Summer of 21 - #19 - Gettysburg Battlefield#8 - July 3rd,1863 - High Water Mark, National Cemetery

 May 13th, 2021 - Battlefield Tour Part 8 of 8 

July 3rd, 1863 - Day 3 of the Battle of Gettysburg

This map shows the sites #15-#16 covered in this blog. 

Stop 15 - High Water Mark

Late in the afternoon, after a two-hour cannonade, some 7,000 Union soldiers, posted around the Copse of Trees, The Angle, and the Brian Farm, repulsed the bulk of the 12,000-man "Pickett's Charge" against the Federal center.  This was the climatic moment of the battle.  On July 4th, Lee's army began retreating.

Total casualties (killed, wounded,captured, and missing) for the three days of fighting were 23,000 for the Union army and as many as 28,000 for the Confederate army.

This picture taken earlier from the top of the Pennsylvania Memorial shows High Water Mark very well. It's a long line of monuments/markers detailing what happened here that culminated with the Confederates retreating. The Union soldiers were posted along this line to defend from the Confederates attacking from the left.

Here's some of the monuments/markers. 

You can read about the monument, pictured below, HERE.

Here's an excerpt:

"This is one of 90 New York Monuments at Gettysburg and definitely one of the most unique...it's a teepee!  Standing in front of the teepee is a beautiful bronze sculpture of Chief Tammany." To learn more click on the link above.

The most significant monument here was the High Water Mark of the Rebellion Monument.  You can read about it HERE.

"This Copse of Trees was the landmark to which Longstreet's assault was directed"  What is left of it is protected by iron railings.

Copse of Trees

Markers commemorating the troops that fought here

We were getting tired by now, and my camera's battery was dead, but we had one last stop on the tour. We drove to the car park by the National Cemetery and walked out of the National Park, across the road to the National Cemetary.

Stop 16 - Soldiers' National Cemetery

This was the setting for Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered at the cemetery's dedication on November 19, 1863.  

There was a podium opposite the Lincoln Memorial.

When we got closer to it, we saw there was grass on it. It was quite unusual but made it sort of blend in with its surroundings.

Here is a LINK to a description of this monument. Here's a quote from the article. 

"This is probably the only monument in the world dedicated to a speech."

Soldiers' National Monument

I know I learnt about the American Civil War in school in England.  I think I may have mentioned this before, but at the time I had no interest in American History and wanted to learn about British History, the two World Wars. I was quite upset that we were being taught American History and not British History.  Of course it was just that we didn't learn any 20th century history, but I wanted to skip the foreign history and just focus on the UK. Very naive!!!  I'm now finding all of this very interesting.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - November 19th, 1863

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead—who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

We spent some quiet time here before walking around some of the cemetery.

Stone Grave Markers.  There were several "Unknown"

We walked along the path and two gravestones caught our attention. 

My cousin and best friend when growing up married a "Dennis". Any relation, I wonder??

Our son is Ryan, and a neighbor in Las Vegas named Patrick is our "adopted" son. It's funny that out of all the gravestones these two "jumped" out at us, ha!!ha!!

There were more monuments.

That is the end of our tour of Gettysburg National Park. It took us two days and eight blogs to share with you. There is a map of the whole tour in the first blog. I hope some of you managed to stay till the end!!!