Gettysburg 150th – July 3 Battlefield Experience Programs

Fateful Decision – Lee and Longstreet on July 3
    In reporting the operations of the Army of Northern Virginia on July 3, General Robert E. Lee wrote that “The general plan was unchanged. Longstreet, reinforced by Pickett’s three brigades, which arrived near the battle-field during the afternoon of the 2d, was ordered to attack the next morning and General Ewell was ordered to attack the enemy’s right at the same time.” In short, Lee anticipated that his two corps commanders, Longstreet and Ewell, who respectively faced the left and right of the Union Army of the Potomac, would follow up the success they had won on July 2 and renew their attacks at daylight.
    “This is disingenuous,” wrote General Longstreet in his 1896 memoir From Manassas to Appomattox. Longstreet claimed that Lee “did not give or send me orders for the morning of the third day, nor did he reinforce me by Pickett’s brigades for morning attack.” This statement has subjected Longstreet to great criticism over the years. First, it was not Lee’s responsibility to order up Pickett, it was Longstreet’s, and second, Colonel Edward P. Alexander, who commanded the reserve artillery in Longstreet’s First Corps (and would command all the artillery of the corps later that day), distinctly recalled visiting Longstreet’s headquarters on the night of July 2 and “was told that we would renew the attack in the morning . . . That Pickett’s division would arrive and would assault the enemy’s line. My impression is the exact point for it was not designated, but I was told it would be to our left of the Peach Orchard.” [Gary Gallagher, ed., Fighting for the Confederacy (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1989), 244]
    It seems clear from Alexander’s testimony that Longstreet had orders but they were not to his liking. He had lost 4,000 men on July 2, and although they had inflicted heavy losses on the Federals and driven the Union left flank in nearly one half mile, they had failed to capture any of the key terrain held by the Army of the Potomac. During the night his scouts could hear Union soldiers stacking rocks for breastworks. Success in a renewed attack on this front seemed doubtful to Longstreet. So he cast about for a less expensive way to assail the Union left and later claimed that his scouts had discovered a “way by which we might strike the enemy’s left, and push it down towards his centre.” But the consequence of this was when daylight arrived Pickett’s division was not up and Longstreet was not prepared to attack. Yet, on Culp’s Hill the battle raged in full fury. [Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 385]

Park Ranger Kyle Stetz and his group at the Peach Orchard looking north toward Cemetery Ridge. NPS

    At an early hour – no one recorded the time precisely but it was probably before 6 a.m. – General Lee mounted and rode with his staff to visit Longstreet, where he discovered – one thinks to his astonishment – that Longstreet was not only unprepared to attack but had developed a plan at odds with what Lee intended. The two generals and their staffs made their way forward, we think to the vicinity of the Peach Orchard, which provided them an excellent view of the Union center and left. The possible fate of the Confederacy rode on the outcome of this battle. Lee was determined to strike. Longstreet, impressed by the strength of the Union position, opposed a renewed attack. The plan that would emerge from this early morning meeting would decide the battle.
    Now, 150 years later, at 6 a.m. (bring coffee!) on July 3 you can join rangers Matt Atkinson and Bill Hewitt in the Peach Orchard as they discuss the meeting of these two generals and how Lee arrived at his fateful decision to modify his July 3 plans and make a massive frontal assault upon the Union center, now known as Pickett’s Charge.
    Parking - Park along North/South Sickles Avenue and United States Avenue. Do not park on Wheatfield Road. See the maps in the Commemorative Events Guide for these locations.  http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/150th-anniversary-index.htm. Field parking may be available weather dependent. The program will last one hour.

Pickett’s Charge Commemorative March
    Did you have an ancestor who fought in Pickett’s Charge for the Union or Confederate army? Are you from one of the states represented in this climatic moment of the battle? Or, have you always wanted to walk the route the Confederate soldiers did, or stand on Cemetery Ridge where Union troops waited to receive the attack, at the same hour the attack took place. This summer, on the 150th anniversary of the attack, you can walk in the footsteps of those that lived this terrible and tragic event.

An 1882 image of the ground Pickett’s division advanced over on July 3. The Codori farm is in the middle ground. NPS

    National Park Rangers assisted by volunteers and living historians, will lead groups representing each of the nine assaulting Confederate brigades in the mile long march. The rangers, volunteers and living historians will help each group form up in line of battle at approximately the same location the real brigade formed 150 years earlier. At the same time NPS rangers will assemble groups where men of Alexander Hays’, John Gibbon’s and Abner Doubleday’s Union divisions waited to receive the attack. The idea is there is somewhere for everyone to participate in this program. The Confederate march will entail a one mile walk, but the Union part of the program will have minimal walking

Another 1882 view of the field of Pickett’s Charge, showing the ground Pettigrew’s and Trimble’s brigades advanced over. The point known as “The Angle” is in the foreground. NPS

and should be fully accessible. On Cemetery Ridge, Rangers will conduct short programs about the Union defense. For the Confederate groups the interpretive experience will be the march itself; moving in line of battle, seeing the other groups moving about you, and walking in the footsteps of the men who made this march under the fire of shell, shrapnel and bullets.
    At 3 p.m. we will have the artillery at our Living History camps fire as the signal for the march to commence. When the Confederate brigade groups reach Cemetery Ridge the march will stop for the playing of echo Taps which will conclude the event. It should last no longer than one hour.
    Getting There: To join one of the Confederate groups we strongly encourage you to leave your car near the park Museum and Visitor Center, or at the National Cemetery North and South lots, or, if weather permits, at temporary grass lots we may open, and walk across the fields to the North Carolina or Virginia Memorial. This is a one mile walk. We will have clearly marked volunteers posted to direct you to whatever brigade group you wish to join. Each brigade will be marked by a flag. Pickett’s brigades will have blue flags with the name of the brigade on each. Pettigrew’s brigades will have red flags with the brigade name, and Trimble’s two brigades will have green flags with the brigade name. Students of the battle may wonder why we don’t have groups for Wilcox’s and Lang’s brigades. Although these brigades definitely participated in the attack they were support brigades and not part of the initial assault group. We only have rangers available to cover those nine brigades.
    On the Union side there will be three ranger information tents on Cemetery Ridge where Hays’, Gibbon’s and Doubleday’s divisions were located. This is also where the programs on the Union defense will assemble.  
    Parking & Transportation – At 1 p.m. the park will begin running free shuttle buses that will make a limited number of runs from the Museum and Visitor Center to West Confederate Avenue; however, it is expected that these shuttles will only be able to carry a small percentage of those looking to participate in the walk. To access the shuttle, park at the Museum and Visitors Center complex and catch the shuttle bus at Visitor Center parking lot 3. The shuttle will also stop to pick up visitors at the National Cemetery North Lot. The shuttles will then take visitors to West Confederate Avenue and make shuttle stops at the North Carolina Monument and Virginia Memorial on Seminary Ridge. Shuttles will operate every 15-20 minutes until 2:45 p.m. There will be no transport of visitors back to West Confederate Avenue once the commemorative march is over. West Confederate Avenue will be open to only shuttle bus traffic after 1 p.m. No vehicles will be allowed south on West Confederate Avenue from Middle Street after 1 p.m.  
    Remember, for maps and details about our other 150th programs, you can download our Commemorative Events Guide on the 150th page on the park website at http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/150th-anniversary-index.htm. Hard copies of the guide will be available upon request after June 1 at the ranger information desk in the Visitor Center. 
    We hope you can join us on July 3. It should be a memorable day.

D. Scott Hartwig

Gettysburg 150th – July 2 Battlefield Experience Programs

    Captain Samuel R. Johnston was an imposing man in his time. He stood 6 feet 2 ½ inches in height with a dark complexion, hazel eyes and dark hair. Before the war he worked as a civil engineer in Virginia. When the war came he entered the Confederate service on February 10, 1862 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Virginia Cavalry, but it was his background in engineering that soon made him indispensable. In only two months “Jeb” Stuart was writing that Johnston “possesses remarkable qualifications for the post of military engineer . . . He is sober, indefatigable, and capable.” By June of that year Johnston was on the staff of General James Longstreet as an engineer officer. In August, now promoted to captain, he joined the staff of army commander Robert E. Lee as an engineer. By the time of Gettysburg, Johnston had served with Lee for nearly a year and had his complete confidence as an engineer and a reconnoitering officer.
    On the morning of July 2, when General Lee sought to locate the left end of the Union army’s lines for an offensive he was contemplating, it was Captain Johnston he selected to conduct the vital reconnaissance that would establish the enemy position. Johnston

Little Round Top in July 1863. Did Captain Johnston reach its summit? LC

recalled, “About daybreak on the morning of the 2nd, General Lee called me and said he wanted me to reconnoiter along the enemy’s left and return as soon as possible.” With only three or four men, one of whom was Major J. C. Clark, an engineer on General Longstreet’s staff, Johnston set out around 4 a.m. He recalled later that the reconnaissance was “very successful.” When he returned around 7 a.m. he found Generals Lee, Longstreet and A. P. Hill sitting on a log near the Lutheran Seminary holding a map. When Lee saw Johnston he called him over and the captain traced his route on the map where he had made his reconnaissance. “When I got to the extreme right of our reconnaissance on the Little Round Top, General Lee turned and looking at me, said, ‘Did you get there?’ I assured him that I did.” But did he? Historians today generally agree that Captain Johnston’s reconnaissance was flawed. If he made it to Little Round Top how did he completely miss some 8,000 men of the Union 3rd Corps who were bivouacked just north of that hill? Questions remain about just where Captain Johnston went on that fateful early morning reconnaissance on July 2. [S. R. Johnson to Lafayette McLaws, June 27, 1892; S. R. Johnston to Rev. George Petterkin, Dec. ?, 18??, Virginia Historical Society]
    This July 2, 150 years later, you can join with Ranger Troy Harman on In The Footsteps of Captain Johnston. Troy will explore the story of Johnston, where he might have gone, and what his reconnaissance meant for General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. You will need to rise early if you want to join Troy – although not quite as early as Captain Johnston. The program meets at 6:30 a.m. on July 2 at the Longstreet Tower on West Confederate Avenue. It will end at 8:30 a.m. at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on South Confederate Avenue, about one mile away. Park along West or South Confederate Avenue on the right hand side of the road but with all four wheels on the road.
    In the hours after Captain Johnston’s reconnaissance one of the most furious battles ever fought in North America ensued. When it finally subsided, between 9 and 10 p.m., thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers lay dead, were wounded or prisoners of war. Yet, the battle remained undecided. Despite a severe battering the Army of the Potomac still held all the key terrain on the battlefield. The question at hand was could they stand another day, and was Gettysburg the place to continue the battle? General George G. Meade, who had only been in command of the army for five days, wanted to sound out his corps commanders on both the army’s condition and their thoughts about its position. All were summoned to the tiny farmhouse of the widow Lydia Leister, which served as army headquarters. “That poor little farm house is honored with more distinguished guests than it ever had before, or than it will ever have again, probably,” wrote Lieutenant Frank Haskell, aide to Brigadier General John Gibbon, who attended the council as the acting corps commander of the 2nd Corps.
    The decision before the assembled generals was momentous. Not only the outcome of the battle, but possibly the future of their nation rested upon it. Haskell, who was an eyewitness from outside the Leister farm, wrote how “The Generals came in, – some sat, some kept walking or standing, two lounged upon the bed, – some were constantly smoking cigars. And thus disposed, they deliberated . . .” [Frank L. Byrne & Andrew T. Weaver, Haskell of Gettysburg (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1970, 134-135] 

Meade’s headquarters – the Leister Farm – on July 5, 1863. LC

    We will return to this dramatic moment 150 years later at 9:30 p.m. for the second of our special July 2 Battlefield Experience programs. Rangers Angie Atkinson and John Nicholas will present Stay and Fight: General Meade’s Council of War.  Meet at the General Meade equestrian monument on Cemetery Ridge. From there the program will make its way down to the Leister farm, which will be open to the public for the first time in many years. The program ends at 11 p.m. so bring a flashlight. You may park along Hancock Avenue (on the right hand side of the road with all four wheels on the road), at the north or south National Cemetery lots, or at Lot #3 at the Visitor Center (the closest to the Taneytown Road) and walk to the Meade equestrian.

D. Scott Hartwig

[Note: Our Commemorative Events Guide, with all of our 150th activities may be downloaded from our website at http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/150th-anniversary-plan-your-visit.htm]

Gettysburg 150th – July 1, 2013 Battlefield Experience Programs

    As the soldiers of Brigadier General Solomon Meredith’s 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps, marched up the Emmitsburg Road on the morning of July 1, 1863, Sergeant Major George Legate, of the 2nd Wisconsin, made his way up from the rear of the regiment to walk beside his friend, Corporal Cornelius Wheeler, who was in Company I, Legate’s old company. “Corny, we are going to have a fight today, and I will not come out alive,” said Legate. Wheeler, who only moments before had had a similar conversation with Sergeant Joseph Williams, who also had a presentiment that he would be killed that day, laughed at Legate “and told him he was the second man who had been to me, and that it was all nonsense, that there was no prospect of a fight and that if he really felt that way, he had better not go in if there should be one, as he could easily avoid it – that a Sergeant Major was not of much account in a fight, anyway.” Legate replied, “No, I will stay with the regiment whatever happens.” It was not too much longer before the sounds of fighting could be heard in the direction of Gettysburg. The pace of the march quickened and when the brigade reached the farm of Nicholas Codori, just south of town, they were turned off into the farm fields and ordered toward the sound of firing.
    There were 1,829 officers and men in the five regiments of Meredith’s brigade. They bore the proud nickname “The Iron Brigade,” which they had earned for their performance in combat at 2nd Manassas, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Their other distinctive feature was that every enlisted man in the brigade wore the black felt Hardee hat, the regulation army headgear. They were tough and confident, among the best fighting men in the entire Army of the Potomac. In some ways this would the brigade’s last march because they would never be the same again after July 1. Corny Wheeler was wrong. There would be a fight that day and it would cost the brigade 1,153 casualties. Of this figure, 171 were killed, numbered among them Sergeant Major Legate and Sergeant Williams. Corny Wheeler survived to tell of his friends premonitions. To put this casualty figure in perspective, it was the highest loss sustained by any brigade in the Army of the Potomac in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Private Henry R. McCollum, Company H, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry. McCollum was killed on July 1. NPS

    On July 1, 2013 at 9:30 a.m., Dan Welch, a veteran seasonal ranger on our staff, and myself, will retrace The Last March of the Iron Brigade from the Codori farm to where they went into action on McPherson’s Ridge in one of our special Battlefield Experience programs during the Gettysburg 150th commemoration. Along the way we will meet some of the men like Legate, Williams and Wheeler who made history that day. Joining us will be the living history unit The Liberty Rifles, who will be in the uniform of the Iron Brigade, along with a color guard, and hopefully, a fife and drum unit. When the brigade marched up the Emmitsburg Road that morning their fifes and drums were playing the Scottish tune “The Campbells are Coming,” until the regiments were ordered toward the fighting. We would like to recreate that moment and the march of this brigade to its rendezvous with destiny on McPherson’s Ridge.
    To participate in this program park at the National Cemetery North or South Lot (the old Visitor Center and Cyclorama Center parking lots), at the Museum and Visitor Center Lots, or on Hancock Avenue and walk to the Codori Farm, which is on the Emmitsburg Road a quarter mile south of Gettysburg. Do not park on the Emmitsburg Road. We will gather near Codori’s on the east side of the Emmitsburg Road. The march from Codori’s to McPherson’s Ridge is just under 2 miles, so bring something to drink, a hat and sunscreen to protect you from the sun, and clothes and footwear suitable for walking cross-country. You will need to make arrangements to get picked up at the end of the march near Stop 1 on the Battlefield Auto Tour. The park will be running a free shuttle service that day which you can pick up at the McPherson’s Ridge stop. It will drop you off at Musselman Stadium at Gettysburg College, our shuttle hub on July 1. From Musselman’s you would need to walk several blocks to the Transit Station on Carlisle Street where you can take one of the free Lincoln Line shuttles back to the Visitor Center area. Maps with further details about shuttles and parking are available in our Commemorative Events Guide, which can be downloaded from the park web site at http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/150th-anniversary-events-2013.htm

    When the Confederates finally overwhelmed the Union lines on July 1 and drove the 1st and 11th Corps back through the streets of Gettysburg, Yankees, Rebels and civilians were all thrown together, as wounded and exhausted Union soldiers sought shelter in people’s homes and public buildings. Confederate soldiers pursued them taking hundreds of prisoners. For the citizens, it was a shocking ordeal, with combat in their streets, but with hundreds of wounded men needing shelter and help, they were forced to pitch in and help where they could. One of them was Mary McAllister, who lived on Chambersburg Street. She made her way over to nearby Chris Evangelical Lutheran Church, and found that

Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church. GettysburgDaily.com

“every pew was full [of wounded]; some sitting, some lying, some leaning on others. They cut off arms and legs and threw them out of the windows.” At the “College Edifice” at Pennsylvania College, now Pennsylvania Hall at Gettysburg College, nearly 900 Confederate wounded arrived from the day’s fighting for shelter and to receive medical attention. “The rooms and passages were densely crowded,” with the wounded wrote one Confederate. Several blocks away, four surgeons from the Iron Brigade had established a hospital at the Gettysburg Railroad Depot and Adams Express Office on Carlisle Street. After Confederate troops overran the town, General Jubal Early sent a message to Surgeon D. Cooper Ayres, of the 7th Wisconsin asking if he might want some whiskey for his patients. “Does a duck like to swim,” Ayres responded. The patients got their whiskey. Sergeant Austin Stearns, of the 13th Massachusetts, was among the wounded in Christ’s  Church, sitting in a pew waiting his turn for medical attention, when he was touched on the shoulder by someone behind him. He turned and “saw a reb who was wounded in the arm.” The man was from a North Carolina regiment, probably the 55th North Carolina, and Stearns found him “a very intelligent man and we entered into conversation immediately, he doing most of the talking.”
    At 4 p.m. on July 1, Rangers Chris Gwinn, John Hoptak and Caitlin Kostic, will present Yankees, Rebels and Civilians – The First Day of Battle Ends. This unique program will explore the stories of McCallister, Stearns, Ayres, and many others at three iconic sites within Gettysburg; Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pennsylvania Hall at Gettysburg College, and the Gettysburg Train Station. All of these sites have graciously allowed us access for this special event. The program will run from 4-6:30 p.m. At each location on the hour (4 p.m., 5 p.m., and 6 p.m.), Chris, John and Caitlin will offer a 30 minute program bringing to life the dramatic stories that happened there on July 1 and the days that followed. The sites are all within walking distance of each other. Parking is available at Musselman Stadium at Gettysburg College. You may start at any station and rotate through the others in whatever order you wish.

Yankees, Rebels and Civilians program map. NPS

  
    Each day of the anniversary, from July 1-4, we will offer two different Battlefield Experience programs. In my next posts we will explore those for July 2, 3, and 4.

D. Scott Hartwig

Blooming now on the Gettysburg Battlefield

Bloodroot

On walks this week through Gettysburg National Military Park, I have encountered  beautiful blooming Pennsylvania native wildflowers.  These shots are from April 16 and 17, 2013 at Culp’s Hill, Power’s Hill and at the park Museum and Visitor Center.

Dutchmen’s breeches resemble a pair of pantaloons hanging upside down.

Mayapples look like little green umbellas. They are not yet blooming, but marching along. Dutchmen’s breeches are blooming at the right.

Spring only seems to stay for a few short weeks so if you can, get out and enjoy these flowers.   One needs only to walk or jog along Gettysburg’s historic avenues and roadways to enjoy them.

 

Cutleaf toothwort

The leaves of the Trout lilly resemble a speckled fish.

Serviceberry, right in front of the Museum and Visitor Center

Even the trees and shrubs are blooming, including the native landscaping around the Museum and Visitor Center.   

The variety of habitats within the park ranging from forests to wetlands provides home to 553 species of vascular plants, 410 of which are native. The Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory has also listed 23 of these plants as endangered, threatened, or species of special concern.  For more information about plants in the park go to: http://www.nps.gov/gett/naturescience/plants.htm.

Redbud – one of the best loved trees at Gettysburg.

By taking a walk or jog through the park, you’ll improve your own health and well-being.  To learn more about National Park Service initiatives to encourage park visitors to make healthy lifestyle choices, check out “A Call to Action.”

Katie Lawhon, Management Assistant, April 18, 2013

The Repair of the 11th Massachusetts Infantry monument at Gettysburg

Gettysburg National Military Park monument preservation staff placed a new carved granite arm for the 11th Massachusetts Infantry onto its pedestal on the battlefield earlier today (on Thursday, April 11, 2013).  The work started at approximately 8 a.m. and was largely completed by late morning.  The following photos will show the progression of today’s work.

Gary Currens unstraps the arm after it arrives on site.

Lucas Flickinger and Gary load the arm onto the lift.

Buzzy Baker moves the arm into position using heavy equipment.

Lucas preps the stone with mortar before placing the arm on top.

Placing it into position

Brian Griffin preps the saber for placement onto the monument.

Attaching the saber.

  

This was the final step required for full repairs to the monument that was vandalized in February of 2006.  The park received the new carved granite arm for the monument from Granite Industries of Vermont earlier this winter. Once the arm was placed on top of the pedestal, the staff attached the saber and hand guard.

Brian Griffin sculpting a new arm out of clay last winter.

In the winter of 2011/2012, using a large collection of photos to ensure the correct size and shape, park preservation worker Brian Griffin sculpted the arm out of clay, then made a mold and created a plaster model that was shipped to Vermont for replication in stone.

From left, Brian Griffin, Lucas Flickinger, and Gary Curren with the completed repair.

The 11^th Massachusetts Infantry monument, the 4^th New York Artillery (Smith’s Battery), and the 114^th Pennsylvania Infantry were vandalized in February 2006.  The park has repaired both the 4th NY and the 114^th Pa. monuments.

Pieces of the arm scattered at the base of the monument after the vandalism in 2006.

Despite a $30,000 reward for information, no arrests or convictions for the vandalism have been made.

The completed monument at 2:15 p.m., April 11, 2013

Katie Lawhon, Management Assistant, 4/11/2013

The Quartermaster’s Tale – Part 2

    In my last post we met Captain W. Willard Smith, an assistant quartermaster who was sent to Gettysburg after the battle, along with Captain Henry B. Blood, another quartermaster, to see to the clean-up of the field and recovery of government property. J. Howard Wert, a 22 year old farmer’s son who spent considerable time on the battlefield that summer, described Smith as “he knew just what he was there for, and he went about his work very expeditiously, standing not much on ceremony and carrying not a picayune whose toes he tramped on.” Smith arrived in Gettysburg on July 8. Captain William C. Rankin, a quartermaster on General Meade’s staff, had been left behind in Gettysburg to do the same work Smith and Blood were sent to assist with, but Rankin was apparently an inefficient fellow (he was later court-martialed for drunkenness), or in over his head, for Smith found things in town and on the battlefield a mess. The 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, the only mounted force left behind, were preparing to leave and Smith had to talk their colonel into leaving behind one squadron to help him. There were hundreds of unburied Confederates and dead horses still lying on the field, and “thousands of rebel prisoners, some of which walked the streets discussing Southern rights.” He found large numbers of people picking up equipment and weapons that littered the field. A Union surgeon wrote that there were “crowds of citizens” from “neighboring country and town, and many from Philadelphia.” Some were seeking friends but “a great many were in search of relics or ‘trophies,’ as they called them, from the battlefield; shot, shell, bayonets, guns, and every sort of military property. . . It was almost incredible, however, to what an extent this trophy mania had spread.”

Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs. Captain Smith’s superior officer while Smith was engaged in the clean-up of the battlefield. LC

 
    Smith wasted no time in beginning to bring order to the situation. Within a day, using his Confederate prisoners “and citizens found carrying away Government property,” he buried 337 Confederate dead and over 100 horses. On July 10 he arrested 75 citizens his men found carrying away property from the battlefield and put them to work burying dead more horses. But with only about 100 cavalrymen at his disposal Smith complained “I could not disarm and unload one tenth the persons carrying off arms.” Smith estimated that there “from Three to Five thousand persons visited the battlefield daily, most of them carrying away trophies.” 

Alexander Gardner took this image of Union breastworks on Little Round Top on July 6. Note the cartridge box and open ammunition box in the foreground. These are examples of the equipment Captain’s Smith and Blood sought to recover. LC

    As Smith and Blood gradually brought order to the battlefield and its cleanup, the two officers began to venture forth into the surrounding countryside in search of government property. On July 16, accompanied by two cavalrymen, Smith visited Christian Benner’s farm, which encompassed Benner’s Hill. He found “guns, blankets, sabers, shelter-tents, &c.” From Benner’s they visited other farms east of town, including that of George Rosentsteel. Smith and his men found property at all of them “secreted in garrets, between beds, in out buildings, in fact, in every conceivable hiding place.” The captain ordered the farmers “to leave the harvest field, load up all the property with them and accompany me.” The result was a “long train” of wagons loads of army equipment. J. Howard Wert believed that to the farmer military rule “was a misty, intangible nothing. Little heed did they take of the Provost Marshal’s warning, and hence divers ones of them came to grief.” This was probably true in a number of cases, but the fact that Smith and his men found much of the property cleverly hidden away indicates that these individuals understood the Provost Marshal’s warning. Yet a number of these farmers had suffered considerable damage to their property and they saw the weapons and other equipment they picked up as something they could turn into cash to recoup some of their damages.

Alexander Gardner photographed this dead Confederate soldier on July 6. This is the same soldier Gardner moved to create his “sharpshooter” photograph. Captain Smith’s work details would have been responsible for burying this soldier and recovering the clothing and equipment near the body. LC

 
    Unsurprisingly, Smith’s zealous energy to recover army property and bring order to the battlefield was not popular. On the evening of the day he arrested 75 civilians for stealing property he was visited by a Congressman, I. K. Morehead, who told Smith he arrested three of Morehead’s constituents, “and threats were made that my straps should be torn off.” Smith had some bark on him and was not an easy man to intimidate. He replied to Morehead that “if it would be any service to the Government, I would willingly submit, but, I did not regret anything I had done, that the arrest of these gentlemen would be of great service to the Government by intimidating others, and no real damage to themselves.” Yet, Smith admitted in a letter to Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs in a July 29 letter that “My measures were apparently severe, but so far as circumstances would admit, I treated all with courtesy, and respect.” 
    After a few weeks very few local would have agreed that Smith treated all with courtesy and respect. J. Howard Wert, recalled that the captain and his troopers became so detested “that the common appellation for them through the countryside was the ‘Forty Thieves.’” Wert also observed that Smith’s activities allowed some locals to settle personal scores against neighbors they disliked or were jealous of. “In more than one case a domiciliary visit from the provost guard and a confiscation of blankets would be in consequence of information secretly given by an envious neighbor,” wrote Wert. David McConaughy, a well-known Gettysburg attorney, wrote to General Darius Couch, commander of the Department of the Susquehanna, on November 7, to complain that “Cap. Smith with his man Slonaker and others have become a perfect terror to our quiet farmers – and are more dreaded than the Rebels.” Nathaniel Lightner, a farmer who lived south of Gettysburg along the Baltimore Pike, and whose farm had been used as a hospital and suffered severe property damages, may well have been one of those that sounded off to McConaughy. Lightner had picked up some relics from the field and sold them to a visitor from New York for cash to pay for some of the damages to his farm. Somehow word of this reached Captain Blood [who was equally detested as Smith], and he had Lightner arrested. “I told him how it was, that we had no idea of doing anything unlawful,” wrote Lightner in 1893, “but he was determined to make me all the trouble he could.” Lightner’s friends got him released from arrest but thirty years later he recalled, “that arrest is the only thing of it all that made me mad, and I am mad about it yet.” 
    There seems little doubt that Captain Smith’s and Blood’s sense of duty caused them to take their mission of recovering government property to extreme lengths, and without any regard for circumstances, such as in the case of Nathaniel Lightner, but we should not forget that their task was massive and made more difficult by the rampant pilfering of equipment from the field by locals and visitors. Smith’s posted orders not to remove property from the field had little effect and, as he wrote to General Meigs on July 10, “I deemed it advisable to use more stringent measures.” 
    Exactly how much property Smith and Blood recovered is impossible to determine but a report from Lieutenant John R. Edie, the Acting Chief Ordnance officer of the Army of the Potomac, listed the following weapons retrieved from the battlefield: 24,864 muskets or rifles, 10,589 bayonets, 2,487 cartridge boxes, 366 sabres, 114 carbines, 5 revolvers, 2 rifled cannon, 3 limbers, plus ammunition and other leather equipment. Smith and Blood were responsible for some of these recovered weapons. They also helped restore order on the battlefield and saw that the last of the dead were buried and the many dead horses on the field were disposed of. As Gregory Coco concluded in his study of Gettysburg’s aftermath, “these men managed to save the United States treasury many thousands of dollars worth of useable weapons and other property. They had also scrubbed clean a huge and corrupted parcel of ground, and made it livable again. Their actions prevented disease, and gave the land back to the people and the possibility to sow and plant and reap once more.” [Coco, A Strange and Blighted Land: Gettysburg: The Aftermath of a Battle (Thomas Publications, 1995), 328]

D. Scott Hartwig

[Note: For those interested in exploring the work of the quartermasters after the battle, Greg Coco’s Aftermath book is a good place to start. The park library has a folder containing much of the correspondence of Captain Smith during the time he was at Gettysburg. The library is open by appointment on weekdays by contacting Historian John Heiser at john_heiser@nps.gov.]

International Perspectives on Gettysburg’s 150th: Civil War to Civil Rights

On March 22, 2013, the U.S. Department of State organized a foreign media visit to Gettysburg National Military Park to offer information about plans for the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

International journalists hear a presentation at Gettysburg about battle anniversary plans

The group included more than a dozen reporters from all over the world: Die Presse, Austria; Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Germany; Euronews, France; Indo-Asian News Service, India; Macedonian Radio and TV; Politika Newspaper and Magazines, Serbia; Publico, Portugal; Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corp.; The Epoch Times, China; The National News, United Arab Emirates; The Straits Times, Singapore; The Times of London; and the Vietnam News Agency.

They started their day with a trip to the Library of Congress to view the Hay copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

William Coe, reenactor, speaks to the reporters

Gettysburg’s visit began at the Museum and Visitor Center with presentations on the plans for the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address, and why we have chosen these activities.  Speakers included Bob Kirby, Superintendent Gettysburg National Military Park; Joanne Hanley, President, Gettysburg Foundation; Norris Flowers, President, Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau; and William Coe, Confederate Civil War reenactor (South Carolina).

Photographers capture the scene along Hancock Avenue

A question and answer session followed where the group had numerous questions about why Coe is a reenactor, his family connections to the war, and much more.  One reporter asked how he feels about “representing the Confederacy even though they lost the war?”

Before getting out onto the battlefield the group saw the museum film, A New Birth of Freedom,

Ranger Chris Gwinn with the reporters at The Angle

sponsored by the History Channel and narrated by Morgan Freeman.  The film tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War.  

To cap off the day, Gettysburg Park Ranger Chris Gwinn provided a 90 guided visit to battlefield including a stop at the Angle and a walk through the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, where more than 3500 soldiers who were killed in the Battle of Gettysburg are buried and  where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. 

Ranger Chris Gwinn spoke at the grave of Isaac Osborne of the 62nd Pennsylvania, killed in the Wheatfield on July 2, 1863.

In a fiercely cold wind, Ranger Gwinn talked about the fighting of the battle and its tragic aftermath.  It was exhilarating and astonishing to see the reporters’ enthusiasm.  They soaked in Gettysburg’s stories and landscapes and peppered the ranger with thoughtful questions, some of them quite unique.

Have you ever pondered this one:  “Does any other country commemorate their Civil War in the same way Americans do?  The Spaniards and Rwandan’s don’t. Why do Americans?”

The 150^th anniversary of the American Civil war provides an opportunity for the National Park Service and for our visitors from throughout the world.  Gettysburg programs will

Some moments at Gettysburg can’t even be planned, like this scene at one of the graves.

include stories of both well-known and lesser-known events, soldiers and civilians.  An important goal of our 150^th efforts — which include this blog, Facebook and Twitter — is to reach new and younger audiences.

National Parks everywhere from Gettysburg to Glorietta Pass are commemorating the defining events of the Civil War and their legacy in the continuing fight for civil rights. The overall theme strikes a special cord for people in many nations throughout the world–in struggling democracies and elsewhere: Civil War to Civil Rights.

Katie Lawhon, Management Assistant, March 28, 2013