Gettysburg: The First Shot | History Traveler Episode 126

[Music] in june of 1863 robert e lee and his army of northern virginia had launched an invasion into the north what they were trying to do was forge for supplies and bring about a quick end to the war now what robert e lee did not know is that the army of the potomac under its new commander general mead was following right behind him and whenever lee found out that mead and the army potomac was trailing them into pennsylvania well he sent out an order to have all three of his core under long street hill and yule to converge back together and prepare for a battle with the army of the potomac and the place where the army of northern virginia and the army of the potomac we're going to be clashing together was right here where i am in the town of gettysburg now riding out ahead of the army of the potomac was john buford who was a cavalry commander with the army of potomac and where buford is going to set up is on the western edge of gettysburg where 10 roads come together and he is going to observe the battlefield from this building right here up in that cupola and it is from this spot that john buford is going to basically lay the table and set the stage for what would become the battle of gettysburg [Music] [Music] all right so uh approaching the seminary ridge museum here and anywhere i go as i've mentioned before i try and find people who are smarter than me to to try and learn from and uh today i have with me pete who is the executive director at the seminary ridge museum so uh he's going to kind of help me you know learn some of the things that happened here at this place on the first day of the battle [Music] so the section of the museum that i'm walking into right now is really the section talking about the first day of the battle now whenever you you come to this museum uh it's really like story driven uh rather than being artifact driven now there are a lot of artifacts that are here uh but but what they're doing is they're kind of walking you through the first day of the battle of gettysburg so whenever you come into this portion of the museum everything is sequential so in in this room they're talking a little bit about the gettysburg campaign and they have some very interesting artifacts different artillery shell fragments and also some some grape shot which to me is is one of the most horrifying things that was used during the civil war this really is something that i found interesting though these are many balls that were recovered from the seminary building during a renovation in the 1960s so so this area right here saw some some heavy fighting on that first day here's something else they have here that is pretty crazy uh thaddeus stevens who was a uh republican representative during the civil war um and was well known for his his abolitionist views uh had an ironworks that was in pennsylvania that was burned down by juba early on june 26th and uh they did that in retaliation for stevens uh anti-slavery and anti-southern views wow okay so now we're moving into the room that shows the view that john buford would have had whenever he went up into the cupola of the seminary building and they've done something just pretty darn amazing here uh so of course you see all of the pictures that give a panoramic view of what buford would have seen uh but what i i really like that they've done here let me find something that has yeah here we go so you can hit one of these buttons here and it lights up and tells you like where big round top was or where seminary ridge was [Music] that is very helpful in kind of understanding and uh putting yourself in the place of john buford seeing what he saw [Music] okay now moving into the morning of july 1st where uh buford's dismount of cavalry were tasked with holding off the confederates as they were advancing into town um basically giving time for the rest of the army of the potomac to catch up and uh joining them was john reynolds who ended up dying on the battlefield here's something pretty cool uh here is a handkerchief that belonged to john reynolds you can see it's embroidered with his name there here's something else that i really appreciate in each section they have a map that kind of details where the troops were and what was happening at each stage of the battle on day one so as you can see you know here we are at the lutheran cemetery here there's reynolds position also you can see the spot where he was killed and the movement of the confederates who were advancing down the chambersburg [Music] pike okay now looking at the section talking about midday on the uh first day of the battle so here you can see a scene depicting the union and confederates all lined up against each other and again looking at a map you can see how at midday the the union troops are collapsing from the pressure from the west and from the north and falling back towards the town of gettysburg all right now looking at the afternoon of july the first here you can see uh depictions of the fighting at the seminary and and also by by this point we're getting into some urban combat in the town of gettysburg again looking at this map we see the the further development of the collapse of the union line as the confederates are are pushing them into the town at this point in the battle oh wow now this is really cool this is something that i've not seen before these are some original packagings of artillery fuses so you can see like there's an 8 second fuse 15 second fuse 12 second fuse 5'4 that is fascinating like i said i've never seen fuses in their original packaging before very nice alright and now getting to nightfall on the first day of the battle so here they're showing the seminary with wounded confederates strewn about and by this point the confederates had completely taken the town of gettysburg holy smokes this is kind of cool this is a window shutter that would have been along the weinbriner alley in baltimore street here in gettysburg that has bullet holes in it and then also a bed frame that uh belonged to harvey sweeney and you can see bullet holes there as well so a lot of people don't focus or pay much attention to the the human suffering of the civilians in gettysburg but um they were right in the thick of it for three days wow all right that was legitimately cool this this museum is well done uh it's really easy to just get a bunch of artifacts and kind of uh spread them out and put them behind a glass case and people can walk by and see and i i like that what they're doing here though is they're telling a story so you're not only seeing artifacts but but you're also getting a better appreciation for the sequencing of events on the first day of the battle all right well getting ready to head upstairs here and go take a look at the cupola [Music] so we're standing here in the attic of schmucker hall the seminary building this part of the building has not been updated significantly since the building was constructed in 1832. so the view that you see up here is what john buford and his signal officer aaron jerome would have been seeing as they came up here on the on the evening of june 30th and the morning of july first 1863 the structure here that holds up the cupola we believe is original to the building and you can see some of the features that were used employed when building the structure including these roman numeral match marks which is an old german building technique you would lay the structure out on the ground mark it with roman numerals or some other symbol and then bring it up here and put it together like a puzzle looking up how you would access the cupola itself right now we have stairs likely when buford and jerome were coming up here they were using some sort of ladder system probably two ladders one going to a landing and another one going up to the cupola the cupola is uh burned the original cupola burned uh was struck by lightning in august of 1913 and burns down to the roof line but it was almost immediately rebuilt to its original specifications so the space that you're inhabiting when you're up there is the same height and the same space that john buford would have been using on the morning of july first 1863. [Music] all right well we are now making our way to the top all right so here is the view that everybody comes for uh we are up here in the cupola now as as pete mentioned this this burned down uh but was immediately rebuilt but this is the the exact spot where john buford would have stood and looked out over the horizon and got a view and a vision for what needed to happen for the union army leading up to the the battle of gettysburg dang now it's it's a little bit foggy today but on a normal day you could see about 10 miles so so buford's view from here would have been uh quite commanding i love being in places where history happened and whenever you're talking about one of the most impactful titanic battles of the civil war this this spot definitely holds a lot of [Music] weight so we're standing here in the cupola of schmucker hall the old lutheran seminary building and we're looking out on one of the most important views if not the most important view on the first day of the battle of gettysburg and on the evening of june 30th john buford union cavalry commander is going to ride into gettysburg and he's going to come up here and he's going to imagine the first day and how the first day of the battle is going to unfold from this spot he's going to be looking out towards the west towards the south mountain range where he sees thousands of campfires burning in the foothills of the south mountains knowing that the confederate troops are are in that area and are amassing he recognizes the importance of the road network in gettysburg the 10 roads converge here from all cardinal directions he recognizes that this is a great place to mass an army either union or confederate and of course he wants it for the union army the army of the potomac so what beaufort is going to do from up here is he's going to direct his cavalry force to set up vedette posts small posts of three four men covering all of the major approaches to town west north and east because one of the other things he recognizes is that there are confederate forces out towards york east and up towards carlisle north that are going to converge on this area beaufort has really strong intelligence on the evening of june 30th knows pretty much where all elements of the confederate army are she goes to bed on the night of june 30th he expects that they will come booming skirmishers three deep and that they will have to fight like the devil to hold their own the morning of june 30th he's up he uh morning of july 1st he's up here again watching the battle unfold starting at 7 30 in the morning as the first shots are fired along marsh creek about two miles from where we're standing right now he's watching as his cavalry force is getting pushed back but are slowing the advance of harry heath's confederate infantry he's also looking towards the south looking towards john reynolds force the closest union infantry force that is coming up that will help relieve his beleaguered cavalrymen and that's what happens at about 9 30 in the morning reynolds forces come up and plunge into uh onto mcpherson ridge into the woods out there on the south and on the north side of the chambersburg pike and are able to throw back harry heath's confederate division and those are the first actions of the battle of gettysburg [Music] one other thing that's interesting to note is if you've ever watched the movie gettysburg the the scene where where sam elliott uh playing john reynolds uh is up in the cupola and and he hollers down he kind of growls you know what they'll be hell to pay uh that was filmed right here now now there was another like fake cupola they had uh for for different scenes but um that particular scene was filmed right here in this very spot all right uh we're gonna crawl down out of here and hop back in the car go down the road here to see the place where the very first shot of the battle of gettysburg was fired [Music] we are a few miles down the road now and what we're looking at is the old chambersburg pike so the confederates would have been advancing along this road from the west and one of buford's men from this point right here looks like we got a little bit of construction going on but from this point right here where this marker sits is where the very first shot of the battle of gettysburg took place so here it says first shot gettysburg july 1st 1863 7 30 am fired by captain jones with sergeant sergeant schaefer's carbine 8th illinois cavalry [Music] wow all right so that's it that's where the greatest battle of the civil war kicked off right here on uh on this spot so uh over the next few days and over the next several episodes we're going to be looking at a lot here at the battle of gettysburg site uh by no means meant to be comprehensive we're just going to be showing things here and there if you want a comprehensive look at the battle i really need to go to the american battlefield trust they have some great resources but looking forward to seeing what we're going to learn on this trip [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 144,223

Rating: 4.9777036 out of 5

Keywords: history, civil war, travel, gettysburg, battle of gettysburg, army of the potomac, army of northern virginia, robert e lee, seminary ridge, battle of gettysburg documentary, gettysburg movie, history traveler, history underground, american battlefield trust, general lee

Id: zr_UIx6Oyyo

Length: 20min 24sec (1224 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021