Thirteen Hours At Gettysburg by bmac62
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Description
As my career in the active army was drawing to a close in May of 1982, I received a plum assignment to go TDY (Temporary Duty) for ten days to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. My mission was to assist the Pennsylvania National Guard in preparing to teach Army Command and General Staff College summer courses to their officers. This turned out to be an easy assignment. The instructors from the Guard were well prepared and I was there purely to answer questions and advise where possible.
Springtime in Pennsylvania is a beautiful time of the year. Cold winter temperatures have gone and hot summer temperatures have not yet arrived. Everything is lush, green and growing. The weekend in the middle of my ten-day stay was gloriously free from official duties. I had always wanted to visit the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg and now it was only 65 miles away. Can you guess where I decided to go?
I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, dressed comfortably, and pointed my rental car down the road toward Gettysburg National Park. I drove through rolling countryside fresh with early morning dew and patches of light fog in the low lying areas. The sky was blue with just a hint of small white fluffy clouds. Best of all, the roads were nearly deserted, since most people were still in bed or enjoying an early breakfast before beginning their weekend activities.
I arrived at the sleepy little town of Gettysburg at about 7am. I discovered that Gettysburg National Park completely surrounded the town and that it looked almost identical to how it must have appeared on the morning of July 1st, 1863, when the leading elements of General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac (USA) intercepted the leading elements of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia (CSA) invading the North.
Having cut my teeth on my Great Grandfather Layton's Photographic History of the Civil War in ten volumes, I had looked at dozens of photographs taken by Matthew Brady during and after the battle. I knew the order of battle, strategy, tactics and the significance of what happened at Gettysburg. I knew that the two contending armies had a combined strength of more than 165,000 men and that each army had suffered in excess of 23,000 casualties, killed, wounded, captured or missing. This battle was monumental. This clash of arms turned the tide in favor of the Union cause. It was the political and military victory that President Lincoln needed to convince both the USA and overseas powers that the North could defeat the South and restore the Union.
I began my personal tour at the National Park Service Museum and Visitor's Center. There were enormously engaging displays of military and civilian artifacts and a huge, electrified terrain board where I got to sit and watch the entire three day battle play out before me. Units attacked and defended all around the model town of Gettysburg. Men shouted, horses neighed, artillery sounds came and went. As day slipped into night, the amphitheater lights dimmed and campfires lit up. As morning approached campfires went out and the theater lights came back up. All major unit moves were narrated. By the time I left the Visitors Center, I knew the entire ebb and flow of this monumental action. To borrow words from the title from the 1967 Clint Eastwood movie, I knew, "the good, the bad and the ugly."
Upon returning to my car, I saw a sign leading me next to the historic Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama. Here I encountered a gigantic work of art first shown in Chicago in 1883. It is a painting that depicts the final fury of Pickett's Charge on the third day of battle. It is displayed in a round auditorium. Viewers stand on a platform in the middle of the circular building. The painting is 377 feet long, 42 feet high and weighs 12.5 tons. As the lights are dimmed, a narrator begins to describe General Lee's final attack. A spot light comes on and slowly moves from left to right around the circular painting. The fateful charge of Major General George Pickett's division unfolds from start to finish complete with sound effects. By the time the attack falters at the "High Water Mark" and the narrator finishes, the spotlight is illuminating the Confederate Army leaving the field and preparing to retreat south across the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers into the safety of Maryland and Virginia.
Glancing at my watch, I noticed it was now getting close to noon and I was finally ready to drive myself around on a self-guided tour of the actual battlefield. This was the real highpoint of my visit. The only way a complex military action can truly be appreciated is to walk the terrain. I began by visiting General Meade's Headquarters in a tiny clapboard house on Cemetery Ridge (the topographical feature upon which the main Union defenses were consolidated). For the next seven or eight hours I slowly drove to and hiked over most of the rest of the battlefield visiting such famous landmarks as Little Roundtop, Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, Seminary Ridge, "The High Water Mark," and the National Cemetery. As the day drew to a close I still hadn't visited "The Angle" or Culp's Hill or really examined where fighting took place within the town of Gettysburg itself. But like so many other places I've visited, you just can't see it all in one day.
During my hour-long drive back to Fort Indiantown Gap, I reflected on the fact that my day had begun a good thirteen hours earlier. It was the sort of day that only the most avid Civil War buff would do. I had totally immersed myself in Civil War history and come away so much more aware of the sacrifices made by our ancestors to maintain the Union and fight for what was right as they knew it in 1863.
Would I like to go back to Gettysburg? Absolutely. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a camera back in 1982. I took one roll of film and the results were unsatisfactory. In the intervening 32 years I've read and reread the Pulitzer Prize winning historical novel, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara and viewed the movie, Gettysburg, based upon Shaara's book numerous times. Now I am ready to return and see what I missed.
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This is the third story in a series of memories I am compiling for family and friends...a memoir of sorts:) The illustration is of the Gettysburg design found on the back of the 25 cent piece in honor of the Gettysburg National Park.
Comments (16)
T.Rex
Thanks, Bill. I'd be very glad if you could post photos of the different important places in/around Gettysburg, using your modern camera. I just got a series of books about the Civil War (in Swedish!, as it's from the Swedish Library of Military History). I've never gotten a good grasp of the Civil War, and definitely not Gettysburg, aside from being the turning point. One of the very few misses in my US education. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to more on this subject. :-)
helanker
Thank you, Bill for this memories of your life :-) It was pretty interesting and excellently written.
Adobe_One_Kenobi
Wonderful insight into your service record mate, I enjoyed the read, and look forward to the next instalment. You were luckier than me, I always seemed to get posted in the winter, and stand freezing my nabs off on a strange airfield :)
Faemike55
WOW! the image is great but your narrative is compelling and wonderful thanks for sharing
kgb224
Superb capture and a wonderful story my friend. God bless.
durleybeachbum
Fascinating read!
jendellas
Very interesting, thankyou. Xx
auntietk
This is very well written. It held my attention both when I did the edit, and when I read it again just now. An amazing feat, considering my level of interest in Gettysburg and the Civil War! LOL! An excellent addition to your project.
MrsRatbag
Fascinating to hear your impressions of this piece of history, Bill. Your writing is compelling!!
RodS
You have an incredible talent for writing, Bill! This is outstanding - I felt like I was standing there with you as you described the museums and battlefield. Most excellent, my friend! Great shot of that medallion, too!
debbielove
Great story Bill, it is heartbreaking (for me), to hear that you can visit places like that and still see them as was..... Here, they build housing estates on them, or worse, wind warms! Bosworth, you name it.. None of the Battle Of Britain airfields in the south (Manston, Tangmere etc) are left, or even there! And so the devastation goes on..... Thanks for the story I'm glad you got to do this, and THANK YOU for allowing me to see Dayton, a place I've always wanted to visit... One day we'll do it again, now I know how to use my camera! lol Take care! rob
tennesseecowgirl
I have been to Pennsylvania but not to Gettysburg we went to Hershey (priorities lol) great work Bill !
wysiwig
This is a wonderful and well written narrative. It nice to see someone besides myself is interested in history. My personal Gettysburg hero is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain who led the 20th Maine Infantry in the defense of Little Round Top. His "swinging gate" offense was brilliant. Another hero of mine is not often remembered.Carl Schurz was a German immigrant who fought on the Union side at Gettysburg. I've always liked his response to those who misquote Stephen Decatur; "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." Gettysburg was a stunning victory but it was just one of a pair that sealed the fate of the Confederacy. Poor Vicksburg gets no love from most historians.
Chipka
You know, in Czech, 13 is actually a lucky number, because odd numbers are good. If you're ever giving flowers to someone in Czech, then give them 11 and not a dozen...odd numbers mean that there's another one coming. Yeah, and okay...I went on on one of those tangents I go off on. You do this writing thing really well. I read this and the piece previous, and I was struck by how carefully measured it is. You reveal details, but you do so in a sequential way, and even though this is non-fiction, it has the cadence and the pacing of fiction. It draws the reader in, and your tone is nicely conversational. It's kind of like a "three beer chat" as they have in the Czech Republic. It's easy-going and casual, but it isn't to be taken lightly. And to top it off, there's this nice substructure of history beneath the main story...great text and subtext. It's like two stories dancing together. I really like the way you include intimate details without really calling attention to them. When I read this, I thought of something Harlan Ellison described. He'd once said that reading a good story was like going to one of those Asian restaurants (Chinese, I think) where they serve pineapple with the rice, and there's this thing lots of kids would do, where they take one piece of pineapple and bury it in their rice, so that they'd have a sweet surprise as they were eating. This makes me think of a really nice narration: not one of those hard-boiled detective narrations, but more like something you'd hear in an Ursula K. LeGuin story, because the characters in LeGuin's worlds love a good story! This is one of those: a good story, and I'm seriously far behind, and have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm really glad I read this. It's not just dry history, it's a story. I like it. Or as a particular Russian dude would say: "It is enough good." (From that particular Russian, it means he's gushing and is all mushy and...well...gushy in that stoic, Russian way.) I look forward to reading more from you. (Feel free to write longer bits.)
danapommet
You should have been a writer Bill - a fantastic summary of your 13 hour day. I was there in the late 70s and yes, I would go back!
anahata.c
Chip's comment is great. The 2d paragraph has my "hear hear!" Yes, you do this so easefully. Not easy to do a piece that has facts and history, describing displays and historical visual displays, and then a brief discussion of your feelings in walking and riding over the grounds of a great and terrifying battle, and somehow reach out to us as a loving storyteller who, with ease, takes us into it all as if telling a tale of your loved ones, or of a sweet afternoon in a small town, years ago. You handle history and fact with real ease in your memoirs. From the pictures I've seen of the area, it's impossible to believe that such bucolic settings were the site of such a terrifying battle. The subject is immense. I do hope you can go back... You enveloped me with your descriptions of the displays---not easy to do, as it could be pedantic in someone else's hands. And the description of the painting with spotlights which moved across the painting: You engaged me there too! And it weighs 12.5 tons? Tons??? That's a heavy painting...I really enjoyed the first half of your visit there. Then you talk about going to the battlefield itself: And in a small amount of space, you make us feel the wonder and private communion you must have had when you were there. You don't go into great detail, but we feel it as a total experience regardless. That's what Chip refers to, I believe, in his comment. You write, "The only way a complex military action can truly be appreciated is to walk the terrain." That says a lot, from a man with your military experience. I have to think that the terrain speaks in the voices of ghosts and the heaves of history---silent heaves, but very large. And maybe there aren't words for them. But we feel that you're communing with them. It's very engaging, and feels complete. I look forward to you're going back, and taking your 5D MKIII and entering the world of Matthew Brady and others: I know that it's different for you, because you won't be photographing the aftermath of a horrid battle. But you'll be walking in Brady's footsteps, trying to capture the 'after glow' and vibrations left by such a tumultuous conflagration. And maybe you'll wonder what Brady would have done if he'd had the Canon, and the ease of digital development, back then. Even your mention of your great grandfather's 10 volume history hits deep notes in anyone who's held such books, esp if they'd been passed down from previous generations. Keepsakes. And I know how such things emblazon themselves into your memory. (You're making such a keepsake with these writings.) My father had Carl Sandburg's Lincoln history, with Sandburg's signature in each volume. I can understand the pull of those old books. And Dad's was not as old as your great grandfather's. Very generously shared, Bill, the piece is a delight. I'm late commenting, but I read these when they went up, and I'm glad to be able to share my feelings on them at last. I look forward to more as you write them (and Tara edits them). If you can make a piece like this sing and engage us so personally, I don't think there are many topics that can stop you. Keep it up. These have been a delight...