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On the 14th, I went on a class trip to Gettysburg, PA, with my Civil War class, to see the battlefield.

**WARNING: the following is a BRIEF description of the battle of Gettysburg**

Day One, July 1st, 1863. The south[confederates] were coming in from the north, in an attempt to steal shoes from the town of Gettysburg. No battle was intended to happen here, but yet, this was one of the most bloodiest battles ever. The north[union] was coming from the south, not knowing that the south was that close by. The battle started completly by accident. General Buford, of the North, head of the northen cavelry[horses], was ahead of the army, scouting. He noticed the confederates, and ordered an attack, hoping that General Reynolds, also from the north, who was on his way, would come in time. The south was ordered by General Lee[head of the hole southern army] NOT to attack the North, because they didn't know the north was there! They thought Buford and his 2,00 men were just Pen.. state militia! Anyway, they attacked, and the south responded. There, 15,000-20,000 southeners were attacking the 2,000 of General Buford. Now, Buford is cavelry, of horseback, and they usually don't fight. But Buford previously armed his men with Spencer Carbines, which could shoot 8 rounds per minute, compared to the souths 3 rounds per minute. Buford held position [from the tower], and eventually Reynolds came and saved the day. The south retreated, and planned to come back the next day, from a flanking position.

Day 2: July 2nd, 1863. General Lee wanted two hills, in the center of Gettysburg, named Little Round Top[LRT] and Big Round Top[BRT] for obvious reasons. They were higher ground level, and the idea for a battle was just to send men charging at each other. So, the best way to do it, was to CYA[Cover your @$$], and fight. Since the south retreated, the north was able to get these hills first. BRT was too wooded, and there would have been no room to but artillery[cannon], so LRT is where most of the battle took place. Colonel Joshua Lawerence Chamberlain, of the 20th Maine, was at the exact END of the union line, where the south would come at first. When the south charged, Chamberlain attacked from the top. His 350 or so men were covered, and there were other regiments there[like the 16th NY, and others], but it was Chamberlains men in front. After about 4 hours of fighting the south back, making them keep regrouping, and charging, Chamberlain was running short of ammo. It was HOT [100 F] of that day, and water suplies were cut off by the south, so these men were hot! When the south went again, chamberlain made a rash decision. He made his men[not that many left] attach their bayonets[the sword like things on the top of the rifles] and charge at the advancing south. this was the only thing he could do, because he was out of ammo, and if he were to retreat, the south could ahve taken the hill, then the battlefield, then defeat the union army, then march on washington, DC, and win the war for the south. Chamberlain charged, and the south fell apart and collapsed. 800+ southeners were taken hostage. Chamberlain, for the most part, saved the country.

Day 3: July 3rd, 1863: general Lee was mad. He tried the left, and the right, and they both failed. He was surrounded, except for the center. He gave General Pickett command. Now, the center of the field was open land, running uphill, 1 mile, to where the north was. Pickett used te grove of trees as his 1 mile marker. He sent the southern army into open space, when he was surrounded. This was the only thing he could do, though. General Longstreet, lee's second in command, did not approve of this tactic at all. but, it went on anyway. The south advanced, and was brutally destroyed. I don't remember the numbers, but i think, of the 20,000 southeners who advanced, only 3,000 made it to that grove of trees. What Pickett did first, was have a constant cannon fire at the north for an hour, to hopefully weaken defenses of the north. That didn't exactly work. The north chanted "fredericksburg!" [whioch was another battle, which the south destroyed the north].
Picketts charge failed, and the south retreated back to Richmond, VA[the capitol of the CSA*confederate states of america* at the time]

I'm getting tired of typing, but that was all from memory

After the tour of the field, we got a chance to roam the town for a while, and view all the tourists sites, and stuff. the ride, from here to there was 4 hours, and the same, the way back, without traffic.
I want to go back to gettysburg, because we didn't really get to see in hole place.

I can only post 5 pics here, but the rest are in my PB. I took a lot of pics of empty field, because remember, gettysburg was supposedly one of the most haunted places in America, because of the battle there. I couldn't decide which ones to post here!

Here's my PB:

http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h240/Markman_2006/Gettysburg%20Nov%2007/?start=all

PLEASE remember to look in my PB for all the other pics, To understand the battle a little better you've got to see all the pics :Lol:

If you've got any questions about the pics, or the battle, you can PM me, or post it here!
Enjoy!

--Mark--

Hard to even imagine that all of those people lost their lives there isn't it????? All that pain and suffering and hurt...

Very cool trip to take Mark, learning about the history of our country and actually getting to visit the place is so neat.

over 50,000 died there in 3 days... the only civillian who died in the battle, Jenny Wade, her house is still there, and is supposedly haunted too, along with the building where John Reynolds was brought, and died.

That is a HUGE amount of people...the fields must've been just so red.

I found a site about her by googling her name. The Jennie Wade House, cool!

I really love history.

So do I!

We saw the house, but didn't actually have time to go in...

The fields must have been red, yeah... good thing there was a rainstorm the on the 5th to wash it all away
still didn't clean up for the bodies, though... that's where the first national cemetary came from.
if you look in my PB, you'll see graves that just say things like "minnisota--52 bodies". That means 52 people from Minnisota-they could tell by their uniform badges and such-were buried in that one grave

That is sad. Very sad. Last night after after you left Mark I was on a Gettysburg hunt.....all kinds of pictures of "ghosts", and stories, and then I found the pictures from back then.

The real pictures that were taken of the soldiers laying in the fields....very, very sad. I never thought about there being pictures like that since it was so long ago.

BTW, my bestest friend in the world, Mel....she lives about 10-15 min from Gettysburg and says she has to ride thru those fields a lot. When I get up there to visit her I'll have her take me over. She lives a few hours away from me so I've never been to her house yet.

I read a story last night about a woman and husband that were walking thru the fields at night in the dark, they were being followed by footsteps but nobody was around but them. It was back before it was a tourist spot. So they got in their car and drove to Devils Den--when they got out and were walking to find a path they'd taken that afternoon they heard a loud sound in the underbrush and a snorting, huffing noise like a wild boar ready to attack. There was nothing there. It got louder and closer and all of a sudden the noise just stopped.

She said that they think it was a lung shot horse fleeing the devestation behind it.....a glimpse into the past....a ghost horse.

There are really fascinating stories and photos out there if you dig around a bit.

Thats scary!

We walked through the Devils Den.. it's scary just to be there! It's sort of excluded from the rest of the field, and it's so erie... I might have a few pictures somewhere in the PB of it...

When we were walking through The Angle[the spot of trees that Pickett used as his marker, where General Armistead died] i could have SWORN i saw a confederate climbing the small rock wall that the confederates climbed over to reach the Union Line...
I glanced for a second, ad before i knew it, it was gone. If i'm not mistaken, this looks onto the devils den, from the far side of little round top:
http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h...07/?action=view&current=HPIM1297.jpg

and in this one, if you look past the cannon, you'll see the little stone wall i'm talking about at The Angle http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h...07/?action=view&current=Image041.jpg

Those look really creepy Mark. I'd probably about wet myself just walking thru there in the daytime. I'm sort of a wimp.

Maybe you really did see a soldier....you never know what flashes into the past we are sometimes allowed to see you know?

How long did your bus ride take to get all the way down there? The furthest up I went on a bus was Scranton and that seemed like it took FOREVER on a bus.

Read all kinds of stories about the hauntings of the Jennie Wade house too, too bad you couldn't get a chance to go in there.

From Staten Island, to Gettysburg Military park[not the town] took a good 4 and a half hours to 5 hours...with one short rest stop halfway through.
We left school at 6am, and got there about 10:45.. and that's without any traffic!

mark such great pictures & I love the storys too!! thanks for posting it--i too love history--I hope to one day go there---it would be great---you were very lucky to go and thanks again so much for sharing

HELLO mARK,

THESE ARE VERY NICE PICTURES, AND THE DESCRIPTION IS VERY INTERESTING.kEITH AND I ARE VERY INTERESTED IN THE CIVIL WAR, WE VE GOT THE DVD S AND BOOKS ABOUT IT AND LISTENED TO ALMOST EVERY DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT IT...WE WATCHED AND REWATCED THE KEN BURNS SERIES ON IT.....SOOOOO GOOD. IT MUST BE VERY INTERESTING YOUR C W CLASS. THANKS FOR POSTING THOSE PIX.

fRANNY.(WHO S ALWAYS YELLING AS USUAL I FORGOT the caps again, sorry. )

:Lol: :Lol:

The Ken Burns documentary is great, speaking of it, i'm actually learning that 'theme song' he used for it on piano

Thanks for looking, i'm in very interested in the civil war as well

And, by the looks of things, today is your birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :kissie

Badplanter

Thanks for the refreshing story of the battle of Gettys.. We been down there and walked around and re inacted the battle in our minds, and it was quite scarey.

I felt like I was there.....It was something else to see.