Results 1 to 13 of 13

Thread: Gettysburg

  1. #1

    Default Gettysburg

    (Disclaimer: I write this as I am sick and feeling miserable, forgive me)

    Today I returned from a three-day trip to Gettysburg. It was really an amazing place to go too - walking through the fields, you get a real sense of what happened there 142 years ago - like walking the fields of Picket's Charge and imagining 16,000 other Confederate soldiers walking with you, right into solid shot, cannister and musket fire in what looks like a suicidal charge across a mile of open ground.

    Or Devil's Den, which is a hill with rocks on it and around it with sort of tunnels and cracks running through the rocks under it which I'm sure some Union soldiers took cover in. Once again, the Confederates were charging across an open field towards a gun emplacement, though they were significantly more successful at Devil's Den.

    Some negative aspects, though; the monuments. I didn't want to spend hours walking around looking at monuments about how the 22nd Pennsylvania was here, and the 15th New York Cavalry Divison was here.. The monuments really take away from the feel of the battlefield.

    Despite the monuments there are constant reminders of the battle - one farm still has a large hole in its wall where it was struck by a cannon. If you step back far enough you can see the sky on the other side through the exit hole of the cannonball.

    Or at Devil's Den, where the famous picture of a Confederate soldier leaning against a rock with his gun against it, behind a wall of stones, was taken - I stood right there, where the Confederate soldier (who was actually dead and moved there for the picture) stood.

    So I guess the purpose of this thread is a discussion of Gettysburg - the battle and the battlefield itself.
    Last edited by Justinian; September 04, 2005 at 08:07 PM.

    Patron of Felixion, Ulyaoth, Reidy, Ran Taro and Darth Red
    Co-Founder of the House of Caesars


  2. #2

    Default

    Gettysburg was nuts! Confederate commanders should have never gone through with it, the Union held the High Ground and was dug in. They had trenches and dug-in artillery, it was suicidal for the Confederates.

    Event like this kept repeating all across the 20th century, especially in World War I.

    You hear a whistle and you scream "Aaaaah" and you're running with thousands of your fellow soldiers directly at the enemy a few hundred yards before you who are dug in well and just waiting for you to get in range. The only thing that seperates your vulnerable inside is the mere flesh of your body...

    And another thing which could have improved the Charge, was that the Confederates were too closely together. One well-aimed or lucky Union cannonball could rip through a group of 5 men and easily disable 10! It was a massacre...

    But the entire Civil War (the Confederates called it the "War for Southern Independence") was one big massacre...

    A nation devided.

    -Blithe
    The funny thing about this signature is that by the time you realise it doesn't say anything, it's already too late for you to stop reading it you dumb :wub: !

  3. #3

    Default

    what i loved most about goin to gettysburg was being behind the wall at the angle and lookin out at the field the confederates charged across

  4. #4

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hades
    what i loved most about goin to gettysburg was being behind the wall at the angle and lookin out at the field the confederates charged across
    Yes, the Angle is quite impressive. It's cool to be able to see the Union and the Confederate perspective.

    Patron of Felixion, Ulyaoth, Reidy, Ran Taro and Darth Red
    Co-Founder of the House of Caesars


  5. #5

    Default

    Gettysburg was nuts! Confederate commanders should have never gone through with it, the Union held the high ground and was dug in. They had trenches and dug-in artillery, it was suicidal for the Confederates.
    IIRC the Union troops shouted "Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg" when they saw Pickett's columns. Having been on the wrong end of such attacks over open ground, they knew perfectly well what was coming.
    "In war, with its enormous friction, even the mediocre is quite an achievement" - Moltke

  6. #6
    ShangTang's Avatar Domesticus
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Oregon
    Posts
    2,272

    Default

    I had a similar experience at Little Big Horn. I took a short essay on it with me and retraced the steps of the battle. There were no monuments, just graves. Quite eery when I was alone.


    "AVDENTES FORTVNA JUVAT"

  7. #7

    Default

    Its been awhile since Ive been to Gettysburg, but wasnt there a Shoneys on or very near to the battlefield? When my dad and I went we were very dissapointed at how the area had been totally dissrespected.

  8. #8
    Legio XX Valeria Victrix's Avatar Great Scott!
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    2,054

    Default

    They have actually been getting rid of a lot of the obscenities that were multitudinous around the battlefield, like Shoney's (actually it was a Hardee's I think). They are also in the process of cutting down many of the woodlots that have grown in since the time of the battle and are restoring it to its 1863 appearance (as much as is possibly in 2005). The battlefield itself is still sacred and well-preserved, but once you get into town the hordes of tourists and weirdos really take away from the experience. Oh, and bikers. God, I hate those freaking motorcycles.

    *Oh, I should mention I live there, which is how I know all these things. It's a crazy place to live. Don't ever try.


    "For what is the life of a man, if it is not interwoven with the life of former generations by a sense of history?" - Cicero

  9. #9

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Legio XX Valeria Victrix
    but once you get into town the hordes of tourists and weirdos really take away from the experience.
    The only thing that jarred me were the people in witch costumes walking around offering 'Ghost Tours' ... what the hell?

    Patron of Felixion, Ulyaoth, Reidy, Ran Taro and Darth Red
    Co-Founder of the House of Caesars


  10. #10
    Legio XX Valeria Victrix's Avatar Great Scott!
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    2,054

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Justinian
    The only thing that jarred me were the people in witch costumes walking around offering 'Ghost Tours' ... what the hell?
    Yeah, don't get me started on them...they are the bane of this town. The town gov't. backs them though, because they get a :wub: of cash off the taxes they charge them. There literally are at least 30 different Ghost tour outfits throughout town, and they all sprung up off one original one. 90 percent of their stories are falsified or just plain made up. They have to section off parts of town that are toured by other ghost tour organiztions, so each tour can only show tourists like 3 blocks of town, and of course even if there are ghosts in Gettysburg (and I'm highly skeptical) than there are not THAT many.

    Basically its a fradulent group of people who are leeching off what was once a novel idea and are raking in the cash by doing so, and exploiting tourists I might add.


    "For what is the life of a man, if it is not interwoven with the life of former generations by a sense of history?" - Cicero

  11. #11
    Maron's Avatar I'm afraid of everyone
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Auburn, Alabama
    Posts
    922

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Blithe
    But the entire Civil War (the Confederates called it the "War for Southern Independence") was one big massacre...
    well perhaps u would prefer the name "the war of northern aggression"

    in any case it should not be called the "civil war"
    the definition of a civil war is
    -a struggle between two rivaling factions for control of a single government.

    the south did not intend to take control of the norths government.
    they wanted their own independent government which they were intitled to
    in the declaration of independence under the same principles as the colonists who ceceded from england.

    so guess what ... the south was right! it was in all actuality

    a "war for southern independence"


    by the way here is that passage from the declaration of independence

    when in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
    In the Legion of Rahl Under the patronage of Corporal_Hicks

    “I grew up middle class, white, my parents loved me. So I might not necessarily relate to what your circumstances were. I hear them and understand them, but that’s not an excuse for you to fail. Don’t come in here and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s just kind of the way I was brought up.’ No. If you’re in a bad way right now, it’s because of the choices you made in response to your circumstances. So change your choices.” -Gene Chizik

  12. #12
    Farnan's Avatar Saviors of the Japanese
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Right behind you starring over your shoulder.
    Posts
    31,638

    Default

    I've been to Gettysburg a lot, since my grandparents live about half an hour away from it. Also, I live about 2 hours from it so it is close. It is a pretty cool battlefield, though I was always scared going up the observation tower because I thought I would fall off.
    “The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.”

    —Sir William Francis Butler

  13. #13
    Guinnessmonkey's Avatar Libertus
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Alexandria, VA
    Posts
    96

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pompeius Minus
    IIRC the Union troops shouted "Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg" when they saw Pickett's columns. Having been on the wrong end of such attacks over open ground, they knew perfectly well what was coming.
    Not only that, but it was (IIRC) the same units facing each other, but in reverse positions. Pickett's boys had been beyind the stone wall at Fredericksburg, while the regiments in the angle were mostly survivors of the charge at Fredericksburg....

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •