for the first time had to worry about bushwackers and unfriendly local militias, the Northern soldiers received expressions of friendship and appreciation. There were rare commodities for the men in blue and must have been a welcome relief from the sullen and poverty stricken citizens of the south. The men of the Federal Army reveled in the experience of being in a friendly land.
On Saturday, 27 June, the corps passed through Jefferson, Maryland, a place remembered fondly thereafter for many years. A soldier in Clark's battery (Battery B, First New Jersey Light Artillery), which was near the rear of the corps, a column as it descended the slope of Catocfin Mountain, thrilled at the view ahead - the long blue column of men winding down the mountain road into a handsome and fruitful land. And when the battery reached the village of Jefferson, a teacher and her students greeted it with "The Battle Cry of Freedom," while bells clanged in greeting from the steeples of nearby churches, reminding the men of home and better times. Maj. Gen. David B. Birney was so pleased with this reception that he halted his division and ordered the band of the 114th Pennsylvania Regiment forward to an intersection where it played to the delight of the citizens as his division passed through the town. Then the bandsmen had to run forward to regain their places in the column.
The Third Corps spent the night near Middletown and on the following day paraded through Frederick on its way to its next bivouac around Woodsboro. The townsfolk offered cool water, while the band enlivened the march with 'John Brown's Body." The corps marched through the town with ranks closed and in step, colors uncovered and flying. Its soldiers did not see Barbara Frietchie as far as they knew, but they cheered an old man who waved a flag vigorously from a second story window and with delirious joy shouted, 'Still they come! Still they Come!"
It was a joyful and exciting march to the cannoneers of Capt. James E. Smith's Fourth New York Battery, a triumphal procession amid an appreciative populace One young lady gave Col. Calvin A. Craig of the I05th Pennsylvania Regiment a small flag and asked him to carry it into the next fight. When Colonel de Tobriand passed a group of citizens, a mother pointed out the Colonel to her little girl and probably gave her a gentle shove. The girl scooted into the street to the front of de Tobriand's horse and held a bouquet up to him. As he leaned down to take it, de Trobriand later recalled,
she said, with a rosy smile: 'Good luck to you, general!' I thanked her to the best of my ability. I would have liked to have embraced the little messenger with her happy wishes; but the march could not halt for so small an affair. When she rejoined her family... I turned to kiss my hand to her in adieu. She nodded her head, and, blushing, hid it in her mother's bosom. "Well!' said 1, riding on, "that little girl ought to bring me good fortune.'
But all good things come to an end. Sergeant John C. Shaler, Jr., of Thompson's battery (C & F, First Pennsylvania Light Artillery) of the Artillery Reserve passed through Frederick at dusk, probably after the day's parade of three corps had tired the residents and dulled their curiosity and sentiment. The streets were no longer lined with cheering bystanders, but Shaler got a thrill, not from throngs of admiring onlookers, but from the speed of the battery as it rolled through the cobbled streets, the clopping of the horses' iron-shod hooves, the grinding noise of iron-rimmed wheels on the streets. These were strange and thrilling sounds that the men of the battery had never heard in Virginia.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | Top | Last ]
To: Luella
Dearest Mother,
I write this tonight by the dying embers of our campfire. Today's march has brought us to the edge of town, Gettysburg. A small creek runs near the camp, Rock Creek. To the west of camp lies a small ridge of land, leading south of the town, I pray the name, Cemetery Ridge is not an omen for us. We are told that Lee's Army of the Northern Virginians is off to the west by only a few miles.
General Meade is well in command now, he has been riding among the troops tonight--probably trying to make sure of his thoughts. He has changed some of our Captains of the Cavalry to be Generals. These men, fresh from the point will lead us tomorrow...Farnsworth, Merritt and Custer. Orders are for us to make a threat to Lee's southern lines of communication and draw the rebs down to Monocacy. We are to have fortified positions along Pipe creek and await their charges. Reynolds and Buford are to hold above the town and Sykes' V Corps will move to Hanover. Slocum and the XII Corp move to Emmitsburg and the rest will move to headquarters at Taneytown. At least these are the orders for tomorrow, July 1.
Mother, I do not know what the day will bring. I only know I am ready to fight for our Union. Providence has given us a Fine Country and we must stay together. The embers die down now, and the darkness is illuminated only by the heat lightening coming from the west. I will sleep now, dear mother.
Your son
Jeremiah Forster
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Dawn, July 1, 1863
Any news from Gettysburg?
News of our son perhaps?
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
July 1, 1863 9 AM
Early this morning, Longstreet and Lee move by horseback down the Chambersburg Pike. The rains of the past days have given way to a bright sunshine that promises summer heat. As they move towards Gettysburg, Lee hears the distant rumble of artillery. Giving Traveler a kick, he leaves Longstreet behind and hurries to the battle.
Several miles ahead of Lee, Major General Henry Heth moves slowly down the Chambersburg Pike. He met a Union cavalry picket west of Gettysburg before nine and quickly drove them in slowly as the horsement retreated the zing of bullets came out of a wood on the slope of a low hill behind. "That's all right", called Heth, "only some Pennsylvania Militia". He then sent two brigades to clear the way for his full column. They swung forward carelessly and as they reached the edge of the wood, the fire rose to surprising crescendo. Out of the underbrush onto their flank burst a storm of men with bayonets low and all in a line--it was the IRON BRIGADE. The best known of the Army of the Potomac, they insisted on wearing the same old black hats as when first mustered into the service. Upon seeing them, the Confederates knew they were facing Buford's cavalry.
The Union now pressed the attack into the late morning.
From the FAR NORTHERN edge of the town looking South, A.P. Hill moves in from the West (right), Rodes, Ewell and Early would have seen much the same view of the fields as the battle moved from the north and northwest towards Seminary Ridge and the town.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
It's gone. I was there last Saturday.
27 Posted on 07/01/2001 07:06:58 PDT by Citizen Soldier
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | Top | Last ]
To: Citizen Soldier
That is too bad, as much as an eyesore the Tower was, it provided visitors with a view of just how immense the battle must have been.
I visited that tower in 1971 as an eighth grader and then again, as a father in 1999 showing his daughter the same historical site.
The power of history, as an 8th grader, I never would have imagined bringing my child to walk the same steps with me...
GRRRRR
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | Top | Last ]
To: Rebelbase
Photo Left = 1863, Photo Right = 1998
Someone rearranged the rocks.
Bloody tourists.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | Top | Last ]
To: No more Demofascists
Bump for your love of history.......
30 Posted on 07/01/2001 07:25:03 PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | Top | Last ]
To: Lazamataz
Someone rearranged the rocks.
Bloody tourists.
The battlefield was much abused in the decades following the war, particularly Devils Den area. At one point, they even built a trolley that ran right through it. When the area was finally made a park, they ripped that all out and did their best to restore it, but no doubt the rocks in the original photo were all taken as souvenirs. Even today, a few probably languish in someone's attic, but my guess is that most of them have long returned to the ground, discarded by heirs who saw no value in them or who had no real idea from whence they came.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | Top | Last ]
To: Luella
Some tourist also took the rifle and dead body.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Report from Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, 10:30 am:
MGen. Pleasonton's cavalry, under MGen Buford, is defending itself agaist heavy attacks from the Northwest, as strong Confederate forces move down the Chambersburg Pike from Cashtown and deploy. The National cavalry is armed with the new Spencer repeating rifle, and is extracting a great toll from the rebel forces. It is said that MGen. John Reynolds has arrived on the field, along with Meredith's Iron Brigade of the 1st Corps deploying to Buford's left, and Howard's 11th Corps is just behind on the Baltimore Pike.
Rumors abound, but it seems that Ewell's corps is moving from the North, down the Carlilse Road, and the 1st Corps is facing Rode's division of Hill's Corps from Cashtown.
Violence seems to be building here abouts, like a thunderstorm. Artillery batteries clatter through the town and rush for the fight, which can be heard as the clattering of musket fire, punctuated with the thuds of cannon fire, grows.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | Top | Last ]
To: Lazamataz, Luella
I got your humor. LOL!
Luella - I was there last weekend and our tour guide said they are going to seek permission to cut down a lot of current trees and restore the battlefield to the way it was when the battle was fought. There is a lot of underbrush and you can't see through some areas like Big Round Top. I guess it will create a bigger battle with tree huggers than with the Johnny Rebs!
34 Posted on 07/01/2001 07:57:28 PDT by Citizen Soldier
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR, Grendelgrey
BUMP!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: 537 Votes
That Grant is a plodder, without the flash of those like Little Mac, Pope and Hooker, is true, but he seems to do well enough. The Champion's Hill and the Big Black River battles, his driving of Pemberton and Johnston, and his continuing siege of Vicksburg indicate that perhaps this could be a War of Plodders.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | Top | Last ]
To: Citizen Soldier
I got your humor. LOL!
Not possible. *I* don't even get my humor.
Frankly, I scare myself.
(edges away from myself and towards door, making sure not to turn my back on myself.)
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Updated Report, Near Seminary Ridge.
Heth has been joined by more of Hill's men. The musketry continues to roar as they work both ends of the hill. The Federals are continuing to hold, I Corps has been making spirited counter charges at every opportunity. Reynolds leads his men, riding to and fro until sadly, a Reb sharpshooter drew a bead on him and shot him threw the head.
"None died there with more glory than he, though many died and there was much glory", said his foe. From the belfry of the Lutheran Seminary on the ridge behind, he had looked afar, looked with seeing eye, and beheld every road from the northe and west tide brimmed with the oncoming river of grey.
Abner Doubleday, brave, stolid and steady took over when Reynolds fell, by eleven that morning he had most of the corps in line and the arillery blazing. Heth is being beaten back, but Ewell is beginning to arrive and the battle warns it is not done.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Oliver O. Howard has arrived with his 11th Corps, the same one that failed so badly a month hence at Chancellorsville, and has taken command on the field to replace the fallen Reynolds. Howard is deploying his men to the right of Gamble's cavalry, North of the town, to counter ongoing extensions of the Confederate lines by Early's division of Ewell's Corps as they move South, down the Carlisle road.
Gunfire is continuous now and all the pieces of a meeting engagement are in place. From my location at the northern edge of the town, I can seen long clouds of white battle smoke to the Northwest and West, and I watch as the Dutchmen of the 11th Corps trot past me, moving up with an expression of terribe intensity on the faces of brave men going in harm's way.
I saw the body of MGen. Reynolds being carried to the rear, felled by a single ball to the head. His End was quick. The Wounded of both sides are being moved into houses and Churches in the town and civilians are assisting in every way that can. The doctor's bone saws are already at work
More to follow...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
In charge of the Army of the Potomac, General George Gordon Meade
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Thanks GRRR!
Could you continue to keep us informed of the progress of this great battle?
Semper Fi
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
A good map of the battle upcoming...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Better known as "The Snapping Turtle" to his army (in private, of course). The man had an infamous temper, cutting loose on everyone from private to fellow general officer when things didn't go the way he wanted them to.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | Top | Last ]
To: Lazamataz
Schumer took the rifle, and Reno took the body.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
July 3rd - the anniversary of Pickett's Charge and the high water mark of the American Civil War - should be designated as a national holiday, call it The Blue and the Gray Day, not to celebrate the Union victory at Gettysburg but to honor the valour of brave American soldiers on both sides, North and South, who fought and died in our great Civil War.
Coming a day before the 4th of July, The Blue and the Gray Day would serve as a reminder of how fragile is our Union and what sacrifices were and are required to maintain it in the face of uncompromising irreconcilable differences. The holiday would also celebrate our national uniqueness, and the collective good sense of the American people who did not turn the country after the Civil War into a Yugoslavia or North Ireland with implacable hatreds.
There are those who will say that such a new national holiday cannot arise because the African-American citizens would be against it; that it would somehow open or rekindle old wounds about slavery. And yet the Civil War put an end to slavery in the United States and a national holiday would emphasize that fact - and the fact that 600,000 American citizens perished in the struggle that accomplished it.
With our modern politicans falling all over themselves to carve out constituencies for themselves, with the mindless worship of diversity over unity, with our national leaders seeking a world stage and emphasizing international 'order' at the expense of our national sovereignty, we are once again fragmenting into factions in this country that are becoming irreconcilable. Mr. Bush could strike a blow for unity by urging the government and the American people to stop referring to American citizens as hyphenated Americans - e.g., African-Americans; Mexican-Americans -, and he could promote unity by urging the institution of a new holiday celebrating The Blue and the Gray which would go a long way toward acknowledging that our unity has been forged at a terrific price and should not be discarded lightly.
For those who would worry about the economic impact of yet another national holiday, The Blue and the Gray Day, coming on the day before the 4th of July, would not create an economic burden for the country. How many people work full time on the day before the 4th of July? Two days a year - 3rd and the 4th of July - are not too many days a year to celebrate and honor the unique American experience.
45 Posted on 07/01/2001 10:29:27 PDT by Bounceback
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: Lazamataz
I have read that the 1863 Devil's Den photography was staged by the photographer.
I do not recall where I read this. Can anyone confirm????
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | Top | Last ]
To: Bounceback
A link with historical music and photos of the Era.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | Top | Last ]
To: Bounceback
A View of Gettysburg taken in 1863, From the south looking north to the Town.
It is 2pm on the afternoon of July 1, when General Lee appears on the scene. The battle has been running on and off for six hours. Four Confederate Divisions and two Federal corps were set to, each pushing and being pushed. Lee does not appear to be happy about this development, telling his subordinates "I am not prepared to bring on a general engagement today, Longstreet is not up."
Even as Lee was studying terrain and troops before him, the situation began to change rapidly. Hills' corps engaged the Federals on the ridges west of the town, Ewell had begun to move in from the north, joining the fray. This good fortune caused a Confederate battle line with half the troops at a right angle to the other half with the Federals caught between. This arrangement of the battle line resembled a large fishhook. The barb of the hook at the north, centered upon Cemetery Hill facing Ewell. The shank of the hook runs to the south almost four miles, ending up the hills of Round Top, Little Round Top and Devil's Den. The Confederate line runs roughly parallel to the Federal Line...Lee stands in the middle of Seminary Ridge and Meade at the middle of Cemetery Ridge, backed by the Baltimore Pike and supply wagons.
Lee watches from the slight rise as the Federals move south, out of the town and up the hills to higher ground. Longstreet has joined Lee in the afternoon and tells Lee, "If we could have chosen a point to meet our plans of operation, I don not think we co9uld have found a better one that upon which they are now concentrating. All we have to do is throw our army around by their (Federal's) left and we shall interpose between the Federal Army and Washington. We can get a strong position and wait, and if they fail to attack us, we shall have everything in condition to move back tomorrow night in the direction of Washington, selection beforehand a good position into which we can place our troops to received battle next day..."
Although Longstreet continues, insisting that he and Lee fight a defensive battle, Lee responds to Longstreet saying "No the enemy is there and I am going to attack him there..." Meanwhile, Ewell has received instructions to seize the high ground of Cemetery Hill, but needs reinforcements and delays the attack.
(Summary from "Robert E. Lee" by Emory Thomas
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
The entire Battle Field looking south from the National Tower, now long removed...To the far right, Seminary Ridge, then Pickett's Charge, the Copse of trees in the center and then on the left...Round Top and Little Round Top in the distance, nearly 4 miles away...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
I knew somebody here would remember! And thanks for that great map!
We just got back last week. Wonderful trip.
50 Posted on 07/01/2001 12:36:39 PDT by ivanhoe116
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: mware
The Photo was indeed staged, and was the last of a series taken by, as I recall, Gardner, one of Brady's men. There have been several articles, about the justification of 'staged' photographs, but with exposures of up to a minute, and each plate having to be individually prepared, wet, loaded, exposed and developed before the next could be taken, I believe we can allow a little leeway as far as whether what we are seeing today was arranged.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Much has transpired the last few hours.
Buford and Gamble, having been relieved by the 1st and 11th Corps, pulled back to a field South of the town and North of the town cemetary to re-equip.
The 11th Corps, stretching its lines farther and farther East to counter Ewell's attempts to flank them, finally created an opening between itself and the South extending lines of Doubleday's 1st Corps, and the Confederates hit the open area, flanking both corps, and sending both retreating thru the town. The 1st is retiring in good order, headed for a range of hills South of town, with Buford's Cavaly again shielding by offering a stubborn defence.
The 11th, however, is broken, again, and is running through the town in a panic. Streams of men are racing thru dooryards and bounding over fences, running.
General Winfield Hancock has arrived with orders to supercede Howard, and is establishing a defence on the slopes leading up to Evergreen cemetary, and a place called Culp's Hill. There is much confusion, however, and even Hancock the Superb may have more than he can chew. The advance of Hancock's 3rd Corps is even now starting to file into positions on the rocky hills South of town.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
July 1, 1863
Dearest Mother,
I have spent most of the day running over the same ground to gain it and later to give it back to the Confederates. The weariness I feel tonight is not that of war but of worry. Shall the Union survive only to be torn asunder by another war, greater than this? If we lay down our lives to repel the Confederates from the North, what will prevent them from trying to take control of the Union yet again? Those that twist our words regarding the need to save our national states as a Union, they worry me, instead meaning to say the Federal Government is powerless to stop the rip. What of our Constitution and what rules it sets for our stewardship of the American States? How will we address those, that in the future of our country will deny the Rights of the People to assemble, to petition or to bear arms, saying that the Peoples rights are abrogated to the Governments' rights?
Oh Mother, I am not certain our leaders can understand my worry on this day. Do I fight for the rights of slaves when a slave has already the right to breathe freely? How can a Government take up arms against the citizens that allow the Government to exist? Yet today, I looked upon the fallen men of American the only difference the color of a woolen cap or where they stood on a fenced field.
Tonight the fighting has ended. The Confederates did push us right from the town and back up into these low-lying hills. General Hancock's confidence and command allowed our Federal forces to hold the Cemetery and Culp Heights--although they are not of such great height that the Confederate General Ewell could have kept on coming at us if he wanted to. Even though our positions are right strong, a full assault, late this afternoon may have turned for him...I am glad he decided not to pursue us. Thank GOD for Sickles and the III Corps, they came tramping right up our Union Side and with the XII Corps right behind, helped us save the position.
Mother, I must close now and try to sleep. I will finish this letter for you when I have the time tomorrow. Word around is Lee will try to move Longstreet into the battle, since Ewell has exercised too much discretion...
Your Son,
Jeremiah Forster
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
News from the Battlefields at Gettysburg:
As the sun sets on this day of battle, the issue is undecided. The 11th Corps was driven completely out of the town, with thousands lost or captured. Col. Dawes of the 6th Wis. took 420 men into the railroad cut against Heth, and now counts 260 survivors. The 1st Corps has been effectively shattered.
General Hancock has plotted out a line of defence, in lightning bold moves, pointing here and there, snapping out commands and curses with equal force, and with an air of solid confidance that inspires all. Hasty breastworks are being thrown up on the Northern slopes of Culp's and Cemetary hills, and as each new unit arrives, the lines are stretching South on the western side of a ridge that goes South from the cemetary. Each moment that passes brings more troops up the Baltimore Pike from Pipe Creek. Dan Sickles' 3rd Corps has arrived entirely, parts of Slocum's 12th, regiments and brigades and division, raising clouds of dust as they move, officers and provosts directing each unit into the positions Hancock has laid out.
The sun is only a glow on the horizon over the ridge to the west, and thousands of small fires twinkle as the 'coffee boilers' prepare a hasty meal.
Rumors abound, but it would seem that Hancock has ridden back to Taneytown to hurry along the troops. The rest of the 2nd Corps, Hancock's, is still some 13 miles down the road. Sykes' 5th Corps is 23 miles away and marching hard. 'Uncle John' Sedgewick's 6th Corps is 36 miles away and not expected until well into tomorrow.
This battle is not over, it is not even well begun. God save and protect these brave men.
More to follow...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Thanks for the great photos and music.
My great, great grandfather, fought as an infantryman in the 17th Illinois Infantry at the Battle of Shiloh. He was a 20 year old farm boy out to see the world - and what a piece of it he saw.
To paraphrase Merlin: "It is the curse of men that they forget."
55 Posted on 07/01/2001 22:14:48 PDT by Bounceback
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | Top | Last ]
To: Bounceback
Dawn Breaks
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Lee: Say it, General.
Longstreet: We shouldn't have attacked here, General. Heth had his orders.
Lee: I know that, but we have pushed them back.
Longstreet: But in the morning we shall be outnumbered.
Lee: Had I paid attention to numbers, General...
Longstreet: If we move south, toward Washington, we could fight on ground of our own choosing.
Lee: The enemy is here, General. We did not want this fight but the fight is here. What if I ask this army to retreat?
Longstreet: They wil do as you order.
Lee: They will probably retreat. Or Ewell will push them off. But if Meade is there tomorrow, I will attack him.
Longstreet: If Meade is there it is because he wants you to attack him.
Conversation at the close of the first day as speculated by Michael Shaara in The Killer Angels.
57 Posted on 07/02/2001 04:32:11 PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | Top | Last ]
To: Non-Sequitur
Second of July, 1863
Meade arrived at one in the morning, hollow-eyed and bad-tempered. Lee was already on hand, conferring with Longstreet as he rode through the lines in flickering torchlight. The latter was against fighting on the ground, and offensive battle with their 75,000 against the Federal's 80,000. Maneuver round their left flank was his sage advice, we are the more rapid marchers. But no, we cannot do that, said Lee, Stuart is away on a raid and we lack cavalry to cover such a movement. Longstreet wanted to argue the matter further, but Lee silenced him and gave orders for this plan. Ewell to throw a heavy column on the extreme Union right to Culp's Hill. Longstreet is to lead a simultaneous attack against the Union left, break it and meet Ewell in the middle. Now go to sleep General.
Lee was awake early on July 2 at 4am. He sent his engineer staff officer, Samuel R. Johnston to conduct a reconnaissance of the enemy's let flank on Cemetery Ridge and the Round Tops. As daylight breaks, Lee is looking for Longstreet's advance that would not come until much later than dawn and with troops deployed for marching, not fighting. Longstreet again pleaded for a defensive battle and Lee again overruled him.
Lee returned to his cluster of officers gathered at the observation point on Seminary Ridge. He spoke about his plans for the morning attack and shared the results of the reconnaissance from Johnston. No Federals could be found in the areas between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges and none on Round Top either, he was advised. Lee still believed Longstreet would launch his attack as soon as possible.
As Lee rode into Gettysburg town to confer with Ewell, Lee could see that Cemetery Hill was not a good target for an offensive action. He decided to have Ewell assault Culp's Hill when Longstreet's guns opened fire on Cemetery Ridge...but Longstreet would not open his troop attack for many hours to come as he continued to question the wisdom of Lee's plans.
That morning, Longstreet probed the Federals very gently. He found them in a long line from the Cemetery Ridge to the rise of the Peach Orchard. These were Sickle's III Corps, moved there on his own initiative--without his commanding General's permission. His troops were now in an exposed line almost a half-mile or so in front of the rest. The III Corps stood in the way of Longstreet's 160 guns with orders to hold the center until Syke's V Corps arrived to buttress the center, but still no attack came, Longstreet continued to dawdle until past noon when his batteries opened fire.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
From Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, 1:30 pm:
There has been light skirmishing this morning, as troops continue to move into position. Stragglers from the forced marches of last night wander up the road, calling out after thier units. and joining them as they are found.
A line of fallen logs, dirt embankments hastily thrown up, piles of stones and rocks mark the line laid out by Hancock last evening. When asked if it is somehow unwarlike to hide behind a pile of dirt, a private said that "it's a good thing to have for the wife and children!"
Gen. Meade arrived during the night, and headquarters has been established in a small white house on the Baltimore Pike. The 5th Corps is entirely up now, and the 6th Corps is driving hard.
From right to left, the 12th Corps, along the backs of Rock creek and up the slope of Culp's hill, then the remains of the 11th and the 1st Corps on the hill with the cemetary, and next to that running South is the 2nd Corps, and Sickles' 3rd Corps. The 5th is in reserve behind Sickles.
The 3rd Corps has, however advanced across the valley and marked a line with more nateral cover, along the Emmitsburg Road, and Gen Sickles has asked for support to his open flanks.
I heard Gen. Hancock tell one of his staff last night when such a deployment as Sickles has done was suggested, that this position would cause too much of a salient and could not be properly supported. So currently, the 3rd Corps is out there on it's own, and there is much confusion at Meade's headquarters.
As to the movements of the Rebel Forces, this is unknown, however, too much exposure on the crest of Culp's hill will be greeted with a Southern rifle ball, and the regiment of Berdan's 1st US Sharpshooters is scouting, even now, out in the front of the peach orchard where Sickles has anchored his line. Other than a signal post on the top of the higher of the two hills that mark the end of the National line, there is no one up on them. I would assume that provisions are being made to occupy such a prominant position.
More to follow...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | Top | Last ]
To: mware
In Burns' book "The Civil War"...he shows the same picture and states "enterprising photographers often did more than merely document Civil War battles, the dead Confederate below was dragged some forth yards to a snipers nest in Devil's Den in order to privide Timothy O'Sullivan with an especially dramatic photograph"...
staged or not, it reminds us of the outcome of battle.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
The fire from Longstreet's artillery was intense. Sickles' men suffered severly, his own batteries smothered. Sickles was himself gravely injured by a cannonball to the leg. Birney replaced him and at three thirty, Longstreet finally sent his column against the Peach Orchard. The Confederates broke through the line, spreading the Federals to both sides. But this attack was poorly coordinated. Hood's Division came sweeping from the south across the Devil's Den toward the Little Round Top.
Meanwhile, Meade dispatched the Union Army's chief Engineer, General Gouverneur K. Warren to the summit of Little Round Top to see what was happening. Upon his arrival, Warren found no troops stationed there, only a handful of signal men held the hill. As he saw the III Corp of Sickle start moving aside from Longstreet's charge the also caught the shine of Hood's bayonets as the Confederates began to climb Round Top.
Almost immediately, Warren saw the coming crises. If the Confederates took the hill the Union southern flank would be crushed. Warren leaped to his horse and sped down the slope, taking two of Syke's brigades our of formation, he led them to Little Round Top. As the 20th Maine reached the summit they spied Hood's brigade below them, resting for a breath. The battle was fierce, a nightmare. A New York regiment joined them, and a battery hauled up the hill by hand. The orders by Chamberlin, of the 20th Maine, were to hold the Little hill "at all hazards".
Part of Hoods' Troops, the 15th Alabama, scrambled up the hill, approaching the 386 troops of the 20th Maine. Soon the blue smoke of the musket fire obscured the lines. The Alabamians returned fire, moving up the hill, gaining ground. The ferocity of the fighting, forty thousand rounds fired in less than an hour and a half rendered the brush to shreds. The Maine troops were displaced by the Alabamians five times and yet they pushed back the Confederates equally as often. At times, the opponents stood muzzle to muzzle blasting away at each other, falling simultaneously from balls coming in at two or three different directions.
Chamberlin determined that he must advance, in spite of having lost a third of his troops. Fixing bayonets, they charge into the Confederates, the left side of his line moving down the hill, sweeping the Confederates to his right. Surprised by this move, the Rebs turned and ran, fleeing for their lives. Little Round Top was held.
The scene left behind was horrific. Colonel William C. Oates had hoped to take the Little Round Top, turning it into a "Gibralter that I could hold against ten time the number of men that I had". Instead his regiment was decimated, losing perhaps 50% of them, his dead and wounded covering the ground, lying in huge pools of blood, rocks dripping onto blood soaked ground.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic defense that day.
Devil's Den From Little Round Top, looking more Southwest.
The middle of the Den, looking due west
The Devil's Den, looking more northerly.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
William Frassanito is the photo historian who first uncovered the moved "sharpshooter" body story back in the 70's, and has located the exact position of all of Gardner's and O'Sullivan's Gettysburg photos over the years.
Except for this one:
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | Top | Last ]
To: Bars4Bill
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
MRRRRR
64 Posted on 07/02/2001 12:52:38 PDT by f.Christian
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | Top | Last ]
To: mware
I have read that the 1863 Devil's Den photography was staged by the photographer.
This is the first photo of the same young Southerner, taken where he fell. The photographers then placed the body on a blanket and carried it (and the musket) some 40 yards to the now-famous "sharpshooter's" nest for a second shoot (no pun).
Though Gardner's photography is invaluable historically, I can't help but thinking he was the CNN of his day.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | Top | Last ]
To: Bars4Bill
Far in front of the Union Lines, Sickles and his men are in desperate trouble. The Confederates are blasting the Peach Orchard, their shells tearing the branches from the trees and bounding among the Union troops. I was within a few feet of General Sickles when he received the wound by which he lost his leg. A terrific explosion seemed to shake the very earth, instantly followed by another. I noticed his pants and drawers at the knee were torn clear off to the leg which was singing loose. He was carried from the field, coolly smoking a cigar.
Sickles' troops have fallen backwards but have now received reinforcements from Sykes' and Hancock's troops advanced, only to be driven back in fierce fighting. Still, the Conferates have not been able to take Cemetery Ridge.
The 1st Minnesota Infantry, only 262 men left, made a charge to be remembered. A veteran Union regiment whose numbers had been so depleted by previous campaigns, they fixed bayonets and raced down the slope at the oncoming 1,600 Rebel soldiers of R. H. Anderson's division. They were ordered to plug a gap in the line, charging against overwhelming numbers--yet they did not hesitate. In a matter of minutes, 80 per cent of the men were dead or wounded, but they had done their duty. The remaining 47 men plugged the line long enough to repulse the Confederates. There is likely no other Union regimental unit that suffered such losses and stood its ground.
The lack of a coordinated attack during the afternoon of July 2 left the Confederates unable to exploit the tactical successes of field position. Longstreet's delay in artillery and movement to the Round Tops was unnecessary--an earlier assault would have won the hills and with artillery in position to pound the southern flank of the Union, the second day of battle would certainly have been a rout for the Southern forces.
Lee could not fully see the battle at the Round Tops and the Peach Orchard and thus could not be more direct in his actions. Through his glasses he simply watched and sent one message, getting one report from Longstreet at 7pm..."We are doing well" is all that was said.
A "visitor" did arrive that afternoon. J. E. B. Stuart rode to find Lee and tell him that his cavalry had reached the field. "Well General Stuart, you are here as last," Lee supposedly said in a tone tantamount to rebuke. Stuart had learned of the Gettysburg battle while at Carlisle and had ridden since midnight to join in. He knew nothing of the enemy and location of forces, so was essentially useless to the efforts. Later, Lee would reflect on the lack of cavalry at Gettysburg saying the "movements of the army preceding the battle had been much embarrassed by the lack of cavalry"...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
July 2, 1863
Dearest Mother,
I pick up this letter again. If you were to see me now, you would not see your son. Tired and covered in bloods' dirt, I have weathered another storm. My terror today was my saviour. We were ordered to move southwards to fill the line against the orchard and wheatfield areas. The Confederate artillery and troops had opened a small hole in the lines. I made it as far as a white walled farm house standing alone near the orchard. What kind of orchard it used to be, I do not know. Along the white picket fences lay the bodies of many horses and men. The lateness of the day and the heat had caused the horses legs to splay outwards, in the air and their bellies had been opened by the bombs forces causing their swollen guts to putrify.
I lost my mess kit and having shot my allotment of balls hid under the corner of the house. I am not ashamed to have hidden to stay alive, for the rebs came up into the yard chasing the Federals out and back towards the ridge. I tried to dig myself deeper into the hole and begged my breathing to slow. Soon the noise of battle rose again, those same Confederates now on the run back wards to their own lines. Blessed reinforcements had come in from the 1st Minnesota. I was lost from my own group and now have taken a fallen man's kit and bullets to sustain me.
The sun is falling behind the trees and the Confederate lines. I have determined that the Union line has held on this day. In the morning I will move northward again as I think my fellows are with Hancock's troops--still holding the Cemetery Ridge and I think the ground there to be safer than here.Your Son, Jeremiah Forster
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
mrrrr
68 Posted on 07/02/2001 16:43:16 PDT by f.Christian
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Thanks for this thread! These posts are one of the reasons I love FreeRepublic.com. Craig
69 Posted on 07/02/2001 16:49:12 PDT by craig_eddy
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: craig_eddy
Thanks, Craig..it's been fun reading my old text book for references...and surfing the net with all the links I've found. Join right in...
GRRRRRRRR
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Have you read "Soldiers Blue and Gray" by James Robertson? Great book on the citizen soldier.
71 Posted on 07/02/2001 17:26:16 PDT by craig_eddy
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field
| VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night: | |
|
|
|
| When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day, | |
|
|
|
| One look I but gave, which your dear eyes return’d, with a look I shall never forget; | |
|
|
|
| One touch of your hand to mine, O boy, reach’d up as you lay on the ground; | |
|
|
|
| Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle; | 5 |
|
|
|
| Till late in the night reliev’d, to the place at last again I made my way; | |
|
|
|
| Found you in death so cold, dear comrade—found your body, son of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;) |
|
|
|
|
| Bared your face in the starlight—curious the scene—cool blew the moderate night-wind; | |
|
|
|
| Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battlefield spreading; | |
|
|
|
| Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet, there in the fragrant silent night; | 10 |
|
|
|
| But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh—Long, long I gazed; | |
|
|
|
| Then on the earth partially reclining, sat by your side, leaning my chin in my hands; | |
|
|
|
| Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with you, dearest comrade—Not a tear, not a word; | |
|
|
|
| Vigil of silence, love and death—vigil for you my son and my soldier, | |
|
|
|
| As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones upward stole; | 15 |
|
|
|
| Vigil final for you, brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your death, | |
|
|
|
| I faithfully loved you and cared for you living—I think we shall surely meet again;) | |
|
|
|
| Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the dawn appear’d, | |
|
|
|
| My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop’d well his form, | |
|
|
|
| Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head, and carefully under feet; | 20 |
|
|
|
| And there and then, and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited; | |
|
|
|
| Ending my vigil strange with that—vigil of night and battlefield dim; | |
|
|
|
| Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;) | |
|
|
|
| Vigil for comrade swiftly slain—vigil I never forget, how as day brighten’d, | |
|
|
|
| I rose from the chill ground, and folded my soldier well in his blanket, | 25 |
|
|
|
| And buried him where he fell. |
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Only now do I have time to try and relate the chaotic events of the last few hours.
Earlier this afternoon, there was still hardly any firing, when suddenly to the East, beyond the 3rd Corps positions, a rapid crackle of gunfire broke the quiet. Thus, at about 3:30, I had thought that, to see a better part of the action from a good vantage, I would climb the smaller of the two rocky hills, following Gen Warren.
It was a short, but stiff climb to the top, and once there, we could see all the way back to the town, and with my spy glass, I could see the 3rd Corps, drawn up in lines to the Northeast, in a wheat field and an orchard and across rough and rocky ground below me. To the East of them was a haze of white smoke in a swale filled with trees where the far ridge slopes down lower. I saw glimpses of figures darting in and out, and the occasional white puff of a gunshot.
Then, suddenly, I saw the green garbed figures of skirmishers come running out of the woods, across what I knew to be the Emmitsburg Road, and just as suddenly, there was a sheet of smoke and moment later the tearing sound of massed musket fires and the wailing as thousands of Confederates came charging out of the woods. They struck the 3rd Corps full on, and it seemed that a thousand guns erupted at once. I turned, helplessly, looking for someway to stop this sight, and ran back down the hill, following Gen. G.K. Warren, the Chief Engineer of the Army. He cursed, looked around for a moment wildly and then suddenly put spurs to his horse and galloped toward a body of men marching up the Baltimore Pike. They were the men of the 140th N.Y., and Warren pointed up to the hill and told Col. O’Rourke to get up the hill, double quick, the Rebs were going to flank the entire line. These were the men of Strong Vincent’s brigade of Barnes’ division of the 5th Corps. They and Hazlett’s battery doubled up the hill and held it to the last extremity, beating back charge after charge, and saving that side of the line.
Even as the firing died away on the hill, across and behind, more firing broke out. On Culp's Hill at about 6:30 PM, Ewell's 2nd Corps has begun an assault on Meredith's Iron Brigade from Newton's (formerly Reynold’s and later Doubleday’s), 1st Corps and Greene's brigade from 12th Corps. These troops were later reinforced by units of 11th Corps and Gibbon's division from 2nd Corps. At approximately the same time, Early's division has began its attack on Cemetery Hill against the remaining elements of the 11th Corps.
Even with the sunset the firing continues, and there is no way to tell whether the National Cause is won or lost. All that can be known is that I am able to sleep in the same place as last night, under a tree, far enough from a barn turned hospital so that the screams of the wounded are bearable. There are so many dead and wounded that there is no way to even estimate our losses. The stench of Death and Gunsmoke hangs like a pall in the warm summer air. More to follow…
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Just getting in a late-night bump!
Before all the gorgeous graphics on this thread overwhelm my aged computer!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
bttt
75 Posted on 07/03/2001 03:43:24 PDT by f.Christian
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | Top | Last ]
To: VOA
VOA...Nothing wrong with your Venerable PC...just some of the pictures are rather large...they take a moment to load...take care on this day of battle. Keep your head down!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | Top | Last ]
To: f.Christian
3 July, 1863
The Morning is still and peaceful, the last coolness of the night air still hangs about the camps. The morning dew changes to summer haze rising about the fields, dotted with the heaps of dead men. The pops of musket cracks echo from time to time as the sun rises up in the sky. There are rumbles from all around the lines as horses toil to pull guns to their new positions along Seminary Ridge.
The only significant encounter of the morning was as if to remove a stubborn tick, the Union forces could not let the Confederates continue to press to close to the right rear--south of Culp's Hill. Slocum's XII Corps slammed down on Ewell's men and JEB Stuart's ill timed cavalry charge. The Union cavalry lead by the 23 year old General George Armstrong Custer held off a series of Confederate headlong charges.
Reports back to General Lee were not encouraging...the Union lines, while bending, refused to break. The organization of the Union forces was providing a durability that Lee's troops lacked...Meade had the defensive position and strategy that Longstreet had begged Lee, in vain, to adopt. (GRRRR)
Lee was now certain that he had to break Meade's CENTER in order win the field. Lee was expecting Longstreet to assault the Union Center on Cemetery Ridge, still Longstreet protested, having seen what well protected rifled muskateers did at Fredericksburg. "General Lee," Longstreet said " there never was a body of fifteen thousand men who could make that attack successfully." Lee overruled his General yet again, "The enemy is there, General Longstreet, and I am going to strike him."
Lee spent the remainder of the morning riding along the line, settling details. He designated a small grove of chestnut oak trees near the crest of Cemetery ridge as the goal of the troops to attack that day.
The Copse of Trees
The View from the OTHER SIDE of the Field, TOWARDS the Union Center on Cemetery Ridge...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
In the Second Photo...the view FROM Seminary ridge, across the field...NOTE the gentle rise in elevation of about 40 feet to the Cemetery Ridge. Close your eyes and imagine walking these over 4,000 feet in the summer heat, dressed in woolen uniforms...15,000 strong marching in ranks.
There is a slight dip about 200 yards infront of the stone walls protecting the Union lines, it beckons to you as the only safety for hundreds of yards about...
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
There is a slight dip about 200 yards infront of the stone walls protecting the
Union lines, it beckons to you as the only safety for hundreds of yards about...
A beautiful but horrifying picture.
When the great-grandsons of that generation ran up the beaches of Normandy to gain
cover of a seawall, looks like it was just history repeating itself.
(fortunately there was more logistical support on June 6, 1944)
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
July 3rd, 1863, Hdqtrs., Army of the Potomac:
This morning, now that the fog of battle has lifted somewhat, I can report that, although the National forces have suffered over 12,000 dead, wounded and missing, we still hold the field at Gettysburg. Massive attacks at both end of the hook shaped Federal line have been repulsed, albeit with heavy losses. Among the dead are BgGen. Stephen Weed, BgGen. Vincent, Col. O’Rourke, Lt. Hazlett, commander of the one battery that was able to move guns to the heights, all struck down in a matter of moments of each other, and all but atop each other, as their brigade, arriving at the very cusp of time, fought off repeated attacks while defending the smaller of the two rocky hills from the charges of the entire Division of John B. Hood, of Texas. The 20th Maine, led by a Col. Chamberlain, actually counter charged with bayonets, and swept the Confederates back, capturing over 500 Rebels.
The attack on the exposed 3rd Corps, and the battle for the peach orchard and a rugged rocky area at the foot of the two hills, referred to by everyone this morning as “the Devil’s Den” went less well with thousands killed and wounded, despite a brave defense by Birney’s brigade and the 5th Corps. Driven back by a furious cannonade, Birney’s Brigade tried to defend the area, even while under fire from two directions at once. An opening was forced between Birney’s and Humphery’s brigade, and Humphrey was driven back, only to be saved at the last instant by the charge of a Minnesota regiment. Gen. Zook and Col. Cross have fallen, Gen. Sickles has been severely wounded, Confederate Gen. Barksdale, the Fireeater of Mississippi, was heavily wounded and captured by National troops. Even now, Barksdale is being tended by those whom he would have divorced.
At the other end of the line, at about 6:30, Ewell’s Corps mounted a heavy drive into the entrenchments of Wadsworth’s Brigade of the 12th Corps, and captured these positions on our side of Rock Creek, at the base of Culp’s hill. At almost the same moment, the Louisiana Tigers assaulted the batteries of Wiedrick, Stevens and Ricketts, entrenched on the slope leading to the cemetery and despite terrible gaps blown through the ranks by double-shotted canister, got in amongst the guns and were fought with rammers, rocks and bare hands, until Carroll’s brigade could drive them back. Of the 1,700 Tigers that started the charge, perhaps as many as 2/3 lie still in the morning sun. An equal number of our boys sleep under the trees.
This morning has been quiet, and the only certainty is that Bobby Lee is not one to readily give up. It is expected that the preparations for another flanking movement is being attempted, even as I write this, and Pleasonton’s Cavalry has ridden off to the East to discover this. An aide to Gen Meade says that the General expects an attack on the center of the line, simply because that is the one place that has not been assaulted. Most others I have interviewed seem to regard this as wishful thinking. Col. Hunt’s entire artillery reserve is on the crest of the hill, in among the trampled graves, and to attack the center, Lee would have to march his formations across 1,400 yards of open ground, under fire for every inch gained. Chicken is being served at the House of General Meade, and so I shall report as soon as more news is available. More to Follow:
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
Historical, eve of July 4th bump...
I hope some lurkers are letting their kids look over their shoulder at this thread.
I've visited Vicksburg and Shiloh...haven't made it to Gettysburg, so this thread is
very interesting to me.
I read a couple of years about the 50th Anniversary that was held at Gettysburg with the
aged survivors (North and South).
I'd have given about a $1000 to have a video of that event!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | Top | Last ]
To: VOA
I have not been able to find a better description in my books about Pickett's Charge than this from the link I cite.--
Pickett's Charge |
It was at one o'clock that two Confederate signal guns were fired, and at once there opened such an artillery combat as the armies had never before seen.
As a spectacle, the fire from the two miles of Confederate batteries, stretching from the town of Gettysburg southward, was appalling; but practically the Confederate fire was too high, and most of the damage was done behind the ridge on which the Army of the Potomac was posted, although the damage along the ridge was also great. The little house just over the crest where Meade had his headquarters, and to which he had gone from Gibbon's luncheon, was torn with shot and shell.
The army commander stood in the open doorway as a cannon shot, almost grazing his legs, buried itself in a box standing on the portico by the door. There were two small rooms on the ground floor of the house, and in the room where Meade had met his corps commanders the night before were a bed in the corner, a small pine table in the center, upon it a wooden pail of water, a tin drinking cup, and the remains of a melted tallow candle held upright by its own grease, that had served to light the proceedings of last night's council of war. One Confederate shell bust in the yard among the horses tied to the fence; nearly a score of dead horses lay along this fence, close to the house. One shell tore up the steps of the house; one carried away the supports of the portico; one went through the door, and another through the garret. It was impossible for aids to report or for orders to be given from the center of so much noise and confusion, and the little house was abandoned as a headquarters, to be turned, after the firing was over, into a hospital.
During the cannonade the infantry of Meade's army lay upon the ground behind the crest. By General Hunt's direction the Union artillery fire, with the exception of that of the Second Corps batteries, was reserved for a quarter of an hour and then concentrated upon the most destructive batteries of the foe. After half an hour both Meade and his chief of artillery started messengers along the line to stop the firing, with the idea of reserving the ammunition for the infantry assault, which they well knew would soon be made. On the other side, Alexander sent word to Pickett to come quickly, and the Confederate assault began.
Crossing the depression of the ground, a part of the Confederate line, after emerging from the woods, found a moment's rest and shelter, and then started toward the little umbrella-shaped clump of trees on the Union line, said to have been pointed out by Lee as the objective of the assault. On the left Pettigrew's division of four brigades advanced in one line, with Trimble's two brigades of Lane and Scales in the rear and right as supports. Pickett's division on the right advanced with the brigades of Kemper and Garnett in the front line and Armistead's brigade in rear of Garnett's on the left. Twenty minutes afterward the brigades of Wilcox and Perry were to advance on Pickett's right and repel any attempted flanking movement. The assault was made by eighteen thousand men.
To cover the advance the Confederate artillery reopened, and when the infantry line appeared the Union guns were directed upon the ranks. Great volumes of smoke, however, soon obscured the field, and many of the Confederates could not see that there was a foe in front of them until they were within two hundred yards of the Union line. Under the artillery fire from McGilvery and Rittenhouse on Pickett's right his part of line drifted to the left, and thus, when the brigades of Wilcox and Perry marched straight ahead, as ordered, for the purpose of protecting Pickett's right flank, their course took them to far to the south to accomplish their purpose, even if the advanced line by that time had not gone into pieces. As Pettigrew had formed behind Seminary Ridge, his troops had to advance under fire a distance of at least thirteen hundred yards, while Pickett's place of formation was but nine hundred yards distant from the objective point. The start was made in echelon, with Pettigrew in the rear; but by the time the Emmitsburg road was reached both divisions were on a line, and they crossed the road together. Brockenbrough's Virginians, Pettigrew's left brigade, were disheartened by the flank fire of Hays' troops and Woodruff's battery after a loss of only twenty-five killed, and these troops either retreated, surrendered, or threw themselves on the he ground for protection; but the other brigades of Pettigrew, as well as those of Trimble, advanced to the stone wall, stayed there as long as any other Confederate troops, and surrendered many fewer men than did Pickett.
The drifting of Pickett's division to the left exposed the flank of his right brigade (Kemper) to the fire of Doubleday's division, a part of which moved with Pickett, thus continuing its deadly volleys, while Stannard's brigade by Hancock's orders, changed front to the right, and opened a most destructive fire upon Kemper's flank. Armistead's brigade moved in between Kemper and Garnett, and together they marched upon the angle of the stone wall held by Webb's Philadelphia brigade, Garnett, just before death, calling out to Colonel Frye, commanding Archer's brigade of Pettigrew's division on his left, "I am dressing on you." Scales' brigade, whose commander, Colonel Lowrance, says it "had advanced over a wide, hot, and already crimson plain," and through whose ranks troops from the front began to rush to the rear before he had advanced two thirds of the way, together with Lane's brigade, advanced to the front line, Lowrance's brigade reaching the wall.
The two guns of Cushing's battery at the wall were silenced. The greater part of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Regiment of webb's brigade had been withdrawn from the wall to make room for the artillery, and the two remaining companies, overwhelmed by the mass of the enemy concentrated at this point, were driven back from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. Through this gap the Confederates crossed the wall, and Armistead, putting his hat on his sword, dashed toward the other guns of Cushing's batter, near the clump of trees, and fell dead by the side of Cushing.
The Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania of Webb's brigade held its left flanks by the enemy. The Seventy-second Pennsylvania and two companies of the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania advanced to the wall; Cowan's New York battery galloped up; Hall's brigade of Hancock's corps, by the orders of Hancock, on Webb's left, changed front, and poured its fire into the Confederates' flank; Harrow's brigade also attacked Pickett in flank. The attack of Pettigrew and Trimble, farther to the Union right, fell upon Hays' division of the Second Corps. The Eighth Ohio changed front, facing south, reversing the tactics of Hall's brigade on the left and opened a flank fire. General Pickett, in person, did not cross the Emmitsburg road.
Of his three brigade commanders, Garnett and Armistead were killed, and within twenty-five paces of the stone wall Kemper was wounded and captured. Pettigrew and Trimble and three of their brigade commanders (Frye, Marshall, and Lowrance) were wounded. The brigades of Wilcox and Perry, exposed to a heavy artillery fire from the fresh batteries moved to Gibbon's front again, and, seeing the repulse of the assault to their left, fell back to the main Confederate line. Out of the fifty-five hundred men which Pickett took into action, fourteen hundred and ninety-nine surrendered, two hundred and twenty-four were killed, and eleven hundred and forty were reported wounded.
Pickett lost twelve out of fifteen battle flags. Pettigrew's division, in which there was one brigade of North Carolina troops , lost in killed and wounded eight hundred and seventy-four, and in missing five hundred. Trimble's two North Carolina brigades lost in killed and wounded three hundred and eighty-nine, and in missing two hundred and sixty-one. The two brigades of Perry and Wilcox together lost three hundred and fifty-nine. Pettigrew's brigade of North Carolina regiments, commanded by Colonel Marshall, lost in the charge five hundred and twenty-eight, of which number three hundred were killed and wounded; and the Twenty-sixth North Carolina of this brigade, which regiment suffered greater losses during the war than any other on either side of the conflict, went into this charge with two hundred and sixteen men, and returned with but eighty-four.
The percentage of losses in killed and wounded in the assaulting column, taken as a whole, was not extraordinary for the civil war. The place assaulted was less formidable than Fort Fisher, which was taken later in the war by Union troops, and the assault itself was far less successful than that of Meade's division at Fredericksburg. Its complete failure was due to the thorough dispositions made to meet it, and it is improbable that the result would have been reversed if McLaws and Hood , whose attention was occupied by the appearance of the Union cavalry on their right, had participated in the assault. The tactical skill which had prevented the rout of the Third Corps from involving the whole army in a defeat on the second day of the battle, was exerted with equal success in supporting the center under attack on the third day.
At the center of Meade's position, were troops rank after rank, infantry division after division, line upon line, including even the provost guards, and, in rear of all, a regiment of cavalry waiting to shoot down the craven if he would discover himself. Against an army so disposed, in such a position, and so handled, its different parts thrown from point to point with certainty and promptitude, with every possible Confederate movement anticipated and provided for, the assault ordered by Lee was in truth the mad and reckless movement that Meade characterized it, and it accomplished no more than a slight fraying of the edge of the front Union line of troops.
On the Union side, Hancock, Gibbon, and Webb were wounded and carried from the field. The union losses were twenty-three hundred and thirty-two. Webb's brigade losing more than any other. One hundred and fifty-eight artillery men were killed or wounded. Before the attack Meade had told Hancock that if Lee attacked the Second Corps position he intended to put the Fifth and Sixth Corps on the enemy's flank. Recalling this remark of the army commander, Hancock, while lying on the ground wounded, dictated a note to Meade, expressing his belief that if the movement contemplated by the army commander were carried out a great success would be won. The Sixth corps, however, was not now a compact organization, its different parts, having been disposed in different portions of the field. The Fifth Corps was ordered to carry out the contemplated movement, but it had also been moved to support the center. There is a limit to human endurance, and the slowness with which the movement ordered by Meade was made, owing partly to the difficulty of collecting the troops, was no doubt largely due to sheer exhaustion caused by the supreme efforts which had now been prolonged for six midsummer days. (Source: "General Meade" by Isaac R. Pennypacker published 1901)
Lee's momentous attack had failed. He watched Pickett's attack from Seminary Ridge. He saw lots of smoke and confusion, but could generally follow the action. Long before the attack stalled and died, Lee rod forwards alone and joined Alexander and his gunners. Lee saw the backwash of the battle as wounded, scared men from broken regiments streamed towards him. Later, when he knew that the day and perhaps the war, was lost, Lee tried to rally the survivors against the counterattack he expected from Meade.
The entire attack had consumed only an hour or so, but now Lee suddenly had to plan a retreat. Late that night, he gave instructions to cavalry officer John D. Imboden to escort his supply wagons and ambulances back to Virginia. Imboden sees that Lee is too tired to dismount and hurries to assist Lee climb down. Before he was able to reach Lee's side, Lee slid his arm across his saddle and shed his eyes upon the ground, leaning upon his also weary horse.
"The moon shone full upon his massive features and revealed a sadness that I had never seen upon his face"...said Imboden.
"General, this has been a hard day on you", Imboden offered. Lee responded, "Yes, it has been a sad, sad day to us." Then lapsed again into silence.
After a few minutes, Lee stood and straightened, and spoke with great emotion. "I never saw troops behave more magnificently than Pickett's division of Virginians did today in that grand charge upon the enemy. And if they had been supported as they were to have been, but, for some reason not yet fully explained to me, were not, we would have held the position sand the day would have been ours." Lee fell silent for a time and then in a loud voice, "TOO BAD! TOO BAD! OH TOO BAD...!!
(Robert E. Lee by E. Thomas)
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
GRRRRR
83 Posted on 07/03/2001 14:17:16 PDT by f.Christian
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
6:00 PM, July 3rd, 1863, At Gettysburg:
It has been another day of fearful carnage. Thousands are dead or dying, and thousands more are fearfully maimed. The sun is seen as bloody in the white smoke and dust, and there is a soft murmur of a thousand moans of the still unaided wounded.
At about 1:00 pm, a gigantic cannonade was begun from the far side of the shallow valley to our West. As many as 150 Confederate guns thudded as one, and gouts of smoke blanketed the ground before them. All this flying steel was aimed at the cemetery on the hill. There is a low stone wall halfway down the Western slope of the hill, and the National troops along this wall simply huddled and waited. The shells and solid shot ripped the ground on the crest, and shattered horses and men, gun carriages and cassions, and continued on to smash the headquarters house of Gen. Meade, behind the crest. One cannonball slew a dozen horses tethered to a fence at a single stroke. Shells by the score fell among wounded who had been laid out on blankets in the door yard, and many who were already sorely wounded were further maimed or killed outright, as well as those tending them.
Col. Hunt’s Artillery Reserve started to respond in kind, with a measured calmness that was in contrast to the deafening chaos about them. As the gunner holding the lanyard would tug, it seemed like he was snatching the entire gun off it’s wheels with a jerk. Each shot would send the entire gun whole feet into the air, only to be shoved back into position for another reload. The gunners were stripped to the waist and blackened with powder as they served the fuming monsters.
This scene went on without pause for an hour and a half or more, and it had almost become as if this was the normal state of things, to hide behind a stone wall whilst tons of smoking metal screamed overhead. Most of the hot steel was passing well above our heads and impacting on the crest of the hill or beyond. We ourselves down along the wall were all but untouched.
Several times I saw General Hancock ride past along the lines, giving encouragement to the waiting men. I talked to a Lt. Alonzo Cushing, of Webb’s brigade of the 1st Corps, who had his battery up near the wall and he said he was ready, having packed the guns to the muzzle with trace chains and rocks.
Col. Hunt passed an order to his guns to hold fire and prepare for an infantry assault. As the National guns slackened fire, thus also did the Confederates, and an eerie peace settled.
I focused my spyglass on the far tree line from my place near a grove of trees at an angle to the wall, and suddenly, long lines of troops stepped out into the sun.
The red battle banners marked each regiment, and it seemed like all the Rebels in the world had just been created.
As they stepped out, however, I heard, near the wall, a nerveless NCO calmly say, “OK, men, here they come. Aim low, and kill ‘em all! Wait for my command…”
I think the entire world paused for a moment at this spectacle. It seemed that there was a terrible resolve in the way the lines of troops on both sides shook themselves out and dressed the lines, rattled ramrods in barrels, made sure that cartridge box flaps were loose, and capboxes were full. There was an air of murder to be done this day.
The lines started to move, and for some moments were unmolested as they swept with an awesome majesty across the Emmitsburg road, and the formations faltering a little as they encountered a fence. A mile and a half of men in formation, rank upon rank, headed, it seemed, straight for me.
Suddenly, up the slope, a Federal gun thudded, and then two, and then whole batteries slamming away at what one gunner later called an Artilleryman’s fondest wish. Out across the fields, puffs of dirt and smoke, as men stumbled and fell, holes in the ranks closing as the March continued. The cannonade continued, joined by guns near the town, and others atop the rocky hills to the South, all converging on the Army of Northern Virginia.
Closer and closer the lines moved, taking horrible punishment from the flanking guns to the right and left. The word came to Stand Ready, and the men near me stood, and cocked their rifles and threw them up to the shoulder. A voice roared, “Stand BY!...FIRE!”, and a rolling volley 2,000 strong ripped into the serried ranks along with all the guns on the hill behind us. The Rebel lines of men vanished in a cloud of dust and smoke, and limbs, blankets, canteens, and heads were flung into the air as a horrible cascade. Still they came on, much reduced in numbers if not resolve. Volley after volley, along with a screaming sound from thousands of enraged throats. I could hear one man near me yelling, “Come on, you b______ds! Come and get it!”, punctuated as he fired and reloaded and fired again as regular as a Howe’s Sewing machine.
Choking clouds of smoke smothered us all, and you could see the bullets pluck at the smoke in small swirls as they sped for the shadows of the approaching foes in the smoke.
The charge went on, and as they approached, I, without a gun to comfort me, fell back. I was back in among the guns as other men rushed forward, yelling, bayonets at the ready. A cloud of dust rose and covered all in a brown haze. As the lines swayed back and forth, it was perhaps the the sheer physical weight of National forces that ultimately decided the day.
Suddenly, it was over, as Bobby Lee’s Army trudged back across that terrible field. The Federal troops called “Fredericksburg!” at the retreating foe.
Victory, but at what cost? Generals Hancock, Doubleday, Gibbon, Warren, Butterfield, Stannard, Barnes and Brook are wounded, Farnsworth is dead, G.R. Paul with both eyes shot away. The lieutenant, Alonzo Cushing, shot dead as he fired his gun one last time, and so many, many others, 18,000 dead, wounded or missing at last count, and the numbers continue to grow.
Rain threatens, and we await another attack, and men still are digging ditches for themselves and for the dead. but perhaps even Bobby Lee has had enough Death for the week.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | Top | Last ]
To: jonascord
End of the third day bump.
The Union forces have proven themselves as they bent, but were not broken.
The Confederates have attained immortality, even without victory.
I just wish I could have been there when the former adversaries met at Gettysburg
fifty years later...to recall the most incredible days of their lives and some of the
most pivotal events of the country.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | Top | Last ]
To: VOA
VOA...Perhaps there are some photographs of the event?
PS: If someone can figure out which tag I didn't close properly...that would be a help.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Quieter?
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
So what happened to Jeremiah Forster?
Semper Fi
USMCVet
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: All
Gettysburg is my home stomping grounds. I live in Caladonia now and travel through our history every day to and from work. When the sun breaks on the battlefield, if it doesn't fill you with emotion's, well you just don't care about our history.
I read this thread with a tear in my eye. The civil war was horrible. I've often thought of what went through the grunt's head when he knew the *h*t was about to hit the fan. The Outlaws recorded a song in 1986 about Cold Harbor and I think they hit it right on the head. Often as I drive by the battlefield I think of it. When I see a tourist standing by his/herself I wonder if their thoughts are like mine. Fascinated, wondering, apalled, repelled, and yes, even though my heritage is southern, grateful.
Anyway, I'm going to share this song with you all, and do wish that you would take some moment to hear this haunting piece of art by a great band.
Cold Harbor
Henry Paul and Chuck Glass
It wasn't far from Richmond
The second day of June
The year was 1864
And the end was closing soon
On a long and bitter struggle
For the boy's in blue and grey
The battle of Cold Harbor
Was only hours away
I woke up long before the sun
Cut through the morning sky
And wondered as I lay there
Was it my time to die
Somewhere in the darkness
The Union fires glowed
A distant bugles reveille
Was playing soft and low
Oh Cold Harbor the battle line was drawn
Through the heart of Dixie
The thrill of war was gone
Our rebel flag was faded
We waved it far too long
Oh Cold Harbor, the last of the proud
Will carry on
The morning shook like thunder
As through the smoke they came
The heavy guns and musket fire
Were pouring down like rain
In just one half an hour
10,000 Federals died
My blood ran cold to watch them fall
I closed my eyes and fired
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | Top | Last ]
To: umbagi
LOL...ThankYOU!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | Top | Last ]
To: USMCVet
July 4th, 1863
Dearest Mother,
I have survived the battles of Gettysburg Town. I cannot tell you more. Today the rains have come to wash away the blood that nourishes the Patriots' Tree.
I am hearing reports of 50,000 men having been killed here. Thankful to God, I am not one of them. The townspeople have come to help bury the dead and find anymore wounded as they lie in the fields. The wounded have been taken to their homes, their blood staining their carpets. Lee has moved back south, to Virginia. I hope he will not come north again.
I do not know where I am to go next. The telegraph wires have been repaired and news comes from Vicksburg...the seige has ended, Grant's Army has taken the city.
Perhaps I shall be home soon.
Your Loving Son,
Jeremiah Forster.THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public Telecomputing Network.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | Top | Last ]
To: Ragin1
Thanks to all for reading and participating in our CYBER Re-Enactment. I have enjoyed reading all of your posts and the excersize has brought back some wonderful memories of my College Days...debating the reasons for the Terrible War, learning of their mistakes in Battle...
It always seemed this war was fraught with mistakes...
For the need of a cellphone?
GRRRRR
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
I know a lot of folks didn't like the tower, but I thought it offered a spectacular view of the battlefield, but the Yankee/Rebel reenactors blew the damn thing down.
93 Posted on 07/04/2001 05:09:58 PDT by the_rightside
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | Top | Last ]
To: VOA
Check your messages - there is a video.
94 Posted on 07/04/2001 06:55:37 PDT by redlipstick
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
PCCCCC
95 Posted on 07/04/2001 11:45:02 PDT by f.Christian
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR, redlipstick
VOA...Perhaps there are some photographs of the event?
Well, my boast of being willing to pay $1000 for a video of the Fiftieth Anniversary
gathering of the Gettysburg Battle Veterans has apparently come back
to bite me in the backside! I made the statement because I remember reading an article
about the Fiftieth Anniversary at which the grizzled old veterans of the GAR and the
Confederate Army that had fought at (and survived) Gettysburg met at the battlesite
to remember their fallen comrades and honor each other.
The article had a few photos of the event and I thought, this is what should have been
at the opening and/or ending of any movie made about Gettysburg.
redlipstick (what a 1940's film noir screename; I can't help but think L.A. Confidential
Kim Baysinger!)...
has informed me that such a tape is (or was available). I post the relevant part
of the Freepermail she kindly sent to me (and I do, hopefully, presume she doesn't
mind the reposting of the communication).
Message from "redlipstick", edited for brevity:
..."Echoes of the Blue and Gray" and features newsreel footage of the Gettysburg
1913, Vicksburg 1917, and Gettysburg 1938 reunions. It was put out in 1989 by
Belle Grove Publishing Co. of Arlington, N.J. You might be able to find the company
and see if it is still available. I also have "Echoes of the Blue and Gray, Volume II,"
which features the 75th anniversary at Gettysburg, the 5oth anniversary of the
Grand Review, the final Confederate reunion and the final G.A.R. reunion. These tapes are wonderful
I hope the informatin is of use to the other (Civil War) history junkies here on
www.freerepublic.com
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | Top | Last ]
To: VOA
LOL VOA, It just goes to prove my assertion that FREEPERS are the most smartest bunch of peeple you will NEVER MEET! All you have to do around here is ASK a simple question...and you will get the SMARTEST Answers!
Happy Independence Day!!
GRRRRRRight at Home!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
Curse that Meade! Why didn't he chase Lee to the river!!!???? Blast it all, the war could have been OVER!!!
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | Top | Last ]
To: GRRRRR
The Tower is gone.
I live 25mi from Gettysburg.
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | Top | Last ]
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.
[ Top | Latest Posts | Latest Articles | Self Search | Add Bookmark | Post | Abuse | Help! ]
|
FreeRepublic , LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794 Forum Version 2.0a Copyright © 1999 Free Republic, LLC |