PeterT
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2015
- Location
- Melbourne Australia
The story of Chaplain Howell is one of the many smaller, but no less interesting, tales of the battle.
On the first day of the battle, the Union forces were retreating through the town. Captain Hubert Dilger, Battery 1, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, set up his guns on the town diamond, the position where the following 3 photos were taken. The Battery departed when the Confederate numbers were just too many. The 1st South Carolina Infantry planted their colours on the town diamond.
Chaplain Howell was tending the Union wounded in the Christ Lutheran Church (the steeple is visible in all 3 photos). He stepped outside to see what the fuss was all about. The fuss was the Confederates storming through the town. As he emerged from the church he was shot down. He was unarmed, but was wearing a blue uniform.
The first two photos appear in William Frassanito's book "Gettysburg- A Journey in Time". The first was one Tyson took in August 1863. The second photo is a "modern view" from the 1970s. The third is my photo I took in September at the CWT get together.
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