Okla-homey
7/1/2009, 06:23 AM
July 1, 1863 The Battle of Gettysburg begins
146 years ago, the largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Federal and Confederate forces collide at a little transportation hub in southern Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.
It was a classic meeting engagement in which both sides more or less bumbled into each other as they jockeyed for position.
The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the beginning of the end of Southern hopes for independence.
Two months prior to Gettysburg, Lee had dealt a stunning defeat to the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville when he defied military logic and split his outnumbered army and thrashed the Unionist force. He then made plans for a Northern invasion in order to relieve pressure on war-weary Virginia and to seize the initiative from the Yankees.
Lee's army, numbering about 80,000, began moving on June 3. The Army of the Potomac, commanded by Joseph Hooker and numbering just under 100,000, began moving shortly thereafter, staying between Lee and Washington, D.C. But on June 28, frustrated by the Lincoln administration's restrictions on his autonomy as commander, Hooker resigned and was replaced by George G. Meade.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4038/georgegordonmeadelxu2.jpg
George Meade. The man assumed command of the Army of the Potomac enroute to Gettysburg in the wake of Joe Hooker's resignation. He only had a few days to get his ducks in row but by the time the battle started on this day, they were all quacking in unison. Meade was rather prickly by nature. His subordinates called him "Old Snappin' Turtle." But he was a scrapper. And that made the difference.
Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac as Lee's army moved into Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 1, advance units of the forces came into contact with one another just outside of Gettysburg. The sound of battle attracted other units, and by noon the conflict was raging.
On this first morning, Maj General John Buford commanded the First Division of of Meade's cavalry corps. The hard-riding Kentuckian put his troopers in position to block Lee's lead division commanded by Harry Heth and held on for two hours until the infantry under Reynolds arrived.
At the base of Buford's monument on MacPherson's ridge at the spot he chose to hold are the rifled cannon used by his attached artillery which fired the first shots of the battle.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/9010/geo418pxjohnbufordlt7.jpg
John Buford.
During the first hours of battle, Union General John Reynolds was killed, and the US troops found that they were outnumbered. The battle lines ran around the northwestern rim of Gettysburg. The Confederates applied pressure all along the Union front, and they slowly drove the Yankees through the town.
By evening, the Federal troops rallied on high ground on the southeastern edge of Gettysburg. As more troops arrived, Meade's army formed a three-mile long, fishhook-shaped line running from Culp's Hill on the right flank, along Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge, to the base of Little Round Top.
Buford and Reynolds had held this high ground and Meade ensured he arrayed his forces to take advantage of their gift. It made all the difference.
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/813/gmap40nq.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The Battle of Gettysburg begins: On the morning of July 1, 1863, Confederate cavalry ran into Union horsemen on the Cashtown Road, northwest of town. Each side sent for help. The rebels got there first, and by afternoon had driven the Federals south of town, where they rallied into defensive positions on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill.
The Confederates held Gettysburg, and stretched along a six-mile arc around the Union position. For the next two days, Lee would batter each end of the Union position, and on July 3, he would launch one of the most famous assaults in military history against the Union center.
An Unlikely hero of Day One at Gettyburg
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/6618/geopennsylvaniagettysbuov0.jpg
Farmer John L. Burns photographed after the battle with the crutches he used to get around after being shot during the battle
Meet then 69 year-old John Burns. The old guy was a War of 1812 veteran who was frankly steamed that the graybacks would dare invade his beloved Pennsylvania home. On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg Burns took up his flintlock musket and powder horn and walked out to the scene of the fighting that morning.
He encountered a wounded Union soldier and asked if he could use his more modern rifle; the soldier agreed and Burns moved on with the rifle and with cartridges in his pocket.
Approaching Major Thomas Chamberlin of the 150th Pennsylvania Infantry, Burns requested that he be allowed to fall in with the regiment. Chamberlin later wrote of Burns moving with deliberate step, carrying his Enfield rifle at a trail. His somewhat peculiar dress
"consisted of dark trousers and a waistcoat, a blue 'swallow tail' coat with burnished brass buttons, such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago, and a high black silk hat, from which most of the original gloss had long departed, of a shape to be found only in the fashion plates of the remote past."
Despite his skepticism about the request, Chamberlin referred him to the regimental commander, Colonel Langhorne Wister, who sent the aged Burns into the woods next to the McPherson Farm, where he would find better shelter from the sun and enemy bullets.
In McPherson (Herbst) Woods, Burns fought with the 7th Wisconsin Infantry and then moved to join the 24th Michigan near the eastern end of the woods. He fought beside these men of the famous Iron Brigade throughout the afternoon, serving effectively as a sharpshooter, in one case shooting a charging Confederate officer from his horse.
As the Union line began to give way and they fell back to the Seminary, Burns received wounds in the arm, the leg, and several minor ones in the chest; the Union soldiers were forced to leave him behind on the field. Injured and exhausted, the old man was able to crawl away from his rifle and to hastily bury his ammunition.
He convinced the Confederates that he was a noncombatant, wandering the battlefield seeking aid for his invalid wife, and his wounds were dressed by their surgeons. This was a narrow escape for Burns, for by the rules of war he was subject to summary execution as a non-uniformed combatant, or bushwhacker.
He was able to crawl that evening to the cellar of the nearest house, and was later conveyed to his own home, where he was treated by Dr. Charles Horner.
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/5087/gpfanzgettysburgafloat9xn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Wanna read more about Day One at Gettysburg? Best book in print out there IMHO.
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/1593/insane7zo4ls.jpg
146 years ago, the largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Federal and Confederate forces collide at a little transportation hub in southern Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.
It was a classic meeting engagement in which both sides more or less bumbled into each other as they jockeyed for position.
The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the beginning of the end of Southern hopes for independence.
Two months prior to Gettysburg, Lee had dealt a stunning defeat to the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville when he defied military logic and split his outnumbered army and thrashed the Unionist force. He then made plans for a Northern invasion in order to relieve pressure on war-weary Virginia and to seize the initiative from the Yankees.
Lee's army, numbering about 80,000, began moving on June 3. The Army of the Potomac, commanded by Joseph Hooker and numbering just under 100,000, began moving shortly thereafter, staying between Lee and Washington, D.C. But on June 28, frustrated by the Lincoln administration's restrictions on his autonomy as commander, Hooker resigned and was replaced by George G. Meade.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4038/georgegordonmeadelxu2.jpg
George Meade. The man assumed command of the Army of the Potomac enroute to Gettysburg in the wake of Joe Hooker's resignation. He only had a few days to get his ducks in row but by the time the battle started on this day, they were all quacking in unison. Meade was rather prickly by nature. His subordinates called him "Old Snappin' Turtle." But he was a scrapper. And that made the difference.
Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac as Lee's army moved into Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 1, advance units of the forces came into contact with one another just outside of Gettysburg. The sound of battle attracted other units, and by noon the conflict was raging.
On this first morning, Maj General John Buford commanded the First Division of of Meade's cavalry corps. The hard-riding Kentuckian put his troopers in position to block Lee's lead division commanded by Harry Heth and held on for two hours until the infantry under Reynolds arrived.
At the base of Buford's monument on MacPherson's ridge at the spot he chose to hold are the rifled cannon used by his attached artillery which fired the first shots of the battle.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/9010/geo418pxjohnbufordlt7.jpg
John Buford.
During the first hours of battle, Union General John Reynolds was killed, and the US troops found that they were outnumbered. The battle lines ran around the northwestern rim of Gettysburg. The Confederates applied pressure all along the Union front, and they slowly drove the Yankees through the town.
By evening, the Federal troops rallied on high ground on the southeastern edge of Gettysburg. As more troops arrived, Meade's army formed a three-mile long, fishhook-shaped line running from Culp's Hill on the right flank, along Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge, to the base of Little Round Top.
Buford and Reynolds had held this high ground and Meade ensured he arrayed his forces to take advantage of their gift. It made all the difference.
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/813/gmap40nq.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The Battle of Gettysburg begins: On the morning of July 1, 1863, Confederate cavalry ran into Union horsemen on the Cashtown Road, northwest of town. Each side sent for help. The rebels got there first, and by afternoon had driven the Federals south of town, where they rallied into defensive positions on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill.
The Confederates held Gettysburg, and stretched along a six-mile arc around the Union position. For the next two days, Lee would batter each end of the Union position, and on July 3, he would launch one of the most famous assaults in military history against the Union center.
An Unlikely hero of Day One at Gettyburg
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/6618/geopennsylvaniagettysbuov0.jpg
Farmer John L. Burns photographed after the battle with the crutches he used to get around after being shot during the battle
Meet then 69 year-old John Burns. The old guy was a War of 1812 veteran who was frankly steamed that the graybacks would dare invade his beloved Pennsylvania home. On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg Burns took up his flintlock musket and powder horn and walked out to the scene of the fighting that morning.
He encountered a wounded Union soldier and asked if he could use his more modern rifle; the soldier agreed and Burns moved on with the rifle and with cartridges in his pocket.
Approaching Major Thomas Chamberlin of the 150th Pennsylvania Infantry, Burns requested that he be allowed to fall in with the regiment. Chamberlin later wrote of Burns moving with deliberate step, carrying his Enfield rifle at a trail. His somewhat peculiar dress
"consisted of dark trousers and a waistcoat, a blue 'swallow tail' coat with burnished brass buttons, such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago, and a high black silk hat, from which most of the original gloss had long departed, of a shape to be found only in the fashion plates of the remote past."
Despite his skepticism about the request, Chamberlin referred him to the regimental commander, Colonel Langhorne Wister, who sent the aged Burns into the woods next to the McPherson Farm, where he would find better shelter from the sun and enemy bullets.
In McPherson (Herbst) Woods, Burns fought with the 7th Wisconsin Infantry and then moved to join the 24th Michigan near the eastern end of the woods. He fought beside these men of the famous Iron Brigade throughout the afternoon, serving effectively as a sharpshooter, in one case shooting a charging Confederate officer from his horse.
As the Union line began to give way and they fell back to the Seminary, Burns received wounds in the arm, the leg, and several minor ones in the chest; the Union soldiers were forced to leave him behind on the field. Injured and exhausted, the old man was able to crawl away from his rifle and to hastily bury his ammunition.
He convinced the Confederates that he was a noncombatant, wandering the battlefield seeking aid for his invalid wife, and his wounds were dressed by their surgeons. This was a narrow escape for Burns, for by the rules of war he was subject to summary execution as a non-uniformed combatant, or bushwhacker.
He was able to crawl that evening to the cellar of the nearest house, and was later conveyed to his own home, where he was treated by Dr. Charles Horner.
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/5087/gpfanzgettysburgafloat9xn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Wanna read more about Day One at Gettysburg? Best book in print out there IMHO.
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/1593/insane7zo4ls.jpg