15 August 2014 

We toured the Gettysburg battleground and town for a few days. There was no way we could see it all in one day. As this first slide indicates there were at least 51,000 casualties to this battle alone and what was it fought for. To preserve the union..............yes. To end slavery.................yes. The south succeeded because slavery was needed to maintain economical viability as the south was primarily agricultural and there were not enough whites to farm them profitably. Obviously on the wrong side of history it still doesn't change the fact that they needed slaves to survive. The North on the other hand was not necessarily that excited about war to end slavery but they knew that western expansion was happening and they did not want slavery to spread west. The north wanted an end to slavery but by other means, but that was not to be. The south succeeded and left the north with no other option but to fight to both save the union and end slavery. The tens of thousands of whites who died by the  to end slavery seems to be lost today and this seems ironic given todays tensions.

These are the battle flags of the two sides. Both of these flags saw the battle of Gettysburg on those fateful three days.
 

 

As the sign indicates the battle began the morning of July 1, 1863 in the fields north of Gettysburg.



The first shots rang out from Barlow Knoll the confederate army led by General Ewell arrived. The union army was driven from Oak ridge and McPherson ridge as they were severely outnumbered by the rebel force. These two ridges became the extreme left side of the confederate lines for the battle to come the next two days. So far the union army is not faring very well

 The two photos below are the ridges that felt the first sting of battle. This is Barlow Knoll looking southeast towards the north side of Gettysburg . The CSA drove the union army from Oak ridge in front of the first photo and McPherson ridge in the next photo into Gettysburg and ultimately through town to cemetery ridge on the south side of town. The first day of battle goes to the CSA. It must be noted that the union army was outnumbered and both sides were waiting on further troops. The reinforcements do arrive in time to stop further incursion but not enough to win the battle for the union. The numbers now favored the union army with ultimately a 93,000 union troops with a 70,000 CSA troops.

During the battle on the first day as the union was being pushed back they counterattacked and pushed the CSA back somewhat. Where this young lady is standing straight out near the end of the trees in the back round is the rail cut shown below. The union army captured several CSA troops in this cut. This is what it looked like back then and the picture below shows what it looks like today.

During the battle on the first day the Gettysburg College becomes involved in the fight as it pushes its way through the town to cemetery ridge.

 The battle on the extreme right faces little round top and big round top. General Longstreet, CSA, pushes forward into the line of union resistance in the peach orchard which is left of this photo and can't be seen here

 This is big round top which is situated to the right of little round top. This position was the very extreme left of the union lines. It was much more wooded and saw action but not as extreme as the line to the right of it which had less slope and was more open.

As a part of the battle of the second day was the battle for the devils den which is a rocky outcropping below little round top and slightly to the left looking down.

Myron is standing in the middle of the den. Behind him over the rocks is where the actual battle took place. It is an amazing place. An excellent place to defend as the rocks provide a fortress against not only bullets but also cannon fire. The rocks are granite and not easily affected. This is also called the slaughter pen as the union troops were able to easily dispatch the CSA as they tried to cross the rough terrain. They also had cannon fire covering this position from three sides from the lower right slope, and center of little round top. The fire from big round top covered the left side of the den.

The attack on the second day by the CSA ultimately was unsuccessful. It cost thousands of lives and did not achieve what Lee wanted. The union army held despite being outnumbered. The bloodiest day of the battle however was yet to come. The photo below is of General Lee facing the battlefield to the east directly opposite of General Meade.

 General Meade is on Cemetery Ridge about a mile across the battlefield facing west towards his opponent across the battle field.

 This is a zoom picture from Meade's view west looking at Lee who is represented by a memorial straight across the field.

The final day of battle begins on July 3 with a two hour cannon barrage by the CSA against the whole Union army line. A mistake the CSA makes is that it fires so many rounds so fast with little effect that is causes them to slow their firing to conserve ammo. The union fires back with more accuracy due to their vantage point on the high ground. General Longstreet of the CSA did not want to fight this battle this way as he felt his army would be decimated as it marched more than a mile across open fields. General Lee would not accept this and ordered him to march and the result was as Longstreet feared. He was decimated. Below are an artist conception of the battle now called Pickets Charge as Colonel Pickets troops in the center of the line charged the line and were decimated. It must be said that one of the things that helped the union army was the fencing. This slowed the CSA and made them to climb the fencing into direct and withering musket and cannon fire. However a few hundred managed to reach and penetrate the line but were beaten back in hand to hand combat.

The battle ends on the evening of July 3, 1863 with the CSA in retreat. Lee met his troops coming off the line and was apologizing to them telling them that it was his fault for the failure. His troops were willing to carry on with the battle but they were to decimated to continue. The cannons remained on the line to give the impression they were regrouping to give Meade the impression they would fight again. However, this was done to cover for a retreat of the army to Hagerstown. The artillery followed that night. Meade made a major military mistake. He should have attacked Lee immediately but instead he rested and consolidated his men allowing Lee time to escape. This mistake most likely caused the war to continue two more years. Had Lee been captured and his army captured or destroyed Lee would have never gone on to a few more victories in the south. The total casualties for this three day battle was 23,000 Union soldiers and as many as 28,000 CSA troops.

There is one more chapter to this story to come and it is a short story of how the civilians were affected. More to come.............