Along Hancock Avenue - Gettysburg

Monuments line Hancock Ave. on Cemetery Ridge, stretching south to Little and Big Round Tops in the distance. This ground is best known for its role in Pickett's Charge on the final day of battle, but fighting stretched up the line to this point on the second day, July 2, 1863. Here Confederate gains crested during relentless attacks pushed by Lt. General James Longstreet, but the rebel success of the day could not be further exploited. (Click image for larger view).

East Cemetery Hill - Gettysburg

An artillerist is depicted on the monument to one of many Union batteries that held its ground on East Cemetery Hill on the second day of battle. The soldier's calm demeanor, casually standing by his gun, stands in contradiction to the actual scene in the fading daylight of July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg. The crest of the hill was overrun with Confederates who succeeded in reaching the top of the prominent rise - but not maintaining their gains amidst stout defense and oncoming darkness and reinforcements. What Confederate General Ambrose Wright said about Cemetery Ridge also applied to East Cemetery Hill: "The real difficulty is to stay there after you get there - for the whole infernal Yankee army is up there in a bunch." (Click image for larger view).

Two of seven - The Virginia State Memorial, Gettysburg

Two of the seven figures at the base of the Virginia State Memorial peer out over the field from Seminary Ridge, where attacks on the second and third day of fighting at Gettysburg began. The monument was erected as the United States was entering another massive war in 1917, 54 years following the battle. It remains the largest of the Confederate memorials on the battlefield. (Click image for larger view).

The Seminary Cupola

The Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary cupola - atop Old Dorm, now Schmucker Hall - rises above the field of the first day of fighting at Gettysburg. It served Union cavalry Brigadier General John Buford well as an excellent platform to observe what would become the field were the battle would begin in earnest. The building, as many in and around Gettysburg, was quickly transformed for another purpose - use as a hospital as the fighting began raging. (Click image for larger view).

Moonset

A full moon sets as the sun rises over The Angle and the monument to the 72nd PA. Infantry, one of several units to defend the Union line where it was pierced briefly by Pickett's Charge. Across the open farmland pictured, some 12,000 Confederate soldiers started the attack from the Seminary Ridge treeline, where the Virginia State Memorial can be seen in close inspection. Only a few hundred, or less, made it into Union lines and only briefly in the failed climax of the battle. (Click image for larger view).

Long Remember

Wind-raked snow blankets grave markers in the Gettysburg National Cemetery. When Robert E. Lee's Confederate army began its retreat 145 years ago today - and the Union army soon followed - not all the soldiers left Gettysburg. Among the dead of both sides, 3512 Union soldiers were eventually buried in the newly created Soldiers National Cemetery. President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address Nov. 19, 1863 at the cemetery's dedication, with the reburials of the soldiers from hasty graves on the battlefield not yet complete. (Click image for larger view).

The Fence on the Emmitsburg Road

A simple, stout wood fence along the Emmitsburg Road marks a transition point faced by Confederates in the ill-fated Pickett's Charge. Once pushing past the road, there was nothing between the onrushing rebels and the waiting Yankees at the low crest save for open terrain and deadly close-range fire. 145 years ago today thousands of Confederates crossed this point in the Charge. The lucky ones would pass over or around the fence again in retreat to safety on Seminary Ridge (at rear). The Rebel invasion of Pennsylvania was over. Escaping back South with his remaining army intact was now the goal of Lee's plans. There would be no further large scale invasions of the North, and the long path to Appomattox continued. (Click image for larger view).

The Second Day

The 15th New York artillery monument stands on the Wheatfield Road at the Peach Orchard, where 145 years ago today a line of 40 cannon was hard pressed, then overrun, by Confederates in the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. Here, at a salient that was created when Union General Dan Sickles over-extended his line, the Union line crumbled as Lt. General James Longstreet's forces pushed their relentless attacks. This battery, its ammunition exhausted, escaped the field with 3 cannoneers killed and 13 wounded. (Click on image for larger view).

First Brigade, First Division, First Corps, First Day of Fighting

The 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry monument in McPherson's Woods marks part of the line where the Iron Brigade fought 145 years ago today as the battle turned from limited engagement to major conflict. With both armies stretched out over the Pennsylvania and Maryland countryside, the battle began as a meeting encounter that grew as men were rushed to the field and funneled into the fighting. By the end of the day both armies were nearly completely concentrated in or near Gettysburg. It was now virtually inevitable that a decisive battle would be concluded on this ground were neither side intended to push for a fight just days before. (Click image for larger view).

Meade rises to the occasion

Thick, low fog at dawn fills the low ground at the base of Cemetery Ridge, where the Codori barn (rebuilt since the war) sits in front of the Union line and the monument to Major General George Meade. The new commanding general - only days before the battle began he rose from corps to army control - deftly countered Lee's moves at Gettysburg. His handling of the pursuit of Lee's retreat, however, has been unfairly criticized since President Lincoln lamented, upon learning of the rebel army's escape across the Potomac 11 days later: "We had only to stretch forth our hands and they were ours." (Click image for larger view).