Gettysburg Cyclorama Restored
- Thread starter VirginiaHuguenot
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Backwoods Presbyterian
Puritanboard Amanuensis
I was there back in July. Gettysburg always gets to me. (Mostly because I had relatives who fought there)...
I was there last week. I have customers in Emmitsburg, MD and usually drive through the battlefield once a month. Arguably it is the most accessible battlefield in the National Park Service. Standing on Little Round Top causes the hair on my neck to stand up. I can hardly the imagine the bravery of the Confederate troops traversing Devils Den, or the Union troops defending the far left flank at Little Round Top. Last week I stood at the little clump of trees and looked past the Emmitsburg Road and tried to imagine the smoke and exploding shells all around me. I never get tired of it.
Backwoods Presbyterian
Puritanboard Amanuensis
What always gets me about that section NJB is how relatively small it is in comparison to what you think.
Benjamin, it was a rather tight battle field. The Union fish hook had a lot to do with that. Both flanks were well defined and the terrain at Big Round Top provided a natural boundary which concentrated the forces even more. All of the level ground fighting prior to the third day (Wheatfield and Peach Orchard come to mind) turned out to be irrelevant. It came down to whether or not the left flank of the Union army could be turned and the integrity of the Union line at the center. That most of the fighting took place in such a concentrated area must have made the slaughter that much more horrific.
Backwoods Presbyterian
Puritanboard Amanuensis
I agree. My family were the first up Culp's Hill on Day 2. According to what has been passed down orally my relatives say if they were given 15 more minutes that they could have turned turned the fishhook.
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