Union artillery on this hill, now topped by a monument to Major General Henry Slocum, defended against the Confederate attack on East Cemetery Hill as darkness fell over the battlefield on the second day. Before the rebels began their charge the bloody day seemed to be ending peacefully, until a shout of "Look! Look at those men!" turned the artillerists to their guns as a rare night attack began. (Click image for larger view).
The monument to Captain James Smith's 4th New York battery of Parrott rifles stands above Devil's Den, in a precarious position that only allowed four of his six guns to be posted before the fight on the second day at Gettysburg. The cannoneers soon went from dueling with Confederate batteries on the opposite Seminary Ridge and long-range fire against infantry to fighting for their lives and their guns at close range. A different fight continues today. Incidents of vandalism in the area were first recorded more than one hundred years ago and in 1995 the artillerist on the Smith battery monument was wrenched from its base. More recently the statue was dragged down and decapitated, damage that has yet to be repaired. (Click image for larger view).
The monument to the 4th Michigan in the Wheatfield depicts a soldier holding the colors, inspired by the stand taken by Col. Harrison Jeffords after the flag was dropped in the wheat as the Confederates took the field for good on the second day at Gettysburg. He died in the hand-to-hand combat that resulted as he led the effort to recapture the prized flag. The marker notes of his death: "From his bosom that heaved, the last torrent that was streaming, and pale was his visage, deep marked with a scar. And dim was that eye, once expressively beaming, that melted in love, and that kindled in war." (Click image for larger view.)
A monument meant to mark the point reached by rebel troops of the 26th North Carolina Infantry during Pickett's Charge stands just yards from the low stone wall and Union artillery at the Angle at Gettysburg. The positioning of the monument - just further toward the crest of Cemetery Ridge than the marker of the site of Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead's mortal wounding (and penetration of the Union line by his Virginians) - buttresses one third of the long held claim by the North Carolinians: "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg, Last at Appomattox." (Click image for larger view).
Stars streak over a moonlit Devil's Den at Gettysburg. The massive, jumbled boulders anchored the Union line as Confederates pushed their attacks on the second day of fighting. But the terrain did little to help stop the rebels from overrunning this position as the rest of the Union left collapsed. (Click image for larger view).
Dawn sun traces the delicately carved state seal on the 16th Maine infantry monument on Oak Ridge on the battlefield of the first day of fighting at Gettysburg. 275 men and officers went into the battle, only three dozen or so would arrive in retreat on Cemetery Hill as the fighting concluded. The bulk of the regiment was captured, not on Oak Ridge but nearby, making a stand under orders to "hold the position at any cost" - allowing countless comrades to escape the rebels as the Confederates won the first day of fighting and swept into the town. (Click image for larger view).
Cannons stand where a Confederate line of artillery took position along Seminary Ridge. Here, shortly after noon on July 3, 1863 and following two days of intense fighting at Gettysburg, a line of cannon opened fire a the Union center. For more than an hour the artillery fired in the barage that rebel artillerists hoped would weaken the Union position before Pickett's Charge stepped off. With Union guns answering back, Brigadier General Alexander Webb was one of thousands of Northern soldiers holding the targeted line. "I have been through many battles, in all sorts of places, under all fires but never have I heard such cannonading as they opened on our lines," Webb wrote. (Click image for larger view).
