When I was eleven years old studying Gettysburg, I instinctively zoomed in on the second day - July 2, 1863 -- for special attention.
Today is the 150th anniversary of that second day.
The field names have stuck with me permanently ever since I was that kid, names like the Sickles' Salient, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Houck's Ridge, Devil's Den, Plum Run and the Valley of Death, the Trostle Farm, the charge of the First Minnesota -- all of them.
Once upon another time, I was early by one night in rendezvousing with extended family converging on Gettysburg for a wedding, so that very same night I made my way up Little Round Top by foot -- in the pitch dark -- and slept in a rock crevice beneath the statue of Union Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren formerly of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, until about dawn the next morning.
An eerie experience, as you can probably imagine. Lots of strange rustling noises like those made by restless birds and, perhaps, wandering souls of the dead.
Today's Rune: Journey.
4 comments:
What a battle it was. Microcosm of the whole war.
Hi, Erik!
Some memories are for the good, others are evil. The certainty we have is that they were good when they hit with nostalgia.
Happy day!
Beijus,
Cheers, y;all -- thankx for the comments. True, Charles, and true, Luma ~!
Visiting the Gettysburg battlefield is on my "bucket list." I would love to do two things: to stand where Chamberlain's troops defended Little Round Top, and to walk the path the Confederate troops took trying vainly to defeat those troops. The American Civil War was extraordinarily brutal because, as always, the commanders were fighting the last war; they hadn't caught up with the technology. This problem hasn't gone away in subsequent wars.
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