Gettysburg 
July 1, 1863 - July 3, 1863
Driving Directions
Gettysburg, PA
Updated Thursday, July 29, 2010 6:53 PM
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Monday
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Click on the map for Interactive, Aerial and Birds Eye Views.
Meade and Lee.
Lincoln at Gettysburg.
Crowds gathered to see what had happened.
Gettysburg
All of the pictures on this page 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 way to look at the battle
Most of the Civil War battles are really pretty 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 to Little Roundtop, 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 Roundtop 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 Roundtop.
Union breastworks on Little Roundtop.
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.
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 looking toward the Confederate line.
View from the top toward Gettysburg and the events of the first day.
View from the top along the Union right flank toward the visitors center.
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View from the top toward the Union rear area on the left flank.
View from the top toward the Union left flank Little and Big Roundtop are in the distance
Little and Big Roundtop shown bellow as they looked after the battle.
View from the top toward the Union forward area on the left flank the Wheat Field is in the trees in the distance.
For other pictures of Gettysburg see: