July 3rd

3:45pm...

149 years ago at this moment, the last shattered survivors of the failed Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge would have been making their way back across this open field, singly and in small groups, effectively ending the Battle of Gettysburg. Many thousands of their comrades would be dead, wounded or captured, ending the 3 bloodiest days in American history.

It is good to remember.

Gettysburg - Union Defense of Devil's Den

Saturday Afternoon Session - LBG John Winkelman

The morning session followed the attack of Hood's division, with an emphasis on Robertson's Texas brigade, and a particular focus on the 1st Texas regiment. The afternoon session was similar in that it nominally covered the Union defense of Devil's Den, but really focused primarily on Ward's brigade and Smith's Battery. In fact, while the program was subtitled "The Struggle for Devil's Den", it just as easily could have been called "The Struggle for Smith's Battery".

As in the morning session, there was a tremendous amount of great detail, and in addition to the very knowledgeable session leader, there were a half dozen other guides tagging along in support and contributing as well. Most of the walk was spent on and in the immediate vicinity of Houck's Ridge, but we began by following the route Ward's brigade would have taken to arrive on the field in this location. We started at the brigade bivouac in the yard of the G Weikert house a ways to the northeast. We walked the short distance down the farm lane to the J Weikert house, and then continued southwest across Plum Run. We then skirted the eastern edge of the Wheatfield and into the east end of the Rose Woods. Here we saw where the right flank of the brigade (99th PA and 20th IN) would have been posted in the woods, where they would end up facing the 3rd Arkansas. We then continued on to the top of Houck's Ridge. Most of the rest of the session was conducted from this location with brief side trips up and down the various slopes of the ridge as we tracked the progress of the battle.

Once again I will not outline the history here, but have attached another batch of photos of some of the more important and interesting views.

Gettysburg - Confederate Assault on Devil's Den

Saturday Morning Session - LBG Rich Kohr

The morning walking tour followed the route of the Confederate attack on Devil's Den. We started from a spot on Warfield Ridge near where the junction between Law's Brigade and Robertson's "Texas" Brigade would have been. We walked east downhill to the Bushman farm, northeast to the Slyder farm lane, southeast to the Slyder farm, and then east to the lower shoulder of Big Round Top. This would have been roughly the path of the right flank regiments of Robertson's brigade (the 4th and 5th Texas). Due to the soggy ground conditions after recent rain and a wet spring, rather than wade across flooded fields to Devil's Den, we rode a bus to Rose's Woods and picked up the walk from the area near the Timbers farm (also known as the George Weikert farm). From there we walked east up the slope of Hauck's ridge following in the footsteps of the 1st Texas and 3rd Arkansas. Extensive discussion and Q and A happened all along the route, which took about 2.5 hours in total. Rather than try to recreate the walk, I will just show a bunch of pictures taken on this overcast walk. Out of the multitude of pictures I took, I have tried to select those which represent the most important and interesting views.

Gettysburg - ALBG Spring Seminar

"Into the Jaws of Hell"
The Struggle for Devil's Den
The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides
Spring Seminar, April 8-9, 2011

A few months ago my friend Phil called and told me about this event, and asked if I wanted to go. With advance warning to be able to plan for it I said "sure", and I am extremely glad that I did. The Gettysburg ALBG apparently does two of these a year, one in the spring and a full weekend one in the fall. This specific one focused on the attack and defense of Houck's Ridge and Devil's Den.

The first part of this was a lecture and slide show at 7pm on Friday evening at the Grand Army of the Republic hall in Gettysburg. Just being in that building on that site was pretty cool. The talk was given by LBG Tim Smith, a guide who I have seen several times on the PCN channel's battlefield walks that are shown every year around the anniversary of the battle. I also have one or two of his books, including one titled "Devil's Den; A History and Guide". The talk focused on the history and legacy of Devil's Den, with a major focus on the contemporary and near-contemporary photographic record of the site. Truly fascinating stuff, and a talk which made me go out and buy a couple of William Frassanito's books on the photographic history of Gettysburg.

The Saturday part was the main event, and was to consist of three hours of walking the battlefield from the Confederate point of view in the morning, followed by lunch, then three more hours of walking the battlefield from the Union point of view in the afternoon. The weather, which had rained on my geocaching Friday during the day, was not supposed to be an issue on Saturday (although the forecast was for cool and overcast), but there was a more serious threat. The government budget was set to expire at midnight, and if the budget impasse could not be broken and a settlement reached (however temporary), the park would be closed, as would all other federal facilities, and we would be unable to walk the field. Which meant that the Saturday program would be conducted as a series of lectures in an indoor room. Ugh. Fortunately, that would not come to pass, as a one-week extension was reached at 11:45 pm that would keep the government from shutting down.

I will follow this up with a post on each of the morning and afternoon sessions, with pictures, but suffice it to say that this was a FANTASTIC day and a half of hardcore history geekiness. I can't stress enough what a wonderful job these guides do, and what a tremendous wealth of knowledge they are. I would strongly recommend that anyone with a serious interest in Civil War history in general, or Gettysburg in particular, do whatever they can to attend one of these. They are well worth the modest cost of about $100 for a day-plus of immersing yourself in the history of the battle with people who know it all, inside and out.

Geocaching my way to Gettysburg

This weekend I will be attending a history seminar in Gettysburg with a couple of friends, Phil and Tim. The Friday evening session is a lecture that begins at 7pm, so I really didn't need to be out there until 6 or 6:30, but I figured as long as I needed to take part of a day off, I might as well take the whole day and see how much geocaching I could cram into one day.

My plan was to get the kids off to school and be on the road by about 8:00am. Total drive time to Gettysburg isn't much more than 2 hours if all went well, which would leave me a good seven hours or so to geocache and maybe spend some additional time on the battlefield. I knew that there were 6 virtual caches on or near the battlefield that I wanted to do, and having done my homework, I had mapped out lots of easy caches in the area.

The only down side to the day was the persistent off and on light rain showers, which were just enough to be annoying without getting me too wet. The weather could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse. I started the day with 4 caches in Cumberland county (a new one for me) just off the PA Turnpike at route 15, and 3 more near Dillsburg in York county, where I had only had one cache previously.

Then on to Gettysburg, where I accomplished everything I could have hoped for and more. The picture of the map shows everything I found, which also included most of the cluster of caches in the area to the SE labelled "map 1" which aren't crossed off. By the time I met Phil at the hotel before heading to the lecture, I had found 34 caches, making it my best day ever. My previous best had been 31 caches on the American Tobacco Trail in NC. The day's final tally included 2 puzzle caches, 6 virtuals, 24 traditionals, and surprisingly 2 earthcaches. Earthcaches are educational geology-oriented caches that can either be fairly easy or in some cases very difficult. The two that I did here were easy, and included looking at the rock formations of Devil's Den and finding a fossil footprint on a stone used in constructing a bridge on south Confederate Avenue. These were only my 3rd and 4th earthcaches, and were fun to do.

The actual seminar was absolutely terrific; more on that in other posts.