In detail: the 111th New York - Gettysburg

The 111th New York Infantry monument in front of the Brian house on Cemetery Ridge marks only one spot the regiment occupied during its few days at Gettysburg. It helped stop the Confederate attacks on the second day of battle, south of its final position at the stonewall. And before helping repel Pickett's Charge at the little farmhouse members of the 111th performed the duties of skirmishing between the Cemetery and Seminary Ridge lines. "Line fighting is barbarous, but skirmishing is savage - nay, devilish," a captain of the 111th determined. "To juke and hide and skulk for men and deliberately aim at and murder them one by one is far too bloodthirsty business for Christian men." The Rebels exacted a toll in exchange. The 111th sent 390 men into the battle, 249 became casualties, 58 killed. (Click image for larger view).

111th NY at the Brian Farm - Gettysburg

The 111th New York Infantry monument stands on Cemetery Ridge in front of the Brian House at Gettysburg, behind the stone wall the men used as shelter first from the cannonade preceding Pickett's Charge, then during the infantry assault. The 111th NY and its neighboring units had the better of the action on the north end of the charge, punishing its attackers. "As the effect of each volley could be seen, the cheers and the confusion were wild," reported the 111th's colonel. (Click image for larger view).

The Brian Farmhouse - Gettysburg

The simple farmhouse of Abraham Brian sits on Cemetery Ridge, right on what became the main Union line on the second and third days of fighting at Gettysburg. Brian's family lived here from 1857 to 1869, when he sold the house and took up a job in the town. The house had significant post-war additions before being renovated and returned to its appearance during the battle. (Click image for larger view).

The Brian Farm - Gettysburg

The 111th New York monument stands next to the Brian farm barn on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. The barn was part of a farm owned by Abraham Brian, a free black man who fled as Confederates neared. His 12 acre farm would provide the setting for a large part of Pickett's Charge. After returning to Gettysburg and finding graves in his devestated farm fields and his modest house damaged and ransacked, Brian filed claims for $1028 in damages. He received $15. (Click image for larger view).

Boom with a view - Gettysburg

Smith's 4th New York Battery monument stands on Houck's Ridge atop Devil's Den at Gettysburg, in front of Little Round Top and the 44th and 12th New York monument. The view today is radically altered - in two ways. The vandalized Smith battery monument awaits repair after a vicious 2006 attack, and the park's landscape restoration project has cleared most trees, (including the one at center) from this end of Houck's Ridge, bringing it more closely to its 1863 appearance. (Click image for larger view).

O.O. Howard - Gettysburg

Union Major General Oliver Otis Howard is honored in a statue on East Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg. His XI Corps did not fare well on the first day of fighting, driven back to the hill and remaining there for the rest of the battle as part of the main Union line. His corps had already suffered an embarrassing setback in allowing a surprise attack at Chancellorsville, but Howard, who lost an arm earlier in the war, survived to continue a long and varied career in and out of the military. He found more success in the army following Gettysburg while fighting in the West, and went on to a number of high-profile post-war positions, including heading West Point and presiding over the Washington, D.C. university he helped found and to which he lent his name. (Click image for larger view).

North Carolina - Gettysburg

The North Carolina Monument pushes forward toward Cemetery Ridge from its position on Seminary Ridge, the stepping-off point for North Carolina troops in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. 42 regiments and batteries from North Carolina served at Gettysburg, among them, 15 regiments participated in Pickett's Charge. (Click image for larger view).

Federal firepower - Gettysburg

Guns mark Union positions at the Angle, with fog obscuring the Copse of Trees in the background, along Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. Artillery and infantry here stood up to the brunt of Pickett's Charge, and though the line was briefly pierced, it held in the climax of the battle. (Click image for larger view).

View from the cupola - Gettysburg

A foggy morning negates the view from the cupola of Schmucker Hall, but it made a fine lookout from the Lutheran Theological Seminary during the first day of battle at Gettysburg. Union cavalry commander Brigadier General John Buford famously told Major General John Reynolds from the cupola's platform (since rebuilt after a 1913 fire) "The Devil's to pay!" as the battle of Gettysburg was just beginning. (Click image for larger view).

153rd Pa. at Barlow's Knoll - Gettysburg

As the 153rd Pennsylvania, nine month men from Bethlehem, Pa., got set to head into battle on the first day at Gettysburg, an officer addressed them, telling the men their enlistments had expired. "If there was a man in [the] ranks who did not wish to go into battle; he should step out, that it was no disgrace;" a soldier wrote, retelling the officer's words, "but that the enemy was in our native state, and that the people of Pennsylvania looked to us for relief, and that it was our duty to protect our homes... we gave three cheers and not a man stepped out of the ranks." Their officer must have been mistaken, misjudging the enlistment terms by a month. The regiment's survivors mustered out July 24, three weeks after the battle. (Click image for larger view).