"Well, it is all over now. The battle is lost, and many of us are prisoners, many are dead, many wounded, bleeding and dying." George Pickett

Today John Heiser and Scott Hartwig gave us our last tour of Gettysburg. It was an exciting chance to get to know the town we’ve lived in for a semester a little bit better. The morning began with a tour of the town from John Heiser, historian at Gettysburg National Military Park. We walked with him from the Appleford up to the train station that saw President Lincoln arrive in November 1863, for the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. It was powerful to stand in the same place where Lincoln stepped off the train while he most likely thought about the address he would give the next day. As we toured the town, John pointed out the old GAR post and the various buildings that had been used as hospitals during the battle. His tour gave us a whole new look on the town we thought we knew so well. Throughout the morning I marveled at how we are surrounded by our nation’s history while studying at Gettysburg.

John also took us on a tour of the myriad of barns that still stand on the battlefield. As he pointed out the features that marked each barn, John impressed upon us the importance of good research as a part of historic preservation. At several barns, most notably the Snyder farm, John gave us examples of preservation efforts that had gone horribly wrong even though the preservationists involved had the best of intentions. It gave us an interesting glimpse into the world of historic preservation.

We ate lunch at the famous Pickett’s Buffet which was an experience all to itself! As soon as lunch was over, we hiked across the road to Brian’s Barn to meet historian Scott Hartwig for a tour of Pickett’s Charge. The tour was a look at both the military and memory issues that tie our nation to the event that occurred on the third day of Gettysburg. Scott walked us out to the Virginia monument, approximately where the charge began and walked us all the way back in the same route the Confederate soldiers took on July 3. These soldiers belonged not only to Pickett’s Division, but to the divisions of Pettigrew and Trimble as well. While marching down the same path as they did almost 150 years ago showed us how difficult that march would have been for the soldiers. I was amazed that they could stay in straight battle lines in order to perform various maneuvers against the enemy.

We finished the tour at the Bloody Angle where we tried to imagine the close quarters fighting that took place on both sides of the wall. Scott urged us to look at the monuments dedicated to those regiments at the Bloody Angle and consider what such monuments symbolized and what they meant to convey to visitors to the area. Through the High Water Mark monument to the 72^nd Pennsylvania monument, we saw again the importance of memory when studying the Civil War.

It was a cold day, but a fascinating one that left us a little forlorn that we’d finished the battle of Gettysburg. But next week it’s off to Richmond for a weekend which will surely be full of great memories with wonderful friends! On to Richmond!

"It did not seem possible to withstand another shock like this now coming on. Our loss had been severe." Joshua Chamberlain

Today we continued our tour of Gettysburg by following the second day’s events with our guide John Archer. Throughout the day, John focused on the human element of the battle that can sometimes get buried under the specifics of troop movements and regimental numbers.

The most poignant moment arose as we stood in a portion of the Wheatfield. John showed us a Gardener photo that had been taken in the same area about a week after the battle. Standing in the same spot where those men had died sobered us all as we looked about the peaceful scene surrounding us. I know I at least wondered what the families of those who had died would have felt upon receiving the news of the loss of their loved one. I could not imagine the pain of receiving word that my brother, father, or friend had fallen at Gettysburg. Even more horrifying would have been seeing photographs of their dead bodies littered across a pasture like an animal without anyone to witness his last moments.

Another interesting moment came during our afternoon on Culp’s Hill. Amazingly enough, some of the breastworks used by Union soldiers during their defense of Culp’s Hill on the second day are still intact. Their use of traverse lines was intriguing and serves as another tie to the modern warfare of World War I. John once again brought the human element to the forefront as he described the fighting that took place between Union and Confederate Maryland troops. The emotional trauma that would have been added by fighting men from the same state must have been tremendous on those soldiers. Interestingly, the only Confederate monument on the field is a Maryland monument on Culp’s Hill on the Union battle lines. John noted that behind the monument in the woods was a Confederate burial site. Although the bodies were re-interred elsewhere, the dip in the ground is still visible from the path.

Our second day at Gettysburg ended once more on East Cemetery Hill as we discussed the use of artillery on the second day. At the conclusion of our tour, we returned to the Appleford with a more in-depth understanding of the second day’s battle. Next week we will finish our tour of Gettysburg with a look at the town itself and Pickett’s Charge.

"They came forward with a rush, and how our men did yell, 'Come on, Johnny, come on!'" -Lt. Col. Rufus R. Dawes, 6th Wisconson, The Iron Brigade

After following the campaigns of the Civil War throughout Virginia and Maryland, we have finally arrived at what some consider a turning point in the war: Gettysburg. We spent the day examining the field over which the first day’s battle took place. We met our guide, John Archer, on East Cemetery Hill and began the day.

The tour began at a rarely visited marker that holds greater significance than its small size would suggest. West of town on the Chambersburg Pike stands a marker to Marcellus Jones who fired the first shot of the Battle of Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, 1863. John pointed out that the marker is probably accurate in its positioning, and we looked down the road, trying to imagine the feelings of Union soldiers as they saw Confederates marching down the Chambersburg Pike toward Gettysburg.

Throughout the morning, we investigated the positions held by Buford’s, and later, Reynolds’ men on July 1^st. John took us through the woods to trace the movements of the famed Iron Brigade as they fought near Willoughby Run where Confederate Brigadier General James Archer was captured by Union troops. Incidentally, John Archer is related to this Confederate prisoner, providing us with a closer connection to the battle.

The death that occurred on the field that day provided a central theme to the tour. Near the railroad cut, John reminded us that not all of the bodies buried after the battle were found in the years immediately after the war. From time to time in the past century, bodies of Civil War soldiers have been discovered on the field due to heavy rains or construction efforts. Only a few years ago, in the late 1990’s a skeleton was found in the dirt walls alongside the railroad cut. After close study, it was determined that the skeleton belonged to a Confederate soldier who could only be identified as such only by the few buttons still on his person.

Another instance of the horrors of war awaited us after lunch near Oak Hill. Brigadier General Alfred Iverson watched in despair as his North Carolinians were mowed down by a surprise Union attack on their unsuspecting left. The men fell in heaps, the wounded unable to escape for fear of being shot. After the battle, the dead were buried in a mass grave where they had fallen. In the years following the war, a grape vineyard was grown over the ground, and its owners insisted that the grapes there grew larger than those elsewhere in the area due to the morbid fertility of the land.

Before ending our day at the Union held Cemetery Hill, John took us into town. He reminded us that the battle was also fought on the streets of Gettysburg itself. He pointed out the difficulties of such street fighting, and the challenges that Ewell faced on the evening of July 1. Although many criticize Ewell for not pressing his attack on the evening of the 1^st, Archer argued that such an attack would not only have been impracticable, but also devastating to his forces. With that in mind, we ended our tour of the first day with the Union soldiers on East Cemetery Hill warily watching the campfires of the Confederates appearing across the ridges they had held earlier that morning.

Next time, we’ll begin once more on East Cemetery Hill to join the armies in their second day of hard fighting at Gettysburg.

"Death, wounds, and appalling destruction everywhere." -Lt. Frederick L. Hitchcock, 132nd PA Infantry

Our day began at dawn. Well, maybe not dawn, but 7:00 am felt pretty early on Friday. The drive to Fredericksburg, Virginia was probably one of the quietest we’ve had so far. But as we unloaded the bus, we were all excitement as we were honored to meet our guide for Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, staff historian Donald Pfanz.

We began our tour at the breathtakingly picturesque Chatham, the headquarters of Edwin Sumner and a hospital for the wounded during the Battle of Fredericksburg. The front of the house overlooks the scenic Rappahannock, the river dividing the Union and Confederate armies in November and December 1862. As Donald explained Burnside’s struggles throughout the campaign and his attempts to cross the river, we studied the difficult nature of the terrain encountered by the Union troops. The troubles faced by Union soldiers seemed almost insurmountable, adding to the drama of the battle. It was difficult to imagine the amount of suffering that took place on the beautiful grounds of Chatham as it was covered with the wounded and dying during the battle.

Throughout the course of the morning, we traveled across both sides of the Confederate line. We started on the Confederate right, where Jackson and his men held the line against the assaults of Meade’s men. However, at the famous Marye’s Heights on the Confederate left the futility of the battle made itself known. Standing behind the stonewall defended by Confederate troops, it was difficult to imagine a better defensive position. On Marye’s Heights, we also saw the memorial to young Confederate Sergeant Richard Kirkland, better known as the Angel of Marye’s Heights. After the intense fighting of the Heights had slightly died off, Kirkland requested permission to take water to the wounded Union soldiers who cried out in pain and fear across the wall. After he was refused permission on account of the danger involved, Kirkland took it upon himself to cross the wall. Once the Union soldiers saw what he was doing, the intermittent firing stopped and a cheer went up among the Union soldiers. Sergeant Kirkland lost his life at Chickamauga the next year.

The second half of our day was spent on the Chancellorsville battlefield, the site of what some call Lee’s greatest victory. The battlefield terrain here also proved difficult to maneuver. The overgrown Wilderness area, where another campaign would take place in 1864, posed serious problems to soldiers fighting there, and seeing the ground first hand made these difficulties evident.

Through the afternoon, we followed General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s final days. We stopped at the clearing where Jackson and Lee had their famed final meeting, and the wooded area where Jackson was shot by his own men in the confusion of twilight. Here, we found ourselves once more face to face with the memorialization of Jackson. In 1880, a group of men placed an unmarked boulder to honor Jackson’s memory near the site of his injury. Later, another more formal memorial was placed to honor Jackson. Both monuments indicate the level of ardor reserved for Jackson within the Southern mythology.

We spent a beautiful day on the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville thanks to the interpretive skills of our guide Donald Pfanz. Before heading back to the Appleford we stopped to eat at Perkins, complete with a full discussion of the sights of the day. After a long bus ride home, we arrived back in Gettysburg at 10:30pm, ready for some rest and relaxation. The rest was greatly needed to get us ready for a battle near and dear to each of us: Gettysburg.

“After a long debate, it was decided to retire and fall back towards Sharpsburg.” -John Bell Hood

The mist hung ominously in the air as we drove cautiously toward the Maryland border. We traveled south once more to tour the Antietam battlefield and learn more about the bloodiest single day in American history.

Fortunately, the mist burned off by the time we reached the battlefield where we would spend the day studying the terrain under the tutelage of our guide Dennis Frye. Throughout the day it was interesting to note the dramatic changes in terrain after only a few dozen steps. The reality of these terrain changes helped us more fully comprehend and appreciate the difficulties faced by soldiers on both sides during the battle. Dennis encouraged us to “let the ground speak to us,” to give us a more active role in understanding the battle.

For me, the most meaningful part of the tour came in the late afternoon as we walked down the Sunken Road, hauntingly referred to as Bloody Lane. Standing at the bottom of the lane forced home the realities of the difficulties faced by Confederate soldiers on September 17, 1862. When positioned in the deepest section of the road, it is impossible to see over one of the embankments, over the other only with great difficulty. The lane would have been a good defense but only as long as the Confederates could hold off advancing troops, after which point it easily became a death trap. Dennis also led us to the section of the road depicted in Alexander Gardner’s famous picture of the Confederate dead awaiting burial. It was a sobering moment as our feet crunched over the rough road where so many men spent their final moments of life.

The horror present in Bloody Lane and the rest of the Antietam battlefield still maintains a hold on the American imagination and memory. We saw an example of this hold as we made our way down the Sunken Road. On our right, under the shade of a tree rested a makeshift memorial left by some well-meaning tourist. A stuffed pink teddy bear sat at the base of the tree with a typed note reading “In Remembrance of all that died here.” The homemade memorial reminded us that the Civil War still holds a sacred, almost mythological place in American memory.

It was an eye-opening tour that took us to gorily famous areas of the battlefield. The Cornfield (absent of any corn), the Dunker (or Dunkard) Church, Bloody Lane, and Burnside’s Bridge: we saw them all in the course of the day. We marveled at the beauty of the field while trying to wrap our minds around the utter destruction and carnage that had marked Antietam following the battle.

We finished the day with a stop at Nutter’s Ice Cream Parlor in Sharpsburg as we slowly brought ourselves back to the 21^st century. The ride home was filled with discussion of the motives behind many of the attacks during the battle of Antietam, and the barely contained excitement for the showers we would take once we arrived back at the Appleford. It had been a hot day, but one that we will surely remember for years to come. Next, we continue our battlefield journey to Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia where Lee made some of his most daring maneuvers during the War.

"A little hill can make a big difference." -Jim Burgess, Manassas National Battlefield Park

With an encouraging, “On to Richmond!” from Dr. Norman, we loaded the van at 7:30 a.m., headed for Manassas, Virginia. Our guide, Jim Burgess, met us at the Visitor Center and started our tour at Blackburn’s Ford where the first skirmish at Manassas took place. After a short stop and a quick look at the remains of the original road used by the Confederacy during the battle, we made our way to the famous Stone Bridge.

While most of the original bridge was destroyed in 1862 by the Confederates, the retaining wall of the bridge remains today. At that spot on July 21, 1861, Confederate Colonel Nathan “Shanks” Evans held his position against Tyler’s Union troops before learning of the attack on the unprotected Confederate left. Evans, the unsung hero of the battle, turned his forces and secured the left with a single brigade while facing the two divisions of Hunter and Heinztleman. Crossing the Stone Bridge gave us a sense of what types of obstacles faced the Union troops that morning.

However, my favorite moment of the tour came after lunch as we trekked through the woods to Sudley Springs Ford where Heintzleman and Hunter crossed into Confederate territory. At this point in the tour, Burgess allowed us to cross the ford just as the Union soldiers had done in 1862. Four of us eagerly made the attempt, envisioning the challenges of crossing the ford weighed down by military gear and weaponry. We then proceeded down the creek bed to continue the historical experience.

As we toured, Burgess retold several stories associated with the battle. Two stories in particular resonated throughout the rest of the day. The first concerned the fate of Major Sullivan Ballou, whose letter to his wife Sarah was made famous by Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary. Ballou was killed in action at Manassas and buried near the battlefield. Nearly a year later, Ballou’s grave was exhumed by Georgians who then burned Ballou’s remains in revenge for the losses they had suffered at the hands of the Rhode Islanders during First Manassas. This vindictive desecration left a sick feeling in my stomach as I remembered the loving words Ballou had written to his wife only a week prior to his death. The anecdote served to impress upon us the horrors and atrocities that emanated from the war, a reminder of the terrible powers of human beings to inflict pain on one another.

However, the day also contained stories of hope within the midst of war’s hell. We trudged past a pile of rocks that marked the former spot of the Benson family home on Christian Hill. During the battle, the Bensons found it their Christian duty to assist the wounded Union soldiers down the hill from their home, despite the fact that they themselves were loyal to the Confederacy. While giving aid, they found Union soldier James Rice who had been left for dead. The Bensons took the soldier to their own home and nursed him back to health. After the war, Rice returned to the Benson home, offering to repay their kindness through a monetary gift. The Bensons refused, claiming they had only done their duty. At Rice’s insistence, the Bensons relented by telling Rice that their church needed to be rebuilt and the congregation didn’t yet have the $1,000 necessary for the endeavor. Rice then went to his home state of Massachusetts and through a tireless effort raised over $1,100 for the Benson’s church. This story, when set next to the tragic Ballou incident, revealed that while some of the most deplorable aspects of human nature can come to the surface during war, the noblest aspects can also find space to grow.

The day ended on Henry Hill where the final phase of the battle was fought in the late afternoon on July 21. Today, a monument to Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson presides over the field. The monument itself does not resemble the ragged, thin General Jackson, but rather a steroid addicted Herculean figure upon an overly muscled horse. The monument is a prime example of the way memory has influenced the preservation of the Civil War. Today, Jackson is seen as an almost god-like hero to be worshipped, instead of the eccentric VMI professor who inspired hatred among his own students. It was a fascinating end to an interesting day.

We drove back to the Appleford that evening feeling as though we had just taken the first step in an incredible journey to follow the path of the Civil War that tore our nation apart. We will continue our journey next week to the battlefield that saw the bloodiest single day in American history: Antietam, Maryland.

"In firing his gun, John Brown has merely told what time of day it is. It is high noon." -William Lloyd Garrison

With bleary eyes and intermittent yawns, we loaded the Gettysburg Sprinter with Dr. Norman at eight a.m., settling in for the short ride to our first battlefield of the semester. We drove past the now familiar fields of Gettysburg towards Maryland with excitement dulled only slightly by the early hour. We would begin our day at the near end of the war in 1864 at Monocacy Junction. We would finish it at Harper’s Ferry where some argue, the opening shots of the Civil War were fired.

We made our first stop of the day at Monocacy, Maryland to meet with our guide Gail Stephens. Her passion for the battlefield and those who fought in the area on July 9, 1864, was evident as she led us across the fields opposite the Best House. She proceeded to explain Confederate Jubal Early’s plan to destroy the Baltimore Ohio Railroad at Monocacy in order to threaten Washington D.C. by cutting it off from the Western Front. Union Major General Lew Wallace determined to hold his position at Monocacy to keep Early and the Confederates from marching on Washington.

After touring the railway junction held by Lieutenant Davis and the Maryland and Vermont attachments, we made our way to the Thomas Farm where most of the fighting took place. The experience of standing on the same terrain as the legends Early and Wallace was truly moving. Because of Wallace’s stand at Monocacy, the Confederates lost an important day to move on Washington, ultimately leading to Early’s retreat to the Shenandoah Valley on the 12th of July. Wallace may have lost the battle, but he saved Washington that day.

Interestingly enough, the Thomas Farm is still standing as it did during the battle. Gail informed us that the Park Service is currently working on restoring the Thomas Farm in order to enhance the visitor experience at Monocacy. Visiting after the restoration is complete will be fascinating.

As we returned to the Visitor Center, we passed the Best House where, in September 1862, cigars wrapped in Lee’s plans for Antietam were found by Union soldiers and sent to D.H. Hill. This fact reminded us that the Civil War wasn’t merely a barrage of single episodic battles, but rather a continuous drama with overlapping events and places.

We left Gail Stephens and the end of the war for Dennis Frye and the beginning of the war at Harper’s Ferry around noon. After a delicious lunch in Bolivar Heights, we made our way down to Harper’s Ferry to retrace John Brown’s steps during his raid in October 1859. We stood overlooking three states (West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland) as Dennis challenged our previous assumptions about Brown and his motives for his raid. His narrative style created an experience unlike any other as we set ourselves in John Brown’s world to understand his motives and hopes for the future of slavery and America. We sat in the Engine House as Dennis recounted the tense moments leading up to Brown’s capture and the end of the raid. The silence of the room following the retelling left us all with the eerie feeling of touching an event that had happened over 150 years ago.

The ride home was filled with excited discussion interspersed with “Take Me Home Country Road” as we crossed back into Virginia and Maryland. We returned to the Appleford with a deeper knowledge of the battle at Monocacy, and a deeper appreciation of John Brown’s actions in 1859. We’ve made it through the opening scene of the war at Harper’s Ferry; it’s time to see the first action in Manassas Junction, Virginia. On to Manassas!