Gettysburg 
July 1, 1863 - July 3, 1863
Meade and Lee.
Lincoln at Gettysburg.
Crowds gathered to see what had happened.
Gettysburg
All of the pictures on this page I took were taken from the Pennsylvania Monument at the center of the battlefield on the Union line. There is a stairway in the left front corner that leads to a walkway around the top. (Tour Stop 12)
A simple way to look at the battle
Most of the Civil War battles are really quite straight forward. At Shiloh the Confederates surprise attacked the Union in the morning while they were making coffee and after a hard day of fighting they drove the Union back to the river. The Union was reinforced during the night and drove the Confederates right out of Tennessee to Corinth Mississippi the following morning. Pretty easy to follow.
Gettysburg was a three day battle. On the face of it, it looks pretty complicated; but, it can be split up into a series of time periods that are themselves not that hard to understand. The first person on the battlefield on the first day was Union cavalry Gen. Buford and his staff who thought it would be a great place for a fight and who should come spilling over the pass but Confederate General Harry Heath.
Buford
Confederate dead at the edge of McPherson Woods.
Buford held off Heath until infantry Gen. Reynolds arrived and together they bottled up the Confederates until evening but the arrival of Ewell forced the Union troops back. By then more Union troop were arriving and digging in on Cemetery Hill on the other side of town. As fresh units arrive they were deployed out across Cemetery Ridge, a relative high spot that runs out to Little Round Top, a small hill a few miles away. That ends the first day. Not that confusing, right?
Cemetery Hill
On the second day Ewel attacked Cemetery Hill in the morning and was stood off. In the afternoon Longstreet attacked both Little Round Top and a Union general named Sickles who had wandered out into no mans land between the armies. Longstreet drove the Sickle's troops back to the Union line, but that’s all, his forces could not take Little Round Top.
Union breastworks on Little Round Top.
On the third day the Confederate cavalry, who showed up late, tried to get around behind the Union line but were turned back by the Union cavalry, led by Custer, in the morning, Pickett Charged in the afternoon against Union General Handcock and that was pretty much it. See? Not that complicated.
Custer, Hancock and Pickett.
On the fourth day everyone was tired and it was very hot. Both armies stared at each other over a mile wide field covered with dead and dying from both sides so not many were inclined to move. Lee, whose blood had been up, was in a kind of shock from the disaster of Picket’s Charge the day before and he was coming to grips with the necessity of evacuating his army back to Virginia. Lee pulled out and Meade let him go, later Lincoln would fume that Meade had missed a great opportunity to destroy Lee; as a result, Lincoln sent for Grant and made him the head of the army. Lee had said that Lincoln would fool around trying different generals until he found one that could beat him: Lincoln did just that.
Picket's charge over open ground was not a good idea.
I went to Gettysburg for only an afternoon, so I focused my camera on the events of the afternoon of the second day. I hope to get back soon to photograph the rest of the battlefield.
View from the front steps of the Pennsylvania Monument looking toward the Confederate line a mile away.
Looking toward Gettysburg and the events of the first day from the top of the Monument.
This shot is looking down the Union line toward Cemetery Hill, and the Visitors Center.
This shot looks back toward the Union rear area and Meade's Headquarters.
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The view looking down the Union line on the left flank toward Little Round Top.
The expanded view along the Union left flank with Little and Big Round Top in the distance
Little and Big Round Top shown bellow as they looked after the battle.
The view toward the Union forward area on the left flank the Wheat Field is in the trees