Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (138 page)

The Cashtown Pike, looking westward from Gettysburg; Oak Ridge is visible on the horizon, with a cut through the ridge to accommodate an as-yet-unfinished railroad. It was the first of three such cuttings through the ridges west of Gettysburg. Retreating Union soldiers followed this road into the town on July 1st.

(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito
, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889
(1996)

The colors of the 14th Brooklyn. Regimental flags were carried into battle in the Civil War to serve as markers and rallying points in the midst of battlefield noise that overpowered officers’ voice commands and thick banks of powder smoke that sharply limited visibility. The 14th Brooklyn was actually the 84th New York Volunteer Infantry, but most of the regiment had originally been members of the 14th New York State Militia, based in Brooklyn, and they insisted on identifying themselves by their old militia designation. They were uniformed in the pattern of French-style chasseurs (light attack infantry) in baggy red trousers and red kepis.
(Illustration Credit bm2.11)

The charge of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers on the middle railroad cutting west of Gettysburg on July 1st. This drawing faces west, with the Cashtown Pike and the McPherson farm buildings visible to the left, the railway line on the right, and South Mountain in the distance.

(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito
, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889
(1996)

Pennsylvania College in 1862, looking northward along Washington Street. From left to right, the buildings are the house of President Henry L. Baugher, Linnaean Hall, and Pennsylvania Hall; Oak Hill can be seen in the distance, rising behind Linnaean Hall. Classes met on the morning of July 1st, but most of the college’s 116 students had already scattered, and when the fighting began, the classes were dismissed. “Amid repeated failures on the part of the class, our professor remarked, ‘We will close and see what is going on, for you know nothing about the lesson anyhow.’ ”
(Illustration Credit bm2.12)

The view from the college cupola, looking west and slightly south toward the Lutheran Theological Seminary (faintly visible to the left). The structure in the foreground is the college’s Linnaean Hall. The railroad bed and the Cashtown Pike run upward to the right across the photograph.
(Illustration Credit bm2.13)

“Defending the Colors at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.” The 24th Michigan lost thirteen color-bearers during the fighting retreat that brought the regiment to its last stand around the Lutheran Theological Seminary on July 1, 1863. “When its flag was presented to the regiment in Detroit, a solemn vow was taken, never to allow it to trail before the enemy or fall into his hands. That flag, pierced by twenty-three fresh bullets from the enemy’s guns, aside from those that splintered its staff in this engagement, spoke more forcibly than any words could, with what sacredness the vow was kept.”
(Illustration Credit bm2.14)

The Lutheran Theological Seminary and Seminary Ridge, looking southwestward from the Cashtown Pike.
(Illustration Credit bm2.15)

The Evergreen Cemetery’s gatehouse, looking west from the crest of East Cemetery Hill. This photograph was taken in mid-July 1863, when the 1st Corps’ artillery emplacements were still untouched. The ninety-foot poplar tree on the right was a Cemetery Hill landmark until it was struck by lightning in 1876 and finally removed in 1886. The tree is faintly visible in this book’s jacket photograph of three Confederate prisoners, spiking the distant horizon.
(Illustration Credit bm2.16)

John Burns (1793–1872). Former town constable and veteran of the War of 1812, Burns became celebrated as “the Hero of Gettysburg” for attaching himself, even though a civilian, to the 1st Corps and fighting alongside the Iron Brigade.
(Illustration Credit bm2.17)

Barlow’s (or Blocher’s) Knoll, looking south from Rock Creek toward the position of Leopold von Gilsa’s 11th Corps brigade on July 1st. Jubal Early’s division of the Army of Northern Virginia arrived at this point after marching south from Heidlersburg that morning, and successfully attacked von Gilsa’s men, who had only briefly planted themselves on the crest of the hill.
(Illustration Credit bm2.18)