GETTYSBURG – devastation and haunted memories

I hope that everyone has recovered somewhat from the first seven stops that told the tales of tragedy and heroism.

Travelling around the fields of Gettysburg surely is an experience that gives one the time to briefly glimpse the lives of these men – both Union and Confederate and you wonder just how they survived.

‘In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls and reverent men and women from afar and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls’ – Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Gettysburg 3rd October 1889.

Over 100 years ago he wrote these words – he was speaking about the generations who would come to these rolling hills and fields to understand the sacrifice and suffering endured by men for the sake of a free and united country.

We are now at stop #8  – Little Round Top.

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, with the 350 men of the 20th Maine, held the extreme left of the Union line.  He was told to hold his ground ‘at all hazards’ because if he didn’t the line would be compromised.  For nearly two hours the 20th Maine withstood several waves of assaults and fired at each other at close range.

Eventually ammunition started to run low and his men were exhausted, outnumbered and forced to collect ammunition from the dead and dying.  How can people ever recover from that!  In desperation, Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge the enemy.  They ran like fire along the line, from man to man and then rose into a shout and sprang upon the enemy.

This charge saved the Union line and Chamberlain would later receive the Medal of Honour for this courageous act.  About half way up on the above landscape photo, just off centre to the left you can see a small monument with a pyramid shape top – this is dedicated to the men of the 20th Maine, and has the names of the thirty eight men from this corps who gave their lives at Little Round Top.

Whilst we are on hallowed ground reflecting the fighting and sacrifice, a bus load of school pupils arrive.  I am not sure where their teachers were or what the parents were thinking but these children then proceed to hoop and hollar through the monuments – even making stupid poses beside them.  Still some of the parents were just as bad – waving hysterically and yelling out to their brats.  Fearing another Battle of Little Round Top – we decide to leave before we let fly with a few choice words.  Obviously, respect is not one of their curriculum lessons – I doubt if they could even spell the word.

Enough  – we proceed to Devil’s Den which is situated at the bottom of Little Round Top.  You can see it in the above landscape photo – what looks to be a great crop of boulders.

This outcrop reminds me of Thunderbolt’s Rock at Uralla back home.  The boulders gave the Bushranger Frederick Wordsworth Ward, better known as Captain Thunderbolt, the perfect vantage point for monitoring the approach of unwary mail coaches.

After a daring escape from Sydney’s notorious Cockatoo Island prison in 1863, he and fellow escapee, Fred Britten, used the rocks as a hideout. They were surprised by passing troopers while lying in wait at the rock to bail up an approaching mailman. Thunderbolt was shot in the knee during the fiery exchange of gunshots that ensued.  But I digress – back to Devil’s Den.

At around 4pm the Confederates opened their attack from Warfield Ridge and headed straight for these rocks.  The boulders provided a safe haven for Confederate sharpshooters who spent the rest of the evening firing at Union soldiers on Little Round Top.

While we are walking around it starts to rain so we hightail it back to the dryness of the car – which unfortunately does not provide a great place to take more photos – apologies.

Stop # 9 – The Wheatfield.  During the afternoon of 2nd July, this field of wheat, now tall grasses swaying in the cold winds as we stand here, witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the entire Civil War.  After what we have seen and learnt so far – I did not think it was possible for even worse battles.  This place would suffer an unimaginable scorching brand of struggle, torment, and death.  Swept up in the intense fighting, over 6,000 men were killed, wounded or captured in the field and surrounding woods.

There is an eerie feeling standing here where once screams and unbelievable noise filled the air.  Now all I hear is the rustle of the tall grasses and the sounds of the wind through the trees.

Stop # 10 – The Peach Orchard.   Gen. Robert E. Lee’s newly arrived infantry corps were to march south and attack the Union’s exposed left flank on Cemetery Ridge, but Longstreet who disagreed with Lee’s plan, did not get his troops into position until mid-afternoon.  As Longstreet’s attack column was getting in place, the Union’s Third corps chief, Gen. Daniel Sickles advanced his troops off Cemetery Ridge to take advantage of what he deemed to be ground better suited for defense.

While Gen. John B. Hood’s men toiled in the Devil’s Den and on Little Round Top, Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ division was rushing towards a peach orchard.  The Southerners smashed into Sickles’ anemic battle line, causing the Yankees to bolt for the rear. Sickles attempted to stem the tide by feeding his regiments into the fray with disastrous results. With Sickles’ men in full retreat, the confident Confederates drove on toward Cemetery Ridge.  Today there is no orchard to be seen only the open spaces that played host to this tragedy.

On our way to the next stop we pass the Trostle Farm.  The house and barn standing today are the original structures of the battlefield from 1863. The Trostle house was used as a hospital and at the time of the battle consisted of seven rooms and a basement. The barn still bears a scar of the battle – a hole near the roofline through which a cannonball passed. If you enlarge the picture you can see the hole in the front of the house.  Along the road in front of the house stands a monument for the 9th Massachusetts Battery, which had retreated to this point from its original position along the Wheatfield Road during the fighting on 2nd July. The battery stood its ground here, allowing other units to retreat safely back towards Seminary Ridge.

As we continue to our next stop the temperature continues to fall and the clouds continue to build.  A cold wind blows through the trees that line the roads and autumn leaves descend on us by the 100’s.  Arriving at Stop #12 – the Pennsylvania Memorial we open the car doors and are immediately hit with a cold, cold wind, but we press on.

The Pennsylvania Memorial honours all the Pennsylvanians who participated in the battles.   Standing approx 36 metres tall, it is the largest monument on the battlefield. The base is a pedestal, accessible by stairs, from which four towers rise to support the dome and arches. The Northeast column houses a spiral staircase that leads to an observation deck with a breathtaking view of the battlefield, so we are told.   Unfortunately it is now too cold for me to move very much so I give this a miss.  Bugger.

On the perimeter of the monument, there are ninety bronze, name-covered tablets embedded in the granite surface. Each plaque represents a Pennsylvanian regiment, and each name belongs to one of the 34,530 Pennsylvanian fighting men who served his family and his country in the Battle of Gettysburg. Those who were killed or mortally wounded in the line of duty are marked with stars beside their names.  Unfortunately there are too many of them.

On the corners of the Memorial there are eight portrait statues, two facing in each direction, depicting the heroic leaders who took part in the battle. Seven are Pennsylvanians, including General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac, and Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, who delayed Lee’s troops in Virginia and put together a state militia. The eighth statue is of President Abraham Lincoln, whose Gettysburg Address is among the nation’s most famous speeches.

Crowning the Pennsylvania State Monument is an even larger statue (21 feet tall) made with the bronze of melted-down cannons and known as The Goddess of Victory and Peace. This was modeled by sculptor Samuel Murray, who also did some bas-relief scenes and detail work on the monument. The goddess sculpture is symbolic of our preference for peace and our willingness to do what’s necessary to protect it.

The afternoon is now bitterly cold so time to progress to stop #13 Spangler’s Spring. Located at the southern end of Culp’s Hill, Spangler’s Spring is adjacent to one of the few open pasture areas in this part of the battlefield. This natural spring provided a steady supply of clear water to both farmer and animal alike for many years before the battle. Union soldiers of the Twelfth Army Corps enjoyed the water of the spring as they gathered on the wooded slopes of Culp’s Hill on 2nd July. These thirsty troops constructed log and earthen barricades on the hillside before they were marched away to support the crumbling Union left flank at the Peach Orchard. 

Later that same night, the Confederates of Brig. General ‘Maryland” Steuart’s Brigade also used the spring to fill their canteens.  The Union counter attack early the following morning placed the spring in no man’s land.  Because it lay in front of the reversed line, the thirsty Southerners could not get back to it without running the risk of being shot by Union infantrymen who lay no more than 16 metres away.  The spring site was reoccupied by Union troops late on the morning of 3rd July, finally denying its use to the Southerners.

Needless to say we do not spend a great deal of time here – just enough the reflect on the tragedy and to take the customary amount of photos and we are glad to get out of the bitter wind and into our nice warm car.  We are nearing the end of our tour with only Culps’ Hill to investigate.  This does not have its own audio stop – but it is labelled in the guide book as #13a. 

The fighting in this area was extremely heavy at times with bullets and bursting cannon shells tearing through the woods covering the hill.  The shallow trenches were the key to the Union defence of this hill.  A lone Union brigade numbering only 1,300 men held at bay nearly 6,000 attacking Confederate soldiers.

Brigadier General George Greene was the oldest Union General on the battlefield. As a descendant of Nathanael Greene, George Washington’s second-in-command, and as the father of two Union soldiers and a Federal naval officer, Greene seemed to have Yankee blue in his blood.

On the evening of 2nd July, Greene and the five New York regiments were left to defend the extreme right end of the Union line.  Outnumbered by more than three to one, Greene’s New Yorkers inflicted more than six times the number of casualties on their enemy and ultimately maintained control of the summit.

Upon Greene’s death in 1899, his former soldiers paid tribute to him by placing a 1.8 tonne boulder from Culp’s Hill over his grave in Warwick, Rhode Island.

This concludes our tour of the Gettysburg Battlefields and we now head to the Soldier’s National Cemetery.

The Cemetery was established as a final resting place for more than 3,500 Union soldiers who lost their lives at Gettysburg. David Wills, a local Gettysburg attorney, was appointed to purchase suitable ground for a cemetery, develop a plan for internment of the Union dead, and interact with the 17 other northern state governors who would participate in the process. Wills originally planned to have the Union dead buried randomly as they were re-interred in the new cemetery.

Massachusetts, one of the Northern states that suffered casualties at Gettysburg, raised concerns over this plan and, as a result, the final plan adopted gave each state its own separate plot. Although not intended or foreseen, the plan had an unfortunate flaw. As soldiers were reburied, those who could be identified by name but not by state would tragically be interred in the “unknown section” of the cemetery.

On 19th November, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln dedicated the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. His address took little more than 2 minutes and, through the years, has achieved status as the most celebrated speech in American history. Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and the Soldiers’ Cemetery will forever be linked together unfortunately the least written about of the three is the cemetery.

Today, the Cemetery is a beautiful place with its neatly kept grounds, wonderful trees, memorials, plaques and artillery pieces that date from the Civil War. It is hard to realise that these now peaceful  grounds were once part of the battlefield within the Union lines on Cemetery Hill.

Completed in 1869, the Soldiers Monument is located at the centre of the semi-circular burial plots for the Union dead. Four marble statues are situated along the base of the monument. The statues represent Ceres, the goddess of plenty; Clio, symbolizing history; and two male statues which symbolize war and peace respectively. Atop the monument is a statue named The Genius of Liberty, affectionately referred to as Liberty.

The most moving and important aspect of a visit to Soldiers’ National Cemetery is the opportunity to walk among the graves of the soldiers.

Stopping here and there along the way to read some of the names of the soldiers is all you need to ponder what happened here in 1863.  These were real people caught up in a catastrophic event –  they said goodbye to their home and loved ones and never saw them again.  Today I had the chance to walk the battlefields that took their lives – to try and imagine the horrors they saw and endured.  Gettysburg is definitely a place to visit and pay homage whether you are an American or not.

We walk back to the car and decide that we are all feeling hungry.  Cold and hungry would be a better description, so it is back into the town of Gettysburg to see what eating establishments we can find.  A bit of a walk and we discover the Garryowen Irish Pub.

A traditional Irish Pub in the heart of Gettysburg – now that’s something you don’t see every day.  Inside the decor is very traditional and very pub’ish’.  We are seated at the rear of the room and are given menus and asked if we would like anything to drink.  Obviously our reputation has not caught up to us – I have a glass of white, Kylie – a glass of red and Tyler a Guinness. To start we order garlic chips which are thinly sliced potatoes done in a garlic oil.  Sounds good to me.  It is nice and cosy inside and our poor frozen bodies are finally starting to thaw out.  Our beverages and chips arrive – just what is needed.  The chips are very tasty and as we have not had anything since breakfast they certainly disappear quickly.

Our mains land on the table a short time later – Tyler ordered Bangers and Mash (top left); Kylie – Guinness Beef Stew (top right) and I order Shepherd’s Pie (you can’t miss that one!).  With the initial shock of how big this pie is I come to the conclusion that maybe my eyes were too big for my tummy.

The dish is huge as you can see but I attack with a sense of gusto, taking a break from eating every couple of minutes.  It is the best Shepherd’s Pie I have ever tasted and of course, not wanting to leave any, I eat the lot.

We sit there for quite some time and wonder how are we going to get up, we certainly do love good food.  Finally gathering the courage we head towards the door and stepping outside we realise how bloody cold it is.  One thing Kylie and I are in need of is a good coffee so we head back towards the centre of town to find a coffee shop.  Alas they are all closed – even one that has its doors open!

Walking around we discover Johnny Como’s Cupcakes and Coffee.  Not too sure if we are in need of cupcakes but we do need coffee.  It is like stepping back into the 1950’s.  Very retro items everywhere and the lovely lady behind the counter is very enthusiastic about her cupcakes!  I must admit they do look delicious (my Shepherd’s Pie is reminding me of how much more food I can stuff into my stomach – NONE).  We order our coffee and being social we acquire a couple of cupcakes to take back to our Gettysburg digs.

The sun is beginning to set as we arrive so a photo or two is in order.  This is a view from the back looking out over the battlefield.  What incredible colours eh?

Tomorrow we head for Niagara Falls – a long drive of about six and a half hours.  Hopefully the weather will hold so we get some good photos.

We are all sleepy and after a wonderful hot shower I climb the stairs to my bed and am soon asleep.

Highlight of Part 2 : the Shepherd’s Pie (only because it was so comforting!)