Show IS Is PILGRIMS PILGRIMS' GOAL field Fjeld of 01 Most Famous Battle Bailie in inI I United States I b K tl t l O serve B l. 1 C aw U rr pro v w D C. of ot thousands summer Bommer VERY 1 I Tj Amer Americans make the pilgrimage E to Ge Gettysburg famous American battle field eld and locale of one of most famous si speeches ever dells the Lincoln's Gettysburg Abraham eyed addresS At Gettysburg during the first three of ot July I the course of Amer days clay Sn history If It not Indeed the trend of Ican destiny trembled In the bal bal- vend orld orld I L-e. L Here lIere American courage and andlor nCe ance lor reached a water high-water mark murk here the hopes Dopes of ot the Confederacy attained their flood stage and began the ebb that ended at Appomattox motors along the avenues AJ As one that mark the battle lines now paus- paus IBI ng la in reverence re bet before re this and that monument erected on on the field now the earthworks of a famous visiting l corps or brigade now climb climb- lag lup one or another of ot e te five steel observation towers for tor a broader sweep of f t the terrain he understands why this Is the most widely known of ot all the battle fields of America attracting more than visitors annually Never did any commander face tace his problem under greater difficulty than did Gen George Grorge Gordon Meade At three o clout o'clOCK on the morning of ot Juno June 23 less than 80 hours before the great I tattle battle opened he was awakened In InI I ill 1111 tent lent at the headquarters of ot the Fifth corps which he had been blen com com- I manding An officer from Washington Washing Washing- I ton ion announced that he had come bringing bringing bring bring- ing trouble Later In a letter to his wife Meade confessed that he thought the officer had come to relieve him of I Hi his command or to arrest him but his I conscience was clear And trouble It was that the officer brought though of a vastly different kInd hind lie He delivered an order from the War department directing General Meade to take command of the Army of ot the Potomac concentrate Its scattered scattered scat scat- forces break the hold of the Arm Army of Northern Virginia on the Susquehanna Sus- Sus protect Baltimore and Wash- Wash M s si st i t I t They Fought at Gettysburg Ington bring the Invaders to battle sad tod cause them to retreat to their own soil General Lee too was In straits Stuarts Stuart's dash around Hookers Hooker's army army bad tad deprived the Southern leader of the only eyes an army could have before before be be- fore tore dirigibles and airplanes came Into being belag In those three last days of June both commanders were at a disadvantage vantage vantage- vantage Meade Meade because he had hod had hod thrust upon him a Herculean task and must get gel his hands on the reins and Lee because his cavalry was beyond his reach Two Great patties Battles Few visitors who go to Gettysburg realize that there were two battle folds fields In that historic struggle The battle kittle of ot the first day was fought to the tie north and west of the town Not Nota a single federal soldier was left on that field when the tight fight ended In mid mid- afternoon How complete was t the e Confederate victory on that day was disclosed after atter the war by General Meade who said that If General Lee had ad followed and placed his batteries on n Gulps Gulp's hill hili that evening the federal arm army would have hove been forced to withdraw with with- I draw One need only climb tho the observation tower near Dear the tle site of General Meades Meade's Headquarters and from that vantage antage POint view the second battle field to appreciate the tremendous price the federates were destined to pay on one the e second and the third for their vie lc wy tory of ot the first For here Nature had Provided pro General Meade with a vent vent- able i citadel ready for tor fortification In Which to await awalt an attack attack- and Ma had T events given the Army of the Potomac time to 10 occupy this position and ent entrench en- en t trench Itself Here Dere the legions of Lee endeavored to OT overpower o their gallant foes of ofa many lUany a Virginia battle field fieW here they waded through blood at the Peach faced Orchard and 1 the Wheatfield here the they w war at at the 6 Its most withering blasts that bitterest could bring upon of them V Devils Devil's as they struggled ed for or Possession of ot Little Den and the ro rocky y heights Round Und Top Top- where the issue tan hung on oa the e quick eye of General Warren and the matter of a few tew min Ules eteL Lee Thrice victory the grasp wasp of in III right i the fighting DS of the second day dosed closed r down upon the rightful frightful scene n of f of 85 with the flower Stonewall reades reade's Jacksons Jackson's old IJ wr corps In Intha elope trenches on the tha southern ope ot of gulps gulp's lilli within feet teet of cades cade's line Une ot of retreat and anu close to his reserve eft wn el e I L on parked their h d artillery There they L h W If close t arms little dreaming they were to victory Ictor as II they settled down to a fitful slumber could they hold morrow their r gains on n th the morrow and drive through the then hun dred red paces to triumph r At four fout o dock o'clock l the l next Delt morning guns boom n out their demand for tor an answer The battle Is lIon on Artillery fire blasts their front and rakes their flanks Musket fire re throws throw a deadly leaden hall hail Into them from almost every angle Their position becomes an Inferno They charge Into a blinding sheet of at arms all-arms fire they reel back reform charge and are hurled back again Again they reform and charge once more more At last almost literally blasted from the field the bugles sound the mournful notes of of the retreat and General Meade holds the ground unchallenged Famous Charge PIcketts PIckett's charge will ever eTer live In the minds of ot men Wen as the climatic episode episode epi sode of Gettysburg but military men agree that In the menace It held In the fierceness of at th the tle assaults that were wade made In the ci carnage carnage that was wrought ought the attack made by the me men whom Stonewall Jackson had lied l laid d at et Dull Cull and Chancellorsville deserves an iqual place In the annals of ot war That attack at tack lasted for tor six hours charge moved out at three o'clock reached High Water Mark at 3 20 began begun begun be be- gun gan Its retreat at 3 10 and was oft the field a little after four tour As a II military that con con- eluding act has never ne been excelled Its lis prelude was played by guns as battery batter answered battery across the gently rolling roiling fields over o which the historic charge was l to sweep Every position seems to have hae broken ken out with guns everywhere and from tram Hound found Top to Ct Cemetery Is like a blazing volcano reported one a Ulcer The grand roar of ot nearly the whole artillery artillery ar are tillery of both armies burst In on the tha silence almost as suddenly as the full tull notes of ot an all organ would fill a achurch church wrote another In an hour and a half the Federals FederaU slackened their fire so that their guns might cool wrecked batteries be replaced replaced replaced re re- placed and the atmosphere allowed to clear two Forty Confederate regiments move out Pickett leads them with his own division in the center The charge begins with the precision of dress parade A murmur of admiration admira lion tion sweeps the Union line And then Its artillery opens again with every ounce of ot Its reinforced power I Presently Pres Ires res- res torn by shot and shell the charging host comes within rifle range They press on They are within yards ot of their goal facing death In a thousand forms End of the Bloody Fight Picketts Pickett's men melt like snow on a ahot ahot hot day but a second and a third wave sweeps on They face double canister at 10 paces but they silence the guns that fire them Into Webbs Webb's rl rifle e pits they leap and over the barricades Armistead and his men IDen vault over the stone wall lie He falls tails mortally wound wound- ed The momentum of at the charge wanes and dies linked with fire and fire cross-fire there Is nothing to do but fall back But Dut they return across the sanguinary field fieldIn fieldIn fieldIn In such fashion that the repulse does not become a rout Out of ot the men of ot PIcketts PIckett's division not more than 1000 return Of ot the 15 11 field cers and four generals only Pickett and one lieutenant colonel escape un un- scathed The Battle of Gettysburg Is ended As one walks over the scene and tries to measure the courage of the men who fought here he comes to understand understand under under- stand why Wily there U is pride In every American heart that this battle field Is now a military park and that It was Vas dedicated In Immortal words by Abraham Lincoln The fine generosity of ot the federal government that knows no North and no South In the marking of at those hallowed hallowed hal hal- lowed acres cements In the firmest bonds of ot history the sons and daughters daughters daugh daugh- tens of those tho e whose bravery and courage courage cour cour- age made the field the sacred spot It Is First established by the Gettysburg Battle Dattle Field Memorial association In 1861 1801 taken over by the government In 1895 1891 more adequately marked by bythe bythe bythe the Gettysburg National Park commission com tom mission the park now consists of acres of at owned government-owned land It has 22 miles of avenues In addition addi tion to the state and county highways that traverse It In It there are 83 statues In addition to nearly other monuments There are also 1410 bronze and Iron tablets aad and granite granite gran gran- ite markers on ped ped while mounted cannon caissons and limbers show the artillery position of ot the field As 8 As a recent army array report declares It has been well said that Gettysburg Gettysburg Gettysburg Gettys Gettys- burg was In a measure the American soldiers soldier's battle a battle of the ranks a 11 struggle of American prowess and courage of discipline and tenacity of tf unswerving fidelity and unselfish devotion devotion de de- American man man- a contest of ot hood |