Gettysburg--- 150 years later

Kate and Dad walked around the battlefield for a day... the 150th anniversary of the second day of the three day battle. We listened to the speakers, watched the movies, viewed the exhibits and walked through the reenactments. We glimpsed the awesome and terrible things that had happened here. Unimaginable things.

There has been much written about this battle. Here is a link to the detailed Wikipedia site providing lots of detail of that day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg,_Second_Day 
If you prefer historical novels, try the Pulitzer Prize winning Killer Angels by Michael Shaara or the movie Gettysburg. It's not hard to get swept up in the history and the details of it all and the little town of Gettysburg was crowded with people, young and old, from all around the country doing just that.

For the reenactors, this week had been long anticipated and they marched in file, fired their muskets and cannons, suffered the heat in their wool uniforms with a look of pride in their eyes. We spent an hour walking around the encampments listening to their fascinating presentations.

We walked up the Union lines that Pickett charged on Day 3, passed the memorials to all the regiments including that of the 19th Maine where Joe Ware's ancestor, Richard H. Spear fought at the Bloody Angle to the High Water Mark, the furthest point the Confederates reached in the Union lines. Looking directly across the battlefield was the Virginia Memorial where 10,000 men marched in formation across a mile of open fields directly into the face of murderous artillery and mini ball fire. It boggles the mind. We ate out lunch sitting in the shade behind the cannon.

Next we walked the Gettysburg National Cemetery where President Lincoln gave his famous Address ("Fore score and seven years ago...") and we found an ancestor's grave. He was shot on Little Round Top with the 20th Maine and Colonel Joshua Chamberlain  on July 2, 1863 exactly 150 years ago and died on July 3rd. Elfin was the cousin of my great great grandfather, William H. Foss, who fought in the 2nd Maine in the Civil War.

 

We walked to the Visitors Center where Katie's good friend Elise hooked us up with free tickets for the museum, cyclorama and film presentations. Thanks, Elise! Elise and Eric live in an historic building on the South end of the battlefield at the foot of the Round Tops. Eric is a Park Ranger and Elise works at the Visitors Center when she isn't coaching high school soccer. We enjoyed sitting on their back porch and drinking a cold beer that late afternoon aware that it was the same time of day that Little Round Top had been attacked by the 15th Alabama and Elfin Foss had met his fate. We hiked up to Little Round Top before heading home to the 20th Maine Monument and spoke with a sharp shooter reenactor who recognized Elfin Foss from the battle, the cemetery and the Gettysburg movie ("Private Foss is praying, sir."). He was really into it.

We looked down on Devils Den, The Peach Orchard and The Wheatfield where close to 15,000 casualties took place in the six hour battle. It has been called the bloodiest single engagement of the Civil War. We looked up the battlefield to the North where Pickett's Charge was to take place the next day. The beauty and serenity so contrasted what it must have been like that day in 1863.

At 51,000 casualties, the Battle of Gettysburg was by far the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War. In total 620,000 American soldiers died (of all causes... 213,000 combat deaths) during this war compared to 644,000 in all other conflicts (next highest was 405,000 in WWII... 292,000 combat deaths).Almost 2% of the US population died in this war from 1861 to 1865. Many more were left disabled.

And it was only 150 years ago...

Thanks to my driver, tour guide and beautiful daughter. Great day, Katsel! Love you...