Hello again

I'm sorry that I haven't been around. Posting will resume soon....I hope. I've had some internet issues. Please continue to watch for more postings....I promise that it will continue but for now, I will be in and out until things are straightened out.

Snow in Gettysburg

It was bound to happen....sooner or later, but we had our first snowfall in Gettysburg yesterday. It wasn't much....maybe 1/2".....probably less. But the ground is white. I love the first snowfall on the battlefield. Why? I hate snow. But the really nice thing about a light snowfall is the fact that you can see things that you would NEVER see at any other time of the year.

First I drove on Ayres Avenue and looked up at Little Round Top. One of the things that stands out most is the tracks where the trolley used to go around the base of Little Round Top. Although you can make out the tracks on any given day, the little bit of snow makes it really stand out. Looking at the path, you can see how that electric trolley bit into the ground, not just at Little Round Top but throughout the park. Its a sad part of the history of Gettysburg. But on a happy note, the walking path near the base of the Triangular Field and through Rose' Woods wouldn't exist without it. I love to walk that path.

As I drove through the Wheatfield, I could look into the woods and see the gentle curve of the land. When there is no snow on the ground, that curve doesn't show. You can sort of see the highs and lows of the ground, but there is just too much underbrush, trees, etc that get in your way. But when there is snow on the ground it shows and you can see deep into the woods. Your perspective changes.

I then drove down Hancock Ave. The one thing that I noticed along this path was the barns. You can see the Weikert, Trostle, Sherfy, Klingel, Codori, Frey, and Brian barns from this road. The snow was still sitting on the roofs and with the sun coming up, they shone like the sun. The glistening of the roofs reminded me that the barns were still there. I hate to say this but I live here and sometimes as a resident I tend to stop seeing things. We get so used to seeing the same things over and over again that they blend into the background. Unfortunately, that happens to me. I try not to let it happen.....but who can stop it. We take the things in our backyards for granted. But seeing those barns glistening in the sunlight was a reminder that even when we stop seeing what we are looking at, they are still there.

Another thing that stood out was General Lee standing tall atop the Virginia Monument. He really stuck out today. Standing close to a mile away and seeing him standing tall made me proud. I'm proud that today we can stand on Union ground, where a Union victory took place and still see the Confederate spirit. The Confederate spirit (whether right or wrong) is what has made this country what it is. The pride and determination of the Southern states is what this country was founded on....only it was the entire country. Where would this country be without determination? Where would this country be without pride? I'm afraid that we wouldn't exist. Seeing General Lee standing there today made me proud to be an American.

Then I got cold and went home. I often joke that I need to move someplace warm....like Hawaii or the Bahamas....but when it comes down to it, I wouldn't live anywhere except in Gettysburg. This is home.

The Chancellor House

I've been to Chancellorsville twice now. There is something about that place that just keeps calling me. There are four battlefields within just a few miles of each other (Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Wilderness, and Chancellorsville) and every time I go down there, I only seem to be able to hit Wilderness and Chancellorsville. I know what my draw to the Wilderness area is: my great great grandfather was wounded here. I
would like to be able to find the area where he was wounded, but I have, as yet, been unable to locate the spot. I don't know what it is about Chancellorsville, though. It might have something to do with Stonewall Jackson. Every time I take the walk around the Visitors Center and see the monument to Stonewall Jackson or the stone that the veterans placed there to remember him, I get a chill. Funny thing, though, I'm not especially a huge fan of his. It's not that I don't like him, he just isn't one of my favorites. So I'm still not sure about the draw....but something is there.



One of the things that I really like to stop and take a good look at is the remains of the Chancellor House. All that really remains is the foundation but from walking around the foundation you get a good feel for the size of the house. It was huge. This wasn't just a small village house.

I've recently come across a biography of Isaac Sharp, a private in the 140th PA. His biography gives a little inside look at what part the Chancellor House played in the Battle of Chancellorsville. Here is what I found:

In March he had a severe attack of erysipelas [type of skin infection], which disabled him until May 1, when he shouldered his traps and joined in the march to Chancellorsville. Wearied and worn, they arrived on the field at 9 pm, on the evening of the third day of the month, and the next morning they took an advanced position facing toward Fredericksburg.

At this point a dispute arose between the leading generals. Hooker had given repeated orders to Couch to fall back, but the advantages of the position were so apparent that Hancock and Warren both advised Couch to stand his ground. Warren went to Hooker and explained the matter, which resulted in an order issued at 2pm for Couch to hold the position till 5:00. But Couch had begun his retreat, and said: "Tell General Hooker he is too late, the enemy is now on my right and rear, and I am in full retreat."

The regiment moved to a position to the left of the former place, and there the Unionists were on too high ground, and before an attack could be made had again moved. While making coffee at the Chancellor House, they were ordered out on double quick to repel an attack made where the Wilderness road turns down the hill. After this they were moved to the left brow of the hill, facing the river, and began throwing up trenches.

Meantime a terrible artillery engagement was being waged, of which the following is an accurate description given by Captain C. L. Linton, commanding: What wild eyes and blanched faces there were when the shells and solid shot came in from the right and rear of us! Orders coming to "about face, left in front," we advanced to the plank road in rear of the Chancellor House to support a battery.

The Fifth Maine had opened fire, to which the enemy replied so rapidly and accurately that almost all the horses and men were killed or wounded. Only two of the artillerists remained at their posts. While there the Chancellor House was seen to be on fire, a detail from Company F was made to remove the wounded therefrom. All this time the shot and shell were coming so thick and fast that it seemed one could not take his nose from the dirt lest he would have his head blown off. A call for volunteers was made to save the guns of the Fifth Maine battery. Upon looking back, whom should we see but our division and brigade commanders, General Winfield Scott Hancock and General Nelson A. Miles. A moment later came our corps commander, hat in hand, and hair streaming in the breeze. The call for volunteers was responded to by a rush from Company D, and a few from one or two other companies, through the concentrated fire of thirty guns, into a storm of shot and shell, in the face of Jackson's men infused with victory, and saved every gun.

Myself and Corporal I. Sharp in the rush, both grasped the limber of one of the guns at the same time and on either side. With superior effort we succeeded in raising it a few inches from the ground, when a solid shot or shell passed between us and under the limber. At that instant Sharp gave down, and i thought he was done for, but was rejoiced when Corporal Sayer and others lay hold to see him straighten up again. He had let down on account of the immense weight we were lifting. A corporal of the battery procured a rope, and we soon had the gun moving from the scene of action. The force attached was not sufficient to make fast time. Try as we did, we stuck once or twice when running against dead horse. Not having fully recovered from former sickness, over exertion brought on disease, and after remaining in the regiment a few weeks, Isaac Sharp was sent to the general hospitals at Columbia, D. C., Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
http://www.pacivilwar.com/bios/sharp_isaac.php

And here is an account from one of the family members who actually lived in the Chancellor House, Sue Chancellor:

"The house was full of the wounded. They had taken our sitting room as an operating room, and and our piano served as an amputating table....The surgeons brought my mother a bottle of whiskey and told her that she must take some and so must we all. We did....Upstairs they were bringing in the wounded, and we could hear their screams of pain." Sue Chancellor, a southern girl whose house provided the names for the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. Early the next morning, the sixteen women and children who were hiding in the basement during the battle were brought upstairs. Sue saw the chairs riddled with bullets, the piles of amputated arms and legs, and the rows of dead bodies covered with canvas. The house suddenly caught fire -- probably a shell burst -- and the terrified women and children stumbled out of the building as the pillars collapsed. Her home was completely engulfed in flames, and Sue, her mother, and her five young sisters became homeless refugees.

Winter of 1863-64

In the winter of 1863, my great great grandfather and the rest of his regiment (98th PA) spent their time in Brandy Station. This was the area in which the Army of the Potomac had their winter encampment (for some reason, I'm picturing Valley Forge). It was during this time that the 98th Pennsylvania's time was up and they had to decide to reenlist or not. My great great grandfather did, indeed, reenlist.

While studying his life.....what he did during the Civil War....and even after, I decided to do some checking up on what exactly happened in Brandy Station during that winter. I found two markers in Brandy Station that explain about life during that period. Here are what the markers said:

Marker 1

On the night of December 1, 1863, following its unsuccessful advance against Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Mine Run Campaign, a cold and tired Army of the Potomac withdrew across the Rapidan River and returned to Culpeper County. On these fields and throughout most of Culpeper and part of Fauquier Counties, 100,000 Union soldiers set up a massive winter encampment that disrupted the lives of local residents. Union commander Major General George G. Meade ordered that the army establish its camps in an enormous oval-shaped configuration. As protection, an outer ring of cavalry pickets stretched around the army, backed up by an inner line of infantry. Supplies from Alexandria, Virginia rolled down the Orange and Alexandria Railroad into Brandy Station, the army's principle supply depot, and to Ingalls Station, 1.2 miles to the north. The encampment, which lasted from December 1, 1863 to May 4, 1864, was described by one soldier as a time "when the shattered regiments regained form and fair; when the new men learned the ways of the old, and caught the spirit of the organization they had entered...and the new body, thus composed, was to be thrown into one of the most furious campaigns of human history."

"A man could walk for miles and never leave the camps around Brandy Station." Anonymous Union Soldier

"A few weeks ago it was a wilderness; now it is a city of log huts, hardly a tree to be see." 126th New York Soldier

Marker 2:

The 1863-1864 winter encampment proved a busy time for the Army of the Potomac. "There was something fascinating about our winter city of 100,000 men," a staff officer recalled. "Many pleasant recollections cluster around the old camp at Brandy Station...history should know that our military service did not consist entirely of being shot at or trying to shoot at the other man." Thousands of new recruits joined the army and learned how to be soldiers. For members of the "old" regiments, the issue of re-enlisting was of grant interest; those who decided to sign on for "three more years" - or until the end of the war - were treated to a 30-day furlough, a $300 bounty, and special veteran stripes for their uniforms. Soldiers grumbled over the unpopular abolition of the First and Third Corps and the transfers of their regiments into other corps. In March 1864, following his appointment as general-in-chief of all the Union armies, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant came to Culpeper County. Although George Meade continued to command the Army of the Potomac, Grant chose to make his headquarters in the field with his army and directed operations until the end of the war. Not two months later, in early May 1864, the men of the Army of the Potomac packed their knapsacks, fell into line, and left these camps for good. On May 4, they crossed the Rapidan River and marched to the Wilderness. Before the momentous and bloody Overland Campaign ended, nearly half of those who had spent the winter at Brandy Station would be dead or wounded.

Reading about this time in the history of our country just reminds me of how precious we should consider life. I can't imagine what they must have gone through....the lack of warmth, few clothes, no luxury items, were they wanting for food? With the Christmas season approaching, thinking about the struggles that the armies on both sides went through, how little they had, what they had to do without, etc., really makes me thankful for what I do have. I am not the richest person, sometimes I wonder how I am going to pay my bills, but they get paid, I have food, I have a place to live (and its in the most wonderful town ever), and I have clean clothes on a daily basis. Stopping and thinking about the past makes me even more thankful for the future. The slate is clean....we can do with the future whatever we want....so here is my question: What will we do with our future? Let's remember to look at the past so that we can look toward a bright future.

The New Horse Trail

It was a warmish day yesterday morning and I thought I would take a little stroll on the new horse path that the park made this summer. This isn't the first time I've walked this trail...its at least my third trip on it. The trail goes from somewhere around the Bushman house down South Confederate Avenue across the bridge over Plum Run and then runs off to the base of Big Round Top. From there it heads back over towards the Slyder Farm. I didn't walk the entire path. I just wanted to follow the part that went from Plum Run up to the 'D' shaped field. Its a short walk but pleasant.

So, I parked my car at the bottom of the hill, right on the other side of the bridge. For reference, this bridge is the bridge that has the dinosaur footprints on the sides....just past the William Wells statue. I started to walk the path around 7am. The sun was up, but it was still kind of dark and you could tell that we were heading for some stormy weather. I didn't care what the day was like....I just wanted to walk this path.

First, in the spring, this is going to be an awesome path to walk. When the leaves start to come out and the birds are singing....its just going to be awesome....and I can't wait. In the meantime, winter is here and with that, there is little foliage which makes your views incredible. At no time during my walk did I lose sight of the road...in the spring and summer that will be different.

During the first leg of the path, I heard this really loud rustling in the bushes and when I looked over, I saw the tails of two deer taking off at high speed into the thick woods. I don't know where they were heading but they weren't taking their time. During this part of the walk, I could hear Plum Run as it ran softly over the rocks in its path. There's something about the sound of a brook running its course. Its relaxing.

I turned at a sharp turn in the path. The path also heads straight....right around the backside of Big Round Top. You are welcome to take this path, but be aware! This path is nothing more than a mud path (I've had shoes sucked off my feet in the past) and it can be treacherous. Also, in the summer, I've run into snakes in that area. Yuck!

At this point in my walk, I could see the top of Big Round Top. The one thing that I noticed more than anything was that Big Round Top contains 2 hills. The part where I was walking rose up and then leveled off. It sort of became a plateau of sorts. Then the other part rose high above the leveled off section....really high above that section. In the summer, I believe that there is no way that you could see this. I'm sure that the Alabamians who climbed up this hill and then down the other side couldn't see just what they were in for. Even though mostly the underbrush was eaten away by wild animals and farm animals, the tree tops HAD to hide the rise of the hill. There is no way that it could have been seen....just no way.

I looked through the brush and though about these poor Alabama boys. They had their canteens taken from them so that they could be refilled....so there was nothing to drink. It was July in Gettysburg (I don't care how low the temperature is, the humidity is always there in July). And they had to climb up this mountain that is completely covered in rocks....no, boulders....HUGE boulders. How did they do it? Today, I wouldn't want to try it. I noticed how the brush is REALLY, REALLY thick and just full of thorn bushes. I'm hurting just thinking about walking that hill.

The boulders along the path are just a sampling of the boulders on the hill. Some of these boulders are big enough that I could hide in their shadows with a few other people. They are huge! The path leads up hill from where I started. I got to the road and then turned around and headed back down the path. One thing that I had to be very careful about, is that this is a HORSE path.....watch where you are stepping.

While walking down the path, I noticed different things than when I was walking up. Seeing it from two different perspectives, it gives you a different way of seeing things. This is a path that I am going to look forward to seeing in the spring....while its still cool out. I'm sure that the snakes will love this area...and I'm not really excited about seeing them anytime soon.