The Crown Jewel

Gettysburg – CLICK 4 SHOW
Gettysburg Battlefield at Sunset– CLICK 4 SHOW


What a beautiful day in southeastern Pennsylvania. Blue skies, clear, an occasional breath of wind, 65 – 70 degrees. We had arrived in Gettysburg last night, late as has become our custom. After breakfast, out first order of business was to get to the visitors center and arrange to have a guided car tour of the battlefield. We had the pleasure of meeting with Truman our guide whose melodic radio voice lulled us with stories of the battle. He was a font on knowledge on all things Gettysburg and volunteered many facts that one does not think of from our view here in the twenty first century. It had been a hot and humid early July when the battle took place. Lee was again in the North taking the war to the citizens of his enemy. Meade, the Union commander, had been appointed to lead the Army of the Potomac a mere three days prior to the start of the battle. The battle started as the confederates were foraging for shoes for their troops. Lead cavalry led by Buford happened on them just north of town. For three days the battle raged. By the end there were 51,000 casualties, dead and wounded the largest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Truman put the carnage into the plainest of terms. Not only were there thousand of men killed (only one citizen of Gettysburg was killed) there were 3 to 5 thousand horses killed, unknown number of farm animals killed and the 160,000 men in both armies had no indoor plumbing to assist them in hygiene. A week after the battle the smell was noticed 45 miles away in Maryland. It was several months before all the bodies had been found and buried.

We visited the sites at Little Round Top. Confederate soldiers attacked entrenched union soldiers on the crest of the hill through boulders, undergrowth and tree stumps up about 200 yards of a 30-degree face of the hill. Pictures do not do it justice. They almost won only to have the 20th Maine under Chamberlain do his famous swinging gate maneuver and save the day. You really have to be here to appreciate the bravery of both the defenders and attackers on the field. The story has it that Longstreet, the confederate II Corps commander could not say the words when he directed his men to attack the Union on the third day of the battle so sure he was sending the men to their deaths. He merely averted his eyes and nodded his head. The Union general in charge of the artillery said that when he fired the guns at the approaching rebels point blank, all he could see through the smoke was pieces of equipment clothing and people flying above the smoke. Of the 5000 men in Pickett’s charge that day only 1000 were left the next day.

Gettysburg was a Union victory from which the confederates never recovered. Lee was never able to mount an offensive after that and was effectively on the run until Appomattox 2 years later.

We also had time to grab a tour of the Eisenhower farm, which is just outside the boundary of the battlefield park. (It was in the battlefield in 1863. Ike retired here in 1960 after his presidential terms to the life of a farmer trying to raise show Angus cattle and restore a farm to a profit. The farm is on rolling hills and is a picture of pastoral bliss. A large barn next to the white farmhouse speaks of times gone by. The house itself was a slice of the 1950’s brought into our times and those of us who lived through the 50’s and 60’s saw a picture of our own lives in the furniture, knick knacks, TV, radio, even a 60’s answer machine for the telephone. The overriding picture we had of Ike after a visit to his private house was one of a new appreciation of what a genuine and simple person he must have been. As powerful as he was he seemed a down to earth guy after all.