Gettysburg

[UpperWestside 6160]

This weekend is my 3rd trip here in the last 14 months. I made it my 3rd because my mother came up from Texas after Christmas and I wanted her to see something historic. She has loved this trip. We stood on Little Round Top on Friday evening and she was in awe, but felt the sadness of the place at the same time. She loved the museum tour today. My love of history comes from my parents. My dad would've loved seeing this place.

I know many of y'all have been here. I want to know your own experiences. I personally can feel the heavy feeling of sadness when walking on the battlefield. Knowing that 7000 plus soldiers died here is sobering. What really gets me is the Texan and Alabamian charge of Little Round Top. That was a death sentence. You can look at it from the top and from the base. The end result is massive death. 

The other striking thing is looking at things from the copse of trees on the Union line where hundreds of Confederates met their maker and then driving over to Lee's statue where he is atop Traveller less than a mile away.

I honestly believe had Lee had a superior in that battle that he would have been relieved of his command and never would have commanded an army after that. There was no way that Pickett's Charge could have succeeded outside of the Good Lord intervening. It was absolute idiocy to attempt it. Lee apologizing to soldiers who managed to make it back across that open field is surreal. You see what they saw and you wonder what in the hell Lee thought would happen. 

Walking that battlefield is haunting. Our nation's future was determined that day. I would highly encourage y'all who have not visited these hallowed grounds to do so. It is a place you must see.

Edited January 5, 2020 by UpperWestside

[Surly Bevo 24908]

Very cool place. Been there twice in my life. Last time was July 2014. This is my son and his friend on Cemetery Ridge (copse of trees was just a bit to their left) looking back across the field. Boys then teenagers now.

[UpperWestside 6160]

3 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Very cool place. Been there twice in my life. Last time was July 2014. This is my son and his friend on Cemetery Ridge (copse of trees was just a bit to their left) looking back across the field. Boys then teenagers now.

Was at that spot a few hours ago. It is so hard to fathom what happened right there. Just bodies upon bodies died at that place. Thanks for posting that picture. 

Edited January 5, 2020 by UpperWestside

[Sbbruin 21829]

Never been, but madness as to how battles were fought back then.  Last man standing approach.

[Surly Bevo 24908]

1 minute ago, Sbbruin said:

Never been, but madness as to how battles were fought back then.  Last man standing approach.

Yea you can see a statue in the center way in the back of my picture.  That's where Pickett's men started from....that's a long ass walk/jog in the open under massive artillery fire and at close range rifle fire, but that's the way they rolled back then.  

[UpperWestside 6160]

Just now, Sbbruin said:

Never been, but madness as to how battles were fought back then.  Last man standing approach.

I know you are in SoCal, but bring your family to see this place. It is just a very sobering place to see. You will feel a heavy sadness when you get out there. The statues and monuments are amazing to see. 

[UpperWestside 6160]

1 minute ago, Surly Bevo said:

Yea you can see a statue in the center way in the back of my picture.  That's where Pickett's men started from....that's a long ass walk/jog in the open under massive artillery fire and at close range rifle fire, but that's the way they rolled back then.  

Can you imagine making the call to charge the 3/4 of a mile from that spot? There was nothing about that open space that says things would end well.

[Francisco 2.0 32386]

In 2017 I took my parents; it was their first visit (my second).  Great lifetime memory for me to walk the battlefield with dad.

 

 

 

[AUS-97HORN 11756]

4 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

Can you imagine making the call to charge the 3/4 of a mile from that spot? There was nothing about that open space that says things would end well.

it was a a brisk walk under heavy artillery fire for most of the way. they didnt charge until after they crossed the emmitsburg road and the 2 fences there, and it took a shitload of time to regroup because of those fences, by the time they actually went on the double quick they didnt have enough men to impact the line with enough force to break and split it. 

Longstreet kept begging for Lee to not do it.... he was the only one who could have stopped the carnage.   He just respected Lee too much to tell the crazy old fuck that it was an asinine order and he would lose half his men 

[UpperWestside 6160]

7 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

it was a a brisk walk under heavy artillery fire for most of the way. they didnt charge until after they crossed the emmitsburg road and the 2 fences there, and it took a shitload of time to regroup because of those fences, by the time they actually went on the double quick they didnt have enough men to impact the line with enough force to break and split it. 

Longstreet kept begging for Lee to not do it.... he was the only one who could have stopped the carnage.   He just respected Lee too much to tell the crazy old fuck that it was an asinine order and he would lose half his men 

It was nuts. The whole charge was just crazy. Lee sent so many irreplaceable soldiers to their death. Why he is celebrated to this day is asinine to me. 

Edited January 5, 2020 by UpperWestside

[AUS-97HORN 11756]

The summer of my sophomore year.... July 1st-3rd , my father (USMA grad and active duty at the time), took my brother and I and we walked/drove the entire battlefield. It was a really amazing experience.   

It wasnt intentional that we did it on the anniversary, just happened because the  1st was on a Saturday and the 4th was on a Tuesday so Dad only had to take a day off. 

we managed to actually follow the battle day for day on the day.   and it was pretty fucking hot.  cant imagine wearing wool uniforms and  basically be in a running battle on the first day, only being able to drink every so often. 

[atomheartbevo 89623]

I'm planning a trip in a few years once my son is a little older.

Hoping to get one of these park rangers to give a talk.

 

[UpperWestside 6160]

12 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I'm planning a trip in a few years once my son is a little older.

Hoping to get one of these park rangers to give a talk.

 

That ranger is awesome. I can say if you get the guided tour you will get someone like that man. They do an amazing job here of letting you know what happened. I could live to be a 100 and never feel closer to a spot than I did on Little Round Top. 

[RamjetFDO 10575]

I've only been once, in the summer of 2002. It was right around July 4th, and this is still one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

[bluto 4912]

Been twice, once as a kid on a family summer trip then again as an adult visiting a buddy in December where we essentially had the area to ourselves. Not sure why but Devils Den is what brought it home to me... maybe bc those boulders and rocks were the exact ones present and part of the battle.

 

[Constant 6723]

10 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I'm planning a trip in a few years once my son is a little older.

Hoping to get one of these park rangers to give a talk.

 

Down the rabbit hole I go...

[Post Oak 20205]

Can't wait till my kids get a little older.  I've already told my wife we are having a history summer vacation.

Civil War, Revolutionary War, monuments you name it.

Wife is less than enthused to say the least.

[atomheartbevo 89623]

57 minutes ago, Constant said:

Down the rabbit hole I go...

Matt is really good. I’ve watched a bunch of videos with him.   

[atomheartbevo 89623]

6 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Can't wait till my kids get a little older.  I've already told my wife we are having a history summer vacation.

Civil War, Revolutionary War, monuments you name it.

Wife is less than enthused to say the least.

Ease her into it with a trip to Fredericksburg and the Pacific War Museum.   

[msucolt45 4053]

That tour guide ( Matt Atkinson) was awesome! As a history buff, I appreciate the one member that linked the video.

I’ve been to Vicksburg and others, but never Gettysburg. Definitely a bucket list for me.

National Park Service does an awesome job, as I’ve visited numerous Revolutionary sites that were guided by them. Props to their education and service to our country.

[Macanudo 12974]

Buford's cavalry holding out on July 1 until the infantry arrived is truly one of those "What if moments?" moments in history.

What if Heth had gotten there 45 minutes earlier?

What if Heth presses the attack faster and harder? 

What if Buford decides to fall back?

Gettysburg, in spite of the idiocy of the Charge, is chock full of what its.  What is the 20th Maine doesnt hold? 

 

[msucolt45 4053]

I grew up reading both the father and son Shaara books into history. They really “painted” a picture for me as I read them.

[Surly Bevo 24908]

So for any of you who have been more recently curious about one thing.  When we were there in 2014 one of the rangers was telling me that they were going to be embarking on a project to remove a number of trees from the battlefield.  Normally that sounds counterintuitive for the park service to want to do, but in this case what they were endeavoring to do was to take the field back to 1863 status and try to maintain it that way.  Obviously in some places, particularly the Round Tops the Confederate side of the field etc there has been a lot of growth in 150+ years.  So any of you more recent visitors heard/seen if that actually went down.  Seems like a pretty big research and execution project.

[Armybrat 40821]

Unfortunately I’ve only been to Pea Ridge and Andersonville.

Would love to take a road trip to Gettysburg and to the Little Big Horn.

[msucolt45 4053]

Army Brat,

Andersonville is on my “historical” bucket list. How was your experience?

[Armybrat 40821]

Very haunting, especially the story about Providence Spring. Be sure and take a drink from it, if still allowed.

[Trey3216 15343]

I think one of the most underrated things about That area is that it’s also a fairly short drive to Antietam.  You can leave out from DC, hit Antietam first, then Gettysburg.   Just beautiful and humbling 

[msucolt45 4053]

Gracias Trey

[Capn81 372]

I went to Gettysburg as a part of my High School Senior Class trip. I just remember being in awe of the place from the get-go. Our History teacher was our guide, which was an extra cool experience.

[Dutch 4465]

22 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Gettysburg, in spite of the idiocy of the Charge, is chock full of what its.  What is the 20th Maine doesnt hold? 

 

Absolutely this.  If the 20th Maine folds, then the Confederates might very well have rolled up and flanked the remainder of the Union lines.  Then Lee in all likelihood marches with little opposition on Washington. That action proved very crucial to the outcome of the battle and the war.

Anyone who hasn't been, you really need to go.  Everything about the battlefield is very well done, and the history seeped all around the place really does move you.  One of the many things that struck me when we went is in one of the well-done museums (they are all very well done) scattered around the grounds.  In the years after the battle someone found two bullets (one fired from a Union rifle, one from a Rebel one) that met dead-on, at the exact same trajectory, and they fused together.  An example of the insane volume of rifle fire exchanged.

Edited January 6, 2020 by Dutch

[QuesoEspecial 255]

I visited Gettysburg five years ago as one of my former bosses in the Army was attending the Army War College in Carlisle PA...truly a special place and one of the most interesting things that I learned was that Dwight Eisenhower chose to live in a farm there after his presidency...neat to see a warrior choose to live at such a historic place as he could have lived anywhere

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

I've never been to Gettysburg but I grew up on the Nashville battlefield and have visited others in Tennessee, and the NPS one in Petersburg, site of the Battle of the Crater.

In the pic below, it's my son standing at the head of the trench-tunnel the Yankee sappers dug under the Rebel lines. He was due to report to Fort Lee for his AIT in a couple of hours. 

That was three years ago and he is out now, possibly in the nick of time. 

[luke duke 6412]

The Gettysburg movie that came out in the early 90’s will always hold a special place in my heart. I was about 15 and I took my girlfriend to go see it at the Galleria. I think that I fingerbanged her for the entire 4+ hours of the movie.

[Pato del Muerto 52485]

21 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

I've only been once, in the summer of 2002. It was right around July 4th, and this is still one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

There’s a lot of name unknown on those stones iirc. 

[Pato del Muerto 52485]

Not just the battlefield, either. There’s plenty of buildings in town that have plenty of bullet holes in the brick. 

[atomheartbevo 89623]

9 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Very haunting, especially the story about Providence Spring. Be sure and take a drink from it, if still allowed.

Did it really appear at night while you all were asleep?

[otisdog 365]

Planning on taking my wife to DC and show here what our nation was founded on, with a side trip to Gettysburg....recommended books for background...?

[UpperWestside 6160]

9 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Unfortunately I’ve only been to Pea Ridge and Andersonville.

Would love to take a road trip to Gettysburg and to the Little Big Horn.

Do it. There is a heaviness that you'll feel at Gettysburg that is hard to describe. You need to see it though. My mother was in awe of seeing everything. It is something that you and your extended family would enjoy seeing. It should be a bucket list item for anyone who loves history.

You'll meet people out there from around the world who are drawn to the place. I always just thought of it as something important to American history, but I have found that that is not the case and that people from all across the globe know the importance of what transpired there almost 157 years ago. 

[atomheartbevo 89623]

9 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

So for any of you who have been more recently curious about one thing.  When we were there in 2014 one of the rangers was telling me that they were going to be embarking on a project to remove a number of trees from the battlefield.  Normally that sounds counterintuitive for the park service to want to do, but in this case what they were endeavoring to do was to take the field back to 1863 status and try to maintain it that way.  Obviously in some places, particularly the Round Tops the Confederate side of the field etc there has been a lot of growth in 150+ years.  So any of you more recent visitors heard/seen if that actually went down.  Seems like a pretty big research and execution project.

We visited Pea Ridge -  relatives from Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas fought there, so it was weird/cool going around and seeing where their units were. 

Anyways, this was around 2010, and they mentioned that they were taking the battlefield back to the way it was, or were going to, based on maps and eyewitness accounts - they pointed out several areas where trees had grown up in what had been farmland prior to the battle, and that the NPS wanted to take a bunch of the battlefields back to how they were in the 1860s.

On a side note, Pea Ridge is worth visiting if your a history buff - very well taken care, and if you're in North Texas, not that much of a drive - Vicksburg is probably closer, but there's plenty of historically-significant areas either way.

[The Ace of Aces 5175]

I live ~ 25 miles north of the battlefield and go early on cold winter mornings (no crowds) often to meditate or whatever you want to call it. 

[RamjetFDO 10575]

Planning on taking my wife to DC and show here what our nation was founded on, with a side trip to Gettysburg....recommended books for background...?

"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.

[UpperWestside 6160]

On 1/4/2020 at 10:42 PM, RamjetFDO said:

I've only been once, in the summer of 2002. It was right around July 4th, and this is still one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

I took a picture on Saturday at the cemetery near where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. All the markers had wreaths. I thought that was cool to see. Thanks for sharing that photo. Pretty awesome to see that.

Edited January 6, 2020 by UpperWestside

[Al_4_ISU 12447]

17 hours ago, luke duke said:

The Gettysburg movie that came out in the early 90’s will always hold a special place in my heart. I was about 15 and I took my girlfriend to go see it at the Galleria. I think that I fingerbanged her for the entire 4+ hours of the movie.

I love that movie too, but I was probably 8 or 9 when it came out, so not exactly much finger blasting involved.

My grandma taped it for me when it aired on cable.  We lived 20 miles from anywhere that had cable and my old man sure as hell wasn't buying a satellite dish.  I probably watched it over 100 times in a 3-4 year window.

We visited the park in '99.  I was 13 or so.  It was absolutely incredible.  I went to Yorktown about 9-10 years after that and felt that it was pretty underwhelming by comparison.  I don't have much to add that others haven't already stated, but it was a humbling, sobering experience.  The entire existence of this country was perpetuated on that field, and that's not exaggeration.

[BabaYaga 15286]

16 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

17 hours ago, otisdog said:

Planning on taking my wife to DC and show here what our nation was founded on, with a side trip to Gettysburg....recommended books for background...?

"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.

Great book.  

Father has been there multiple times.  I've yet to make the journey.  One thing that always amazed me were the technological leaps that far outpaced the tactics and strategies of the time.  Often leading to enormous numbers of casualties.

The mini-ball.  This simple change alone was huge.  Ranged warfare.  How units marched, and were aligned in battle.  How they clustered.  How a single soldier now had the capacity to change the entire landscape of a battle (taking officers off their horses at extreme ranges).  How it decimated tightly packed soldiers using Napoleonic tactics facilitated by smooth-bore muskets firing an inaccurate, round ball.

Cannons.  Grape-shot.  Railroads.  Submarines.  Siege/trench warfare.  Printing in mass the casualties and realities of the front.  Balloons.  Dreadnoughts.  The telegraph.  How many feel it provided a template for WWI tactics, that then led to even more wholesale slaughter due to the advances in repeating rifles/machine guns and artillery.

[otisdog 365]

17 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

17 hours ago, otisdog said:

Planning on taking my wife to DC and show here what our nation was founded on, with a side trip to Gettysburg....recommended books for background...?

"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.

It's listed as fiction?

[RamjetFDO 10575]

30 minutes ago, otisdog said:

It's listed as fiction?

It's more "historical fiction".  While the tone/telling of the story is more fiction-based, it's VERY VERY accurate as to the actual key events and moments of the Battle of Gettysburg.

HIGHLY recommend it.  It was the basis for the 1993 movie "Gettysburg".

[RDCanecutter 26379]

Never visited in this lifetime, but, according to the palm-reader lady, I got kilt there in a previous one.

I guess the upside is I didn't experience extreme old age in the 1910s.

[Armybrat 40821]

Yeah, no Depends back then..... so I’m told.

[RDCanecutter 26379]

2 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Yeah, no Depends back then..... so I’m told.

I see my non-kilt-at-Gettysburg-ass leanin back on the porch with a shameless shit-streak yellin at the grandchirren "BOY! I say BOY! Fetch me ovah hyah my COUGH MEDICINE.*"

 

 

 

*100 proof.

[RDCanecutter 26379]

Hell I might do that startin tomorrah.