The Flag Bearer

Many monuments at Gettysburg depict flags - and their color bearers - showing their symbolic and tactical significance to the soldiers who fought under the banners. Few monuments, however, depict them as dynamically as the Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy memorial on S. Confederate Ave. A relatively new memorial for Gettysburg (dedicated 1965) the color bearer pushes forward, urging his comrades to follow. Sculptor Donald De Lue later created two more monuments for the field, the Louisiana and Mississippi state memorials. (Click image for larger view).

Lincoln Cemetery

The tombstone of USCT (United States Colored Troops) soldier Isaac Buckmaster stands in a frosty Lincoln Cemetery outside the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg. Buckmaster's grave is one of several for USCT troops at the segregated cemetery. His unit, the 8th USCT, did not fight at Gettysburg and was not raised until 1864 - no USCT troops fought at Gettysburg. Buckmaster was wounded at the Battle of Olustee in Florida and died in 1882. (Click on the image for a larger version).

The High Water Mark

Morning fog lifts over the High Water Mark monument at The Angle and Copse of Trees on Cemetery Ridge, where memorials to the Union soldiers that defended the long, gentle rise are spaced along the line. Pickett's Charge on the third day of battle at Gettysburg crested here before receding in defeat. Debate continues as to if this is truly the "high water mark" of the Rebellion - but there is no doubt that the men who fought here were forever proud of their efforts. (Click image for larger view).

The 1st Minnesota

A stellar monument on the Gettysburg battlefield, memorializing the stand of the First Minnesota Volunteers on the second day of fighting. With the Union line breaking under the weight of Confederate attacks, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock called upon the nearly 300 Minnesotans of the First to hold off the oncoming rebels long enough for reinforcements to be assembled. They did, at a cost of one of the highest casualty rates of the battle. (Click on image for larger view).