Leslie and David's Wanderings: 14 September 2022 Gettysburg Battlefield

We went to the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center to kick off our visit. We’re not Civil War buffs, but we wanted to explore this famous battlefield. The visitor center is quite large. After collecting our passport stamp, we paid ($16 each) to view the park movie and the Cyclorama painting. This is the first time we have had to pay to see the park movie. We first viewed the movie, then went upstairs to see the cyclorama show. We don’t think it was worth the money. But it was interesting to see the historic cyclorama painting of Pickets Charge simply because of the artistry. Leslie had had the nail of her big toe worked on yesterday, so she was not feeling up to any long walks. After exploring the options for guided and self-guided tours, we decided to do the self-guided auto tour of the battlefield that is on the NPS app. We followed the tour signs and listen to the app describe the battle that occurred at each site over the three days (1-3 July 1863). Parts of the battlefield were closed for renovations. The battle field encompasses large swaths of land to the north, and east of the small town of Gettysburg. Over 1300 monuments dot the landscape as memorials to units and individuals, erected in the years since the battle (latest was in 1989). Seeing the field where the Confederates rose up from Seminary Ridge and marched in formation toward the Union Lines on Cemetery Ridge during Pickets Charge gives you a deep appreciation of the valor of the men in both armies during that battle. Over 12,000 men from various Confederate Army units (6,000 in Pickets Army) marched in tight formations extending almost a mile, across that open field with Union Artillery tearing huge holes in their ranks. Roughly two thirds of the way across the field, there was a fence along a road that slowed down the formations as they had to climb over or under the fence rails. Most of the formations never made it past the road. Only at one location, called The Angle (where the rock wall the Union Soldiers were using as cover made a 90 degree turn) did the confederates breach the Union lines. Union reinforcements quickly arrived to push them back. Faced with either surrender or having to go back across that open field under Union fire, many surrendered. Of the 12,000 that started the charge, 6000 were casualties (dead or wounded) and less than 3000 made it back to Seminary Ridge. The next day, under cover of heavy rain, the Confederate Army retreated from Pennsylvania. In one part of the battlefield, there is a peace monument built in 1937 and dedicated in 1938. Surprisingly, considering it was 75 years after the battle, over 1,300 survivors of the battle were at the dedication.

At the end of the tour, we explored the soldier cemetery where the 3500+ Union casualties were reburied. Immediately after the battle, the dead were buried in shallow graves where they fell, many with wooden markers identifying who they were. . In the ensuing months, rains and animals uncovered many dead. The Pennsylvania government bought land on Cemetery Ridge overlooking the field where Pickets Charge took place and built a cemetery for the Union dead. Over the next 6 months, Union dead were dug up and reinterred in the new cemetery. Over 900 bodies could not be identified and are buried in numbered plots. Confederate dead were buried in mass graves. After the war, Confederate dead were removed and buried in cemeteries in the south. It was at this Soldiers Cemetery that President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg speech. Of the 165,000 soldiers involved in this battle, over 50,000 were wounded, over 7,000 killed from both sides.

Soldiers National Cemetery, graves of the unknown

Soldiers National Cemetery

Monument at Soldiers National Cemetery

Monument to Lincolns Gettysburg Address

View of the field that Pickets Charge occurred from the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. This is The Angle where Confederate soldiers briefly broke through Union lines.