Gettysburg
The second scenic place I went was the Gettysburg battlefield. The entire battlefield (a whole series of battlefields, actually) is something like 10 miles around and it takes hours to see it.
So here is the strange thing about the battlefield. Having recently read an account of the battle which went into great detail about the tactical advantages of ‘high ground’ and the various ‘ridges’ upon which the armies were deployed, I had formed a mental picture of…you know…actual RIDGES. HIGH GROUND. Only to arrive at the battlefield and see THIS. What we are standing on is a ‘ridge’, actually a gentle, almost undetectable swelling of the ground. We are looking toward another ridge, in this case, Seminary Ridge. The brick building with the dome on top is part of the seminary and was in existence at the time of the battle.
I know!! WHAT ridge? After driving around for two solid days from ridge to ridge, I finally was able to (sort of, mostly) determine what was a ridge and what wasn’t, but when I first got out of the car and read a sign talking about Oak Ridge, I was utterly mystified.
Now here is some high ground that is actually recognizable as being high. We are standing on a practically non-existent ridge (I forget which one) and looking toward Little Round Top. LRT was the scene of one of the many heroic engagements that comprised the battle of Gettysburg. The Union army, which was occupying the ridge adjacent to LRT, had inexplicably left LRT undefended. An officer discovered this and sent troops to the hill a scant 15 minutes before Confederate soldiers came charging down from Big Round Top to take LRT and, from there, roll-up the entire Union line. The entire hill is covered with monuments to various regiments on both sides…a few are visible in this picture.
Now we are on Little Round Top looking toward Devil’s Den and the Slaughter Pen. Yeah, nice names, huh? It gives you an idea of just how dreadful the battle was. All those rocks are Devil’s Den and the low strip of shrubs in front of them is the Slaughter Pen. What more needs to be said? A lot of blood was shed and a lot of people died here. It was gory and disgusting and tragic.
I can imagine what you are thinking. Why are we looking at a giant, amorphous black blob covering a picture of the view from Little Round Top? Well, what appears to be a giant, amorphous blob is actually important documentary evidence of the natural fauna on LRT. It so happens that there were millions of ladybugs flying around there, and this blob is one that landed on my camera lens when I was trying to photograph LRT.
This is the Slaughter Pen, with LRT in the background. It looks so peaceful and idyllic, doesn’t it? It’s hard to imagine the death, destruction and oceans of blood that gave it its name.
This gorgeous tree is on Seminary Ridge in the midst of the seminary that gives the ridge its name. I struggled with Gettysburg because the things I really like to take pictures of are landscapes. Here I was in the middle of about a thousand inspiring monuments, statues, memorial plaques and battle memorabilia of all sorts, and all I can see are the trees and the sky. Plus a few quaint old farms. So a disproportionate number of the approximately 100 photos I came away with are landscapes. I have Seminary Ridge landscapes, Clump of Trees landscapes, Little Round Top landscapes, Oak Hill landscapes…and so on and so on. No important generals on great bronze horses, no tear-jerking memorials lauding fallen heroes…just landscapes.
Look, another landscape! This one is looking toward Cemetery Hill. By the time we got here it was late in the afternoon, and I simply could not resist trying to capture the light and shadows lying across the hill.
This is the Clump of Trees. How it got its name no one knows. I will leave that to you to determine. It is probably a metaphor for some deep and arcane spiritual truth exemplified by this portion of the battlefield. In any case, you will note that there is a cannon under the trees, so this is not solely a landscape. I think we can all get excited about that.
This is a fence. It happens to be near the High Water Mark, which where the Confederate army reached its point of maximum penetration of the Union line, and in fact, almost overran that line. The only Union presence was a regiment from Maine(?) of 430 or so men. General Hancock (Union) pointed at the Confederate colors being carried by the charging troops and ordered the Maine regiment to ‘take those colors’. The regiment charged the Confederates — 95% of them perished in the ensuing fight. General Hancock later said that he would have sent the regiment in even if he knew that every last one of them would be killed, for they delayed the Confederate charge by about 10 minutes, allowing additional Union troops to rush to the scene and repulse the Confederate advance. The whole story of Gettysburg consists of these kinds of stories of desperate courage and sacrifice on both sides. You can’t come away from it without being moved.
In typical VT fashion, though, instead of photographing the imposing statue of General Hancock that sits at the High Water Mark or the memorial for the Maine regiment, or the other memorial for their Confederate opponents, or the statue of the Confederate officer who led the attack, I was looking in the opposite direction at this fence line, which as far as I know did not exist during the Civil War and had nothing to do with the battle. I like it because it conveys the surreal tranquility and gentle beauty of the area…so bizarre to think of a hideous battle raging in the midst of this lovely, rolling farmland. You would think the worst thing that ever happened here was a bad case of tomato blight or a swarm of grasshoppers — and even that seems like an insult to the peaceful land warming itself in the sun.
The final stop on the Gettysburg battlefield tour is the cemetery. While everyone else, very properly, was hustling into the cemetery to pay their respects to the fallen before sunset, I was wandering around outside the gate, captivated by the beautiful trees. I just can’t help it.
And here is the cemetery itself. I have to admit that I am fond of cemeteries. They are usually lovely and peaceful, and this one is no exception; in fact, it is especially lovely and peaceful.