I’ve been going to Gettysburg since I was in third grade, and multiple times each year since 1994 or so. Over the course of all of those years, I have walked pretty much the entire battlefield multiple times, and I thought I had seen pretty much everything there was to see.
Every time that I think I’ve seen everything, I find something new. That happened again yesterday. While leading my Stuart’s Ride tour for the First Defenders Civil War Roundtable yesterday afternoon, I noticed something I had never noticed previously: that the Low Dutch Road, which borders East Cavalry Field to the east, intersects with Route 30. We finished up the tour at 5:15 or so, so I had some time to kill before meeting some friends for dinner in New Oxford. After doing some book browsing on Steinwehr Avenue, I decided to get from that part of Gettysburg to Route 30 by taking the Low Dutch Road, just to see if it might help me better understand the East Cavalry Field battle. I’d never been north of the park road on the Low Dutch Road, so I had no idea what to expect.
A couple of hundred yards north of the park road, I discovered a War Department marker I had never seen before. It marks the far right flank of the Union cavalry on East Cavalry Field, and discusses Capt. William E. Miller of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry and his charge into the Confederate flank during the climactic part of the battle on East Cavalry Field. I had no clue that this marker even existed before yesterday. Neither, it turns out, did J. D. It was a new one on him too.
That’s the marker in the photo. I took that photo this morning with my Droid phone, and I regret that it’s a lousy photo. It’s a lousy photo from the combination of the fact that I’m a lousy photographer, poor lighting conditions for shooting pictures, and a not-so-hot cell phone camera. Next time, I will take a real camera with me and will get a real photo of this marker and will post it here. If it’s of interest, you can see the full-sized image of the marker by clicking on the smaller photo that you see here.
So, I found something completely new to me at Gettysburg this weekend. Just when I was getting really cynical about it, I gained new insight. I guess that’s why I keep going back…..
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That’s great, thanks for sharing it! I’ll be sure to look for it next time I’m up there.
Jason
I ran across that marker while traversing the battlefield “hunting down” the markers a few years back. The link here provides the location data for the marker – http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=9119
At the time I documented the marker, it was not properly noted on the Trailhead Graphics map, so it escaped many battlefield stompers over the years.
Thanks, Craig for the page with the text of the marker. As Eric noted, I’ve never noticed it either. I did find it in Kathy Georg Harrison’s monuments and markers booklet, and now I have to go out there sometime to see it for myself. I too thought I’d seen every one of those plaques, but I was wrong 🙂
Every time I walk the ground, at Gettysburg, in Normandy or elsewhere, I seem to find new things and have new insights. Glad it’s not just me!
Those insights provide further fodder in the need to preserve battlefields. It will be far harder to stand along Flat Run to understand some aspect of the battle if you need SCUBA gear to get there.
Gettysburg fascinates me. How I wish I could be there for a re-enactment. But being from Northern Va originally, I remember the heat of the Summers. Last time I was there we did the self-guided car tour by cassette. Been 10 years. Time to go back.
William E. Miller is my great-great-grandfather. I’ll be sure to check out this marker when I go.
If you look just to the northeast of that marker you’ll notice the sparse stone remains of the Eckenrode barn. Mrs. Rummel fled to the Eckenrode house when Mr. Stuart and his lads arrived. You guys need to pay better attention when you’re out there! 😉 That dual squadron marker’s been there since the turn of the last century! 😛