Off we go again – this time our destination was Gettysburg PA – to see the area and maybe learn a little history at the same time. We definitely took the long way to get there, through the Shenandoah Valley with a stopover in Silver Spring MD.
The Shenandoah Valley is nestled between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains in western Virginia, stretching from Roanoke to Winchester. The Native Americans named this valley Shenandoah, which means ‘clear-eyed daughter of the skies – a fitting name for a beautiful spot. The valley is blessed with rolling farmland, rushing streams and rivers, lush forests, and those ever-present misty blue mountains in the distance.
We enjoyed the scenery of early spring – lots of flowers everywhere, but the dominant plant seemed to be the Eastern Redbud, commonly known as the Judas tree. It really brightened up the highway.
Heading on into the Washington area, we spent a few days in Silver Spring MD with Margaret’s nephew and his family. This was mostly ‘visiting,’ but we did take a nice walk in the Brookside Gardens at Wheaton Regional Park. Brookside Gardens is a fifty-acre, award-winning horticultural display garden that was bursting with color.
It was a great place to walk – there are miles of trails in the garden and the rest of the park. Entertainment was provided by the resident Canada geese who found something very interesting in the bottom of the pond. And Ryzie liked the pink and white tulips that matched her dress!
On our way north, we detoured into Frederick County MD for a short visit to Thurmont MD. The town is probably best known for its proximity to Camp David (the presidential retreat in the Cacoctin Mountains) and for Maryland’s second oldest restaurant, the Cozy Restaurant Country Inn and Village. For Fran, there are memories of visits with Bev’s grandfather – during the long ago days of grad school – today nothing looks familiar – the town has really grown.
Finally we made our way to the town of Gettysburg and met up with our new friend, Susannah Miles (pictured here with her trusty companion, Bird). Susannah is a writer and Lowcountry SC historian now living in Gettysburg PA, where she’s become a bit of a Civil War historian – it would be very hard to live in Gettysburg and ignore the Civil War. Fran ‘met’ Susannah through some of her writings – particularly those about the old plantations and villages along the Wando River. Some Wheeler family history came out of those backwaters and Susannah has provided lots of insight into those ancestors – how they lived and how they ended up in SC from Massachusetts. That’s a story for another day – for our adventure in Gettysburg, Susannah played tour guide, showed us the sights, and filled us full of history.
Gettysburg offers a perfect setting for learning more about who we once were and who we have become – all centered on the great Civil War battle that killed or wounded 51,000 men. This was a battle that began almost by chance – had it not been for the convergence of several different roads funneling troops into the central Pennsylvania town, Gettysburg might have been an obscure name in American history. Instead, it was perhaps the most decisive battle of the Civil War, the beginning of the end of the Confederacy.
The battle of Gettysburg must also be the most confusing battle of the whole war. The battle took place over three days, July 1-3, 1863. Troops arrived from every direction. Fighting in and around the town encompassed over 25 square miles of forest and farmland. Dead and wounded soldiers were everywhere – schools, churches, homes and farm buildings were converted into emergency shelters and field hospitals.
Today the National Park Service manages a huge and complex area - there are 30 miles of roadways with monuments and markers every few feet, combined with spilt rail fences and rock walls, open fields and wooded areas – all restored to the way they looked in 1863. There also is a shiny new visitor center that includes a museum, a movie and a cyclorama. The movie gives a nice overview of the battle, and the cyclorama dramatizes the final day of the fighting at Gettysburg.
The whole park is quite an impressive undertaking, though it seems at times that the Park Service has gotten a bit carried away. Restoration now includes cutting down trees – acres and acres of trees – to re-create open fields where they once were (or where historians think they were). When the view is unimpeded and the fields or trees weren’t critical to the battle, it seems like unnecessary denuding of the forest. We saw lots of evidence of chain saws at work and found it hard to see the benefit of these efforts.
The battle that took place at Gettysburg essentially pitted Union General George Meade against Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In the previous two years, Lee had won battle after battle and believed that he could bring an end to the war by taking the fight north. As the drama unfolded, Confederate troops massed along Seminary Ridge and the Union troops along Cemetery Ridge – both lines were several miles long.
On July 1, the Confederates attacked Union troops west of town, eventually overpowering them and driving them back to Cemetery Hill south of town. During the night, the main body of the Union army, lead my General George Meade arrived and took up positions.
On July 2, Lee attacked Meade along two flanks on Cemetery Ridge - Culp’s Hill to the north and Little Round Top and Big Round Top to the south. From the summit of Little Round Top, we could look down on a jumble of rocks known as the Devil’s Den. This was the spot from which the Confederate troops tried to take the high ground on Little Round Top. No such luck.
When the third day of the battle opened, Lee had but one remaining alternative, a massive charge up the middle. The battle began with a Confederate barrage of artillery. Meade responded in kind, but then, to save on long-range ammunition, he stopped. Lee misinterpreted the response, believing that Meade was running low, and began his attack with General George Pickett leading the Rebels. During ‘Pickett’s Charge,’ 12,000 Confederates, in a line five miles long, marched from Seminary Ridge across a mile of open ground toward Cemetery Ridge. The slaughter was immense; Lee could no longer continue the battle. On July 4, he began to withdraw for Virginia.
Gettysburg must have more monuments and markers per square mile than anywhere else on earth. They’re everywhere – commemorating brave soldiers and key officers, as well as every company, regiment, brigade and state that had any part in the conflict. On Cemetery Hill, there is a statue of General George Meade, astride his horse, overlooking the fields toward the Confederate forces on Seminary Ridge.
The most impressive monuments along Cemetery Hill are those erected by states to honor their own. The grandest of all of these is the Pennsylvania monument pictured here.
Across the way, on Seminary Ridge, stands General Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveler, atop a huge monument erected by the Commonwealth of Virginia. This was the first Confederate state memorial, built in 1917.
Other Confederate states were even slower to establish monuments honoring their dead at Gettysburg. The most impressive of these is the North Carolina monument, which was created by sculptor Gutzon Borglum – best known for his other work, the four Presidents at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. South Carolina also made its mark.
The Eternal Light Peace Memorial was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt on July 3rd, 1938, the 75th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. One Union and one Confederate veteran unveiled the monument. In his comments, Roosevelt stated: "All of them we honor, not asking under which Flag they fought then - thankful that they stand together under one Flag now."
In and around the battleground, there are still many farms with old wonderful barns, many of which are built on the side of a hill – with openings on two levels, on opposite sides. In a letter home, one North Carolina soldier wrote that Gettysburg’s large, well-kept farms were a “revelation to us,” adding that the barns often “far excelled the dwelling places of their owners.”
Not far from the battleground is Sachs Covered Bridge. It was built in 1852 and spans 100 feet over Marsh Creek. Both Union and Confederate troops used it in 1863.
Back in town, there’s more to see: the train station where Abraham Lincoln arrived and the David Wills House (where he stayed) are in the historic center of town.
Other buildings weren’t quite as carefully restored and preserved. It seems that the whole town is focused on a few days in July of 1863. Buildings that were standing at that time are marked with a small brass plaque, such as the one to the right of the front door on this house. With peeling paint, vinyl siding, and a window air-conditioner, it doesn’t LOOK very historic – it’s too bad the locals can’t see past the battle to focus some historic preservation efforts on the rest of the town.
Our final stop in town was the final resting place for many of casualties from this horrific battle. When the armies marched away from Gettysburg, they left behind a community in shambles and over 51,000 dead, wounded, or missing. Most of the dead lay in hastily dug and inadequate graves; some had not been buried at all. Pennsylvania’s Governor directed the purchase of land for a proper burial ground, and within four months of the battle, re-interment began on 17 acres that became the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
Within a few years, many Union soldiers who had been killed in the battle of Gettysburg were buried here. Their graves, marked with very small square stones, are located in a semi-circle around the Soldiers’ National Monument. Soldiers from later wars are buried in other parts of the cemetery. Note that only Union soldiers were buried here; the remains of Confederate soldiers were removed from the battle field to cemeteries in the South.
The cemetery was dedicated on November 18, 1863. The principal speaker, Edward Everett, was followed by President Abraham Lincoln, who had been asked to make ‘a few appropriate remarks.’ Lincoln’s Gettysburg address contained 272 words and took about two minutes to deliver. It is no doubt a masterpiece of the English language – transforming Gettysburg from a scene of carnage into a symbol that gave meaning to the sacrifice of the dead and inspiration to the living.
