July 3, 1863

Yesterday was the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The culmination of all that these men fought for, the day to decide who would win and who would lose, the day that many men laid down their lives for. Of course, this wasn't the end of the war....only the middle, but this battle (and quite possibly this day) put the rest of the Civil War on the course that led right to the end.

Pickett's Charge is considered THE action that took place on July 3, 1863. And it was an important part of the battle. This was the action that led Robert E. Lee to realize that they were overwhelmed and that they needed to leave. But this wasn't the only action to take place on July 3. There was fighting at Culp's Hill and there was a big Cavalry battle that took place on the Rummel Farm at East Cavalry Field.

The fighting at East Cavalry Field is something that I don't think I will ever fully understand. I've read books, gone on Battle Walks, talked to people who fully understand the fight and still I don't get it. But, as I've said before, I am not a Cavalry person. It just confuses me to no end. But I love that field. I love going over there and seeing the area and knowing just who fought there....I just can't grasp the action. One day...I hope I will....but who knows. I have some sort of mental block.

Pickett's Charge is an interest of mine. Many people were killed and wounded during that charge (including my hero, Gen. Hancock). What intrigues me the most is the cannonade that preceded the charge. All the many cannons shooting off at the same time, just how deafening was it? I know that it could be heard as far away as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but what were the civilians in Gettysburg experiencing as the huddled in their basements? How many people who lived in the area or were in the battle lost their hearing due to this cannonade? The charge itself (which has so many different names: Longstreet's Assault, the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge, Pickett's Charge, etc) was 12,500 men picking up their guns and walking 1 mile over open ground to face the Federal army at a stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. Until you have actually walked that field, you don't realize how that field actually goes up and down...from little ridges to swales. What these soldiers faced in 1863 is so different from today due to so many things that have changed the face of the field, but to go out and see for yourself....it changes all thoughts about that date. It wasn't as crazy as it seemed. Go and try it and you will be amazed at how little of Cemetery Ridge you can see from that field.

But the part of the battle that I am most fascinated by is the fighting on Culp's Hill. How "Pap" Greene was able to hold that hill with his little brigade on July 2 and then continue to hold after his reinforcements arrived is beyond me. One of the least talked about and yet most important fighting on that hill was by the 137th NY led by David Ireland. What Ireland did was almost identical to what Chamberlain did on Little Round Top...at almost the exact same time. Yet Chamberlain gets all the glory and David Ireland's name and the 137th NY are not remembered except by the most serious of students of the battle.

So much occurred out there....and I have very little time to write about it all....but its important to remember the major occurrences just as much as it is to remember the minor occurrences. Could this battle have been won if just one of the people involved had done something different? We won't ever know. But if we think of it in those terms, we realize just how important each and every participant was in what occured here those three days in July in 1863.