Brooke Avenue

In my present obsession with the Wheatfield, I decided, because it was such a beautiful day today, to take a long walk along Brooke Avenue. For those who aren't familiar with Brooke Avenue, take the NPS driving route down Wheatfield Road, turn onto Ayres Avenue....where the NPS tour says to turn on Sickles Avenue....go straight. That is Cross Avenue, when you get to the first big bend in the road it turns into Brooke Avenue. At the end of that particular road, it turns into deTrobriand Avenue. Its all very confusing (name wise) but the road is my favorite in the entire park. Quite often, you can find my car parked near the Kershaw marker and either I'm sitting in the car reading or I'm out walking the road or talking to the cows on the Rose Farm.

Today I decided to walk. I grabbed my walking tour book on the Wheatfield by Jay Jorgensen and off I went. My goal: the old trolley path...to see the ledge of rocks that 3rd Arkansas Colonel Van Manning was talking about in his O.R. Now, I've seen the ledge of rocks many times....from the road, from the trolley path....but I have never walked up to the rocks. So I was determined to head up there. This time of year is interesting. Today it got up to 70 degrees....too warm for a coat, too cool without one. And there are VERY little leaves left on the trees. I like this time of the year because you can see things that you would never be able to see in the summer. I could very distinctly see the ledge of rocks. But on my way to the trolley path, I stopped and did some thinking.

I took a good hard look at the monuments on the hill where I had parked....53rd PA, 2nd DE, etc. I thought about the men who actually fought in this spot. The more I think about these men, the sadder I get. It's the same thoughts over and over again: Who were these men, who were their families, what did they do for a living, did they get wounded or die, who missed the dead? I dwelled on these thoughts as I got closer to the trolley path.

The electric trolley was a trolley system established around the turn of the century to bring visitors to the Devil's Den/Little Round Top area. There were several stops along the way and "amusement parks" scattered throughout the battlefield. Now, the amusement parks of a hundred years ago are nothing like our amusement parks today, but there were a few of these and they usually had a dance hall, refreshment stand, souvenir stand, and several other things that would attract people. Fortunately, the park won a lawsuit and the electric trolley was forced to close down....and the amusement parks soon followed. But today, you can still see traces of the track....the best place to see its track is along Brooke Avenue....which has been turned into a walking trail.

I finally reached the trolley path and knew that there was a little path that led up to the Ledge of Rocks. What I didn't realize was that the path is right after you turn onto the trolley path. I almost missed it because I thought it was further down. So I took the little path (which was completely covered in leaves) and followed it up to the Ledge of Rocks. Maybe its just me, but the rocks seemed much more imposing from a greater distance away. But I took my time up there, snapping pictures, listening to nothing, and remembering what Van Manning said about the rocks: "Soon I was again admonished that my left was seriously threatened, when I ordered the command back fifty or seventy-five yards to meet this contingency....and I stretched out my front twice its legitimate length, guarding well my left and advanced to the ledge of rocks from which we had previously been dislodged."

After standing and looking out at the rocks and standing around the rocks....trying to see what Manning saw, I started to head back towards my car. But not before I took time to reflect on nature. On my way back, I crossed a little bridge that crosses Roses' Run. It's nothing more than a little brook. But I didn't care. I stopped and kept very quiet. This road isn't traveled much..... I was there for 2 hours and saw 3 cars (1 of which went by twice) and 1 Park Ranger....that was it. It the total peace and quiet of nature, I saw things and heard things that I wouldn't have otherwise have seen or heard. The woodpeckers were constantly chattering and pecking on trees. I spotted at least 4 different species of woodpeckers in the the few minutes that I stood there. I also heard some noise in the leaves right next to me on the bridge, I looked down and a chipmunk with his cheeks as full as he could get them, was trying to cross the bridge. Unfortunately, I took a step out so I could see him better and it scared him. I never did see the little guy again. But I listened to the birds. They were just as happy as could be. I felt like I was intruding into the private lives of nature and was getting the show of a lifetime. The birds were flying back and forth, the chipmunks and squirrels were busy getting ready for winter, the leaves (what was left) were falling off the trees, every now and then a branch would break on its way to the forest floor....and I was there to witness it all. It was like being an audience member at an orchestra....everyone had their own music to play and I was lucky enough to hear it played so that it all made sense. This music kept up....until a car went through the park. The car wasn't going very fast, it was really quite quiet, but it was enough to interrupt the music and I didn't hear it again until I was back at my car.

I find it sad that you can find such peace at a place where such devastation took place. The fighting in Rose Woods (which is where I was) was horrible. Men died. Men lost limbs. The wounds were horrendous and men came home horribly disfigured. Yet they did it. I always try to put myself in the places of these men....but I can NEVER understand what they went through. Standing in the exact same places where they stood, reading their words, trying to imagine the fighting....I still can't understand just what they went through. Musket balls, minie balls, and cannon balls aren't flying towards my head. Enemies that I never dreamed I would have weren't trying to kill me. My best friends and brothers weren't lying next to me screaming in pain, dying or worse, dead. Until I experience exactly what they experienced, I can never understand it....I can only try....and I can only remember them.