A Turning Point?
It is often said that the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the turning point of the American Civil War. I agree; it was a turning point! But only from the perspective that it 'turned' General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia around, sending them back across the Potomac. But to suggest that it was the single 'strategic' event that spun the war favoring the North is a little ambitious! It is true that the Army of Northern Virginia never really recovered from the casualty losses it sustained over the three days in southern Pennsylvania, and those immense losses managed to tarnish Lee's reputation in some Southern circles. It is also true from a Northern perspective; Gettysburg quashed the fear of Lee's invincibility. However, Union Major General George G. Meade failed to pursue the retreating army, missing a critical opportunity to trap Lee and force a Confederate surrender. After the withdrawal from Pennsylvania, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia continued to fight for another 21 months; until the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. That was a further 647 days of bloodletting at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort Steadman, Five Forks, and the Battle of Appomattox Court House.
A silhouette of Brigadier General Gouverneur Kemble Warren's sculpture on Little Round Top. The statue stands on the same boulder Warren stood 158 years ago when he noted Lieutenant General James Longstreet's First Corps' advance toward an exposed and undefended Little Round Top. A West Point graduate, civil engineer, and career U.S. army officer, Warren served in the Corps of Topographical Engineers before the Civil War. He explored and surveyed transcontinental railroad routes, which created the first comprehensive map of the United States west of the Mississippi River. Warren taught mathematics at West Point when war broke out; he then helped form and lead the 5th New York Infantry. He is best remembered for arranging the last-minute defense of Little Round Top and is often referred to as the 'Hero of Little Round Top.'
After a year of defensive victories in Virginia, Robert E. Lee's objective was to win a battle north of the Mason-Dixon line in the hopes of forcing a negotiated end to the fighting. After a great victory at Chancellorsville, Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. On July 1, advancing Confederates clashed with the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George G. Meade, at the little crossroads town of Gettysburg. The next day saw even heavier fighting as the Confederates attacked the Federals on their left and right flanks. On July 3, Lee ordered an attack by fewer than 15,000 troops on the enemy's center at Cemetery Ridge. The assault, known as 'Pickett's Charge,' managed to pierce the Union lines but eventually failed at the cost of thousands of casualties. Forced to withdraw, Lee maneuvered his battered army toward Virginia on July 4. The Union victory stopped Lee's ambitious second quest to invade the North and bring the Civil War to a swift end. The loss destroyed the hopes of the Confederate States of ever becoming an independent nation.
Once there was turmoil and slaughter, now, there is peace and tranquility! Sunset overlooking the Codori Farm. The Codori Farm is just south of Gettysburg on the east side of Emmitsburg Road. It was the scene of heavy fighting on July 2, 1863, and was the center of Pickett's Charge on July 3. General Pickett remained near the farm buildings during the attack.
Located below the summit of Little Round Top is a relief bust of Colonel Patrick Henry 'Paddy' O'Rorke. O'Rorke commanded the Union 140th New York Infantry at Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, Texas soldiers advanced up Little Round Top, noted by Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren. Warren found O'Rorke and his 140th New York Regiment marching to the Wheatfield and ordered them to Little Round Top. When O'Rorke reached the hill's summit, he saw Texans outflanking the right of the 16th Michigan Infantry Regiment. O'Rorke dismounted and drew his sword. "Down this way, boys!" he shouted as he ran down the slope towards the enemy. O'Rorke reached the area of the monument brandishing his sword and yelled, "Here they are, men, commence firing!" These were O'Rorke's last words. In an instant, a bullet cut through the Colonel's neck, and he fell without a sound. The nose on the bust is shiny—tourists rub it for good luck.
Photographed in the early morning light, the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument was captured through the spokes of an M1857 12-Pounder Napoleon artillery piece, at Gettysburg National Military Park. The monument to the 72nd is an 1891 statuary memorial located on Cemetery Ridge, by The Angle and the Copse of Trees. Union forces—including the 72nd Pennsylvania, beat back Confederate troops engaged in Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863.
This muzzle image of an M1857 (12-Pound) Napoleon artillery piece shows the registration information. The No. 24 is the registration number; the 24th gun manufactured in the year of production. H.N.H. & Co. stands for the Henry N. Hooper and Co. armory out of Boston, Massachusetts, the foundry responsible for producing the weapon. 1236 lbs. represents the total weight of the bronze firing tube. T.J.R. (Thomas Jackson Rodman) are the initials of Union Ordnance Officer responsible for inspecting the cannon before the Union Army took possession. 1862 is the manufacture date, which means that the foundry was still producing the older 1857 design from seven years earlier.
What linked Gettysburg to a turning point in the war was the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. The loss of Vicksburg (often referred to as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy) sent reverberations through the walls of the Confederate Congress that sent the South into a losing spiral from which they would never recover. Vicksburg was their key to momentum, and the defeat here marked the turning point after which the South lost their ability to continue the war.
The Alabama State Monument is an Alabama memorial in Gettysburg National Military Park that commemorates the state's Confederate units in the Battle of Gettysburg. It is located in an area that Evander M. Law's Alabama Brigade occupied before their attack on the Round Tops on July 2, 1863. It was dedicated by the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy on November 12, 1933. Joseph Urner created the memorial. It features a large granite base topped by a granite monolith, fronted by a bronze figure group. The granite is from Gettysburg and Vermont, with the bronze cast at the Hammaker Brothers Foundry. The bronze group composition features a female figure representing the Spirit of the Confederacy, flanked by a wounded soldier on her right and an armed soldier on her left. Her left arm gestures the armed soldier to continue fighting, and her right lightly restrains the wounded figure from further combat. The top of the granite monolith is inscribed with the word 'Alabamians!' and the base with "Your names are inscribed on fames immortal scroll."
The Mississippi River provided an essential lifeline for the South during the war. Not as an obvious open watercourse that one would imagine. The loss of New Orleans and Baton Rouge to the south, and Memphis to the north, which included Fort Henry and Donaldson's capture, restricted any Confederate movement up and down the river. However, it did provide a significant geographical barrier that protected Vicksburg and its vital rail link between the armies to the east of the Mississippi River and the trans-Mississippi region, consisting of Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, the Indian Territories (now Oklahoma) and Louisiana, to the west. Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis recognized the significance of Vicksburg; they also recognized that capturing Vicksburg would sever the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy. Such a loss would open the river along its entire length to traffic from the north; thus, preventing Texas beef, Louisiana sugar, salt, and molasses from passing east through Vicksburg and helping to sustain the war effort. According to the Civil War Trust (2014), in an article entitled: 'Unlocking the Door to Union Victory,' President Lincoln is quoted as saying:
"See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket. We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can defy us from Vicksburg."
~ Abraham Lincoln (1862).
The Model 1857 12-Pounder Napoleon: Five centuries of evolution of bronze field artillery pieces culminated in a single smoothbore cannon that was to outperform and make obsolete both the 6-pounder and 12-pounder howitzers of mixed light field artillery batteries during the Civil War. Although officially called the 'light 12-pounder gun' in the North, this most popular smoothbore was better known as the 'Napoleon' (named after Prince Charles Louise Napoleon Bonaparte; Emperor Napoleon III of France). The Napoleon was the favorite field gun of both armies. It was reasonably accurate at all ranges and was devastating when firing canister at close range. The Napoleon was robustly designed and capable of firing many rounds (more than 1200 rounds for a six-gun battery in a single engagement was not uncommon) without any noticeable distortion or wear on the tube. With a propellant charge of 2.5 lbs of black powder, the Napoleon fired a 12 lb. solid shot out to a range of 1,619 yards at 5 degrees of elevation, with a muzzle velocity of 1,485 FPS (feet-per-second).
The two reasons that are most widely accepted as determining the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg are the Union's tactical advantage (due to the occupation of the high ground) and the absence of J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry on the first day of fighting. Though the cautious Meade would be later criticized for not pursuing the enemy after Gettysburg, the battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederacy. Union casualties numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men—more than a third of Lee's army. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day engagement was the bloodiest single battle of the American Civil War.
Behind this group of rocks, on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Surgeon Zabdiel Boylston Adams placed the field hospital of the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry, Second Brigade, First Division, 5th Army Corps. Since this aid station was established near the line of battle, near the bloody Wheatfields, many of the soldiers escaped capture, or even death, by his timely aid. The rock slab in the foreground was used as a makeshift operating table. He worked non-stop for two days and three nights—the eyestrain caused temporary blindness, and he was subsequently discharged from service on July 7, 1863.
Determined to continue serving his country, when the eyesight returned, he re-enlisted as an infantry officer—as his vision was deemed no longer good enough for surgery. During the Battle of the Wilderness, Adams was wounded in the leg and captured by Confederate forces. In the Confederate camp, he received no medical care. When gangrene set in, amputation was recommended by Confederate army surgeons. Adams refused and treated the wound himself by pouring nitric acid into it. In December 1864, he was discharged from the service due to this leg injury. Not one to sit idly by, he rejoined his regiment in February 1865, and took part in the Siege of Petersburg, which led to the end of the Civil War. Upon his final discharge from service in July of 1865, he returned to Roxbury, Massachusetts, to resume his medical practice.
The Sherfy Farm at Gettysburg is on the Emmitsburg Road, about a mile south of town. Built during the 1840s, the Reverend Joseph Sherfy owned the fifty-acre property during the battle; bullet holes are still visible in the brickwork to this day! In 1863, the Emmitsburg Road was a dirt road. It was the scene of heavy fighting on July 2 between Humphrey's Union Division and the Confederate Divisions of McLaws and Anderson.
On July 3, however, this section of road would pose a significant obstacle during Pickett's charge. The spectacle of thousands of grey-clad troops advancing toward them left the waiting federals in awe. Marching under long-range artillery fire, Pickett's Virginians managed to hold their formation quite well—until reaching the post and rail fence lining both sides of the Emmitsburg Road, several hundred yards short of the Federal line. It was here that the attackers came into musketry and canister range and began to suffer horribly. Many climbed or broke through the fence and surged toward the Union line, but the intervening ground was a killing field, and many fell dead—literally in heaps.
One of the most disappointing monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park is that honoring Lieutenant-General James Longstreet. The monument is southwest of Gettysburg along West Confederate Avenue in Pitzer's Woods. Longstreet had been much maligned in the post-war years for his criticisms of Robert E. Lee—after turning Republican. When Confederates looked for a scapegoat at Gettysburg, he became convenient—Longstreet did not have his corps in position on time on July 2, 1863. He did not favor Pickett's Charge, and some have suggested that might have led to a lack of detail, including picking the soldiers to be used for the assault. Fans of James Longstreet waited years for him to have a monument on any Civil War Battlefield. The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans commissioned the equestrian statue; Chickamauga and Gettysburg were the two most prominently mentioned locations. Finally, on July 3, 1998, this unassuming sculpture by Gary Casteel was unveiled.
A small American flag (50 stars) at the base of the 69th Pennsylvania volunteer infantry monument pays tribute to all those Americans (North and South) who gave their lives on this ground on July 3, 1863. The 69th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment monument is south of Gettysburg near the Copse of Trees. It was dedicated in 1887 by the State of Pennsylvania. The view looks south across the line of defense that would have been occupied by the regiment's companies C, E, K, and G—extending from the left of the memorial into the distance.
The Virginia Monument is a Battle of Gettysburg memorial to the commonwealth's 'Sons at Gettysburg' with a bronze statue of Robert E. Lee on his horse Traveller and a bronze group of figures representing the Artillery, Infantry, and Cavalry of the Confederate Army. The equestrian statue is atop a granite pedestal.
The seven figures at the base of the Virginia Monument are on a sculptured bronze base and represent the Artillery, Infantry, and Cavalry of the Confederate Army. The figures face the Field of Pickett's Charge and the equestrian statue of Union General George G. Meade on Cemetery Ridge.
The Soldiers' National Monument is a Gettysburg Battlefield memorial located at the central point at Gettysburg National Cemetery. Lincoln's historic Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, was delivered from the site, which this impressive memorial now occupies. It honors the battle's soldiers and tells an allegory of "Peace and plenty under freedom—following a heroic struggle." In addition to an inscription with the last four lines of the Gettysburg Address, the shaft with four buttresses has five statues. A prominent figure representing the concept of Liberty surmounts the pedestal. Eighteen prominent bronze stars circling the pedestal below this statue represent the eighteen Union states buried dead. A statue is located at each corner near the base. They represent War, History, Peace, and Plenty. War is represented by a statue of an American soldier who recounts the story of the battle to History. In turn, History records, with stylus and tablet, the achievements of the battle and the names of the honored dead. A statue of an American mechanic and his tools illustrates Peace; Plenty is a female figure with a sheaf of wheat and the fruits of the earth that typify peace and abundance as the soldier's crowning triumph.
A symbol of remembrance! Wild Poppies grow through a white picket fence at the George Weikert Farm on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
The opening lines of the World War I poem 'In Flanders Fields' refer to poppies growing among the graves of war victims in a region of Belgium. The poem is written from the point of view of the fallen soldiers. Canadian physician John McCrae wrote the poem on 3 May 1915 after witnessing the death of his friend and fellow soldier the day before. The poem was first published on 8 December 1915 in the London-based magazine Punch.
Moina Michael, who had taken leave from her professorship at the University of Georgia to be a volunteer worker for the American YMCA Overseas War Secretaries Organization, was inspired by the poem. She published a poem of her own called 'We Shall Keep the Faith' in 1918. In tribute to McCrae's poem, she vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who fought in and assisted with the war. At a November 1918 YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference, she appeared with a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed twenty-five more poppies. She then campaigned to have the poppy adopted as a national symbol of remembrance.
The Lieutenant-General James Longstreet monument at Gettysburg National Military Park stands as a symbol of historical controversy and the complexities surrounding the aftermath of the Civil War. Longstreet, once a prominent Confederate general, faced post-war scrutiny and vilification for his criticisms of Robert E. Lee and his political shift toward the Republican Party. The monument, however, reflects a nuanced narrative, acknowledging the disappointments and scapegoating that Longstreet endured. Criticized for not having his corps in position in a timely manner on July 2, 1863, and for his reluctance towards Pickett's Charge, Longstreet's legacy is entwined with the intricate decisions and challenges of that pivotal moment at Gettysburg. This monument invites contemplation on the complexities of historical judgment and the enduring debates over the roles played by key figures in shaping the course of the