The Little Visited Benner's Hill

The other day I went up to Benner's Hill to sit and study. Seems that I'm always looking for a quiet place on the battlefield to sit and study and have found very few spots. Well, I sat up on Benner's Hill for over an hour and never saw another car. Now, I realize that Benner's Hill is not on the "main" battlefield...that its not easy to find (if you don't know where it is)....and that no hand to hand combat took place on that hill, but it was the site of some important action and yet, no one visited during my stay.

Its an unimposing little hill that takes in a great panorama of the 1st day's fighting. What you don't realize while looking at it from the bottom of the hill is that you can see for a few miles up there and I'm sure that that played a major role in why the Confederates decided to place artillery on it. Besides it's a great artillery platform.

Joseph Latimer was a 19 year Major (also known as the "Boy Major") who commanded the artillery on that hill. During the course of the fighting, he was shot and later died. He actually died in Virginia after having his arm amputated and then was moved. It seems that his contemporaries found him to be an able young man and he was well respected throughout the Confederate Army.

Benner's Hill lies in the shadow of Culp's Hill and this was a great place for the artillery to be set up to shoot those up on Culp's Hill. Also, from up there, you can see the area where Rodes' men fought the Union army on Oak Hill (you can clearly see the Peace Light), not to mention the town lays right in front of the hill.

There was intense moments on that hill with Latimer's men. They were shooting and getting shot yet they stayed and continued to fight.

As I sat up there, not so much trying to figure out what they did (I was actually trying to get a grasp on the Stonewall Brigade), I started to wonder why this part of the battlefield gets so little attention. It seems that the only people who spend any time up there are the "die hards"....the people who live, breathe, eat the battle, the ones who want to know all the little details. In my lonely hour on that hill, I got to enjoy the birds (one of my passions) and just listening to the wind. I'm sure if I had sat there long enough I could have heard the sounds of battle of so long ago echoing through that quiet patch of land.