Photo Love: Gettysburg

SEVENTY-NINE

This starts my series on Gettysburg. If you've never been there, go. If you don't know anything about the Civil War, take me. I'll give you the grand tour. One of my favorite places at Gettysburg is the Cyclorama. Don't know what that is? I wiki'd it for you. The one at G'burg is gorgeous, and I've never had enough time to get some good pics of it. Turns out, if you go in March when no one in their right mind visits a battlefield, you get to stick around a bit. This up above would be the artist's rendering of Pickett's Charge.

EIGHTY


This could be one of several people. He's clearly high-ranking, but the artist wasn't always concerned about accuracy. The most historically accurate choice would be General Winfield Scott Hancock. He was wounded on the third day at Gettysburg when a bullet struck his saddle and sent splinters into his groin. That wound plagued him for the rest of the war and ultimately led to him missing the surrender two years later. Why is this significant? Because he also missed the end of the Mexican War due to Montezuma's Revenge. Hancock would go on to run for President of the United States, losing to Republican James Garfield. There's a bunch of other fun info about Hancock I'd love to impart, but this post is supposed to be about the photos.

EIGHTY-ONE


The most significant part of this photo (in my opinion) are the two round hills in the background. That's the extreme left flank of the Union line at Gettysburg, and they featured prominently on the second day of fighting. One of my favorite historical figures fought there. Can you guess who that was? I'll tell you on pic 87.

EIGHTY-TWO


This field hospital was actually nowhere near the line of battle, but it's an important piece of the cyclorama because it depicts the aftermath of a battle fairly well. The town of Gettysburg was absolutely devastated when the armies left, both because of the fact that 160,000 guys were firing guns at each other for three days and missing a lot, and because they left 50,000 dead and dying people behind over a ten square mile area. (Note for the future: if you don't want your town becoming the center of a game-changing battle that will destroy your livelihood until people use it as a tourist attraction, don't build ten major roads going into and out of it.)

EIGHTY-THREE


Regardless of what side you're on, you have to agree that 13,000 guys charging into the face of 175 cannons shows some serious moxy. (And stupidity, but I blame that on someone else.)

EIGHTY-FOUR


I mean, come on! Anyone who willingly goes up against that has issues.

EIGHTY-FIVE


I love this place. I have spent hours exploring it, and I still go back every time I'm in PA.

EIGHTY-SIX


To this day, there is no statue of this man to be found anywhere in a state formerly in rebellion against the Union. He is General James Longstreet, one of the best tactical minds of the Civil War. During the war, his men loved him, but after the war, he wrote a very unpopular account of the battle of Gettysburg in which he blamed the loss on Robert E. Lee. He also happened to be the best friend of Ulysses S. Grant.

EIGHTY-SEVEN


Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine, and he believed strongly in the preservation of the Union, so much so that he enlisted. He was offered the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 20th Maine regiment. His first major battle was Fredericksburg, and by July 1863, he was a full Colonel and in command of about 300 men. His regiment held the extreme left flank on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and on the second day, withstood continuous attacks by Confederate troops, finally repelling them for good with a bayonet charge. In the course of the war, Chamberlain was wounded six times, falsely reported dead, given a battlefield promotion to brigadier general by Grant, had six horses shot from under him and was cited for bravery four times. He was selected to preside over the parade of Confederate infantry at their formal surrender at the end of the war, and he ordered his troops to give a final salute to their once-again brothers.

I love that man.

EIGHTY-EIGHT


Multiply by 100 and see next photo.

EIGHTY-NINE


If you had to charge up that hill, you'd probably go for the left flank as well.

NINETY


They call this point the High Water Mark of the Confederacy because it is supposedly the farthest Confederate troops got into the Union. This is largely symbolic as the cavalry made it up into Harrisburg at least. But had the Confederates broken through this point at Gettysburg, the war would have turned out differently. Somewhat. I still maintain the South would have lost. Anyway, CSA General Lewis Armistead led the brigade that made it this far. He was best friends with Winfield Scott Hancock. Before the war, when the two men were leaving their posts in California for their home states, Armistead told Hancock, "If I ever raise my hand against you, may God strike me dead!"

Gettysburg was the first battle in which the two men were on the field at the same time. Lewis Armistead died a few days later from wounds sustained at The Angle.

NINETY-ONE


I take a variation of this shot every time I go to Gettysburg. I also take the opposing shot. From this point, you're standing in the middle of the Union line. On the far side of the field is the Virginia monument - a statue of Robert E. Lee on his horse Traveler. The space in between is the distance attempted by 13,000 men. Fewer than 8,000 made it back to those trees.

This ends the Gettysburg portion of our tour-de-pic. At least for now. I'm going back to PA in May.

:D