BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Gettysburg Natl Battlefield -- Visitor Center

PA -- Gettysburg Natl Battlefield -- Visitor Center:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] GETVC_080414_022.JPG	[2] GETVC_080414_034.JPG	[3] GETVC_080414_037.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. GETVC_080414_191.JPG: The basic lay-out of the museum
2. GETVC_080414_281.JPG: Alabamian's Bible: Pvt. William Ventress of the 5th Alabama Infantry lost this Bible on the battlefield. A note inside reads, "If I should get killed in battle or sicken and die, my friends will please send this Bible and my remains home to my wife, to Mrs. W.E. Ventress, Clayton, Barbour County, Alabama."
3. GETVC_080414_288.JPG: Hardee Hat
4. GETVC_080414_312.JPG: Field glasses
5. GETVC_080414_322.JPG: The letters "MISS" are stamped faintly on this belt. It was found on the Trostle farm, where the soldiers of the 21st Mississippi Infantry fought at point-blank range with the men of the 9th Massachusetts Battery.
6. GETVC_080414_327.JPG: ID tag for "Thos. O'Donnell Co. C, 10 UPV (?)"
7. GETVC_080414_335.JPG: Cannon ball
8. GETVC_080414_345.JPG: Furniture that was in Meade's headquarters here at Gettysburg
9. GETVC_080414_359.JPG: Remnants from the battlefield
10. GETVC_080414_426.JPG: Buried Shells: The retreating Army of Northern Virginia buried these artillery shells near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Gettysburg.
11. GETVC_080414_429.JPG: "We must now prepare for harder blows and harder work." -- Gen. Robert E. Lee, July 26, 1863
12. GETVC_080414_432.JPG: Faces of the dead
13. GETVC_080414_447.JPG: Hard tack
14. GETVC_080414_486.JPG: Wooden Marker: This headboard marked the site of William Fisher's temporary grave on the battlefield. "G.T. Fisher 10 US Inft I found this boy buried on the farm of Jacob Weikert about 125 yards South West of the end of a crop field. His body was taken up by Joseph Weikert of ths towne of Gettysburg on the fifth of July."
15. GETVC_080414_537.JPG: Spreading the News: A telegraph operator tapped out news of Lee's surrender on this telegraph key at Appomattox.
16. GETVC_080414_549.JPG: After the Sword: Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant used this pen to sign the surrender agreement with Conf. Gen. Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1863. [sic]
17. GETVC_080414_662.JPG: Model of the original James Longstreet memorial vs the final one. A memorial was to be built in 1940 but the war delayed it. When the memorial finally came up in 1998, it was a totally different one.
18. GETVC_080414_674.JPG: Model for the Eternal Peace Memorial
19. GETVC_080414_725.JPG: The glass is way too reflective for my photographic tastes
20. GETVC_080519_065.JPG: Four of the roughly 3,500 cannon balls fired during the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861.
21. GETVC_080519_071.JPG: Some of the signage held up better than others
22. GETVC_080519_205.JPG: Burns Into Battle: Burns and his wife lived on Chambersburg Street, near the western edge of Gettysburg. It was a short walk from his porch to the front lines on McPherson's Ridge. He brought his old powder horn and smoothbore musket to fight the Confederates and eventually found a place in Herbst's Woods with the 7th Wisconsin Infantry. They lent him a rifle.
23. GETVC_080519_230.JPG: Trostle Shell: Abraham Trostle found this unexploded Confederate shell on his farm in 1863, The family believed it made the hole that is still visible in the barn.
24. GETVC_080519_243.JPG: There had been an exhibit on the trash of war -- old shell fragments and such -- when I visited on opening day. It didn't work for me for some reason. I was pleased to see that they were reexamining the exhibit when I came back -- the cases were now empty.
25. GETVC_080519_266.JPG: Faces of the fallen
26. GETVC_080519_287.JPG: Tools for picking up the dead
27. GETVC_080519_319.JPG: 75 Years After. The 75th reunion of the battle brought roughly 1,850 veterans back to Gettysburg. Their average age was 94. This medal, program, and souvenir commemorated the event.
28. GETVC_080519_322.JPG: Longstreet Postponed. The National Park Service planned for a statue of Conf. Gen. James Longstreet in 1940. This model shows the design, and this shovel was used to break ground for the construction. But a new conflict -- the outbreak of World War II -- postponed the event.
29. GETVC_080519_328.JPG: Letters from Home exhibit
30. GETVC_081223_0006.JPG: An Imperfect Union:: The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution combined inspiration and compromise. And both documents contained seeds of the Civil War. "All men are created equal" -- in these simple words from the Declaration, different Americans found different meanings, especially free and enslaved people, slaveholders and abolitionists. And the Constitution held other sources of simmering conflict. Protections for slavery were written into its text. Representatives from slave states refused to sign the document without them.
31. GETVC_081223_0009.JPG: The Slavery Question: In the early 1800s, slavery in America was 200 years old. Different Americans saw slavery in different ways -- as mortal sin or God's will or a lifelong sentence to labor and oppression. Americans' differing beliefs about slavery were a source of enduring, bitter conflict. By 1850, the United States enslaved more people than any other country in the world. This human property was more valuable than the nation's railroads and factories combined.
32. GETVC_081223_0013.JPG: We The People: Who was an American in the early 1800s? People living with the nation's borders included new immigrants, American Indians, slaves, free blacks -- men, women, and children. But with a few exceptions, only white males over 21 enjoyed all the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote. The Civil War forces the American people to confront new questions. If a slave escapes to freedom, does she become an American? If a Southerner rebels against his government, does he remain an American?
33. GETVC_081223_0019.JPG: The Brink of War: By 1860, the end of the United States was a looming possibility. Some Northern abolitionists preached "No union with slaveholders." Many white Southerners believed that they must create a new country to preserve their way of life and their right to own slaves. In Kansas, proslavery and antislavery men had already begun to murder one another over the issue of extending slavery into the territories. And a presidential election in November might decide the fate of the nation.
34. GETVC_081223_0023.JPG: The War For the West: Millions of Americans North and South believed it was the nation's destiny to spread across the continent. Many white Southerners hoped for an empire of slavery that would include Cuba, much of Mexico, and stretch to the Pacific. Most Northerners opposed slavery in the Western territories. They feared that small farmers without slaves would be unable to compete and survive. But black and white, free and enslaved, Americans kept moving west, and the debate turned bloody.
35. GETVC_081223_0027.JPG: John Brown: Madman or Martyr? John Brown was a farmer, merchant, and land speculator -- and unsuccessful at all three. But his personal crusade was ending slavery. On October 16, 1859, Brown led an attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He hoped to capture muskets there, rally slaves to his cause, and spark a rebellion. But he was caught and hanged for his crimes. His willingness to die for his beliefs made him a martyr in the struggle against slavery.
36. GETVC_081223_0028.JPG: Lincoln Wins: Even before the votes were counted, the presidential election of 1860 showed that the United States was a deeply divided nation. Four men ran for president, which splintered the vote. But most Americans lived in Northern states, and most voters there chose the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln. The Republicans were determined to prevent the spread of slavery into the western territories. Largely for this, Lincoln was a menace in the eyes of many Southern slaveholders.
37. GETVC_081223_0031.JPG: The Election of 1860: In the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas received most of the votes in the North. Douglas, John Bell, and John C. Breckenridge contested the election in the South. Lincoln wasn't even on the ballot in nine Southern states. In the end, Lincoln won about 40 percent of the popular vote -- and the presidency.
38. GETVC_081223_0037.JPG: John Brown, Abolitionist: In 1855, John Brown and his five sons moved to Kansas to fight the spread of slavery into the western territories. As the conflict escalated into guerrilla warfare, Brown and his sons murdered five proslavery men. Slaveholders saw Brown as a bloodthirsty madman, and an instigator of their worst nightmare -- an armed rebellion by slaves.
39. GETVC_081223_0040.JPG: South Carolina secedes: "The non-slaveholding States... have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes." -- South Carolina Declaration of Secession, December 20, 1860 On December 20, 1860, South Carolina declared its independence from the United States. Six other Southern states followed over the next few weeks, and together they formed the Confederate States of America. On February 8, 1861, before Abraham Lincoln had taken office, the Confederacy adopted its own constitution.
40. GETVC_081223_0043.JPG: The First Confederacy: Seven states seceded fro the Union between December 1860 and February 1861. In March, they ratified a new constitution for the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis their first president.
41. GETVC_081223_0047.JPG: The First Shot: About 85 federal troops waited anxiously inside Fort Sumter, including several men who would play important roles at Gettysburg. Abner Doubleday later wrote that he believed the first shot "seemed to bury itself in the masonry about a foot from my head, in very unpleasant proximity to my right ear."
42. GETVC_081223_0049.JPG: Fort Sumter Falls: Fort Sumter guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor. The Confederate state of South Carolina and the US government both claimed the fort. By April 1861, negotiations over its fate had dragged on for months. For the Union, abandoning Sumter would be an admission of weakness, but reinforcing it might risk war. Instead, President Lincoln decided to resupply the fort without bringing in weapons or troops. For the new Confederacy, even this was too much, and President Jefferson Davis gave the order to take the fort.
43. GETVC_081223_0053.JPG: Confederate States of America: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina seceded in April and May 1861. They joined the seven states of the Deep South in the Confederate States of America. Secessionists in Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland tried, but failed, to lead those states out of the Union.
44. GETVC_081223_0056.JPG: A Confederacy Rises: In parts of the South, feeling ran high against leaving the Union. On April 4, 1861, delegates at a convention in Richmond, Virginia, voted against secession, 89 to 45. During the next two weeks, Fort Sumter fell, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion, and Virginians voted to secede. Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina followed. They joined the seven states of the Deep South in the Confederate States of America.
45. GETVC_081223_0060.JPG: Two Presidents: "The saddest day of my life." -- Jefferson Davis, resigning his seat in the US Senate, January 21, 1861. Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born in Kentucky -- one year and only about 80 miles apart. Each man came to represent a different region of the country and different way of life. And each became a president.
46. GETVC_081223_0069.JPG: Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln was a self-made man. He worked as a grocer, postmaster, and surveyor, among other jobs, and studied law in his spare hours. Lincoln rose to fame as a lawyer, congressman, and candidate for the US Senate. in 1861, virtually no one saw him one of the great leaders of American history.
47. GETVC_081223_0073.JPG: Jefferson Davis: By 1861, Jefferson Davis had a long career of service to his country. He was a graduate of West Point, US Congressman, and senator from Mississippi, and secretary of war. When the South seceded, he was elected president of the Confederacy, though in his heart he hoped for a military command.
48. GETVC_081223_0077.JPG: 34-Star United States Flag, 1861: The 34 stars on this flag include the 11 states of the Confederacy. The US government never recognized the right of the Southern states of leave the Union, and their stars remained on the American flag throughout the war. First National Flag of the Confederacy, 1861: Called the Stars and bars, its 11 stars represented the states of Confederacy. In 1863, the design of the flag was changed to avoid confusion on the battlefield. Patriotic slogans like these were unusual on national flags.
49. GETVC_081223_0084.JPG: A Nation At War, 1861-1863: "There is no nonsense about us... We have been in the service long enough to know that fighting is no Childs play." -- Pvt. ED Benedict, 12th Pennsylvania Reserves, July 1, 1863 The excited of war faded quickly. Eager recruits at the first Battle of Manassas -- if they survived -- were hardened veterans two years later. Brutal, bloody combat swept across the nation from the Atlantic Coast to beyond the Mississippi River. And in the South especially, civilians felt the horror of war at their doorsteps.
50. GETVC_081223_0087.JPG: To War: "We shall grow the stronger and the nobler by the very contest we are compelled to wage." -- New York Times, April 16, 1861 To Abraham Lincoln, preserving the nation justified war. If a state could leave the Union, the American experiment in democracy was over. Confederate President Jefferson Davis believed that he led a second American revolution -- to create a new nation, preserve slavery, and defend Southern soil. Farmers, schoolteachers, and shoemakers marched off to war for these reasons, too -- and for others more personal.
51. GETVC_081223_0090.JPG: South: The political goals of the Confederacy were to establish a new nation, preserve a way of life based on slave labor, and ensure the spread of slavery into new territories. The Confederacy also hoped to persuade foreign countries to recognize it as an independent nation and to draw the border states into the government. The Confederacy's Military Objectives: Defeat a Union army in a decisive victory and convince the United States to let the Confederacy go its way. Break any blockade of Southern ports. Turn back Union invasions of the South. The South did not have to conquer any Northern territory to win the war.
52. GETVC_081223_0097.JPG: North: The United States' political goal at the start of the war was to bring the states that seceded back into one nation. The United States had to win the war -- a draw left the country divided. The United States' Military Objectives: Defeat a Confederate army in a decisive victory and convince the Confederacy to give up the fight. Blockade Southern ports to choke off cotton exports and imports of weapons and other goods from Europe. Conquer and occupy the South, an area twice the size of the original thirteen colonies.
53. GETVC_081223_0101.JPG: In The Army Now: In the first weeks of the Civil War, both sides had more volunteers than they could train and equip. They turned away thousands of men clamoring to enlist. As hope for a brief war vanished, the armies looked for ways to enlist more soldiers and keep them longer. Both sides extended the terms of most enlistments -- in the North to three years and in the South for the duration of the war.
54. GETVC_081223_0104.JPG: The Draft: By 1862, volunteers were no longer enough. The Confederacy started a draft in April. The United States followed the next year. Men with money could escape the draft by paying a fee or hiring a substitute. In the South, one white male was exempt from every plantation with 20 or more slaves.
55. GETVC_081223_0107.JPG: An Experienced Army: The Union and the Confederacy had to build armies beginning in 1861, and no one on either side had experience with mobilization on this vast scale. A large army in the Revolutionary War was 10,000 men. In 1862, the soldiers of the Union Army of the Potomac alone numbered 121,000. Both sides learned as they fought. Men who survived were efficient, hardened veterans by the beginning of 1863.
56. GETVC_081223_0111.JPG: Soldiering and Surviving: "The interest I once took in the military is almost gone. I do my duty like a machine." -- Lt. David C. Bradley, 65th Illinois Infantry, to his mother, June 21, 1863. Inside their uniforms, soldiers were just men and boys. They missed their families. Army life often bored them. And they lived with the knowledge that suffering and death might be only a few days away. To keep up their morale, they turned to music, poker, whiskey, religion, and many other sources of pleasure and hope. Soldiering was hard on the spirit.
57. GETVC_081223_0115.JPG: The Homefront: On the homefront, Northerners and Southerners lived through different wars. The Northern economy boomed and the federal government grew. But the war devastated much of the South and brought hunger and hardship to civilians there. In both regions, women left their homes to work in factories, offices, and fields. And families everywhere felt the grief of fathers, sons, and brothers lost.
58. GETVC_081223_0119.JPG: Liberty Must Take The Day: Abraham Lincoln and most Northerners went to war to preserve the Union. But for African Americans, the Civil War was about ending slavery from the first shot. The chaos of war gave enslaved people a chance to escape to freedom. A Union victory would guarantee that they remained free. And black soldiers hoped that their courage under fire might prove all African Americans worthy of freedom, equality, and full citizenship at the war's end.
59. GETVC_081223_0121.JPG: The Emancipation Proclamation: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." -- Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863. In the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln freed all enslaved people in the parts of the South in rebellion against the United States. The act encouraged slaves to flee to Union lines and join the Union army. And every fugitive slave was one less laborer for the Confederate war effort. With the proclamation, the war to save the Union also became a war to end slavery.
60. GETVC_081223_0125.JPG: Version of the Emancipation Proclamation
61. GETVC_081223_0142.JPG: An Invisible Army? Could any Union general defeat Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia? By June 1863, Lee and his army had inflicted four demoralizing losses on Union armies in twelve months. But the Confederates had suffered, too. The Chancellorsville victory in May had cost Lee nearly one quarter of his army, including his ablest commander, Stonewall Jackson. Some of Lee's officers were commanding a corps or division for the first time as they marched into Pennsylvania.
62. GETVC_081223_0145.JPG: Meade Takes Command: Commanding the Army of the Potomac was a temporary position. Five generals had led the army, or part of it, since 1861. None had given the country a decisive victory, and President Abraham Lincoln had replaced each one. He chose Pennsylvanian George Meade as the army's new commander on June 28, 1863, three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
63. GETVC_081223_0149.JPG: The Missions of the Armies: "Let their homes be laid waste -- Their lands destroyed -- Their towns laid in ashes, and then they will be disposed of to make... peace." -- Lt. William Blount, 47th North Carolina, June 23, 1863. Confederate Mission: General Robert E. Lee took a great risk in leading his army north. But he hope for great rewards: - A Confederate victory in Pennsylvania might terrify civilians, encourage peace talks, and even persuade the United States to end the war. - Two years of war had devastated much of Virginia, and Lee was short of supplies -- moving the struggle north would given Southern farmers a chance to plant and harvest. - Pennsylvania's fields and barns would supply the Army of Northern Virginia, and the army could send crops and livestock south. - In Mississippi and Tennessee, Union armies were gaining ground, and an invasion of Pennsylvania might relieve some pressure in the west. Union Mission: The mission of the Army of the Potomac was to protect Washington and Baltimore, find the Army of Northern Virginia, and destroy it.
64. GETVC_081223_0165.JPG: The Invasion of Pennsylvania: "As far as I can judge, there is nothing to be gained by this army remaining quietly on the defensive." -- Gen. Robert E. Lee, June 8, 1863. In June 1863, Union and Confederate armies in the East found themselves roughly where they had started two years before. But Gen. Robert E. Lee's army was starved for supplies, and he believed that the United States would outlast the Confederacy in a long defensive struggle. He thought the best hope lay in a bold gamble -- an invasion of Pennsylvania.
65. GETVC_081223_0171.JPG: Lee's Field Headquarters: The stove, cot, medical chest, and field desk here traveled with Gen. Robert E. Lee during the invasion of Pennsylvania. Lee's modest headquarters were no mark of his importance to the Confederate cause by spring 1863. Southerners' brightest hopes for victory rested not with Jefferson Davis or even the will of the Confederate people, but with Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.
66. GETVC_081223_0179.JPG: Lee's gloves
67. GETVC_081223_0181.JPG: Lee's cot and medicine chest
68. GETVC_081223_0189.JPG: Confederate Campaign: On June 3, 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia began to move north. Using the Blue Ridge Mountains to screen its movement, the army marched toward Maryland and crossed the Potomac River in mid-June. For the next two weeks, the Confederates occupied towns across south-central Pennsylvania -- gathering supplies and probing for the Union army. Winchester: As the Army of Northern Virginia moved north, it liberated Winchester, Virginia from a garrison of Union troops and took thousands of prisoners. Southern newspapers rejoiced at the victory. The town changed hands dozens of times during the war. JEB Stuart's Ride: On June 24, Conf. Gen. JEB Stuart took most of the Confederate cavalry on a daring raid behind the Union army. His troopers captured a wagon train, cut telegraph lines, and terrified civilians. But for eight days -- until July 2 -- Stuart left Robert E. Lee in the dark about the position of the Union army.
69. GETVC_081223_0191.JPG: Union Campaign: For the first three weeks of June, the exact movements of the Confederate army remained a mystery to Union commanders. To protect Washington DC, the Army of the Potomac stayed near the capital. Finally, on June 24, the Union infantry began to cross the Potomac and then took several roads north through Maryland to speed the advance.
70. GETVC_081223_0195.JPG: What Is An Army? Ask a Civil War soldiers what unit he was with, and the answer would be his regiment. The regiment was the basic unit of both armies. Newly formed regiments contained about 1,000 officers and men, led by a colonel. Most regiments bore a number and a state name, such as the 26th North Carolina or the 1st Wisconsin. Men in a regiment were typically recruited from the same part of a state; they were often friends and neighbors. The actual number of men in a regiment varied widely because death and disease took a steady toll. At the Battle of Gettysburg, a typical regiment numbered about 350 men.
71. GETVC_081223_0196.JPG: Regiment = Approximately 350 men Brigade = Two to six regiments Division = Two to four brigades Corps Two to four divisions Army = Two or more corps The Army of Northern Virginia, divided into three corps, had about 73,000 men on the campaign to Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, in seven corps, including some 90,000.
72. GETVC_081223_0201.JPG: Civil War Maps: Like winning a battle, leading an army on a long marched required good generalship and reliable tools. Accurate maps were crucial to getting tens of thousands of men to the right place at the right time along different roads and across unfamiliar ground.
73. GETVC_081223_0203.JPG: The Civil War Art of Edwin Forbes: Edwin Forbes was one of hundreds of reporters and artists who brought the story of the war home. He spent two years with the Army of the Potomac. His sketches capture dozens of movements in military life, including the immense labor of moving an army.
74. GETVC_081223_0208.JPG: Moving An Army: In 1863, the 90,000 men of the Army of the Potomac, gathered in one place, would have been the tenth largest city in the United States. This single army was larger than any city in the South except New Orleans. Assembling an army this size was difficult enough. Keeping it fed and clothed was a colossal challenge. Moving it was harder still. When the Army of Northern Virginia headed north toward Pennsylvania, the wagons in its supply train stretched for 60 miles.
75. GETVC_081223_0210.JPG: Pennsylvania During the Campaign: The Confederate army crossed from northern Maryland into Pennsylvania in mid-June 1863. Pennsylvanians worried that the state capital at Harrisburg was the invaders' goal. But Baltimore and Philadelphia were possibilities. The Confederates fathered food, shoes, horses, cattle, and other goods wherever they passed. So the citizens of Pennsylvania hid whatever they could. Many loaded up wagons and fled before the advancing army. The Confederates also kidnapped hundreds of African Americans and sent them South into slavery.
76. GETVC_081223_0214.JPG: Pennsylvania broadside warning of the enemy's approach: The Enemy is approaching! I must rely upon the people for the Defence of the State! And have called the militia for that purpose! AG Curtin, Government of Pennsylvania. The term of service will only be while the danger of the state is imminent. ...
77. GETVC_081223_0218.JPG: Regiment = Approximately 350 men Brigade = Two to six regiments Division = Two to four brigades Corps Two to four divisions Army = Two or more corps
78. GETVC_081223_0223.JPG: A Day On Campaign: From the soldiers' point of view, a campaign was exhausting, frustrating, boring, and unpredictable. Every so often, it was fun. Generals ordered marches in driving rain and baking heat. Infantrymen might walk two mils in a day or twenty-five, toward the enemy or away. Some marches took the soldiers past cheering crowds in the morning and grim spectators later the same day. To your right is a glimpse of the month-long campaign through Pennsylvania in the words of the men who endured it.
79. GETVC_081223_0230.JPG: A day on the march often started as early as 2am. Soldiers got up, packed their gear, and ate breakfast. Then they waited for orders, sometimes all day. On June 24, the Union 1st Corps struck their tends, stood around through the morning, drilled in the afternoon, went nowhere, and set up their tents again at night.
80. GETVC_081223_0233.JPG: After breakfast, soldiers too ill to march could report to army surgeons, who weeded out the fakers. On a long march, some men weakened by disease or exhaustion dropped out of line and lay by the roadside. Many rested and rejoined their units, and others died by the road.
81. GETVC_081223_0237.JPG: On the first few days of a march, equipment piled up along the roadside. A bad map, news about the enemy, or confusing orders might send a column back and forth over the same ground. But in emergencies, units of both sides marched nearly to exhaustion.
82. GETVC_081223_0253.JPG: Officer's Camp: These are items typically used by a Union officer in a field camp. Officers lived much better than enlisted men. They generally slept in wall tents -- one or two officers to a tent. Items varied greatly and reflected individual tastes. Personal belongings were carried on baggage wagons. The higher the rank, the more baggage allowed.
83. GETVC_081223_0258.JPG: Enlisted Men's Camp: These are items typically used by two enlisted Union soldiers in a field camp. Unlike officers, enlisted men had to carry all of their belongings on their backs. On long marches, men were unwilling to carry much more than the absolute essentials. Even so, an infantryman ended up carrying about 30 to 40 pounds.
84. GETVC_081223_0263.JPG: Comforts on campaign were simple -- a rare letter, newspapers, tobacco, even practical jokes. Friendly civilians lifted the spirits of soldiers, and so did pilfering from citizens on the other side. A few Confederate soldiers marched through Pennsylvania plucked the hats off civilians and left their own battered headgear in exchange.
85. GETVC_081223_0265.JPG: Soldiers on campaign usually stopped and cooked a midday meal. For a Union soldier, a day's rations was a pound of hardtack, three-fourths of a pound of salt pork, and a little sugar, coffee, and salt. Confederates' rations were skimpier. But they ate well on the Gettysburg campaign, thanks to the farms and stores of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
86. GETVC_081223_0270.JPG: Water was a blessing and an obstacle for soldiers on the campaign. Rivers and streams slowed their marches, and rocks cut their feet at crossings. But on a dirt road marching behind thousands of other men, a lack of water was far worse.
87. GETVC_081223_0272.JPG: In May and June 1863, the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia marched more than 200 miles. The red clay of Virginia and Maryland powdered to a cloud of fine dust under thousands of marching feet. On June 15, one soldier in the 2nd Union Corps recorded a temperature of 102 degrees.
88. GETVC_081223_0277.JPG: Soldiers blessed the rain that cooled the air and kept down the dust, until the dirt roads of Maryland and Pennsylvania turned to mud.
89. GETVC_081223_0281.JPG: A good end to a day's march was dry weather, time to forage for food, and wood to cook supper. On the road to Gettysburg, the last march for many units ended with a sprint toward the sound of cannon fire and a headlong rush into battle.
90. GETVC_081223_0284.JPG: Gettysburg During the Campaign: "My aunt and I were quite alone, our farmer having gone away with the horses in hope of hiding them." -- Amelia H. Harmon, Gettysburg, June 1863 The people of Gettysburg knew the Confederates might come. Money in the town bank was shipped away. Merchants sent a railroad car full of goods to Philadelphia. Residents hit their valuables and livestock. Many of the townspeople fled -- especially the men. Men were more likely to be rounded up as captives or mistaken for combatants and shot.
91. GETVC_081223_0287.JPG: African Americans in Gettysburg: Nearly 200 free African Americans lived in and around Gettysburg in June 1863. By the time Confederate troops appeared on June 26, most had fled. A few hid with white families in town. The Confederate invasion only added to a threat that black Pennsylvanians had lived with for decades. Fugitive slaves were in constant danger of being arrested and returned to slaveholders. The Confederate army might kidnap even free blacks and sell them South.
92. GETVC_081223_0297.JPG: Union Cavalryman: This horse and rider carry the equipment of a typical Union cavalryman on campaign. The insignia on the uniform identify this rider as a trooper in the 8th Illinois Calvary, which fought with the Army of the Potomac throughout the Gettysburg campaign.
93. GETVC_081223_0305.JPG: The Role of Cavalry: Cavalry, infantry, and artillery were the three main branches of a Civil War army. Cavalry regiments were divided into smaller units called troops, and cavalrymen were known as troopers. The first responsibility of the cavalry was to scout and screen -- find the enemy, report their location, and prevent their cavalry from doing the same. The more glamorous jobs were less frequent -- raiding supply lines, cutting communications, burning bridges and railroads, or charging full tilt into the enemy's troopers. ...
94. GETVC_081223_0308.JPG: The Cavalry Campaign: "The last nine days have been one of continual fighting with the Confederate cavalry, and we have suffered pretty severely." -- Lt. Thomas Lucas, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry, June 23, 1863. For much of June 1863, Confederate and Union cavalry units rode between the two armies -- scouting and screening. The blue and gray troopers clashes almost continuously as the armies moved north toward Pennsylvania. In three weeks, some 2,500 cavalry troopers were killed, wounded, captured, or missing in both armies.
95. GETVC_081223_0311.JPG: Brandy Station: "The Cavalry begins to hold up its head." -- Union trooper, 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, after the Battle of Brandy Station. Confederate cavalry outrode, outfought, or outgeneraled the Union horsemen for much of the war. But at Brandy Station, the Union cavalry attacked without warning, slugged it out through repeated counterattacks, and withdrew in good order. The 16-hour fight showed that the Union cavalry was catching up -- they could give as good as they got.
96. GETVC_081223_0316.JPG: The Cavalry: The Civil War changed the cavalry. The traditional idea of the dashing horseman, sword in hand, sweeping the field didn't survive even the first months of the war. Massed infantry with modern rifles were more than a match for a cavalry charge. Cavalry proved most valuable as scouts and raiders, though sometimes thousands of horsemen rode together on a raid. Troopers still played a crucial role in many Civil War battles, but the era of the cavalry was passing.
97. GETVC_081223_0318.JPG: Equipping a Calvary Mount: Southern cavalrymen usually provided their own horses, and often their own saddles and other gear. Northern cavalrymen were issued a mount and equipment by the army. As the war went on, most cavalrymen learned that taking care of their mounts was nearly as important as taking care of themselves.
98. GETVC_081223_0324.JPG: Equipping a Trooper: The standard uniform of a Union horseman included spurs, boots, and short shell jackets, which were more comfortable in the saddle. Cavalrymen on both sides also wore or hung a variety of slings and straps on themselves or their saddles to carry carbines, extra revolvers, and other equipment.
99. GETVC_081223_0327.JPG: A Trooper's Weapons: At the beginning of the war, a few cavalrymen still carried lances, which proved almost useless in combat. Most troopers carried three weapons, a carbine, sword, and one or two revolvers.
100. GETVC_081223_0330.JPG: [January 1863] Through June 1863: Killed in Battle -- 86,000: Two campaigns accounted for most of the men killed in the first six months of 1863 -- Chancellorsville, Virginia, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Dead -- 270,000: Typhoid fever, dysentery, and diarrhea killed about half the men who died of disease in the war. Pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox, and smallpox took most of the rest. Wounded -- 251,000: Thousands of wounded soldiers stayed in the army as orderlies, hospital stewards, prison guards, and in other roles. Gettysburg Campaign -- June 3-30, 1863: Killed, wounded, captured and missing -- 8,171. Between major battles, thousands of men lost their lives, limbs, health, and freedom month by month throughout the war.
101. GETVC_081223_0338.JPG: April 1861 to January 1863: Killed in Battle -- 69,000: The number of casualties stunned both sides. The illusion of a short and glorious war vanished quickly. Dead -- 220,000: For every soldier or sailor killed in battle, two more died of disease, accidents, or other causes. Wounded -- 197,000: Statistics can be misleading. Tens of thousands of wounded men returned to battle to be wounded again, killed in combat, or die of disease. Cost of Food: As soon as the war began, inflation pushed Southern families toward poverty. In Richmond, Virginia, prices of many goods rose out of reach of all but the wealthiest citizens. 1861 -- Flour: $4 per barrel, Coffee: 12.5 cents per pound 1865 -- Flour: $425 per barrel. Coffee: $50 per pound.
102. GETVC_081223_0349.JPG: Buford Arrives: Union Gen. John Buford rode into Gettysburg about 10:30am on June 30, leading a column of roughly 2,700 cavalry. Buford sent patrols out north and west of town. They observed Confederates to the west, on the Chambersburg Pike.
103. GETVC_081223_0352.JPG: Pettigrew Advances: As Gen. Johnston Pettigrew rode toward Gettysburg, he saw Union cavalry approaching the town. Pettigrew and his 2,400 infantrymen were after food, livestock, clothing, and shoes, but had orders not to bring on a fight. Pettigrew followed orders, turned back, and reported to his corps commander, Gen. A.P. Hill.
104. GETVC_081223_0356.JPG: Into Battle: "The whole air seemed charged with conditions which go before a storm; everybody anxious, neighbor asking neighbor what was going to happen." -- Harriet Bayly, Gettysburg, June 30, 1863 By June 30, 1863, it was just a matter of time before the two armies collided. The only question was where. Each commander had the same hope -- to gather his army before his opponent could do the same. The first army at full strength might have the chance to attack a smaller portion of the enemy's forces and destroy them.
105. GETVC_081223_0360.JPG: Why Gettysburg? The Army of the [sic] Northern Virginia was spread out west, north, and east of Gettysburg on June 30. The Army of the Potomac was south and southeast. Ten roads converged at the town like the spokes of a wheel and drew both armies in. The roads gave the commanders a chance to concentrate their armies, and the option of moving in any direction. Either might be a decisive advantage.
106. GETVC_081223_0363.JPG: Gen. John Reynolds: Many soldiers on both sides believed John Reynolds was the best general in the Union army. In early June, President Abraham Lincoln had offered Reynolds the command of the Army of the Potomac, but he declined. Gen. George Meade asked him to lead one wing of the army -- the three corps closest to Gettysburg.
107. GETVC_081223_0365.JPG: The Battle of Gettysburg: At dawn on July 1, 1863, neither army commander looked for a battle at Gettysburg. Union Gen. George Meade knew the rough location of nearly 50,000 Confederates west of Gettysburg and had reports of other units east in York. Robert E Lee had no news from his cavalry. He believed the Union forces were still near Middleburg, Maryland, some 15 miles south of the Pennsylvania border. The biggest battle of the Civil War took them both by surprise.
108. GETVC_081223_0371.JPG: July 1 -- 7:30 am: The First Shot: Three miles west of Gettysburg, Lt. Marcellus Jones of the 8th Illinois Cavalry watched a column of Confederate infantry appear on the Chambersburg Pike. He sent a rider back with word that the Confederates were on the way, borrowed a carbine from his sergeant, rested it on rail fence, and fired. The Battle of Gettysburg had begun.
109. GETVC_081223_0375.JPG: 150th Pennsylvania Infantry: The entire color guard of the 150th became casualties on July 1. This state color was captured and later presented to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
110. GETVC_081223_0376.JPG: July 1 -- 10am to 2pm: On McPherson's Ridge: The Union 1st Corps pushed onto McPherson's Ridge and across the Chambersburg Pike to relieve Gen. Buford's outnumbered cavalry. For an hour, they waged a grim, bloody battle and finally repelled the Confederates' attack. After a lull, the Confederates attacked again, and the fighting was harder still -- each side in turn taking ground, falling back, reforming, and advancing again. On July 1, the 1st Corps' Iron Brigade lost 1,212 of 1,883 men and finally pulled back.
111. GETVC_081223_0391.JPG: Color Bearers: A color bearer carried his regiment's flag into battle -- an honor and a heavy responsibility. In the chaos of combat, the flag was a rallying point. Capturing a battle flag was a triumph and losing one a disgrace. All this made color bearers special targets. They held the most dangerous position in the army.
112. GETVC_081223_0399.JPG: Defending the Flag: Confederate infantry pushed back Sgt. Benjamin Crippen and the 143rd Pennsylvania Infantry in the early afternoon. Crippen turned to shake his fist at the Confederates and fell to an enemy bullet. On a battlefield monument near the spot, a relief sculpture captures Crippin's [sic] defiant moment.
113. GETVC_081223_0402.JPG: July 1 -- 3pm: Collapse: Both armies raced toward Gettysburg. By 3pm, the Confederates were attacking along a broad front north and west of town. On the Union right, some units held their ground and mounted a steady defense. But more retreated, and many began to run. The Union 11th Corps finally gave way. By 4pm, the entire Union line had collapsed, and the Army of Northern Virginia marched into Gettysburg. That evening, on the hills south of town, the Union troops regrouped.
114. GETVC_081223_0406.JPG: July 1 -- Evening: A Desperate Day: At the end of the first day's fighting, some 3,000 men lay dead in the fields around Gettysburg. Roughly 13,000 were wounded or captured. Robert E. Lee's army had once again driven back the Army of the Potomac, as it had in battle every battle for the past year. "The next day," Gen. Jubal Early believed, "would witness a crushing defeat of Meade's army." But Union troops occupied the high ground just south of town, and spent the night digging in.
115. GETVC_081223_0414.JPG: The Townspeople's War: "We heard fighting all around the house... I heard a voice say 'Shoot that fellow going over the fence.'" -- Albertus McCreary, Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. Suddenly there were soldiers everywhere. Cavalry and artillery galloped through town to shore up the Union line and thousands of infantry ran through the streets. Minie balls and cannon shells whined through the air and cracked into the buildings. The Civil War erupted in Gettysburg.
116. GETVC_081223_0424.JPG: Shot and Shell: Cannon shells ripped through the buildings on John Forney's farm. A single cannonball pierced the row of wooden joists overhead that once supported his house.
117. GETVC_081223_0430.JPG: Citizen Hero of Gettysburg: John Burns was a 69-year-old veteran of the War of 1812. A former constable of Gettysburg, Burns had a reputation around town for cantankerousness. When the fighting on the first day drew near, he walked toward the sound of the guns to join the Union soldiers.
118. GETVC_081223_0433.JPG: Elizabeth Thorn: Six months pregnant, Elizabeth Thorn walked slowly beside the horse of the Union Gen. Oliver Howard, pointing out the main roads of Gettysburg. Howard had ridden by her home, looking for a man to guide him. But only Elizabeth, her parents, and children were inside. So she went herself.
119. GETVC_081223_0452.JPG: July 2 -- 10am: Lee's Dilemma: On the morning of July 2, Gen. Robert E. Lee remained unsure how much of the Union army he faced. Lee had no information from his cavalry about the enemy's position -- Gen. JEB Stuart and his troopers were still missing. Lee's three infantry corps commanders were reluctant to attack. But Lee ordered assaults on both ends of the Union line. Setting the attacks in motion took nearly six hours.
120. GETVC_081223_0455.JPG: July 2 -- 2pm: Sickles' Decision: Gen. Daniel Sickles did not like his assigned position. Stationed along Cemetery Ridge, he saw higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road, about a half-mile ahead. About 2pm, ignoring his orders, he sent two divisions forward. An hour later, Gen. George Meade rode up, furious that Sickles had disobeyed him. Shells began to explode around them, and Sickles offered to pull his troops back. Meade responded, "I wish to God you could, but the enemy won't let you."
121. GETVC_081223_0460.JPG: Rose's Wheatfield: The Rose family owned pasture, cropland, and woods along the Emmitsburg Road south of Gettysburg. Their 26-acre wheatfield was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the battle. The two armies lost more than 4,000 casualties in and around the field in three hours of fighting.
122. GETVC_081223_0487.JPG: Sherfy's Peach Orchard: Confederate artillery opened up on the Union troops in the Peach Orchard at about 3:30pm. "I thought that if ever I could overwhelm and crush them," wrote artillery colonel EP Alexander, "I would do it now." He shelled the ground for three hours. Infantry fought back and forth among the trees.
123. GETVC_081223_0489.JPG: Sending the Signal: Communications on the battlefield are a key to victory, especially when different units of an army might be miles apart. During the Civil War, both sides used signal flags, flares, and torches to send messages. At Gettysburg, the Army of the Potomac set up signal stations on Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, and Cemetery Hill, among other sites.
124. GETVC_081223_0494.JPG: Sharpshooters: Both armies stationed sharpshooters along their front lines. Sharpshooters tried to pick off officers, artillerymen and signalmen, and rattle the troops on the other side. Their fire was unpredictable and often deadly, and they were hard to see. Some regular infantrymen despised them.
125. GETVC_081223_0498.JPG: July 2 -- 6pm: Little Round Top: Little Round Top stood at the far left end of the Union line, undefended. Col. Strong Vincent led his brigade to the hill and placed them a few paces below the summit -- just minutes before the Confederates rushed up the rocky slope. Desperate fighting by the 20th Maine Infantry saved the left flank of the brigade's position. Last-minute reinforcements, the 140th New York Infantry, saved the right. Together, the five regiments on the hill helped save the Army of the Potomac.
126. GETVC_081223_0502.JPG: The Role of Artillery: The main role of artillery was to support the infantry. During the infantry charge, gunners poured fired into the enemy's ranks to break up the assault. Artillery batteries also bombarded enemy positions before an attack. And gunners from both sides tried to disable their foes' artillery. Artillery brigades were divided into batteries, which usually included four to six cannons. Roughly 100 soldiers manned the guns. Hauling a battery's guns and ammunition required nearly as many horses. ...
127. GETVC_081223_0506.JPG: The 1st Minnesota: Late in the afternoon, Union Gen. Winfield Hancock saw a Confederate brigade moving unchecked toward Cemetery Ridge. He found one regiment to stand in its way -- the 1st Minnesota Infantry. "Do you see those colors," he asked the regiment's commander, pointing toward the Confederates. Col. William Colvill said he did. Hancock said, "Then take them."
128. GETVC_081223_0511.JPG: July 2 -- 6:30pm: The 9th Massachusetts' Sacrifice: At the end of the afternoon, Union troops in the Wheat Field and Peach Orchard gave way. The last battery to pull back was the 9th Massachusetts. On the retreat, they were ordered to hold their position near the Trostle farm at all costs. For thirty minutes, they held off Confederate infantry approaching from three sides and at last fell back -- at the cost of one-quarter of their men, more than half their horses, and four cannon.
129. GETVC_081223_0514.JPG: July 2 -- 7:30pm: On Cemetery Ridge: At dusk, part of Conf. Gen. Ambrose Wright's Brigade crossed the Emmitsburg Road and swept past the Codori farm. The Georgians routed two Union regiments, captured a battery of guns, and rushed toward the crest of the Cemetery Ridge. There they found themselves alone, with Union reinforcements approaching on three sides, and pulled back. Wright reported that with a little support he could have held his ground. The next day, Gen. George Pickett's Division would try again at nearly the same spot.
130. GETVC_081223_0517.JPG: July 2 -- 7:30pm: On Two Hills: Conf. Gen. Richard Ewell had orders to attack the right flank of the Union army when he heard the sound of Longstreet's guns on the left. Ewell ordered an hour-long artillery barrage and waited for signs of success on the other flank. As daylight faded, he launched attacks on Culp's and Cemetery hills. The soldiers fought nearly till midnight, finding one another by the flash of their guns. The Confederates gain a foothold, but no more.
131. GETVC_081223_0526.JPG: July 2 -- Midnight: At Meade's Headquarters: After the second day's fighting, Union Gen. George Meade held a council of war. The Confederates had again nearly won the day. Meade was cautious, but his confidence was growing. His army had turned back one of the largest attacks of the war. The Union commanders discussed options for the next day -- from moving the army to counterattacking Lee. By midnight they had agreed unanimously to stay put on the high ground, remain on the defensive, and fight it out.
132. GETVC_081223_0528.JPG: Across the Fields of Gettysburg: Roughly the first half-mile of the Confederates' advance was across the open rolling fields south of Gettysburg. The soldiers covered the distance in about 15 minutes.
133. GETVC_081223_0532.JPG: Forward March: About 3pm, some 12,000 Confederate soldiers stepped out from the shelter of the trees on Seminary Ridge. They began to walk toward the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge in the nearly 90-degree heat. Shot and shells like those at the left tore through their ranks.
134. GETVC_081223_0542.JPG: July 3 -- Morning: The Best Laid Plans: Before catching a few hours sleep, Conf. Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Generals Ewell and Longstreet to renew their attacks at dawn. His army had come so close to victory -- one more determined attack might end it. But by dawn Lee's plans were already undone. The Union army struck first on Culp's Hill, and the two sides fought along the slopes there for nearly seven hours. Lee then decided to attack the center of the Union line.
135. GETVC_081223_0545.JPG: Longstreet's Crisis: Gen. Robert E. Lee chose Pickett's Division of James Longstreet's Corps to lead an attack on the center of the Union army. Longstreet believed the attack could not succeed, but Lee ordered him to command it. Lee planned a huge artillery barrage to precede the attack. By 1pm, the cannon and infantry were in position. Once the cannon began firing, there was no turning back.
136. GETVC_081223_0550.JPG: Steady Boys! The Confederate attackers had to close ranks every few steps to fill the gaps left by fallen comrades. Many brigades also angled right or left to hold the formation together. The Emmitsburg Road lay across the Confederates' path, and its stout rail fences proved to be a deadly obstacle.
137. GETVC_081223_0560.JPG: The Role of Infantry: The clash of infantry decided nearly every major battle in the Civil War. Their role was simple but bloody -- to drive back the enemy infantry and to take and hold ground. An infantry assault that lost too many men along the way faltered and fell back, sometimes just yards short of the goal. ...
138. GETVC_081223_0568.JPG: Across the Road: As the attackers crossed the Emmitsburg Road and started up Cemetery Ridge, they were exposed to exploding shot, case shot, canister and rifle fire.
139. GETVC_081223_0572.JPG: Toward the Stone Wall: From the Emmitsburg Road to the stone wall, the Confederate attackers rushed up a gentle slope into a storm of gunfire in the last minutes of the assault.
140. GETVC_081223_0580.JPG: Charge! Some 2,000 charging Confederates approached the stone fence at the crest of Cemetery Ridge. Remnants of regiments from Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia came within a few steps or fought among the Union defenders. All the Confederates finally fell, surrendered, or began a dangerous retreat back to Seminary Ridge.
141. GETVC_081223_0584.JPG: July 3 -- 3:30pm: Pickett's Charge: After an artillery bombardment that lasted nearly two hours, some 12,000 Confederate infantry strode out of the woods along Seminary Ridge. Their line was nearly a mile wide, and no Union soldier who saw them ever forgot the sight. In about 30 minutes, the Confederates covered the ground between the two armies, briefly broke through the Union lines, and fell back. Nearly half the Confederates were killed, wounded, or captured in the attack known ever after as Pickett's Charge.
142. GETVC_081223_0593.JPG: Another Angle: To this day, Gen. George Pickett and his men receive most of the attention for the charge on July 3 at Gettysburg. But his division made up only about a third of the soldiers in the charge. Men far from the famous "High Water Mark" and "Angle" paid the same price as Pickett's Virginians.
143. GETVC_081223_0597.JPG: The Cavalry Fight: Three miles east of Gettysburg, nearly 7,000 cavalrymen clashed in a series of headlong charges just as Pickett's men marched toward the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. Conf. Gen. JEB Stuart had led his division deep behind the Union lines in hopes of striking them from the rear. But on the way, he met some 3,500 Union cavalry commanded by Gen. David Gregg. Through charge and countercharge, the brigades fought till dusk, and ended where they began.
144. GETVC_081223_0603.JPG: Jennie Wade: During the battle, Virginia "Jennie" Wade stayed in her sister's home in town to help care for her nephew. On July 3, a bullet penetrated two wooden doors and struck her in the back. She was 20 years old and the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg.
145. GETVC_081223_0606.JPG: Evening in Gettysburg: An uneasy calm settled over Gettysburg on the evening of July 3. Most people kept off the streets. Around midnight, said young Henry Jacobs, "the streets began to fill with men." Other residents heard the sound of wagons. Under the cover of darkness, the Army of Northern Virginia was leaving Gettysburg.
146. GETVC_081223_0609.JPG: July 3 -- Late Afternoon: Is the Battle Over? The survivors of Pickett's Charge retreated to the shelter of the trees on Seminary Ridge. Some 6,000 of the 12,000 men who began the charge were dead, wounded, captured, or missing. Cheering began up and down the Union lines. Union Gen. George Meade was encouraged but still wary. Robert E. Lee awaited a Union counterattack. Both sides dug in and prepared to fight again. And no one in Gettysburg, soldier or civilian, knew what would come next.
147. GETVC_081223_0613.JPG: Hancock's Defense? Conf. Gen. George Pickett and Gettysburg are linked forever. But Robert E. Lee ordered Pickett's famous charge. James Longstreet directed it. Johnston Pettigrew and Isaac Trimble each led a Confederate division. Union Gen. Winfield Hancock commanded most of the forces that turned back the assault. Pickett's Charge could go by a number of names.
148. GETVC_081223_0616.JPG: "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it." -- Conf. Gen. George Pickett, asked why Pickett's Charge failed. "All this has been my fault": During the retreat, Gen. Cadmus Wilcox found Robert E. Lee. Tears streaming down his face, Wilcox said his men had all been killed. "Never mind, general," Lee answered, "all this has been my fault -- it is I that have lost this fight, and you must help me out of it the best way you can."
149. GETVC_081223_0618.JPG: Col. Norman Hall: Norman Hall's war began inside Fort Sumter, where he lived through the first barrage of the war. He was one of the Union's heroes at Gettysburg -- his brigade helped throw back the final rush of Pickett's men. But he fell ill that fall and never recovered. He died four years later, at age 30.
150. GETVC_081223_0621.JPG: "[At first] one didn't think of our fearful losses, but now I can't help feeling a great weight at my heart." -- Union Capt. Henry L Abbott, July 6, 1863. Gen. James L. Kemper: James Kemper commanded one of Pickett's three brigades. He received an "excruciatingly painful" wound during the attack that was thought to be mortal, but he survived to become governor of Virginia and live until 1895.
151. GETVC_081223_0625.JPG: Back to Virginia: On July 4, in a driving rain, the Army of Northern Virginia started its retreat. The Army of the Potomac began a cautious pursuit the next day. The Union army caught up to the Confederates near the Potomac River. Lee's army was dug in, but on the morning of July 14 Meade decided to risk an attack. His troops advanced, found empty entrenchments, and then raced to the river's edge. Most of Lee's army had crossed in the night.
152. GETVC_081223_0629.JPG: After the Battle: The Battle of Gettysburg changed both armies and the course of the war, as well as the small town in southern Pennsylvania. The defeat dashed the Confederates' expectations of another victory and sent the Army of Northern Virginia in full retreat. The possibility of peace negotiations all but disappeared. The Army of the Potomac brought the United States its greatest triumph of the war and a renewed faith that the nation might prevail in the end.
153. GETVC_081223_0631.JPG: Left Behind: The Army of Northern Virginia had gathered food, clothing, horses, and goods on its advance through Pennsylvania. On the retreat, it left behind the ammunition, equipment, and weapons shown here. But Lee's army also survived to fight another day.
154. GETVC_081223_0636.JPG: Buried Shells: The retreating Army of Northern Virginia buried these artillery shells near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Gettysburg.
155. GETVC_081223_0641.JPG: War News: Newspapers brought their readers a mixture of excitement, dread, and reassurance. News of battles won and lost ran beside everyday advertisements and casualty lists. Readership skyrocketed as people hungered for news of every battle. Some 500 reporters covered the war, many of them without any experience. Inaccurate reporting and outright propaganda were common. Many generals despised the "buzzards of the press." But the best of them revolutionized the art of reporting.
156. GETVC_081223_0645.JPG: The Bohemian Brigade: A loose and changing group of reporters and artists for Northern papers followed the armies from one battle to the next. They were the first modern war correspondents, and the direct ancestors of today's press corps. Unmilitary and independent, they sometimes jokingly called themselves a "Bohemian Brigade."
157. GETVC_081223_0649.JPG: Who Won the Battle of Gettysburg? Newspapers competed fiercely to be the first to print with news of a battle. But getting a story first sometimes meant getting it wrong. After the Battle of Gettysburg, newspapers North and South couldn't resist printing good news, despite the facts.
158. GETVC_081223_0652.JPG: Eyewitness to History: Some 45 newspaper correspondents were at the Battle of Gettysburg. Most Americans came to understand what happened here through the words of these men. Some reporters wrote straightforward stories; some fell into melodrama. The best gave their readers a sense of the chaos of battle.
159. GETVC_081223_0656.JPG: Partisan News: Many newspapers of the Civil War era were openly and proudly partisan -- for or against slavery, peace negotiations, and particular politicians or generals. Correspondents and editors on both sides believed it was their duty to stir up support for the war effort, not simply report on it.
160. GETVC_081223_0658.JPG: The Confederacy's Last Recruits: In the last months of the war, some white Southerners believed the time had come to arm and train slaves to fight for the Confederacy. Some even suggested freeing slaves who fought. Soldiers, citizens, and newspapers debated the idea to the end of the war.
161. GETVC_081223_0673.JPG: The Aftermath: All afternoon on July 4, 1863, it rained on the living and the dead in Gettysburg. People saw a landscape ravaged by cannon shells, wagon wheels, and the rush of armies. Several thousand dead horses lay among the dead men. The cries of the wounded rose up amid the stench of death. For the townspeople, army medical staff, and volunteers, a second battle had just begun.
162. GETVC_081223_0678.JPG: The Confederate Wounded: "From almost every wagon for many miles issued heart-rending wails of agony... 'O God! Why can't I die?' 'My God! Will no one have mercy and kill me?' " -- Gen. John Imboden, leading the wagon train of wounded from Gettysburg. After the battle, a train of wagons started west carrying some 6,000 Confederate wounded. Hundreds of them never made it back to Virginia. They were captured along the way, climbed out of wagons to lay by the roadside, got lost, fell behind, or died.
163. GETVC_081223_0680.JPG: Civil War Surgery: "I have been operating all day long and have got the chief part of the butchering done." -- Capt. John Shaw Billings, Union 1st Corps surgeon, July 6, 1863 Civil War surgeons often operated in bloodstained clothes, using the same saws and knives on patient after patient. Antibiotics were unknown, and infections ran rampant in hot, damp open-air wards. But surgeons had some useful medicines, such as chloroform, ether, opium, and alcohol to ease pain. Few soldiers on either side endured an amputation without an anesthetic. And surgeons grew skillful by dim repetition.
164. GETVC_081223_0691.JPG: How Did They Use That? Civil War surgeons don't get enough credit. They knew almost nothing about viruses, bacteria, infections, and the spread of most diseases. They often worked in miserable conditions and sometimes under fire. But they saved the lives of thousands of soldiers with quick treatment, simple instruments, and skillful technique.
165. GETVC_081223_0694.JPG: The Wounded: Roughly 21,000 men from the two armies lay wounded at Gettysburg after the battle. The Confederate army left behind about 7,000 men too severely injured to move. The responsibility of caring for the wounded fell to a small number of army surgeons, aides and the people of Gettysburg and Adams County. Volunteers from around the region began arriving soon after the fighting stopped. Four months later, the effort to help the wounded at Gettysburg was still going on.
166. GETVC_081223_0698.JPG: Wounded In Action: "Utterly as I detest a living active rebel, as soon as he becomes wounded and a prisoner, I don't perceive any different in my feelings towards him and towards one of our own wounded heroes." -- Lt. William Wheeler, 13th New York Infantry. Artillery shells and canister caused horrifying wounds. But most men throughout the war fell to the rifles and muskets of their enemies. By design, the soft lead bullets of the day flattened and deformed as they hit, shattering bones and shredding flesh and muscle.
167. GETVC_081223_0702.JPG: Camp Letterman: "As high as seventeen die per day. It is heart-rending to pass through the streets and hear the cries of agony that burden the air." -- A sentinel at Camp Letterman, October 26, 1863 One by one, the field hospitals spread around the battlefield closed. They sent their patients to Camp Letterman -- a new general hospital set up in mid-July east of town, near the railroad tracks. Surgeons, stewards, nurses, and volunteers tended 4,000 Union and Confederate patients at the hospital over the next four months.
168. GETVC_081223_0704.JPG: Women and the Wounded: The women of Gettysburg could hardly avoid wounded soldiers from the battle. The wounded crawled into their homes. The women baked, washed, changed bandages, and comforted suffering and dying soldiers. As the battle ended, women volunteers from across the country traveled to the town to help.
169. GETVC_081223_0708.JPG: A Wounded Town: "There were no window glass in the whole house... the pump was broken. Fifteen soldiers were buried beside the pump shed." -- Elizabeth Thorn, returning to her home, July 7, 1863. Soldiers ransacked Gettysburg houses for food, clothing, and valuables. Artillery caissons tore up the streets. Townspeople found blood in their homes where the wounded had lain. Outside town, on the battlefield, several barns and farmhouses burned to the ground.
170. GETVC_081223_0711.JPG: A Hospital Town: By nightfall on July 1, most of Gettysburg's residents had fled or were hiding in their homes. The Confederate army occupied the entire town, and the wounded of both sides began to fill its buildings. "The whole town was one vast hospital," wrote one nurse, "all public and a great many private buildings full of sufferers."
171. GETVC_081223_0712.JPG: A Storm of Bullets: Residents of the town returned to their homes to find reminders of the battle, like the bullet holes in this shutter.
172. GETVC_081223_0741.JPG: The Battlefield: Two days after the shooting stopped, the battlefield was a grisly combination of graveyard, hospital ward, and tourist attraction. Thousands of civilians looked for loved ones, gawked at corpses, or combed the field for souvenirs. The job of guarding the battlefield and the Confederate prisoners fell to a few hundred Union soldiers.
173. GETVC_081223_0744.JPG: The People of Gettysburg: "I am becoming more used to sights of misery. We do not know until tried what we are capable of." -- Sarah Broadhead, Gettysburg, July 7, 1863. The battle and its aftermath brought out the best in most of the people of Gettysburg. Local residents were immensely generous as cooks, nurses, hosts, and guides for families looking for their loved ones. A few people found ways to exploit the situation. They sold bread or water or charged a wounded soldier for a wagon ride to a hospital.
174. GETVC_081223_0745.JPG: The Town: "Fences were swept away, houses shattered, and fields trodden down like a highway." -- Michael Jacobs, professor, Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College). After the three-day battle, almost all the buildings in Gettysburg still stood. But the town and the lives of its people were changed forever. Residents lost their possessions and livelihoods. They faced the horror of thousands of dead and wounded. And they saw their town and the farms around it changed into something new -- hallowed ground.
175. GETVC_081223_0750.JPG: The Dead: "May God spare me from ever witnessing another such scene I will never again go over a battle-field from mere curiosity, before the dead are buried." -- Edmund R. Brown, 27th Indiana Infantry. Roughly 7,000 men died on the battlefield at Gettysburg in three days of fighting -- almost three times the population of the town. Their bodies lay over 25 square miles of ground. No one there, soldier or civilian, had seen death on this scale. Gettysburg was the deadliest battle of the war.
176. GETVC_081223_0753.JPG: Killed In Action: "Multitudes of the dead of both armies still lay unburied, though strong burial parties had been at work for 24 hours." -- George Benedict, Union staff officer, looking over the ground of Pickett's Charge. On July 4, 1863, the dead surrounded Gettysburg. Nearly all were buried on the battlefield -- Union soldiers first. Most were later exhumed and reburied, in their hometowns or in Gettysburg. Thousands of Confederate lay dead in shallow graves for nearly a decade before the remains were shipped South. And perhaps hundreds of lost soldiers lie under the battlefield today.
177. GETVC_081223_0758.JPG: Battlefield Burials: Most men were buried near where they fell, often by soldiers of their own regiments. Burial details marked the graves of the men they knew or could identify from some clue on the body. By July 6, most of the Union dead lay in temporary graves. Hundreds of Confederate dead still lay on the ground.
178. GETVC_081223_0764.JPG: Reburying the Dead: Gravesites on the battlefield could only be temporary. Thousands of families traveled to Gettysburg to find and claim their loved ones' remains. The citizens of the town wanted a fitting resting place for the fallen Union soldiers. And the farmers of Adams County needed to reclaim their fields, orchards, and pastures from the dead.
179. GETVC_081223_0766.JPG: Reclaiming the Dead: Workers used these hooks to lift the remains of Union soldiers from the battlefield. After October 1863, most of the bodies found a final resting place in the Soldiers' National Cemetery.
180. GETVC_081223_0769.JPG: Soldiers' National Cemetery: "The elevated piece of ground on the Baltimore Turnpike... is the spot, above all others, for the honorable burial of the dead who have fallen on these fields." -- David Wills, July 24, 1863. Like others in Gettysburg, attorney David Wills was troubled by the thousands of shallow graves spread across the battlefield. Just three weeks after the battle, he wrote the governor of Pennsylvania to propose a new cemetery in Gettysburg. Within two years, roughly 3,500 Union dead rested in Soldiers' National Cemetery.
181. GETVC_081223_0774.JPG: Lt. William Fisher: Lt. William Fisher of the 10th US Regulars was already a veteran at age 19. He died leading his company near the Wheatfield on July 2. But unlike many soldiers, Fisher's last moments weren't lost in the fog of war. His comrades took care to identify his battlefield grave. His father, Isaac, wrote letters to several men in William's regiment and several answered. The Fishers at least had the memories of their son's comrades as consolation.
182. GETVC_081223_0779.JPG: Lt. William Fisher temporary marker.
183. GETVC_081223_0784.JPG: L.T. Fisher 10th US Inft. I found his body buried on the portion of Jacob Weikerd about 175 yards North West of the (????) along a crop (???) fence. (???)
184. GETVC_081223_0793.JPG: Captured! Pvt. Roland Bowen: A regiments of Georgians captured Roland Bowen of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry on July 2. He survived a long walk through Union gunfire to reach the Confederate lines. There he gathered with other men of his regiment, who agreed "that it were much better to be a prisoner than a corpse."
185. GETVC_081223_0796.JPG: Maj. Charles C. Blacknall: Wounded and captured at Chancellorsville in May, Charles Blacknall rejoined the 23rd North Carolina Infantry just two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg. On the first day, a bullet pierced his mouth and neck. Captured again, he spent some eight months in Union hospitals, prisons, and camps before being exchanged. He was mortally wounded in 1864.
186. GETVC_081223_0799.JPG: An Army of Prisoners: At the beginning of the war, the two armies set up a system for exchanging prisoners. But by 1863, the system had nearly broken down. Union leaders were willing to let the exchanges end. They understood that the Confederate army desperately needed the men. Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers, which outraged many Northerners. And bitterness over the cost of the war grew deeper every day. Any cooperation between the two sides was difficult.
187. GETVC_081223_0802.JPG: Paroled: A parole was a promise -- prisoners were released if they promised not to fight again until they were exchanged for enemy prisoners. Gen. Robert E. Lee offered paroles to captured US soldiers at Gettysburg, though the parole system had already broken down. More than a thousand Union men took him up on it. Thousands more refused.
188. GETVC_081223_0806.JPG: Deserters and Stragglers: As the Army of Northern Virginia left Gettysburg, hundreds of deserters or stragglers snuck off or fell behind. Plenty of Union soldiers did the same. The exact numbers were impossible to know, but a battle always persuaded some soldiers to leave the army, no matter what the risk.
189. GETVC_081223_0810.JPG: Prisoners: "I can never describe my feelings and thoughts, just at that time, when I found I was a prisoner." -- Mississippi soldier, captured on the railroad cut, July 1, 1863. As the Battle of Gettysburg ended, the two armies held some 12,000 prisoners of war. About 4,000 Union soldiers began a long trek south with the Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederate prisoners were marched to a railroad at Westminster, Maryland. The soldiers' final destinations were prison camps anywhere from George to Illinois.
190. GETVC_081223_0832.JPG: The Gettysburg Address: The new Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg was a resting place for the Union dead and a first step toward helping the nation heal from the battle. For the main address at the dedication ceremonies, David Wills of Gettysburg chose a well-known statesman -- Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Wills also sent an invitation to the Abraham Lincoln to add "a few appropriate remarks." The president accepted, and delivered the most enduring speech in the nation's history.
191. GETVC_081223_0842.JPG: A New Declaration: Abraham Lincoln drew on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to draft the Gettysburg Address -- and moved beyond both. Americans were one people, he declared, North and South, despite decades of conflict and the secession of the Confederate states. The Civil War was a test of this belief. In Lincoln's eyes, a loss by the United States meant the end of the American experiment in democratic self-government.
192. GETVC_081223_0848.JPG: War Is Cruelty, 1863-1865: The nation's great suffering during the war pulled the American people in different directions. Millions were ready for the bloodshed to end -- in one nation or two, with slavery or without. The horrible cost of the war made others more determined. Anything short of victory would betray the sacrifices so far. So the war dragged on, with the North and South fighting each other and divided within. No one could see when it might end.
193. GETVC_081223_0854.JPG: U.S. Grant: "Lee's army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there will you go also." -- Gen. US Grant to Gen. George Meade, 1864. In March 1864, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Washington, DC, to accept a new position, general-in-chief. He had overall command of all the armies of the United States, but he stayed in the East with the Army of the Potomac for the rest of the war -- to take on Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.
194. GETVC_081223_0856.JPG: Plenty of Fight Left: "Why does not the President call out the women? ... We would go and fight, too." -- Emma LeConte, Columbia, South Carolina, April 1865, The Union triumphs at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863 were a devastating blow to the Confederacy. But the Civil War was little more than halfway through its course. Almost two more years of fighting remained, and nearly half the war's casualties lay ahead.
195. GETVC_081223_0861.JPG: Two Wars: By 1864, Southerners battled exhaustion and economic ruin as well as the Union army. Thousands of refugees took to Southern roads, many headed toward cities that were already overcrowded. Civilians and soldiers went hungry. Northern industry boomed. Supplying the Union army with food, uniforms, rifles, and ammunition kept meatpackers, mill workers, and factory hands at work. Hundreds of miles of new railroads crisscrossed the region. Newspaper stories and veterans, rather than the sound of gunfire, brought the war home.
196. GETVC_081223_0867.JPG: Two Roads to Freedom: Black Americans followed two roads to freedom as the war ground on. Hundreds of thousands fled toward the Union army and an end to slavery. Tens of thousands of black soldiers marched into combat. They fought bravely at Port Hudson, Louisiana; Fort Wagner, South Carolina; Petersburg, Virginia; and on other battlefields. By war's end, some 200,000 black soldiers and sailors served their country in uniform.
197. GETVC_081223_0869.JPG: The War Of Attrition: By mid-1864, the direction of the war was clear -- Union armies had gained ground east and west for nearly a year. But the cost was horrifying. The Confederacy's best hope was to persuade the people of the United States that here was no end in sight. For months, Confederate armies succeeded in trading lost ground for staggering Union casualties -- 32,000 in one week in May. And as the war exhausted the Confederacy, its toll demoralized Northerners.
198. GETVC_081223_0875.JPG: Digging In: "The men at present feel a great horror and dread of attacking earthworks again." -- Union officer, 1864. Soldiers on both sides spent the last months of the war peering at one another from trenches and breastworks. Living, eating, and sleeping in trenches brought its own kind of suffering, especially in winter. But soldiers hugged their earthworks for protection. In an assault on Confederate trenches at Cold Harbor, Virginia, roughly 4,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded in less than one hour.
199. GETVC_081223_0890.JPG: Daniel Reigle's War: In 1861, 20-year-old Daniel Reigle left his home near Gettysburg to enlist in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. He spent the Battle of Gettysburg as a Confederate prisoner. But he rejoined his regiment for the fierce fighting of the war's last year.
200. GETVC_081223_0893.JPG: Prison Camps: "It was evident that they were human beings but hunger, sickness, exposure and dirt had so transformed them that they more resembled walking skeletons, painted black." -- Sgt. Lucius Barber, 15th Illinois Infantry, on prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia. More than 400,000 soldiers and sailors filled roughly 150 prison camps during the war. Some 50,000 men -- or about 13 percent -- died there. Infectious diseases ran rampant. Food and clothing were scarce. To some guards and commandants on both sides, the death of their bitter enemies in prison was a small concern.
201. GETVC_081223_0899.JPG: Necklace made of bone pieces in the shape of corps symbols
202. GETVC_081223_0904.JPG: The Election of 1864: White Southerners placed their dwindling hopes for independence in the election of November 1864. Support for Lincoln and the Republicans was eroding, and the Democrats' platform called for an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations. Then, in September, the army of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia. And Gen. Philip Sheridan drove the Confederate army from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Northerners thought they saw the beginning of the end, and Lincoln's prospects changed almost overnight.
203. GETVC_081223_0905.JPG: The Endless War: War-weariness ran deep North and South. For months, Union armies seemed to produce casualties without victories. A hundred thousand soldiers left the Union army when their enlistments expired in 1864. Desertions steadily thinned the Confederate ranks. Many soldiers feared that even if their country survived, their families might not.
204. GETVC_081223_0909.JPG: Lincoln and McClellan: The Democratic Party nominated George McClellan, a former general still popular with the troops. But many veterans feared that he might squander their years of sacrifice by allowing the Confederacy to go its own way. More than 70 percent of Union soldiers voted for Lincoln in 1864.
205. GETVC_081223_0910.JPG: The Election of 1864: The election of 1864 might have been the most important in the nation's history. A loss by Lincoln could raise an extraordinary possibility -- a negotiated peace and an independent Confederacy. No US president had won a second term since Andrew Jackson, 30 years before. But in the end, the electoral vote looked like a landslide for Lincoln, 212 to 21. The popular vote was closer, 2.2 million to 1.8 million, or about 55 to 45 percent.
206. GETVC_081223_0912.JPG: Appomattox: On April 2, 1865, after a siege of nine months, the Army of the Potomac began to break through the Confederate defenses that ringed Richmond and Petersburg. The Confederates gave way, and a week-long chase began. The Union army pursued the Confederates west to the little town of Appomattox Court House. Lee's army melted away as it ran -- men dropped by the side of the road from hunger, wounds, exhaustion, and despair. Finally, on April 9, Lee surrendered.
207. GETVC_081223_0917.JPG: We Are All Americans: Among soldiers, reconciliation began with the surrender, US Grant gave 25,000 rations to the starving Confederates and agreed to let Lee's men keep their horses. Lee was introduced to Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian and a member of Grant's staff. He said, "I am glad to see one real American here." Parker answered, "We are all Americans."
208. GETVC_081223_0922.JPG: Lincoln's Assassination: "I never saw Mr. Lincoln so cheerful and happy." -- Hugh McCullough, Secretary of the Treasury, April 14, 1865. Abraham Lincoln had only five days to rest from his labors in reuniting the nation and reflect on the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. On April 14, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address honored the men who gave "the last full measure of devotion" to save the Union. In the end it was his own eulogy.
209. GETVC_081223_0925.JPG: What The Nation Lost: Abraham Lincoln gave his last speech from the balcony of the White House on the evening of April 11, 1865, two days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. He spoke to the crowd below about readmitting the states of the Confederacy to the Union. "Let us all join," he said, "in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these states and the Union."
210. GETVC_081223_0929.JPG: Soldiers' Return: After the war, soldiers on both sides returned home -- some as heroes, some as invalids, nearly all as changed men. Union soldiers came home to celebrations of a great victory, though at a great price. Confederate soldiers bore the burdens of defeat, widespread poverty, and the end of a way of life across the South. Black veterans were all free men now. In a nation without slavery, they had to invent a new way of life.
211. GETVC_081223_0934.JPG: War's Devastation: Nearly one-quarter of all Southern white men were dead. Perhaps 50,000 civilians in the Confederacy had perished. The war killed roughly 40 percent of the livestock in the South. And the Southern economy would take nearly a century to recover from the devastation of the war.
212. GETVC_081223_0936.JPG: April 1861 to June 1865: Killed in Battle -- 185,000: The bodies of roughly half the men killed in battle in the Civil War were never identified. Dead -- 620,000: If the nation went to war today and lost me on the scale of the Civil War, roughly 6 million Americans would die. Wounded -- 569,000: War wounds plagued many veterans for the rest of their lives. And years after the war ended, men still died from the effects of their wounds.
213. GETVC_081223_0944.JPG: The Civil War ended one deep-seated national conflict forever. The United States was one nation, indivisible, not a collection of states, each free to secede. The war also brought sweeping changes. The national government grew immensely in power and influence, and the United States became an international power. Farms, businesses, and industries in the North thrived. Much of the South lay in ruins. And Americans had to find a way to move beyond their bitterness and rebuild the nation they shared.
214. GETVC_081223_0950.JPG: Four million people enslaved at the beginning of the Civil War were freed as it ended. In sweeping slavery from the landscape, the war ended an old way of life in the United States. For the first time in more than 200 years, America was the land of the free.
215. GETVC_081223_0956.JPG: The Civil War decided what the nation would not be -- a loose confederation of states and a land of slavery. And the war changed what it meant to be an American. African Americans were granted citizenship, and black men given the right to vote. New amendments to the Constitution raised the hopes of millions of Americans, especially black Americans, that equal rights and privileges might extend to everyone. Fulfilling these hopes has been a long struggle.
216. GETVC_081223_0959.JPG: Hallowed Ground: The scale of the conflict at Gettysburg, its importance to the nation, and the magnitude of the human loss made the battle unlike any other of the Civil War. Only days after the armies departed, residents of the town began working together to preserve the landscape as a memorial to the men who fought here. Thousands of Americans eventually joined them in saving the battlefield and its history.
217. GETVC_081223_0964.JPG: Battlefield: After the battle, Gettysburg's farmers were eager to reclaim their fields. But the struggle at Gettysburg wasn't over. Different groups had different ideas about the future of the battlefield -- sightseers, railroads, merchants, land speculators, tourist guides, and the federal government. To Union veterans, this one battlefield came to represent all the battles of the war and all the courage and sacrifice of their comrades. For them, it was a sacred place.
218. GETVC_081223_0969.JPG: Saving the Battlefield: 1864-1895: To preserve the scene of the battle, the people of Gettysburg formed the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association in 1864 -- a year before the war ended. By the 1870s, hundreds of Union veterans had joined the association. They transformed it into a national organization with strong ties to the Grand Army of the Republic -- the main Union veterans' group. The association purchased hundreds of acres of land. And by 1890, more than 150,000 people visited the battlefield every year.
219. GETVC_081223_0971.JPG: John Bachelder: John B. Bachelder arrived in Gettysburg a few days after the armies left. But he stayed for most of 30 years. Bachelder devoted his life to understanding the battle, and visitors today still benefit from his work. He interviewed hundreds of wounded, organized reunions, and corresponded with veterans from Gen. James Longstreet to privates.
220. GETVC_081223_0979.JPG: David McConaughy: Gettysburg National Military Park exists today in part because of the vision of attorney David McConaughy. Soon after the battle, he used his own money to buy portions of Cemetery Hill, Culp's Hill, and Little Round Top. The modern park grew from these few acres.
221. GETVC_081223_0982.JPG: Certificate used for members of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, one of the groups that tried to preserve the battlefield after the battle.
222. GETVC_081223_0986.JPG: The Army Returns to Gettysburg, 1895-1933: In 1895, Congress directed the War Department to take over the management of the Gettysburg battlefield and make it a park for all Americans. The Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association disbanded and deeded its land to the government. At the same time, Union veterans came to a growing consensus that both sides of the story should be represented at the park. More Confederate veterans began to return to Gettysburg.
223. GETVC_081223_0989.JPG: Inventing a Park: In 1895, Congress established the Gettysburg National Military Park. A three-man commission -- all veterans of the battle -- was appointed to oversee the park's development. They hired a civil engineer to help with the huge task. The core of the park today -- from trees and towers to roads and monuments -- grew from the vision and labors of these four men.
224. GETVC_081223_0993.JPG: John Nicholson: John Nicholson served with the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1893, he was appointed chairman of the Gettysburg National Park Commission and guided the development of the park for nearly 30 years.
225. GETVC_081223_0995.JPG: William M. Robbins: William Robbins was a Confederate officer in the 4th Alabama Infantry and after the war, a congressmen from North Carolina. He tirelessly urged his comrades to attend reunions at Gettysburg and play a role in the future of the park. He also composed most of the tablets that still line Confederate Avenue.
226. GETVC_081223_0998.JPG: Charles Richardson: Union Capt. Charles Richardson was wounded on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg and discharged from the army in 1864. Thirty-one years later he returned as one of the commissioners of the park.
227. GETVC_081223_1001.JPG: E.B. Cope: Emmor B. Cope served in the Topographical Engineers during the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, he was chief engineer at the park for almost 35 years. Cope personally oversaw the creation of much of the park as it exists today, from roads and woodlots to cannon carriages and observation towers that he designed himself.
228. GETVC_081223_1004.JPG: A Park for the Nation, 1933-present: The War Department turned over the Gettysburg battlefield to the National Park Service in 1933. Ever since, the Park Service has faced three great challenges: acquiring battlefield land, returning areas of the park to their appearance in 1863, and preserving the park from all kinds of hazards -- tight budgets, harsh weather, and the wear and tear that accompanies millions of eager visitors. Roughly 2 million visitors immerse themselves in the nation's history here every year.
229. GETVC_081223_1007.JPG: Reunions: Union veterans began returning to the battlefield even before the war ended. And they kept coming back for more than 75 years. Their money and influence also helped ensure the preservation of the battlefield. After the war, few Confederate veterans had any interest in visiting or preserving Gettysburg. But as the decades passed, both sides chose to look beyond their differences and gather for reunions at the scene of their courage and sacrifice.
230. GETVC_081223_1026.JPG: Monuments: The first monument at Gettysburg -- to honor the 1st Minnesota Infantry -- was placed in the Soldiers' National Cemetery in 1867. For years after the war, many Union veterans wanted no Confederate monuments on the battlefield. As the bitterness of the conflict fades, the battlefield changed, too. In the 1890s, the War Department began to mark the positions of the Confederate army. Today, nearly 1,400 statues, sculptures, markers, and tablets stand where the armies fought. At Gettysburg, unlike most battlefields, the monuments honor both sides.
231. GETVC_081223_1028.JPG: "In great deeds something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger... And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that... we know not of... [are] ... drawn to see where... great things were suffered and done for them." -- Maj. Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Gettysburg, Oct. 3, 1889
232. GETVC_081223_1034.JPG: Letters From The War: Nearly three million men served in the Union and Confederate armies from 1861 to 1865; writing letters was their principal connection to the homes and families they left behind. Before the letter censorship of later wars, Civil War soldiers wrote about everything that was on their minds -- the battles, politics, slavery, food, camp life, the weather, their leaders, their brothers in arms, the places they visited, their health, and all the things they were missing from home. They wrote on the back of knapsacks, in the midst of battle, during a break from the match -- and often with the barest writing essentials. They produced a volume of personal correspondence that no other American conflict has seen before or since, helping us to better understand the letter writers themselves, the conflict in which they were engaged, and the defining era of our nation.
233. GETVC_081223_1042.JPG: Letters from the War: Nearly three million men served in the Union and Confederate armies from 1861 to 1865; writing letters was their principal connection to the homes and families they left behind. Before the letter censorship of later wars, Civil War soldiers wrote about everything that was on their minds -- the battles, politics, slavery, food, camp life, the weather, their leaders, their brothers in arms, the places they visited, their health, and all the things they were missing from home. They wrote on the back of knapsacks, in the midst of battle, during a break from the march -- and often with the barest writing essentials. They produced a volume of personal correspondence that no other American conflict has seen before or since, helping us to better understand the letter writers themselves, the conflict in which they were engaged, and the defining era of our nation.
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