A Few Thoughts on the Gettysburg Trip

We’re back from Gettysburg. The weekend was totally packed, and I’m pretty exhausted.

I saw something yesterday that absolutely blew me away. At the same time, knowing him, it didn’t come as any huge surprise. We had a bit of free time (not much), and I wanted to see the tree cutting in the Slaughter Pen area with my own eyes, so we did a quick drive through there (more on that in a moment). On our way to meet the gang for the next tour, I had to drive through the Stony Hill area of the Wheatfield fight, and there, leading a busload of tourists, was Ed Bearss, a week to the day after he lost his beloved wife Margie. On one hand, it was kind of amazing to see that he was back in the saddle again so soon after Margie’s death, but on another hand, it came as no surprise at all. Ed’s not the sort to back out of an obligation, and it probably gives him solace to be off doing what he loves. It was great to see him. I wish I’d been able to talk to him, but I was in a hurry, and talking to him would have required me to interrupt his tour, which I wasn’t about to do.

The tree cutting is really remarkable. The whole area around the Slyder farm has been cleared out, all the way to the site of the Timbers farm. I’d only ever seen the Timbers farm site once before, with a guide, and it was a terribly tangled, brambly mess buried in deep woods. It would have been extremely difficult to find without a guide, and I doubt I ever could have found it again on my own. However, it’s now out in the open. We covered the entire advance of the 1st Texas from its starting point to Devil’s Den. The vast majority of it would have been through thick woods until recently. It’s now all out in the open, and you can see terrain features that you would not otherwise have ever been able to see. I came away with a new respect for the ordeal faced by those Texans that day–they marched nearly 2 miles under fire and then had to fight their way up a steep ridge in beastly heat and humidity.

The National Park Service has also re-planted many of the historic orchards that are long gone. So, even though non-historic trees are being removed, historic stands of trees are being re-planted, which is great.

At the same time, though, the Service’s budget keeps getting cut and cut and cut, so there’s no money for routine maintenance. The Triangular Field, which has been been mowed a couple of times per year historically, was not mowed at all this year. Why? No money. The result is that there are several cedar trees growing in the field that are already several feet high, and if that area doesn’t get some attention soon, it will be lost to the trees again.

I also saw two monuments that I never knew existed. One is on the Chambersburg Pike, west of Wisler’s Ridge (and the first shot marker), which commemorates the attempted stand by the rookies of the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Volunteer Infantry against Jubal Early’s veterans on June 26, 1863. I’d driven by it dozens of times, but never noticed it before. The other is the regimental monument to the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry. It’s an interesting monument for a couple of reasons: the 21st Pennsylvania did not muster in until August, AFTER the battle. However, Co. B of this regiment consisted of Adams County men formed in a militia cavalry company commanded by Capt. Robert Bell (called, not surprisingly, Bell’s Cavalry), and one of Bell’s men, George Sandoe, was the first Union soldier killed on the battlefield at Gettysburg when he was shot by a member of Lige White’s cavalry on June 26. I think it’s the only regimental monument there to a regiment that did not exist at the time of the battle, and I found that quite interesting indeed.

The upshot of it is that I’m beat tonight, and have a lot packed into four days this week before we go to North Carolina for a wedding next weekend.