James A. Hall and his battery

I spent 4 1/2 hours out on the field yesterday....studying and just enjoying the summer-like weather that we have been having. I spent the majority of my time studying the battery of James A. Hall. I guess Hall's Battery has been one of those batteries that I thought I knew a lot about...but until I did a detailed study of his actions, I didn't really understand just what Hall went through on July 1.

First, we have to understand that Hall was sent in with Cutler's brigade. As a matter of fact, when he was sent (by Reynolds) to relieve Calef, he had actually cut off the 147th NY from advancing with the rest of their brigade....which is probably why they ended up in the weird position that they ended up in.

But Hall's 2nd Maine Battery was placed on McPherson's Ridge. 2 of the guns were placed on the south side of Chambersburg Pike and 4 were placed on the north side. The six guns that Hall brought to the battle were 3-inch Ordnance Rifles.

The fighting in and of itself was complicated and hard to explain, but to make a long story short, Hall and his men were fighting the brigades of Davis and Archer. The fighting was short but intense. Many of Hall's men were wounded. I've read two different accounts as to how many men were killed: one source says 0 and the other source says 2. Hall also lost many of his horses.
After seeing the 76th NY and 56th PA retreating, Hall decided to pull his men out. What he didn't realize was that the 147th NY was still on the other side of the railroad cut. They ended up isolated and having to fight their way back to safety. Hall pulled his men out two guns at a time. The big problem was that by the time the last two guns went to pull out, there was no infantry to help cover their retreat. The final gun had to be abandoned after all the horses were shot.

Hall was able to pull his men all the way back to the eastern side of the Seminary. It took about an hour, but one of the other regiments was able to retrieve the lost gun for Hall.

They then retreated back to Cemetery Hill and that is where they stayed for that day and the next. Today, the Lincoln Speech Memorial is at the location of where Hall's battery was held. By the time they arrived at Cemetery Hill, they only had three of their guns in working order.

Hall's battery is just a small sample of the stories that we can find on the battlefield, whether its Gettysburg or any other battlefield from the Civil War. These guys fought hard. They sacrificed much. I'm so glad that today, we can go out on the field and learn about the sacrifices of these men....North or South. They gave so much that today I consider them ALL my heroes.

Lincoln Memorial

Due to my job, I was able to spend some time down in Washington, DC yesterday. The day was the perfect day for sightseeing....70+ degrees, no clouds in the sky, lots of sunshine. And many, many people were walking around looking at our nation's Capital. During my time down there, I spent quite a bit of it looking for Civil War history. Civil War history abounds down there and you don't have to go looking for it, it just shows up.

One of the key places to find Civil War history is none other than the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial is one of the most recognizable places in Washington. When you walk inside, there is a large sculpture of President Lincoln sitting in a chair right in the middle of the room. Lincoln had everything to do with the Civil War: the acting president during the war, commander in chief of the Union forces, delivered the Gettysburg Address, and the list goes on and on and on. When you walk into the memorial, if you move to the room on your right, engraved into the wall is Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. The room on the left has the Gettysburg Address engraved into the wall.

I stood and watched the people reading the Gettysburg Address. I guess this has more importance to me because of the close proximity of Lincoln actually giving that address to my home. But watching the people (most of whom did NOT speak English...at least not out loud), I was struck by how they seemed to fully understand the importance of that short speech. They stood, quietly, seemingly reading and comprehending those few words that Lincoln spoke on that day in November, 1863. But do they? I'm not sure. One thing that I have noticed, both by being a tourist and by speaking to tourists, people from country's other than the United States seem to understand our history better than those who were born and raised here. I find this sad. Our students in our schools do not know who most of our early leaders were nor do they seem to care. Occasionally, you will find a student who does care and does know and when I stumble across one of these kids, I realize that maybe it isn't all a lost cause.

In the upcoming days, I will share some of the pictures that I took of Washington and things that I found that were affiliated with the Civil War. I learned quite a bit about the city this particular day and look forward to sharing it with you.