Third Day of Battle

Today is the 143rd anniversary of the third day of The Battle of Gettysburg. When Poompy and I visited Gettysburg, it was the events of the third day that occupied our thoughts the most. The battlefields of the third day was where we spent most of our time wandering and where, no matter where else we went, we kept coming back to see again.

On July 3, 1863, General Lee wished to attack the Federals again, using the
same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Federal left,
while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill. However, before Longstreet was ready, Union
XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates
on Culp's Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The
Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11
a.m., after some seven hours of bitter combat.

Lee was forced to change
his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First
Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Federal II Corps
position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the
attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Federal
positions would bombard and weaken the
enemy's line.

Around 1 p.m.,
from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was
probably the largest of the war. In order to save valuable ammunition for the
infantry attack that they knew would follow, the Army of the Potomac's artillery
at first did not return the enemy's fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, about
80 Federal cannons added to the din. The Army of Northern Virginia was
critically low on artillery ammunition, and the cannonade
did not
significantly affect the Union position. Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire
subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced
the three-quarters of a mile to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as
"Pickett's Charge".

As the Confederates approached, there was fierce
flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of
Little Round Top, and musket and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps. Nearly
one half of the attackers did not return to their own lines. Although the
Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the "Angle" in a low
stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees,
reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was
repulsed. - From www.wikipedia.org

More than anything else in the whole wide world, Poompy wanted to walk across the field where Pickett led his charge. So we did. It was surreal. The day was peaceful, breezy, gorgeous. Birds sang all around us. But we walked on earth that had been soaked with blood, baptized in violence. We took our time crossing that sloping field. We tried to imagine what it must have been like, the air so thick with smoke the men were rendered blind, their brothers and their best friends dying all around them, the din of battle, the screams of the fallen. Unimaginable.

I thought that today I would post more of the photos we took on our trip, but I don't feel like it. I'm thinking of all the men who died today, 143 years ago. I'm going to close my eyes and take a moment of silence and then I'm going to give my thanks that since the Civil War ended in 1865, America has not had to fight on it's own soil. I'm not sure there is a single living American who really understands how valuable that is. Especially not me, though I'm trying.

p.s. Have a wonderful, safe 4th of July.