Well I'm Chuck Teague and I'm delighted to
welcome you to Gettysburg. We do about a dozen programs a day on different
parts of the field and today we call this First Shots on McPherson's Ridge. I want to go back in pre-history to try to
understand this ground before we get into the battle itself. Ground rules the battle in the Civil War,
but why did the ground come to be as it is? It's very important to understand and the
reality is that some 400 million plus years ago, the ground was shifting and as it was
shifting it was causing an uprising or ground in the far distance. And you can see, really the extension of the
Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia which is that ground out there. And then as the tectonic plates are moving
and the ground is shifting up there will be ripples coming out from that mountain. And we refer to ridges and swales. Ridge high point, swale low point, ridges
and swales. Just like waves coming from the west in this
direction and that's gonna prove important in the battle to understand. Also to understand of course is that this
area was originally pretty well wooded and when the charter was given to William Penn
who was an Englishman, he would refer to this and others would as Penn's Woods, Pennsylvania
as we know it now. By 1863 a lot of that had changed, because
when settlers came into the area they began to clear ground to make it productive. There would be some disputes as to whether
you're in Pennsylvania or might even be in Maryland because there was another charter
down there and there was not a clear definite line that was in between and you had some
people from Maryland that were settling in this area and claiming to be from Maryland
and they would begin to resolve that dispute through two surveyors, Lewis and Clark. Not those surveyors of course they're more
famous of course the ones who would be delineating the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Mason and Dixon. That's exactly right. So surveyors are very important in this era
of America trying to draw the lines and what is where and we ended up to be in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania an Englishman had the charter
but the settlement of Pennsylvania was largely done by Scotch-Irish and Germans very evident
in the names that you'll find around here as was the Germans. And when they would settle they would clear
the land pretty much. You're standing on the boundary line between
one of Scotch-Irish heritage here this is Edward McPherson and over there would be John
Herbst, Jan Herbst, the German. By the way I want to clarify from the beginning
that I have been mistaken had been for many years until I became a good friend sadly died
this last year but he corrected me as I've often been corrected and he said Chuck there
is no fear in McPherson. He was a descendant of the McPhersons and
so it's not McFearson it's McPherson. It's a proud Scotch-Irish name. And again, John Herbst would have that property
there and this fenceline that goes along here, Pennsylvania would require that you have fencelines
between your boundary and this one marks the difference between McPherson and Herbst. Now as the development of the land would continue
several things would happened, one of which is that a road system would go through and
two roads would pass through the mountains. One some of you may have been on the Fairfield-Hagerstown
Road that goes west one of the early roads and another one is to the north you can't
quite see it and it's this side of Oak Hill and it's called the Mummasburg Road. This road nearby, which is the Cashtown or
Chambersburg Road came later it came about 1810 and it was a toll road a paved road paving
not with asphalt but a macadam surface which basically crushed rocked rolled and with some
binder to try and hold it together. There was a farm lane that went along here
and so what became the McPherson homestead you can see the barn the house sadly burned
down after the battle I think it was 1890. But the farm lane here accessed another lane
across there. Farm lanes connecting the two roads heading
west, but with the big push to west and the go west young man they wanted to have routes
that were more improved so with carriages and wagons you could. That brings us to the pike. And we have three pikes coming into Gettysburg. Pikes are roads that are improved. We talk about 10 roads coming into Gettysburg
but most of them were still dirt roads the Chambersburg York and Baltimore Pike were
improved. Again we have the road system like this by
the way at the bottom of that other ridge over there there's a little creek which is
Willoughby's Run and another late friend of mine Woody Christ a Licensed Battlefield Guide
finally discovered after years Well Who is Willoughby and he discovered that an Englishman
by the name of Willoughby Winchester had a little plot down there by the creek and earlier
settlers would call it Willoughby's Run. So that's a vestige of his presence here these
early settlers are making due as they can here and again they're clearing the ground
except for woodlots. Woodlots are productive of timber that would
be used for construction for crafts for heating and cooking and other things and it was customary
if you had farms and most farms here were 100 acres you would have a woodlot. This is actually John Herbst's woodlot. Mistakenly for many years people would refer
to it as McPherson's woodlot. It's not his woodlot. But of course this will as we see become known
as Reynold's Woods. The McPherson's by the way, had a woodlot
over there beyond the motel and you may have heard the news that the Civil War Trust is
requiring that hotel motel and as a result it ultimately should come into Gettysburg
National Military Park. That would be the McPherson's woods. We have Mr. McPherson by the way the heir
in 1858 Edward McPherson has inherited this property but he decided not to be a farmer
he decided to go into law. Studied with Thaddeus Stevens and actually
went into politics. In 1858 was elected to Congress and served
for two terms but he would have his ground here with a tenant farm John Slentz about
35 years of age had three girls and was doing the tenant farming here. Still McPherson property but again Slentz
is going to attending it. The years pass of course we're getting into
1861 and the war begins. Many young guys are going off to war from
Gettysburg as elsewhere. There had been several threats that the rebels
would be coming to Gettysburg and Chambersburg is in the great valley beyond those mountains. The Great Valley which would extends down
into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and they were much more vulnerable. There was a raid by Confederate Cavalry there
but it sort of became like the boy who cried wolf. The rebels are coming the rebels are coming. Month after month after month the rebels never
came to Gettysburg. However the great fear came out in June of
1863 when it appeared that Robert E Lee was bringing his army north through the Shenandoah
Valley into the Cumberland Valley and he's up here for several reasons one of which is
to defeat the Union army. He feels that if he can pull them away from
the entrenched position they've had down near the Rappahannock River pull them out in the
open he can defeat them. He also wants to get the bounty of the land
here and there's plenty of bounty available to his army. He can feed his army for six months after
all the livestock he brings home from Pennsylvania but particularly hoping the Union Army will
come up and at some point he will defeat them by detail that is piece by piece as the Union
Army trudges up from their position down there in Virginia. This will be a meeting engagement and by that
I mean neither army commander Robert E Lee or the new commander of the Army of the Potomac
George Gordon Meade know when or where the battle is going to be. Gettysburg is a proud little town just beyond
the ridge there and you can see the Lutheran Seminary had been established I believe 1826
and then we'll move up onto that ridgeline and you can see the 20th century steeple but
to the right you can see the cupola and that will of course come into play on July 1st
as well. The town of Gettysburg is of no strategic
importance. It's not like either army wanted to capture
or crate some kind of big defensive position here although several generals said it was
good ground for a battle. We'll see how that battle will transpire. Robert E Lee has most of his men in the valley
again on the other side of that ridgeline there and he will send some east. A brigade will come to Gettysburg on the 26th
of June and if you look that way toward the Peace Light and the Mummasburg Road would
be the approach of the Confederates on the 26th of June and that brigade would really
bring the first shots if you will and they're going to come in sort of like the old westerns
when the cattlemen would come into town and start shooting up the town. Scare the daylight out of the townsfolk coming
through there made their demands on the town Jubal Early for the things that an army would
need medicine and food. Get some horse and all these things and then
would pass on through well that of course terrorized the town and you can imagine their
relief when on the 30th of June noon Union forces show up. The confederate forces would go east and had
gone on further east to the Susquehanna River but Gettysburg was relieved of that initial
Confederate invasion and were very relieved that Union forces had arrived. So now we're getting closer to the battle. What I'd like to do is introduce some characters
here. I oughta show you the map. This is a colorized map showing the farm and
you can see the Chambersburg Road the toll road. By the way there was a tollkeeper down there. There's no evidence that Robert E. Lee's army
paid a single penny in tolls coming through there. And you can see that the farm somewhat rectangular
in shape. His woodlot is back there. Something else that happened by the way in
the meantime in 1838 Thaddeus Stevens who had spent almost two decades here as an attorney
was an entrepreneur started an Ironworks at Caledonia which was still continuing into
the 1860s and he got into the idea of creating a railroad. The idea of course is that we have two major
railroads the Pennsylvania Railroad to the north and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
to the south and Gettysburg is sort of in between and not connected and they knew at
the time that it was going to be very important to the economy of the town that we get connected
so in addition to the road system he's going to get a charter and try to get financing
to put a railroad in. Well most of those charters failed. That is they could not raise sufficient money
and it went belly-up. He had already begun to put the bed of the
railroad in and it would be heading west through the town. To get up over the mountain it had to have
switchbacks because a locomotive couldn't go straight up the hill. By the way you looked on the map at the proposed
railroad and some people said it looked like a Tape Worm. What kind of railroad is this? Anyway he had put the bed in which extended
to the mountain and was hoping to get the rails put in but again the enterprise went
bankrupt. So again you have the railroad bed which slices
through the ridges. Remember I talked about the ridges and swales
ridges and swales? Well on the McPherson property here you have
three places where the ground rises in a ridge and the railroad bed cuts through it. That would become very important to the battle. The roads are important the woodlots are important
the railroad bed is going to be important and these are all features of the ground. When we say ground rules the battle we'll
get a better understanding of that. The Union forces that came in June 30th were
with John Buford. John Buford was a professional soldier. He has experience in the Indian wars, really
a very savvy commander and one of the things he does is to try and scout out into the distance
as to what approaching Confederate forces might be. General Meade had been moving his army in
the northeasterly direction toward the susquehanna river and he had three columns the left column
or what we sometimes call the left wing would be headed by john buford with the column itself
under the command of john fulton reynolds and we'll be explaining his role. but anyway he gets here and he has directions
that if the rebels attack him in force hes to pull back to maryland. one of the great fears an army commander has
is that if pieces of his army can be destroyed before he can converge his army. when you converge your army you've got strength. when you're spread out you've got weekend. but anyway he will be up here and he will
have scouts out through the afternoon and into the evening to the west and the northwest
and the north and northeast and they'll notice some things of interest there is about four
or five miles north of town there is a road that cuts through the county east west. and
he would discover that it was infested with rebels and also that night as they looked
off toward cashtown they could see campfires and those campfires were not farmers with
marshmallows roasting they were rebel troops and so he will actually tell one of his men. he has two lieutenants they're his assistants
here each one with a brigade themselves he'll tell thomas devin that you can expect the
skirmishers to come three deep in the morning and a rebel push and they'll just come booming
in the morning and john buford was right about the rebels come booming. The day before june 30th when he's coming
into town there was brigade of about 1400 men who had come along this road here the
chambersburg road looking for supplies shoes especially. that's not uncommon because robert e lee realized
that he has to supply his men by the bounty of pennsylvania and not have a supply route
coming into the rear. It was a chancy thing he did similar to what
grant would do at the vicksburg campaign but it would work pretty well. In fact his men come up to gettysburg and
the area several counties around here and are getting much. but anyway that brigade under Pettigrew comes
to the ridgeline over there. we call that ridgeline two different names. where the seminary is we call it seminary
ridge but it extends north in what we call oak ridge. oak ridge and seminary ridge is one geological
feature understand that. but after the railroad track went in and the
campus of the seminary was established they began to call it by two different names. seminary ridge to the south and oak ridge
to the north. pettigrew gets there and he sees evidence
of union forces coming in and he's got a directive lee has issued not to start a general engagement
until i can get the army together and his army is still pretty well spread out so pettigrew
by the way he's gonna have about 1400 men devin will have about 2500 men so you can
understand why appropriately he will go back. He has to go 8 miles west to a place called
cashtown where he'll be waiting for the next day. now that night several generals get together
and start talking. in fact according to general heth he gets
permission word from lee ordering meade to get the shoes. remember i said shoes especially? there was no shoe factory in gettysburg by
the way but there were three tanneries in town and it was a county seat town so you
could expect some shoes. Ordering me to get the shoes even if i encountered
some resistance. so encountering resistance is expected a general
engagement is to be avoided. well he's going to come in column the next
morning from about 8 miles west of here. harry heth is one of nine division commanders
lee will have in his army. lee has three corps and each corps has three
divisions and harry heth is commanding the one coming in this direction and in the meeting
of the generals the night before someone had said let's go get those shoes well you need
to understand the confederates often used the union for their supplies and they would
often take whatever they wanted cannons and other things in supply depots and garrisons. But sometimes they got shoes off the feet
of yankees. So that may have been bravado whoever said
it that they were going to whip whatever yankees were found and take their boots. in fact that had happened the 26th of june
when general gordon ran into some emergency militia which was all pennsylvania could put
together at that point. But they stripped them of their shoes and
boots and that's perhaps what's going to happen. So we have the development in the morning
of july 1st and about 7 oclock from cupola green-capped cupola over there Aaron Jerome
a lieutenant is looking to the west and what does he spot he spots harry heth's men they
will be in column four wide and as long as needed. with a division that's miles and miles long
coming in this direction and indeed he would send out the alert and john buford has positioned
his men in an interesting fashion. First of all he had videttes from the latin
to see and videttes are out each of the roads spokes of the wheel from the hub of gettysburg
going out and he will be watching and about 7:30 the videttes out the chambersburg road
several miles there's a lieutenant marcellus jones chicago 8th illinois cavalry will spot
that column also and what he will do is take a carbine from one of his sergeants and lay
it across the fence rail and he says let me start the ball. that is the first shot. about 7:30. it's a little misleading because
on the 26th of june there was actually a union soldier who was killed here william sandoe. so the first shots at gettysburg hadn't happened
on july 1st they had happened on june 26th but the first shots of the battle would begin
at 7:30 in the morning. There's actually a marker you can go out the
road there and be able to come to a marker on your right about 2 3 miles out it's whistler
ridge sometimes called knoxlyn ridge on the right a very dangerous place on the highway
to get out so i don't recommend you do it without great caution but that's where the
first shots will be fired. and what john buford has done he's dismounted his men he's told
them do not be exposed with your horses. you know of course that your three branches
of the military will be infantry cavalry and artillery. There will be some artillery with john buford
that day but he doesn't want the enemy to know who he is. cavalry are more mobile because they have
horses but they're also bigger targets and they don't usually have the strength that
infantry does. And so by putting his men out on those ridgelines
and firing from different points he's confusing the rebels as to what they're facing. So Harry Heth will immediately cautiously
and properly move his men out of column. You're very vulnerable in column especially
if the union has cannon which they do because you're sort of in this position along the
road where you can easily be hit and not be able to fire back. But if you move from column into line of battle
south and north of the road you can present a face. And so there will be two brigades coming in. Let's move around here so you can look off
into the distance and sort of imagine it. First of all I want you to see and you can
see barely the silo out there. That silo is on another ridgeline and he will
have men on that ridgeline. He'll have them spread out and they'll be
firing. The rebels don't know if they're bushwhackers
or home guard or maybe militia. Or some detail of the union army or what they
are. Indeed what Buford would also do is take his
six guns and put two across the road two on this side of the road here and another two
on the other side of that woodlot and in doing so he's spread out his battery so not only
are the confederates coming under infantry fire and they're not sure exactly. it seems like infantry fire but the way they're
firing is they'd take a squad of four one becomes the horse holder and three dismounts. they're firing carbines instead of rifles
though it sounds about the same. you don't quite have the range with the carbine
that you would with the rifle. but the advantage you have with the carbine
is that you can load it quicker. he does not have repeaters but his men do
have carbines which are loaded through the breach and not through the muzzle. And so again Harry Heth is going to be very
cautious. He has one brigade to the south of the road
in line of battle and that will be archer's brigade general archer from tennessee will
be commanding that. And then he'll have another brigade north
of the road coming in which will be joe davis. joe davis is related to jefferson davis and
got his position largely because of political pull not military savvy. the south is having the same problem the north
is getting enough commanders who have had military training. so you have to bring guys in who are learning
on the spot. and joe davis would pretty much be that. and so we have this situation arising and
about this time it's about 9:30 that they're approaching and they're slowly approaching
buford's men as soon as the rebels are getting close to the top of the ridge they scurry
back to the next ridge and still the rebels are not really sure who they're facing. they're coming slowly. john buford is trying to buy time. he's giving up ground. this is not a defense in depth because he
has no depth. his men are strung in a big fan going to the
west the northwest and the northeast and he doesn't have a lot of men but he has a lot
of savvy he is cunning. what he does is trick the rebels as to who
they're going to be facing. they're coming on cautiously. they don't want to fall into an ambush. but again time is being bought. this is an illustration from about 930 in
the morning in which you have based on a map done by an engineer who was with the army
of the potomac. chambersburg pike. willoughby's run out to
our west and the woodlot. we're standing right here at the corner of the woodlot and you
can see how he's got his guns his cannons spread out and how he's got men forward and
we have archer and davis both under harry heth advancing from the west and advancing
slowly advancing cautiously. but john buford will also send word back to
the nearest infantry and remember he's head of a column the left wing of the union army
is going to be commanded by john reynolds. by ten oclock it's going to look more like
this. what's happened is there's going to be a dividing
of archer's brigade and davis' brigade partly because archer's seeking to use the advantage
of the trees. trees give you cover and concealment as you
move and by the way as you'll see don't imagine it as it appears today. Back then what would happen with these woodlots
is that the farmers would cut off the lower branches as they needed wood and they would
let their cattle roam freely through it. The woodlots had more of the appearance of
a picnic grove you could walk easily through it. today we have no cattle roaming through there
and we're not cutting down lower branches and we're not using herbicide so as it result
it gets pretty thick underneath but that's not how it was at the time of the battle. archer coming in here and then davis will
begin moving away from the road also partly an advantage of the terrain he will get. as
they're moving forward union forces are rushing to this position and they're coming up the
emmitsburg road under john reynolds. and they're going to be leaving the emmitsburg road near
the codori homestead rushing across the fields at a double-quick carrying 40 pounds. i'm not going to illustrate the distance they
came and all but they were pretty exhausted as they came up. john reynolds has ordered those men up. he's the first corps commander and he's also
the left wing commander so he commands his own corps but he's also responsible for the
11th corps and the 3rd corps. and he will send word back that he's going to try to reach
the heights beyond the town before the rebels. now what heights beyond the town is he speaking
of but these heights where we're on. you've got the ridgeline there seminary ridge
oak ridge mcphersons ridge. he has a little farther to go than the rebels
do but he's not under fire and he's hoping that john buford will be able to slow down
the advance of the rebels coming in here while john reynolds moves into position. now i need to pause here a moment because
the oommanding general george gordon meade has come up with a plan for July 1st and it's
called the pipe creek plan. in fact he'll send a circular out i think
it goes out about 9 oclock in the morning from headquarters in Taneytown Maryland and
the idea is that you have 3 columns and each column has depth to it another corps behind
it and each column has cavalry to the front. If any one of those columns comes under fire
from a force of the enemy they are to notify the ones nearby and pull back to a place in
maryland called pipe creek. we dont know we dont think that reynolds ever
got those orders although quite frankly colonel dickinson from headquarters came the night
of june 30th from moritz tavern on june 30th at marsh creek where reynolds was and conferred
with him and it very well might be that john reynolds got whiff of the pipe creek plan
at that point even though he probably never got the actual orders. john reynolds has told his chief lieutenant
abner doubleday that he's going to fight the rebels wherever he finds them. what john reynolds is going to do is commit
the union army to fight here regardless of the fact that george meade has in plan another
position that would be at pipe creek in maryland. so john reynolds is rushing his men forward. he will send in under wadsworth's division
men to the north of the road and that's going to be james wadsworth commanding the two brigades
coming in. wadsworth will have lysander cutler who is
the brigade commander to the north. so you're going to have cutler facing davis
and again they're under james wadsworth who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer but
again he's a political general as many others are. Cutler will be there and cutler will come
across and in the fields beyond where the truck is in the fields out there there will
be an engagement initally between cutler's brigade and davis' brigade. and on our map
here you can see how davis has come and has somewhat detached himself from the road but
is encompassing the position that Cutler will have. And Cutler is going to find himself in an
awkward situation across those open fields because his position is going to be enveloped
and overwhelmed. In the meantime archer's brigade is going
to come through the woods right here and meredith's brigade is going to be coming from the union
side. let's talk about solomon meredith a little
bit. he's commanding one of the crack units brigades
in the entire union army forces indeed as they come in they have already gained their
reputations on other battlefields as the iron brigade. and they will be coming right across
here and john reynolds personally will be putting them into position in these woods
right here. and as he's coming up he puts one regiment those guys are hustling at a
double-quick across those fields gets one regiment in and john reynolds who is mounted
is rushing back and forth worrying where they will go and suddenly something tragic will
occur. We're going to walk down here and understand
what that tragedy will be for the union forces. John reynolds is from nearby lancaster pennsylvania. he doesnt like the idea of lee rampaging through
his state in southern pennsylvania where he'd grown up and he really wants to hit the confederates
hard he's also upset because he's been in battle after battle before and the union forces
had usually cut and run pretty quickly and again he will commit the union forces to fight
here. again cutler's brigade to the north and down
here will come meredith's brigade into these very woods that we see here behind us but
remember the undergrowth is not going to be there you would be able to see fifty sixty
yards easily through the woods at the time of the battle. as he's ordering men forward he's seeing another
regiment coming up and he turns in his saddle to direct them where to go and he's shot down. one of the disputes i'm not going to answer
is who shot him. because several claimed to and it was generally
thought to be a sharpshooter although in that era if a highly respected general was down
they always wanted it to be a sharpshooter they don't want it to just be a random volley. i don't know whether it was a volley or not
but there are enough early accounts and several different sharpshooters claim that it was
them. we're not quite sure but he's dead by the
time he hits the ground immediately goes in the back of his head and goes into his brain
and john reynolds is dead. he will be the highest ranking general to
die in this battle and that's going to be a shockeroo when john reynolds is down. his last words were drive those rebels out
of those woods and his men will do that. archer's brigade that's coming through those
woods will encounter the iron brigade coming against them and one of the rebels will make
the interesting comment them ain't militia those them black hatted fellers the iron brigade. they have earned their reputation on prior
battlefields. i don't know if the men were aware of what
had happened to john reynolds and maybe were trying to redeem his death somehow but yankees
will charge through those woods and drive archer back. in fact his brigade will be driven back not
just through the woods but back across willoughby's run. and the yankees will still be pushing
them in fact general archer himself will be captured on the west side of willoughby's
run which is the first time general lee has had a general captured in battle. this is developing to be a pretty significant
battle even though general lee has said don't start a general engagement and meade is not
even here he's in taneytown as messages are coming back and you can imagine when he gets
the message that reynolds is down how anxious he will be. well more reinforcements are coming in on
both side on mcphersons ridge. by the way there are two ridges here which we call mcphersons
ridge one that we're standing on is to the east there's also a west one and i'd like
to get over there. we're going to take the vote at this time
whether we go through the fields with the ticks or go through the swath with poison
ivy or whether we drive to the other side this is a democracy. or whether we stay here. let me explain just briefly here reinforcements
are coming in from the union side we had two brigades already cutler's brigade they have
fallen back into those woods and in fact some even into the town. on this side the union is doing well. north of us they're doing poorly. davis' mississippians will swing around and
see that they have a great opportunity because they're coming in on the flank the end of
the line of this brigade down here however they will also encounter something called
a railroad cut. remember those cuts i talked about? well you'll see where the lights are that's
a ridge that we've put in today over one of the cuts the center cut. there's actually a western, middle, and eastern
cut. as the mississippians are coming around oh my you can understand the advantage they
have they're coming in off of high ground on the flank and they're facing little resistance
however the union forces here will rally under a genetleman named rufus dawes. rufus dawes is from wisconsin and he has his
sixth wisconsin in reserve back there. typically you don't want to put all your forces
in immediately because there will be moments of crisis where you need to plug a hole or
something he will observe what's happening over there and he will realize the dire danger
and he will order his men to shift out of the reserve position and to rush that railroad
cut. they'll rush up there and in a very dramatic
and hard to find a more dramatic moment at gettysburg. you've got the mississippians in that railroad
cut although the height of the cut varies depending on whether you're on the ridge or
the swale. at some places there's no cut at all some places it comes up to your breast
in many places it's so high that you can't see out of it. well they'll rush over their famous moment
in which there will be tug of war for the confederate flags but several hundred confederates
will actually be trapped in that. they thought it was their advantage to be
there but as dawe's men come up looking down into the railroad cut like i've never shot
fish in a barrel but that's the kind of thing would have been easy so obviously davis' men
will raise their hands in surrender. and they will then the one's who cannot get away will
switch back over the far ridge that i talked about and so at this point it's looking pretty
good for the yankees even though cutler has fallen back that problem has been resolved
by the heroism of rufus dawes and the iron brigade has done well here and now more reinforcements
are coming in for the union side. stone's brigade and biddle's brigade will
come in south of the woodlot stone's brigade will come in from the north and will actually
try to take a position to the right of the barn and try to manage the connection see
the connection had been lost between cutler here and meredith they're going to try to
stem the gap there by moving into position but it's going to be very vulnerable as they
do so. we're going to be walking down and going to the barn as we're walking as we get
there we'll talk about the positioning of the brigade by stone's bucktail brigade as
they call them. by the way i should say there was a bucktail
regiment which was recruited from central pennsylvania earlier in the war and had been
such a successful thing they said you have to prove yourself worthy of being in this
regiment by being able to bring down a buck. a male deer. the antler and all that. so of course young men the game was on everyone
trying to show that they were worthy of it. it was such a recruiting success that later
on pennsylvania said that if we can bring a regiment in with that we can bring a whole
brigade in 4000 men. and so they put out the appeal again got more men coming in if you
can imagine the guys in the first unit the bucktails they were upset others were coming
in claiming they were bucktails. and they would call them the bogus bucktails! as we'll
see they will not prove to be bogus here. we're on the homestead of the mcpherson farm
historic barn and orchard which we've somewhat simulated here not much of one and the home
the house would be over there. originally the house was toward the old lane
which connected the hagerstown road with the shippensburg road. when the toll road went in it ended up that
the house was on the other side of the barn not your preferred way of doing it in the
19th century you want your barn in the back and the house toward the front but this is
where it would be. again we're talking about another brigade
which is moving into position now here at this homestead this is a photograph by the
way done in the early 1880s of this homestead. the barn that you see to your left the right
of the picture the photograph is taking right out near the intersection where the signal
light is and you can see the house and the several outbuildings. it's a notable fairly well to do farm. by the way the confederates were astounded
when they came into pennsylvania because they said the barns here are bigger than their
houses and homes back there which are magnificently built and you can see the fine stonework which
is at this barn. i mentioned in the woods would be meredith's
brigade stonewall brigade actually now in those woods would be cutler's brigade and
in this area here trying to connect it very awkwardly would be the position of roy stone. roy stone is going to be positioning his men
in sort of an elbow. here's colonel stone. that is coming out here into the fields and
bending back. we're actually going to go around to the shaded
part of the barn here but i did want you to get a sense from the higher ground here before
we go around to the barn. and we'll see how roy stone will put his men in position to
try and get a contiguous line which will stretch between the two woodlots. this again is the historic barn. the stonework is totally original. we've had to replace the siding and the roof
shingles for a while. you can see the actual beams and how they
were hand-hewn here. this goes in very early this barn in the early
part of the 19th century and from here we can get a better angle of the middle cut where
today's bridge goes over and beyond it where the urgent effort was made to stop the approach
of the mississippians. and this is my map from about 11 oclock and by the way for whoever
cares i do have the support going in for rufus dawe's here i just haven't identified them. you can see they're turning and crossing so
not only dawe's but others will be involved in the action to try to repel davis' brigade. several others will be captured in the railroad
cut. several others will flee back over there. at 11 oclock things are looking pretty good
from the federal side other than that john reynolds is dead. who's going to be taking over for john reynolds
is going to be abner doubleday. abner doubleday probably didn't invent baseball
but he did do well here. abner doubleday will be the senior ranking
division commander in the first corps and he has been told by the way not personally
briefed by reynolds that i will hold this road and you must hold the one there that's
the fairfield or hagerstown road. and so i'll show you this map from about 3 oclock and
the red again reminds you of confederate forces and the blue yankee forces. you can see the rebels coming now in strength. we have actually two different corps the third
and the second corps divisions from each which are approaching here. and you can see poor
roy stone's position here the pink on the map represents where you are at the barn and
you can see that he's going to try to hold on but as you look out and imagine daniel's
brigade davis' brigade and now brockenbrough's brigade coming up there this is going to be
a hot place to be and at a certain point he's going to have to order a retreat of his men. one of the poignant stories is the 143rd pennsylvania
and a monument which is out there near where the intersection is of this color bearer.
this color bearer by the way his photograph is here he's actually not only accounted in
the union stories of this battle but the confederates as well because as roy stone gives the direction
that his men are to fall back the color bearer doesn't want to fall back. he shakes his fists and he shakes his fists. he goes back a few yards and shakes his fists
again. goes back a few yards and shakes his fists
again. and you can see depicted he will die here
on this battlefield but members of his unit want to honor his courage and rebel accounts
will describe seeing this incredibly well they didn't want to shoot him down because
he was so courageous but he's the color bearer and you always want to shoot down the color-bearer. people will be pulling back such that this
portion of the battle the firsts shots on mcpherson's ridge will be coming to an end
at about 3 oclock. rebels will eventually have to drive through
here to the seminary and that's going to be challenging. there's going to be a lot of affliction on
the part of confederates trying to get through the open ground because the yankees have set
up on that ridgeline a line of cannons which will be firing into the faces of those rebels
as they cross the field. so the first shots stories again first shot
fired at 7:30 in the morning til shots being fired into the early afternoon completes are
story here in a way. but i do want to let you do two things. i do always vet the group. i've been watching you very carefully as you've
been watching me and i want to make sure that all of you are reputable people and i believe
that you are. this building this barn will be used as a
hospital july 1st 2nd 3rd and and 4th it will be a hospital. pennsylvania bank barn as you're probably
aware has a lower level primarily stables on the lower level and a loft hence the name
bank barn from the other side. i'm going to let you have a solemn moment. i'm not going to interpret as you do so but
i'm going to allow you into the lower level and to imagine those men who are lying on
the ground there's no floor in the stabled area and imagine them day after day trying
to be attended to here. and so i'd ask you to do it solemnly as this is a very special
place. all the battlefield is hallowed ground as
our 16th president said but when we get to a place like this an actual location when
you look in the barn you'll see some fire retardant systems we put those in you'll see
some iron girders which we put in so the barn will hold up but you will certainly see the
original beams and the original stonework. and then when you're all finished just step
back out. i want to show you a portion of a map which
was done after the battle a gentleman by the name of eliot went around because of all the
burials that were being done. all the soldiers were initially put in trench
graves these are very shallow graves side by side by side and he tried to identify where
those would be because when you have a battlefield of easily ten square miles and they're spread
out here there and everywhere the sector where we are and i've recopied the section of the
eliot map shows where the barn is and you can see the corner of the woods where we started. all these slash marks here are dead soldiers
that had been buried. primarily confederate soldiers here but also
union soldiers many of whom were buried right where we started and others at different places
including the field across from willoughby's run. each one will mark one grave union confederate
union confederate union confederate confederate. this is a burial ground. we don't know that all of the bodies have
been retrieved we don't have complete records. about 11,000 would die from this battle. we say about 7,000 killed in action they never
would leave the place where they fought another 3 or 4,000 would be mortally wounded. this means they would never leave gettysburg. abner doubledy writing about this especially
the pennsylvania boys would say we came to stay they weren't going to run but as doubleday
also points out many of them did stay they never would leave gettysburg they'd be buried
here. i don't want to leave on too sad a note. there is a final thing i'd like to share with
you and that is around the corner. this is a place not just where visitors would
come such as yourself and the 151 years since but soldiers would return now as veterans
and they would put monuments in. i've talked about the 143rd pennsylvania and
we've seen many others we have about 1320 most of which are regimental monuments here
on this battlefield. when the dedication of their monument was
put in 2 union veterans the next day came back to this barn they were clearly talking
about what had happened here clearly talking about where their comrades had fallen and
did something we're not going to allow you to do. i guess you could call it graffiti. they actually scratched their initials into
the building. the day after the dedication of their monument. if any of you happen to be veterans of this
battle i give you permission to do that at the site where you fought but i don't think
anyone is. let's go around the corner and see it and
i'll come back and close the door later. need to come up close to see. pennsylvania volunteers and the initials that
they put in here. we've actually been able to identify who they
are actual soldiers who were here. but that scratching is scratching done by
guys who did fight here and saw their comrades die here. as you go back you can go back the way you
came by the barn or you can take the fields but i don't recommend that. i do ask that even though you didn't go through
the tall grass i ask that each of you check yourself out tonight. just quickly about ticks tiny little insects
they do not bite they do not sting but for about 36 hours they wander around your body
trying to find a nice soft cozy place to burrow in and they will do it and in fact you probably
will not even be aware that they are doing it unless they bring lyme's disease. and i had friend just two days ago who reported
receiving lyme's disease and that can really be debilitating aching and problems that can
last for months but again if you check yourself out shower tonight bathe tonight children
check them out also even under the scalp but i dont know that you got any we often get
them here because we don't think too much about them because we're cautious. thank you for being with me.
