(wind rustling) (somber music) - It's a breathtaking sight. Just imagine the battles, the countless lives
who were lost here. - [Narrator] People
have many reasons for coming to Gettysburg. - Because it's gorgeous and
it's full of the history. And, I mean, just
take a look around. - We're actually tracking
the path of our ancestors. We had a relative that
fought here at Gettysburg for the Confederacy, and he
died in the peach orchard. So we went to see where he died. - [Narrator] Most visitors
do know what happened here. - Think about what
these men did for us, north and south.
(somber music) - [Narrator] They know
how 50,000 casualties on this Pennsylvania
farmland marked a turning point
in the civil war. - [Terry] It made our
country what it is. - [Narrator] But
beyond the battle, beyond the impressive
Gettysburg monuments (tool grinding) are things most
people never see, stories most people never hear. - It was a unit that
really hasn't received its just recognition
(somber music) through the years. - [Narrator] Like
the valor and tragedy of the School
Teachers' Regiment. - [Michael] They were basically
sacrificing themselves. - [Narrator] The
mysterious bugler who appears every
night at sundown. (somber bugle music) And these Marines, on
a Gettysburg mission that might surprise you. - How would I have my
Marines assault that Hill? How would I have defended
this position here? - When you walk
this battlefield, you can always feel
like there's somebody maybe walking with you. - [Narrator] During
the next half hour, you'll go where most
tour groups never go. You'll see good deeds
that are quietly done. You'll learn about
people who don't show up in the history books. - They're warm
spirits and souls. A lot of them are
here, I believe. - [Narrator] You'll
get a different view of Gettysburg in these
stories from the battlefield. (ominous music) (fanfare music) (weapon firing) - The battle was
raging out of control. (weapons firing) There was chaos. (weapons firing) There was screaming. Bullets flying everywhere,
artillery shells, just all out chaos. (weapons firing) (rain pattering) The simplicity of this
monument certainly is the antithesis of what was
happening here in 1863. - [Narrator] It's not a monument that stands out to most people. - [Michael] And I think
they intentionally wanted this monument to
be simple and just to tell the story of
what they did here. - [Narrator] And it's not a
story most people have heard. - [Michael] It was a unit
that really hasn't received its just recognition
through the years. - [Narrator] Michael Dreese
is an author and historian who knows about the 151st
Pennsylvania volunteers, what they did here,
how they died here, and about the sacrifice
of these men called the School Teachers' Regiment. (gentle piano music) - [Michael] The nickname
School Teachers' Regiment is derived from the fact that there was at least
60 teachers serving in the ranks of the
151st Pennsylvania. Most prominently, the commander of the unit here at Gettysburg, Lieutenant Colonel
George F. McFarland, who was the principal
of an Academy in McAlisterville,
Pennsylvania, before the war. - [Narrator] McFarland's
core unit of the 151st was, indeed, made up of
teachers and older students. But the regiment grew
as more men signed on, with farmers, factory
workers and other tradesmen, eventually outnumbering
the teachers. - The nickname lived on though, because I think it has a
very romantic quality to it, to think of teachers and
their youthful students fighting here on
the battlefield. Over half of the regiment hailed from Southeastern Pennsylvania, Berks, Schuylkill,
Juniata County. So these soldiers were
literally fighting for their homes and families
cause the Confederate invasion was getting dangerously close
to where they actually lived. - [Narrator] On the
first day of battle, the men of the 151st
were sent to plug a critical gap in
the Union line. They clashed in a fierce battle with Confederates at 20 paces. - [Michael] And they
basically just lined up and slugged it out for probably a half an hour to 45 minutes. It was a very brutal contest. - [Narrator] The 151st
Pennsylvania suffered the second highest
number of casualties among all Union regiments
fighting at Gettysburg, losing 75% of its men. Still, the survivors surged on, and with dwindling ranks,
joined other Union soldiers to repel the Confederates
during Pickett's Charge. - Well, when I first discovered
the very heavy casualties that this unit suffered
and their significant role in the action here, I naturally
assumed that there will be a great deal of published
material on the unit, articles, books, perhaps
a regimental history. And I found that there was a total dearth of
information on the unit. - [Narrator] So Dreese
did the research himself, tracking down descendants,
talking with other historians, telling the story of the
151st in a book called "Like Ripe Apples in a Storm." The title is a quote from
Lieutenant William Blodgett of the 151st, who wrote
a letter to his wife a few days after the battle. - And he wrote home, he said, "Our poor boys fell around me
like ripe apples in a storm. Some of them fought
after they were wounded two or even three times. They were and are heroes,
every one of them." And that passage
really stuck with me because they were near the
end of their enlistment term. And many of them were in
the peak of their manhood and looking at their most
productive years ahead of them. - [Narrator] It's
that personal angle of the 151st that
inspired Dreese. Through hard to find letters,
diaries, and old photographs, he gathered and
preserved their stories. - [Michael] Michael
Link, who was fighting as a private in the ranks, he was leveling his rifle
to fire at the rebel flag, and that was the last
thing he remembered seeing. As it turns out, a bullet
actually went through both of his eyes and
would blind him for life. - [Narrator] A burial
party looking for bodies found Michael Link alive. He would end up here at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary, a makeshift hospital
for wounded soldiers, especially from the 151st
and the Pennsylvania 142nd. Both regiments were
fighting within view of the seminary, which
still stands today. - This building could
talk, it would tell a story of great suffering,
(ominous music) and human misery, agony, death, but it also tells
a story of heroism. - [Narrator] Even
as the battle raged, medical officers and
Gettysburg civilians made their way to the seminary
to care for the casualties. One of the wounded was
Lieutenant Jeremiah Hoffman. - Hoffman wrote a
very detailed account of what took place
here in the seminary during and immediately after
the battle of Gettysburg. (gentle piano music) He talks about the burial of
his good friend, Andrew Tucker. - [Narrator] Lieutenant Tucker
died inside the seminary and was taken
outside for burial. The scene lives on
because of Hoffman who was in a bunk inside
the seminary room, now used for storage. Lieutenant Hoffman was able
to see through an open window, and later wrote
about what he saw. - "I was then lying on the bunk, and by lifting my head,
could see into the garden. I could not assist in the
burial but I could look on. They were holding the
body over the grave when the head slipped over
the edge of the blanket. And the lieutenant's
beautiful jet black hair dragged over the ground. The thought of his mother
and sisters was called up, and surely, it cannot
be called unmanly that a few tears
stole down my cheeks." [Narrator] The seminary
functioned as a hospital for about two months
after the battle. The last patient to leave
was the commanding officer of the Pennsylvania 151st. - [Michael] George McFarland,
who was also wounded in this building, he had
been shot through both legs, one of those legs would
actually be amputated here three days later. - [Narrator] The tally
of the casualties is now etched
(gentle music) into this monument to the
151st Pennsylvania volunteers. But Michael Dreese
says the carvings hardly convey the Valor
of the men remembered as the School
Teachers' Regiment. - [Michael] You couldn't
have expected this regiment to perform any better. And they were thrown
in at a desperate time in the battle when the
Union lines were breaking. There's really nobody
symbolized on that monument, no one individual. And I think that kind
of serves the focus, the fact that they fought
and died together as a unit. (rain pattering) - When I thought about
the importance of horses, and I thought there
wouldn't have been a battle if it weren't for horses. All the way. They were as
essential to the army as the fighting
soldier on the ground. We'll all line up out here. - [Narrator] Horses still
roam this battlefield. - [Barb] This battle
began on July 1st. - [Narrator] Seeing
Gettysburg on a horseback is getting more
popular with tourists. The park and volunteer
groups are now working to improve and
expand the trails. Terry Latcher is one of
a few licensed guides who give horse tours. - Doing horseback
tours forces you to slow down your pace
on this battlefield. (hooves clacking) (gentle music) (rain pattering) We'll be able to
see the placement of some of the troops
by the monuments. - [Narrator] On this group
tour Terry wears a microphone. The riders behind
her wear headsets. - [Terry] Now, as we
ride into this area, we're riding on one of
the original farm lanes. Well, I'm a horse
person at heart and I love the battlefield, so you combine the
two and it's great. - [Narrator] The horses are
limited to a small portion of the battlefield,
but riders are still able to take in vistas
that cover many miles. - This equestrian
monument is one of many that was put on the battlefield to commemorate the
officers and their horses. - [Narrator] There are about
a dozen equestrian monuments on the battlefield,
many of them capture the Corps Commanders and
the actual horses they rode. - I really do appreciate
the horse monuments. It's a nice tribute
to the horses without taking anything
away from the soldiers and the lives of those
men who sacrificed here. - [Narrator] An estimated
80,000 horses served at Gettysburg, riden by calvary, officers, messengers.
(somber music) They pulled artillery,
supply wagons, ambulances. About 5,000 horses were killed
here, many others injured. One of the wounded was Old
Baldy, now immortalized on the impressive
Gettysburg monument to General George Gordon Meade. - He was an army
man all of his life, fought before the civil war, Was a captain in the
army at the outbreak of the civil war and
quickly rose to general. Actually, three days
before this battle, General Meade was put in command of the entire Union
army of the Potomac. That's over 90,000 soldiers - [Narrator] General Meade's
triumph at Gettysburg was the pinnacle of
his military career. His horse was wounded
at Gettysburg, where Mead wrote from
his headquarters, that, "Old Baldy
has been shot again. And I fear will
not get over it." But the horse survived. - [Terry] He was quite a
courageous horse, carried Meade through most of the
battles in the civil war. - [Narrator] It's
believed Old Baldy was shot five times
before the war ended. He actually outlived Meade, led the General's
funeral procession, then died 10 years later. - That's not the
end of Old Baldy. A couple of weeks
after he was buried, some veterans dug him
up, severed his head, and his head was
stuffed, mounted, and is now in Philadelphia.
(hooves clacking) - [Narrator] Visitors
enjoy Terry's stories about the equestrian monuments. One question she
gets all the time is about the connection
between the horse's hooves and the fate of the
officer on horseback. - Do you look at
the horse hooves? They can tell you a story. - [Narrator] At Gettysburg,
there's an unusual coincidence in just about every
case, if all four hooves are touching the
base of the monument, the officer on that
horse was not injured. - [Terry] If one hoof is
up, the rider was wounded. If two hooves are sculpted
up, the rider was killed. - [Narrator] The trivia and
the footnotes in history keep the riders moving
along, seeing this place the way the soldiers did.
(gentle music) - Rain, shine, heat of
the summer and even snow, we do go out. And that also gives you
another perspective. And sometimes when we're out, and it's 45 degrees
and starts to rain, and the visitors on the
horses kind of huddled down under their jackets and
they look miserable, then I try to use that
opportunity to remind them that soldier who have
to endure this too. From the back of a horse,
gives me the perspective that many of the
soldiers would have, that we don't get in
a car or in a bus. So it just gives
you a completely
different perspective, at the same time, slowing
you down to take it all in. (wind gusting) - [Narrator] Barb Adams
knows the importance of preserving this place. She's one of about
3,400 volunteers who give their time here. Some, like Barb, are local,
some are from out of state. Many devote their time
to a specific monument. (rake rustling) - We choose the
seventh Ohio infantry. And we're from Ohio, so
we feel close to them and it's our duty
to help them out. - The national park service
only has so many men and this is a very big park. It's a huge park. And every minute that
the volunteers can put in is of great help to
the park services. (leaves rustling) - [Narrator] The
volunteers do everything, from landscaping to building
or repairing miles of fences. - Oh, I love to volunteer. I wake up every morning
wanting to know what I can do. - [Narrator] Barb does a
variety of volunteer jobs at Gettysburg, but she
puts in most of her time, about four days a
week, painting cannons. - [Barb] The sun does
a number on them, the kids like to climb on
them, so they get scratched. So we go back through
every few years and try and repaint them
just to keep them updated, and nice, and shiny and bright. (gentle music) - [Narrator] In all, the
park has about 400 cannons. Many are displayed
on the battlefield, but you'll find a lot of them (tool grinding) in this place. That's because
keeping Gettysburg's
cannons in good shape requires a special operation
just for the big guns. - We call it the Gettysburg
National Military Cannon Shop. And, one, two,
three, four, five. Six spokes have been replaced. - [Narrator] Joe Catchings
is a preservation specialist. He oversees the work here, from small repairs
to major reassembly. Many of the cannon
tubes on the battlefield are true civil war relics, but the carriages
are reproductions. The originals were made of wood and could never have
lasted as outdoor displays. - I think they knew early
on that wooden carriages were not gonna last
very long in the field. - [Narrator] So, in the late
1800's, replicas were made of cast iron, but even
they require maintenance. - It takes us a week
and a half to two weeks to do the repair work. It takes another week
and a half to two weeks to paint a carriage. (wheel creaking) - [Narrator] That's where
volunteers like Barb come in, helping the small staff of
employees in the cannon shop. - [Barbara] And once
they have been restored by the workman down
at the cannon shop, each cannon gets approximately
six layers of paint. Then once they're put
out on the battlefield, the paint will probably
last about seven years. - [Narrator] Besides painting
these artillery monuments. - The direction of the cannon
always is facing your enemy. - [Narrator] Barb has
learned a lot about them. She says any tourists can
too, if they just look closer. - This is an original
cannon barrel. It was manufactured in 1863
at the West Point Foundry in West Point, New York,
it has a three inch barrel, meaning that the bore
here is three inch. The initials of the
inspector were DWF. It weighs 858 pounds,
and it's number 14. This barrel was not
necessarily here at Gettysburg, but it did see service
during the civil war. Whenever you see a marker with
cannon on either side of it, that monument and those
cannons were placed there because that's exactly
where that regiment fought. - [Narrator] And it's in
honor of those who fought that has Barb Adams
(tool grinding) and so many other
(gentle music) volunteers mending, (rake rustling)
and raking, and painting. - I see it as a little thank you to the people who fought here. - I often think what
would the soldiers say if they saw this place now. And you just gotta think, gee, it's changed so, and
yet, it's the same. - [Linda] I am no one. - [Narrator] She's
somewhat of a mystery. Few people know her
name or much about her. - [Linda] I'm a simple person. And I think a lot of the
soldiers were simple people. They came from the
farms, they had families, but they came, they
believed in something, and they came and they fought. - [Narrator] So that's
why Linda Bell comes here. - [Linda] Every night,
when the sun goes down, I come out to the gate
of the National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, and play Taps. (somber bugle music) Nobody knows me, but I do it. Sometimes there are
people, to listen. Sometimes there aren't. Sometimes it is a
beautiful night. Sometimes it's raining,
and snowing, and blowing, and I play. - [Narrator] Linda
was inspired by a ceremony she saw in Europe. She lives near the
battlefield and decided to play for the
Gettysburg soldiers. - It's a way for me to remember, not just those who died
here during the civil war, but I think the soldiers
who died before, and those who are still
at war and are dying now. Men who have been in the war,
a lot of them will come up, veterans, and they
will say thank you. (somber bugle music) And often, they are crying. I usually see
people who are here, stand quiet, listen,
let me finish. And then they go on about
what they were doing. - [Narrator] Her bugle
has sounded every night for 12 years now. - [Linda] I'm getting older. I would like to continue this. I would love to have
a group of us do this. And we take turns. - [Narrator] She's trying
to draft others to help out, but until then, Linda Bell
keeps playing her tribute for the men behind
the monuments. - [Linda] And I play for them. I don't play for
me, I play for them. (crowd chattering) - There is a party at this
home in Gettysburg, with steak, beer and laughter. (crowd laughing) All happening at the edge
of the sacred battlefield. That might seem like an
unusual place for a celebration until you hear the
story behind it. (crowd chattering) - I've got a hundred
sergeants up here. So it's great to
get an opportunity, those Marines, who would never
normally experience coming to Gettysburg and
seeing the history here. And also get a chance to
interact with the Seamus. - [Guest] Seamus is the
coolest guy I've ever met. - [Narrator] Seamus
is Seamus Garrahy, former Marine, whose property
borders the battlefield. A dozen times a year,
Seamus fires up his grill. (grill sizzling) - [Seamus] Doesn't
get any better. - [Guest] No, it doesn't. - [Narrator] And hosts
a steak and beer dinner for hundreds of
Marines and others who serve in the military. This group is from the
Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico. Just about all of them
have seen active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. - Motivation, determination,
honor, courage, commitment, integrity, bearing,
camaraderie, It's all on there. - Allow the Marines
to step back and relax from their duties as
marksmanship coaches
and instructors. And establish some
camaraderie and esprit with themselves and
within the organization. (crowd chattering) - [Narrator] Seamus
gets food for the party through donations or pays
for some of it himself. - Thank you bud. - Steak, beer, beans, and
bread, and that's all of it. - [Narrator] The Marines
will stay in Gettysburg for a few days, camping
out in Seamus' yard, so they don't have to pay
for lodging somewhere else. - Charge your glasses,
turn off the light. We'll go build a fire. I need two guys or three guys.
- [Narrator] But this isn't just a weekend of R&R, Early the next morning,
(crowd chattering) (bus engine rumbling) these Marines are
on the battlefield. - Today, we're having a
professional military education on the battle of Gettysburg,
to educate our Marines. - Imagine being that
group of soldiers. - [Mike] Militarily, you
take a look at the tactics and techniques that they use
then and learn from that. - [Narrator] The Marines get
briefed on how the troops moved across this
battlefield in 1863. - Think about what it was
like with the Alabamians that are coming over. - [Narrator] They'll see the
monuments, study the terrain, and learn who was
defeated where, and why. - [Loren] I've done two
deployments, one of which was a combat deployment
to Afghanistan. - [Narrator] One of the
Marines in this group is not only looking at
this place tactically. - [Loren] How would I have
my Marines assault that Hill? How would I have defended
this position here? - [Narrator] He's also
seeing it emotionally. - [Loren] My family all
fought for this Confederacy in the 47th Alabama infantry. - [Narrator] Loren Lynch
knows of five ancestors who fought for the South. Three of them were killed
here at Gettysburg. Another, his great,
great, great-grandfather survived this battle. - [Loren] He fought through
here, up Big Round Top and down a Little Round Top. - [Narrator] And just
for a little while, Corporal Lynch will leave the
other Marines to go off alone, looking for a monument
he's always wanted to see. - [Loren] And this is a big
part of my family history. - [Narrator] He'll find
the Alabama State Memorial. - It's awesome. It's just weird to think that
four or five generations ago, great, great, great-grandfather stood somewhere around here.
(somber music) Wherever you go that
you know Americans have lost their lives in battle, you definitely reflect
on where you've been, what you've done and
what you've seen. - [Narrator] His
observations come from experience,
sacrifice and loss. In Afghanistan,
Corporal Lynch's squad was hit by enemy fire. Lynch was wounded. Two of his comrades, good
friends, were killed. Nick died in my arms and Ricky was killed maybe
two feet from me. I think about them
and I think that war is not pretty, no
matter where it's fought, no matter where.
(guns firing) - [Narrator] And
from this position, near the Alabama monument, where his ancestors
once stood and fought. - Sure as hell wasn't easy. - [Narrator] There's
time for one more look. And Corporal Loren
Lynch has a better view than many others. - They fought from here
to Little Round Top, the whole way. And everybody I'm here
with has been in combat. Everybody I'm here with
knows what it's like to fight for every inch that you get. The only thing I can do
is stand here and look, look out at what
I'm seeing in awe, and just say thank you. (gentle music) - [Narrator] This
program is made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania
Public Television Network. The network receives funding
from the Commonwealth to provide public television
to all Pennsylvanians and by viewers like you. Thank you.
