Thanks!

Readers,

July was by far the best month, in terms of page views, in this blog's history.

Many, many thanks for reading!

Confederate soldier Robert Norris

          It was September 20, 1863 during the bloody fighting for Horseshoe Ridge in the final hours of the terrible battle of Chickamauga. The battlefield was (and still is) in northern Georgia, within a handful of miles of the Tennessee line.

          The 15^th Alabama Infantry Regiment had battered itself against the Union defenses in an area between the Ridge’s Hills 1 and 2 and was pulling back after suffering losses.

          It had been 79 days since the 15^th fought so gamely and failed to push the 20^th Maine off the rocky sides of Little Round Top during the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. Now this veteran unit, led by William Oates, had been transferred with about 12,000 other Confederates from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.

          The fighting at Horseshoe Ridge was every bit as brutal as the desperate

This path is located in the general area
where the 15th Alabama  and the Alabamians
of Hilliard"s Legion got in each other's way
during the battle of Chickamauga.

bloodletting had been at Little Round Top. One historian referred to the “iron hail” of Chickamauga and your loyal blogger agrees with that descriptive phrase.

          Fighting among his comrades of 15^th was an officer named Robert Cicero Norris and Norris was about to meet his future.

          Norris enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private at the age of 23 in 1861. He was not married and his occupation was listed as ‘student.’ He progressed through the ranks and was a Sargent Major by 1864. His rapid rise may have partially been due to the heavy losses suffered by the 15^th during the war.

          During the battle of Chickamauga, the Confederate attack against Horseshoe Ridge was not a well-coordinated affair. Your loyal blogger is working on research which, hopefully, will be a book someday. It would take a book-length treatment to explain the lack of coordination between Confederate commanders that afternoon. For now, just read along with the assumption that the commanders on hand struggled to work together.

          As the 15^th pulled back down the hill, it bumped headlong into another determined group of Confederates, a brigade of about 2,000 men, rushing up the hill. This group of attacking southerners included two regiments and a bunch of Alabamians in an outfit known as Hilliard’s Legion.

          The retreating 15^th forced part of the Legion’s line to stop attacking in order to allow the exhausted survivors of the 15^th to get down the hill and it was during this meeting of the units that Norris met his future.

          In a span of about 90 minutes, the Legion suffered severe casualties but managed to force the Federals off the line at the top of the hill. The Legion’s losses were so severe that in the months following the battle, the Legion was split into three smaller units, the 23^rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters, the 59^th Alabama Infantry Regiment and the 60^th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

          The 15^th Alabama and the three units that splintered off from the Legion eventually spent parts of the next 19 months fighting in the same areas of the war. The losses suffered by the 60^th were tremendous, both among the officers and enlisted men. In 1864, Norris was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant and transferred to the 60^th. He eventually became a first Lieutenant.

          The tattered survivors of the 15^th regiment, 23^rd battalion and the 59^th and 60^th regiments from Alabama all surrendered at Appomattox.

This marker in memory of Robert C. Norris stands on the grounds
of the Confederate Memorial Park in Alabama. The plate glass covering the
area with the printing gives off distracting reflections, so your loyal
blogger burned in some areas of the marker to make it easier to read here.

          Shortly after the end of the war, the leader of Brazil offered former Confederates inducements to relocate to that South American country and settle there. Some number of Alabamians did so, including Norris. They lived in a settlement named Americana.

          George W. Hilliard, who organized the Legion which bore his name, was the United States Minister to Brazil after the war from 1877 to 1881. Lieutenant John Washington Keyes of the 60^th became the family dentist for the royal family of Emperor Dom Pedo.

          Many of the transplanted Confederates returned to the United States after five years or so in Brazil, but Norris and others remained.

          Robert C. Norris died in Brazil May 4, 1913 at 77 years of age.

          There is a marker in his honor at the Confederate Memorial Park near Montgomery, Alabama.

 

          Thanks for reading.

An internal compass for Gettysburg historians

          In her tremendous book, Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory, Professor Carol Reardon quotes Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell about the Battle of Gettysburg.

Haskell was at Gettysburg. He witnessed Pickett’s Charge. His letter to his brother about that day in the farm fields outside the little town in Pennsylvania should be an enriching resource for historians.

Maybe it is. Your loyal blogger has not read the letter.

But the quotes selected by Reardon’s perceptive eye have an even greater impact than just a description of the final clash at Gettysburg. Those quotes should serve as an admonition or maybe an internal compass for historians.

From Reardon’s book, a quote from Haskell’s letter: “a full account of the battle as it was will never, can never be made…It’s not possible.” The ellipsis is not in the original.

Again, from Reardon’s book, Haskell wrote, “some eye that never saw the battle will select, and some pen will write what will be named the history.”

“As a consequence,” Reardon wrote, “we know less about what really happened on July 3 at Gettysburg than history purports to tell us.”

Reardon’s book is published by the University of North Carolina Press. The research into how the history of that day came down to us is tremendous. Anyone out there who thinks the modern day’s PR wars are something new can learn from this excellent book. The constant bickering between Virginia troops and their former comrades from North Carolina is fascinating.

In addition, the chapter covering the reunion of Federal and Confederate soldiers at the battle’s 50^th anniversary observation is gripping stuff.

The message in the first few pages, which includes the Haskell quotes, is powerful reading. Think about what those words mean: We know less than we think we do and as we continue to research the Civil War in the future, the reports on any new discoveries will be written by owners of eyes which never saw the battle and never conversed with a participant.

Here is a reality check alert: The same is increasingly true for both world wars, the conflict in Korea and, yes, even Vietnam.

Perhaps historians do a better job when they are far removed, in terms of time, from an event. There is a lessening of emotional attachment to the subject that way and that distance might allow for a clearer eye.

But can’t you picture this? An old veteran reads a book about the battle of Gettysburg and summarizes his opinion with the words, “That’s a nice try, but you weren’t there.”

All these years later, we can pour over reports, diaries and letters in order to extract information about what happened during those three days. Photographs from the days immediately following the fighting might also lend us some clues. We can determine what happened, who made it happen, where it happened and why.

But the fictional veteran described above would be right: We weren’t there. We can’t know the experiences that impacted individual soldiers.

On the other hand, it is also true that no participant in an action with the size and scope of the Battle of Gettysburg could possibly know much of what happened, either. Soldiers know what they themselves did during those three days, but seldom know more than that.

This is the central point we should take away from Haskell’s letter: Participants in an event of such a large scale can’t know the dramatic twists and turns that happen even a few hundred yards away. What they do have is a feel for the experience.

Modern scholars can determine with a certain degree of accuracy the who, what, when, where and how of the battle. Strategic choices can be questioned but the record is solid about who made them, when those decisions were made and the reasons for the decisions. The data for the number of soldiers involved and the casualty counts is reasonably clear.

Researchers, however, cannot have the feel for the event that the participants had.

The point?

The point is that no serious student of the Battle of Gettysburg should fail to read Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory because there are many, many thinking points and the feelings of many of the participants are made clear. Your loyal blogger wore out a new highlighter reading this book. Maybe you’ll do the same.

Thanks for highlighting…uh…reading.

Major League fun at a minor league game

          The Akron Aeros minor league baseball team plays its home games at Canal Park Stadium in downtown Akron, Ohio. Real nice ballpark; it is well-kept, pretty and roomy enough to be comfortable while attending games.

          Your loyal blogger attended a game there recently and had a great time. The Aeros are a double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.

          Accustomed as I am to Major League prices, and to not attending Major League games because of those Major League prices, I rediscovered how affordable minor league ball can be.

          Reserved seats directly behind home plate, the most expensive thing they sell, cost all of $9. Parking can be free, although I parked the Mustang in the pay lot this time. I bought a large hot dog, large soda and a large bag of peanuts for $12. That’s a total of $21 if you park in the free lot. If you buy a cheaper seat, you can save a few bucks. If you eat at home before the game, it’s cheaper still.

          Programs are free. That’s right, free.

          Let’s face it, this is affordable entertainment.

          They do all kinds of mid-inning crazy stuff to keep the crowd energized. Fans dress up in mascot suits and race. Children are selected out of the crowd to introduce the batters on the public address system. T-shirts are thrown into the crowd. They play the Chicken Dance song on the PA and put video cameras in the crowd to show the best Chicken Dancers on the scoreboard’s big screen video player.

          I was there on Thirsty Thursday, which means cheap beer, and it was some kind of celebration of German-American heritage night.

          The Aeros have a hot new shortstop. Don’t ask me where he came from, but he doubled, homered and singled, driving in three runs and scoring twice the night I was there. The Akron third baseman is very good, defensively, and he started two very slick double-plays. It’s professional baseball and these guys play like it.

          The Aeros beat a team from Richmond, Virginia by a score of 5-1 the night I was there. I’m not sure I could have had more fun anywhere else.

          If you like baseball, you’ll like the minor leagues. If you like the minor leagues, you’ll just love the Akron Aeros.

 

          Thanks for reading.

Why are the Alouettes losing?

          It has been interesting to watch the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes this season. Here in the States, CFL football has not always been available on television, but this year there a CFL package is available.

          Consistent readers know that your loyal blogger has been interested in recent years in the career of Montreal’s history-making quarterback, Anthony Calvillo. Calvillo is professional football’s all-time leader in passing yardage and has some other records within reach. He is second only to Brett Farve in both scoring passes and completions.

          Well, those marks were within reach. Maybe not so much now.

          For some reason, the Als (that’s what their fans call them) hired a head coach from here in the United States with no CFL experience. That guy hired a non-CFL guy to be the offensive coordinator.

          Montreal is 1-3 this season and the offense has been a problem. The team isn’t scoring many points. That makes things hard for the Montreal defense, which has played well.

          Last year’s team, which was coached by a CFL veteran, scored 478 points in 18 games, one of only two teams in the league to score 450 or more. Only the BC Lions scored more points than the Als and BC scored 479. This year, the Als are averaging 24.3 points a game.

          Last year, Calvillo completed 60 percent of his passes and finished second in the league with 5,082 yards (averaging 282.33 per game). He tossed 31 scoring passes and was intercepted 14 times.

          This year, Calvillo has averaged 208.25 yards and has as many scoring passes as he does interceptions, four each, in four games.

          It says here the problem is not Calvillo. The problem is the coaching staff, which has not adapted well to the Canadian game. We read recently that the team has brought in an offensive coach with CFL experience, which might help. It might also help to scrap this new offense, print up copies of last year’s playbook, and get back to playing Montreal Alouette football.

 

          Thanks for reading.

Gettysburg's best Angle

          In the old days, when news stories were longer than 140 characters, journalists knew that without a good angle they had no story. Editors asked reporters repeatedly what the reporter was working on and what the angle was.

          If the reporter answered that he/she wasn’t sure what the angle was, the editor would say, “You don’t have a story yet. Keep digging.” If the reporter answered that he/she had several possible angles, the editor would sometimes say the magic words, “Write the main and gimme a sidebar.”

          Your loyal blogger has found the same to be true of Pickett’s Charge: The Angle is the key to the story. Of all the locations along the Federal line on July 3, 1863 in the fields outside Gettysburg, the spot where that little rock wall made a 90-degree turn east-west for a hundred yards or so before another 90-degree turn to head north-south again is the key to the story.

          The entire day, both for the Federals and Confederates, can be viewed and understood from the standpoint of what happened at The Angle.

          Some will disagree, and many of those who feel differently are more learned on the subject than this writer. However, none of them write this blog and, thus, they are wrong.

          It is true that the Confederates involved in the attack that day were aiming, generally, toward a group of trees a bit behind the Federal line. This area has come down through history to be known as the Copse of Trees. It is said to be the so-called high water mark of the war for the Confederacy.

This image, from roughly halfway between Seminary Ridge, where the Confederates started their attack, and Cemetery
Ridge, where the Federals waited, shows two key points. The group of trees in the center of the horizon is the Copse
of Trees. The two trees to your left mark The Angle. In order to avoid confusion, many of the monuments along the
Ridge have been eliminated from the image. The fence marks the Emmitsburg Road.

          But Confederate General Lewis Armistead didn’t lead a group of Confederates through the Federal line at the Copse of Trees. Armistead and a group of southerners burst through a gap in the blue line at The Angle, roughly a hundred yards north of the copse. For this observer, the southern high water mark at Gettysburg was at The Angle.

          For what it is worth, it says here that the Confederates lost the Battle of Gettysburg on the second day and started along the road toward losing the Civil War with the wasteful attack on the third. But that’s a blog for a different day.

          Generally speaking, George Meade’s boys in blue detected, inspected and then rejected the attack by Robert E. Lee’s gray guys along the Cemetery Ridge line. Most Confederates failed to reach the line of defenders along the ridge. Some did in a few locations.

          But there was nothing like the penetration perpetrated by Armistead and his men. The estimates your loyal blogger has seen put the number of Confederate attackers to rush through the Federal line at The Angle between 100 and 200 men. For the sake of simplification, let us make the number 150.

          Many of Armistead’s attackers were killed shortly after pushing their way across the line, some were wounded and others captured. By most accounts, the Confederates lost steam when Armistead went down with a mortal wound as he rested his hand on a Union artillery piece.

          The events at The Angle represent the entire day for both armies. The Federal army stoutly defended its line of defense. The Confederates mounted a determined attack and briefly broke through the stout Union defense.



This image, collected from a point slightly north of The
Angle, shows all the monuments to Federal regiments
that were near the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.

          But Meade’s men had reserves waiting the plug any leaks in the wall, so to speak, while Lee’s army had far fewer reserves to commit and did not commit what few they had to the attack.

          That’s Gettysburg in a nutshell, isn’t it? Go back to the first day. The Confederates had the Feds on the run but failed to take advantage of an opportunity at the end of the day and did not seize the high ground. Most of the Confederate units on site were exhausted and could not push anymore. The remainder of the army was a day’s march or more away.

          The Federals were still feeding regiments into the area as the first day ended.

          Lee’s army was generally successful on the second day. It pushed the Army of the Potomac off of most of the engagement points on the Southern half of the battlefield.

          But the Army of Northern Virginia could not win the day at Little Round Top, generally because the bluecoats kept finding reinforcements at critical moments and the graycoats did not.

          By the time Armistead stepped away from Seminary Ridge toward the Union defenses on the third day of the battle, he was destined for the same fate his comrades met the previous two days: His attack created an opportunity that no Confederate could take advantage of.

          The story of The Angle is more than just the high water mark for the Confederates at Gettysburg. It is a microcosm of the battle as a whole.

          Thanks for reading.

 

Terrific research by PFRA member Brian Marshall

          A tip of the blogger’s cap to Brian Marshall, a fellow member of the Pro Football Researchers Association, for his outstanding research into the career yardage of legendary running back Jim Brown.

          While researching Jim Brown’s career statistics as a whole, Marshall went through the official play-by-play sheets from the Cleveland Browns’ 1962 season. He detected that Jim Brown’s totals were slightly inaccurate in five games that year.

          Marshall’s research shows that Jim Brown actually rushed for 1,016 yards that season. He is officially credited with 996.

          The matter is covered in the current edition of The Coffin Corner, the official publication of the PFRA. Marshall’s article is titled, Rushing to Judgment: Recovering Jim Brown’s Lost Yardage.

          If you follow sports history, this is a must read.

          Interestingly, 10 years later, the Miami Dolphins asked the NFL to review halfback Mercury Morris’ rushing yardage for the 1972 season. The league discovered a play in which Morris was credited with a loss when the yardage should properly have been subtracted from someone else’s total. The result was that Morris was officially credited with exactly 1,000 yards gained rushing that year, giving the Dolphins two rushers with at least that many yards. The other 1,000-yard Dolphin rusher was Larry Czonka.

          Correcting Brown’s official totals for the 1962 season should be something the league can do, assuming the league looks into the question and agrees with Marshall.

          More information on the PFRA, including how to join and become a subscriber to The Coffin Corner is available at www.profootballresearchers.org.

          Thanks for reading.

Gettysburg historians should be more Culpable

          Culp’s Hill remains an enigma for your loyal blogger. A location on the Gettysburg battlefield that had the attention of Robert E. Lee for three days, the Hill has almost no one else’s attention in the modern day.

Culp's Hill in the late afternoon sun.

          Think about it: When was the last time you attended a conference about Gettysburg and spent more than a few minutes talking about the fighting on Culp’s Hill? The betting here is that you haven’t.

          Books? You can read endlessly about the fighting on Little Round Top or Pickett’s Charge. Our bookshelves here have several offerings on those topics and Carole Reardon’s brilliant Pickett’s Charge in History & Memory is currently under study here.



Most books about the battle as a whole cover the fighting on Culp’s Hill but when was the last time you read a book devoted just to the savage fighting on that hill? Noah Andre Trudeau’s Gettysburg a Testing of Courage is your loyal blogger’s favorite treatment of the battle as a whole and it covers the Culp’s Hill struggle. But there are very few literary efforts by professional historians that specifically study Culp’s Hill.

Culp's Hill has beautiful, tree-lined roads and it studded by monuments.

One of the soldiers fighting on that Hill was a member of the family that owned some of the land. You would think that one soldier and his story would be a popular subject for Gettysburg historians. You’d be wrong.

          There are reasons for all this apathy, of course. The first is the fictional book Killer Angels which tells the story of J.L. Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine at Little Round Top. The book does a wonderful job of stirring interest in the story of that area of the battlefield and in Gettysburg in general. In the popular mindset, Little Round Top is the most important hill on the Gettysburg battlefield.

          Then there are the personalities involved. Confederate General James Longstreet’s name looms large in the story of the Civil War and the attack on Little Round Top was his. Chamberlain was not shy about championing his status as the hero

The rocky hillside today can not hide the difficulty of the fighting during
the battle of Gettysburg. This was a deadly place to be during the
time frame of July 2-3, 1863.

of Gettysburg. And you’ve all heard of Pickett’s Charge.

          Quick, tell me who led the attacks on Culp’s Hill. Had to think for a moment, didn’t you?

          The odd part of the Culp’s Hill story is that so much of it involves an attack that was never made and a general who was not there.

          On July 1, late in the afternoon, the overall Confederate commander, Robert E. Lee, was in position to see where the Federals had been pushed back to what we know today as Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge. Lee could see the hills that dominated the battlefield, Round Top and Little Round Top to the south and Culp’s Hill, much closer and to the north.

          Lee wanted an attack made on Cemetery Hill, which is sort of an extension from Culp’s Hill, that afternoon but the attack did not happen. Instead, the Confederates attacked Culp’s Hill a day later. Failing to take the summit, the Confeds stayed on a lower portion of the Hill over night before they were chased off the Hill on July 3^rd.

          It can be argued that, on July 2 and 3, no Confederate unit penetrated so deeply

into Union defenses at a crucial location as did those who attacked Culp’s Hill on the night of July 2.

          Much has been made of the non-attack on July 1^st. Lee gave General Richard Ewell the orders to attack Cemetery Hill that afternoon, “if practicable.” Ewell decided the attack was not practicable although he apparently considered an attack on Culp’s Hill rather than Cemetery Hill. Historians can squabble today whether either attack was, in fact, practicable.

          History devotees play the What If game with the same enthusiasm sports fans do and one of the great what ifs about Gettysburg is about how Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson might have dealt with the, “if practicable,” order regarding either Cemetery Hill or Culp’s Hill.

          The reader will recall that Jackson was killed earlier in 1863.

          Jackson, the what-iffers say, probably would have found the idea practicable enough to attack. Given Jackson’s historic import, his presence probably would have been enough to attract more attention to the Culp’s Hill area over the last 150 years. But Jackson wasn’t there.



This is the marker for Company I of the 60th New York Regiment. This marker is not as easy to reach as most others
at Gettysburg. The visitor needs to walk down one of the rocky paths that dot the area. Wear solid hiking shoes or boots to get there. But it is worth the effort once you understand the history of what happened near this point.

          Finally, there is a geographic piece to consider in this puzzle. Culp’s Hill is slightly apart from the largest portion of the battlefield. It sits across the Baltimore Pike from the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park Visitors Center and is sort of disconnected from the fields that include the Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard and the Round Tops.

          It isn’t easy to get to Culp’s Hill from the locations listed above and for that reason the Hill attracts less attention from visitors.

          So your loyal blogger suggests that Gettysburg aficionados do the following: Drive up Culp’s Hill. If you are in very sound physical condition, climb the observation tower at the top and survey the surroundings. Then drive back down the hill and when you reach the area where the Baltimore Pike and the Gettysburg cemetery are both visible, stop the car and try to envision what a few batteries of Confederate artillery might have accomplished from that spot or higher up Culp’s Hill on July 2, 1863.

          Then ask yourself why more study is not done of the Culp’s Hill story.

          Thanks for reading.

 

Should there be or should there be not? That is the question

Edits with goof repair!

          This one is left up to you, the readers, because it is a question of philosophy. It is a matter of opinion, which means there is no right or wrong.

          Unless you disagree with your loyal blogger. If you want to be right, you’ll have to write your own blog.

          Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1863. It is late afternoon on a warm day, made hotter by all the cannon balls and heavy, little bullets flying around. A titanic struggle is underway between two large armies and the fighting is killing men by the thousands in the areas outside the town.

          You all probably know the story of the fighting on the far left end of the Army

The memorial for the men of the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. Look
at the notes and small flags left by visitors. This happens every day.

of the Potomac: The Union’s 20^th Maine holds off the repeated advances of the 15^th Alabama on one side of a hill named Little Round Top. The 20^th eventually drives off the ‘Bama boys with an impromptu charge, securing the flank.

          If you know your history well, you know that a group of Texans very nearly crumbled a different point along the Federal line atop Little Round Top that day. The difference between winning and losing on that hill was razor-thin.

          Which brings us to the present time. On June 27 of this year, your loyal blogger was walking along the line held so valiantly by the boys from Maine between the right flank marker and the memorial to the Maine men. There were two notes left by visitors to the location. One was a computer-printed list of a group of men from Alabama who were with the 15^th Alabama that day. The other note was hand-scribbled on a small piece of paper and said the 15^th deserves a marker on Little Round Top.

          The question: Do you agree?

          First, we must remember Elder’s Rule: Winners get to place and determine what is written on plaques, markers and memorials in National Military Parks. Losers are allowed to visit National Military Parks.

          Next, we should concede that more than 150 years after the battle and with all the veterans gone there is no way we could accurately mark how far some Confederate units reached during the fighting on the second and third days at Gettysburg.

          But the question remains: Should there be markers commemorating the desperate nature of the fighting on the Confederate side? Should there be a marker for the Alabamians who battered themselves against the Mainers or the Texans who succeeded in driving back the 16^th Michigan but narrowly failed to take advantage of that opportunity?

          It is an interesting question.

You have to take into account that fact that the Confederates were fighting to preserve slavery. Their cause was unacceptable. So would regimental markers estimating the positions of advancement for Confederates be a tacit acceptance of the unacceptable? Your call, reader.

The Point Reached marker for the 1st Maryland regiment of Confederates.
This marker is on Culp's Hill, as are two flank markers for a regimental
memorial for the same unit. The regimental monument directs visitors
to this stone marker.

There are such markers on the battlefield at Gettysburg now. The Point Reached maker for the 1^st Maryland Confederate regiment on Culp’s Hill is the classic example. Would a similar marker for the 15^th be in keeping with the effort to present an important day in American history? Your call, again.

Then there is the matter of all the other Confederate regiments. If a marker is erected for the 15^th Alabama, shouldn’t there be one for the other Confederate regiments that rushed at the Federals on the second and third days of the battle? Those regiments also fought very bravely and a few men from some of those Confederate units even pierced the Union defenses on both the second and third days of the battle. Up to you, reader.

The most obvious question, that of financial obligation for these would-be markers, is easily answered. Should you, the reader, decide the 15^th Alabama ought to have either a position-reached or commemorative marker on Little Round Top, then you can pay for it.

Your loyal blogger feels history would have been better served more than a century ago when the park was under development if the Southern side of the fighting was better represented. Further representation of the Confederate attacks should have been completed while the veterans of the fighting were still alive to give input. There should be a notice of the furthest point of advancement by the 15th.

However, there is no way to accurately place such a marker now. If we can’t be accurate, it says here, we shouldn’t bother with the markers.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

The Devil(s Den) made me do it

                Yesterday’s blog contained some images of the area around an area within the Gettysburg Battlefield Park known as the Devil’s Den. More of the same today, but this time we’ll see more of the approaching areas trod by the Confederates as they attacked the Den and Little Round Top on July 3, 1863.

          First, a bit of further advice to go with our recommendation yesterday about sun screen and a hat: Be sure to smear yourself with plenty of insect repellant, particularly anti-tic stuff, as well as the sun screen. If you know a hunter, ask what brand the hunter prefers. There are plenty of varieties of insects on the battlefield, so be sure to use something with a wide range of applications.

          Your loyal blogger usually bathes in sun screen in the hotel room before heading out, giving the grease time to soak in before arriving at the battlefield. Upon arrival, the anti-bug stuff gets applied. Lots of it.

          The images here were collected during a 2010 hike in the fields in front of the Devil’s Den. The captions with the images will explain them.

The Devil's Den.

          The first image is included to give the first-time viewer a feel for the size of the boulders in the Den. This particular view looks sort of east to west from the modern day parking lot.

The large tree is generally the left-most edge of the Devils Den. Look just to the right of the tree to see a plaque
for modern visitors. That gives the viewer a feel for the location of the larger boulders in the image above this one.
Look to the left side of the image and see the castle-like monument. That structure sits on Little Round Top.

          Generally, the rocky terrain is approximately as it was in 1863. There are a few unit markers, depending upon which path you follow, but generally the walkways in these areas are unimproved dirt walking paths.

          Some of the boulders are easily climbed for a better view, others are not. There is a lot of vegetation in today’s Park that was kept to a minimum by farm animals and wild critters 150 years ago. The vegetation is tall enough that it is difficult to see, at times, the areas of interest. The captions with the images detail where the best-known locations are.

          To reach the area where two of the images were captured, find the rock fence that borders the Triangular Field and follow the path that continues along that fence downhill and, in general, toward Seminary Ridge. Turn left at the path at the bottom of the hill and walk back toward the Devil’s Den. In approximate terms, Round Top (aka Big Round Top) will be to your front and Seminary Ridge way off to your right. When you reach a point in front of the Den, turn to face it. Little Round Top will be behind the Den and off to the right.



From the pathway described in the text above, looking toward Seminary Ridge. Notice the changes in elevation. The
sharp-eyed viewer will see a car in the right center of the upper area of the photograph. Also, see the
farmhouse on the far left border of the image. Those items should give a feel for the distances involved.

          Keep in mind that, especially in early July, the heat and humidity can be significant in this area. You’ll want to have water with you, something the Confederates did not have.

          The goal here is to give you a feel for the ground that the two sides fought over when the sides met at the Devils Den. Walking in these locations made a profound impression on your loyal blogger.

Reading about the fighting there is one thing, but walking the ground is something else.

 

Thanks for reading. Now go for a walk.

The Devil's Den

          One of the most interesting areas during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg is the Devil’s Den. The intention here is not to recount the history of that fighting. You can read all of that elsewhere on line or in one of the many excellent books on the subject.

          The intent here is to give the reader a chance to see approximately what some of the combatants might have seen on July 2, 1863.

The view of the Devil's Den from Little Round Top.

          The first image is of the Den itself from Little Round Top, something like what General Warren might have seen when he famously stood on a boulder and correctly determined what the Confederate plans were. The huge boulders are the Den.

An image from a few days after the battle, This is a dead
Confederate soldier next to Plum Run.

The bushy area to the left of the modern day parking lot is also strewn with boulders but the big rocks are hidden by trees and other plant life today that was not there in 1863. There is also a minor stream that sometimes is more evident than other times named Plum Run. It meanders through the same location to the left of the parking lot.

Near the area in the image above, the marshy water of Plum Run
in the rocky area of the Devil"s Den.

Thus the defenders and attackers had to deal with changes in elevation, boulders, some surrounded by water, plus all the firepower available to the opposing soldiers.

To the far right of the first image is part of a ridge that extends a distance north of the Den. Just a few yards along that ridge is the approximate location where the 4^th New York Independent Battery located four canons for the federals. The next two views show something like what the Fourth might have seen (minus the paved road and directional sides from the modern day). The farm buildings in the distance are representative of a farm that stood in the same location at the time of the battle.

When you walk in the areas pictured here, it looks different than it did at the time the battle because there was less plant life. The topography was an important part of the challenge troops faced that day but there is no way you can understand how much of an impact the grounds made on the difficulties the fighters faced until you walk the areas pictured here.

A union sharpshooting unit sniped at the Confederates from the moment the southerners began their advance, which means that Federal group covered almost the entire area pictured here and continued to fall back even beyond the Devil’s Den. When we discuss the second day of the fighting, we frequently forget to talk about the physical effort the Union sharpshooters made that afternoon.

Walk the grounds sometime. There are plenty of easily found pathways starting from the Confederate staging areas on Seminary Ridge. Little Round Top is easy to aim for, but another challenge might be to aim for the Devil’s Den.

Be sure you stop at the Visitors Center and talk to the Rangers about your plan to walk this part of the battlefield. They’ll have plenty of advice that will make it a more enjoyable experience for you.

Be sure you carry sunscreen and water before you start. Wear a shady hat.

 

And thanks for reading.