Gettysburg – The Cathedral of American History

(June 11 & 12, 2016) Gettysburg, PA, Rural Pennsylvania and Maryland)

Harry and I subscribed and joined a tour / study group of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1, 2, 3, 1863), The Third Day and Lee’s Retreat. Our tour included an hour classroom oversight lecture and nineteen hours of touring and walking various battlefields. Leading our tour was Ed Bearss (pronounced BARS) and Jeff Wert. Bearss is the Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service and a force of historical nature. Wert has written extensively on the Civil War and absolutely shined when talking about the personalities of the Gettysburg Commanders (both Union and Confederate) and how their personalities affected their strategy and actions on the battlefield.

This was my seventh trip to the Gettysburg Battlefield and on all but one of my previous visits I toured with a private credentialed Gettysburg Battlefield Guide. I love history and have read several books on the Civil War and three specifically on the important three days of the battle at Gettysburg.  On this tour I was no better than a sophomore surrounded by Deans and PHDs. Ed and Jeff know IT and many of my fellow tour attendees knew more about history and specifically the Civil War and Gettysburg than I was aware you could even know (history, politics, military tactics, armaments, even the weather).

Just a quick note on Ed Bearss – he is 92 years old, grew up on a Montana ranch, served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II where he was wounded in combat. While hospitalized and rehabbing for over a year he read and studied history. His battle injuries handicapped him but didn’t slow him down. During our two days Ed literally led us over eight miles walking up and down hills, under brush, along trails and over tree roots in ninety degree temperatures at high humidity.

Upon Ed’s discharge he decided to become a historian. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University and his Master’s Degree from Indiana University, both degrees in History. With age he has not lost the power of his intellect or his ability walk battlefields. At 92 years old, he still gives tours in the U. S. and Europe over 200 days each year.

Our tour began Friday night in our motel meeting room. Jeff Wert presented the overview of the third day’s battle and put the Battle of Gettysburg into both military and political context.

The lessons I learned from my previous visits to Gettysburg were in the big picture

1.    The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the War.

2.    The Battle happened in Gettysburg because Armies travel on roads and there are seven principal roads converging at Gettysburg.

3.    A big Union victory was essential because support of the war was diminishing in the North.

Jeff emphasized that it was the Confederates who needed a big victory. Robert E Lee realized that the South was not going to ultimately win the War. Lee believed the South was doomed to fail because the North simply had more men and superior material to sustain their military effort. Lee believed he needed a public relations victory that would cause a negotiated settlement. A negotiated settlement might provide among other things: creation of a separate nation or some provision allowing the continuation of slavery.

Lee needed a quick win on Northern “Free” soil. It was significant to the PR campaign to engage the enemy north of the Mason-Dixon Line (here the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania.) Lee had a combative personality and believed it was his destiny to win.

President Lincoln also needed a Public Relations victory. The Union was plagued by not being able to sustain convincing military dominance, could not seem to find a Commanding General in the field, and badly needed to boost the political will in the Northern States to continue the fight.

On Saturday morning, June 11 we boarded our tour bus with guides and toured the countryside and towns from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania through Maryland to the Potomac following Lee’s retreat and the relative safety of Virginia.

Our guides repeatedly spoke to Lincoln’s fury that General Meade had not pursued the escaping Confederates more swiftly. Our guides stated that Lincoln was the most hands on War President in American history in his oversight and command of military affairs. Lincoln had been a Captain in the Illinois militia. Though historically our guides defended Meade’s actions, saying Meade had only received his command two days prior to the beginning of engagement at Gettysburg and his orders were to engage the enemy and to protect the cities of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. at all costs.

From Gettysburg we traveled along the Cumberland Valley stopping at various sites between Jack’s Mountain and South Mountain to view battle sites where engagements between Yankees and Rebels took place.

On the bus and at each stop Ed would lecture about the battle and its significance (covering a lot to time and place information) while augmented by Jeff’s description of the “Players.” We travelled at times on the “National Road”, the first federal highway that was constructed with federal dollars. The National Road starts in Baltimore with its terminus in St. Louis.

In tracking the Confederate Retreat and Union Pursuit the guides described the battles, skirmishes and events at Cashtown, Smithburg, Monterey Pass, Hagerstown, Jones’ Crossroads, Battle of Waggoners, Battle of Boonsboro, Rouzersville, Funkstown, Williamsport, and the Battle of Falling Waters, These engagements took place during the retreat until Lee effected escape on July 14.

Falling Waters was the site where Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia forded the Potomac River into Virginia to escape General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. On the Virginia side Lee stayed mounted on his horse and thanked his troops and repeatedly told them the defeat at Gettysburg was solely his fault.

I was fascinated to learn Williamsport, Maryland had been considered to be the location of the District of Columbia. However  President George Washington interceded and ten square miles in Maryland and Virginia bordering the Potomac River near Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia were selected. President Washington felt that the location closer to his home and farm at Mount Vernon near Alexandria was more to his liking and convenience.

On Sunday, June 12 we studied and toured the 3^rd day of the Battle of Gettysburg. We primarily focused on three actions: the East Cavalry Field, Culp’s Hill, and Pickett’s Charge.

In my previous trips to Gettysburg I had never seen nor even heard discussed East Calvary Field, and only talked about the significance of Culp’s Hill engagement. Pickett’s Charge on the other hand is always talked about. Three Confederate Corps marching in formation across almost a mile of open field to engage an entrenched Union Army well armed with Artillery. To my amazement I learned the official name was not Pickett’s Charge but Longstreet’s Assault. 

In an understated way, our tour and study of Culp’s Hill spoke to me in a more meaningful way than the more dramatic Pickett’s Charge. The significant action took place on Culp’s Hill on July 2. The Union forces led by General George Sears Greene protected the high ground there in much the same way Little Round Top did at the other end of the Union line.  Culp’s Hill is about 100 feet higher than the Union line along Cemetery Ridge.

Greene’s Brigade of 1000 men faced 4000 Confederates who if they had taken the hill could have changed the military position and calculus of Hancock’s Corps along Cemetery Ridge. We walked down the steep hill into the wooded area as the Union Troops had in battle. The unsung hero of the engagement was Colonel David Ireland and his 137^th New York Regiment. Ireland’s Regiment drove the Confederates off the hillside. The New York 137^th’s action parallels the better known 20^th Maine stopping the Rebs on Little Round Top.

Historical footnote – at the time of the Culp’s Hill Battle, General Greene was 62 years old one of the oldest commanders in the Army. Born in 1801 he graduated number two in his Class at West Point and left the Army in 1836 after serving 13 years. During his time as a civilian, until entering the Armed Force again in 1861, he was an Engineer. During this absence he founded the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects. After the War General Greene engineered many railroad and aqueduct projects. He died in 1899.

Pickett’s Charge – Whether you are a novice observer or an expert in military tactics the Confederate Assault on the Union on Cemetery Ridge makes no sense. The fact was Lee needed a win and the timing seemed right now for Lee to make his fight to crush the Center of the Union line. Lee’s most trusted General, James Longstreet, advised against it. Longstreet’s advice was not accepted.

Orders in hand, Longstreet selected his friend General George Pickett to command the assault. Pickett is remembered as last in his Class at West Point but was a good soldier reaching the rank of Major General in the Confederate Army. An interesting tidbit I learned was that Picket had been a Lieutenant in the Mexican War serving under Captain James Longstreet at the Battle of Chapultepec, During the accent on Chapultepec Longstreet was wounded and handed the Regimental Battle Flag to Pickett who when the American’s took the Palace in victory unfurled it.

Walking the field gave a heightened sense of place to the event. Under Ed’s tutelage you saw and understood the elevations and line of sight from both Armys' perspective. After the famous left oblique by the Rebels, they were surrounded on three sides by Union artillery and faced sharpshooters and infantry on the Ridge. When they reached the Copse of Trees they were for all purposes defeated. History records this place as the High Water Mark of the Rebellion.

Worth noting is North Carolina had more men in the fight at Gettysburg than Virginia.

On my first guided tour of the Battlefield just prior to George H. W. Bush’s Inaugural in 1989, my guide told me if I wanted to read one book about the Battle, I should read “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara. He said it would provide a very readable narrative of the battle and the primary participants. In 1993 Ted Turner produced the film “Gettysburg” based on that book. In part the movie was Ted’s (the largest private landowner in South Dakota) attempt to be David O Selznick, the producer of the movie, “Gone with the Wind.”

The effect of Turner’s movie was to modify the perception of history and make a hero of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine Volunteer Regiment at the Little Round Top. Over the following 25 years the popular belief is the 20^th Maine and Chamberlain saved the Union. Our guides several times referred to scenes in the movie to locations we were observing. Once they even joked that Jeff Daniels (the actor who played Chamberlain) had saved the Union.

On my last trip in 2013 to Gettysburg our guide pushed back against Chamberlain’s status. He noted Chamberlain was important but probably General Gouverneur Warren made the most important leadership decision at the Little Round Top. Our guide also suggested that Michael Shaara possessed a Maine bias and increased the drama and importance of the 20^th Maine’s bayonet charge at Little Round Top in his portrayal. The movie’s screenplay thus increased the role of Colonel Chamberlain.

Our guides added to this tale of historical revision by talking about Colonel Ireland and the New York 137^th Regiment on Culp’s Hill, saying because Ireland died at the Siege of Atlanta a year later and Chamberlain went on to be Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College, Chamberlain had a much longer time frame in which to tell his story. It should be noted that Joshua Chamberlain was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions and courage on Little Round Top.

From a history perspective, I left the tour frustrated. There is just so much I don’t know and even more left to understand.

Overall it was a memorable trip. Life doesn’t get any better than spending three days with your son enjoying and being immersed in something you are both interested in.