- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
The Wheatfield
The past several times I've been at Gettysburg I've attempted to visit certain particular places I'd in the past just skimmed over or even missed altogether on the usual tours outlined in the various NPS folders. (As an example of what I'm talking about, unbelievable as it may seem, Devil's Den is no longer included as a stop on the current park brochure!) This year in the wake of finally actually reading Pfanz' Gettysburg - The Second Day, I decide I wanted to spend a little time exploring the Wheatfield and its neighbor, the Stony Hill to get a "feel" for a place I'd previously only driven past.
Of course this is the scene of what is possibly the most confused and confusing combat on the entire battlefield, and I made no attempt to try to follow any of the specific moves by Regis de Trobriand's or any other successive defending Federal commands, nor the many attacking Confederate ones. Although some of these maneuvers are briefly described on the NPS signage above, my main interest was in visiting the several monuments and observing the "lay of the land" here.
Above, the monument of the 27th Connecticut of Caldwell's Division of the Union Second Corps. My principal "discovery" was that the Wheatfield isn't FLAT, but rather on a sloping hill, a fact not readily discernible from the road; it's also larger than I expected it to be, though that wasn't particularly surprising.
My favorite subject was naturally the only marked position of a battery, Battery D of the 1st New York Light Artillery, attached to the artillery battalion of Sickles' Third Corps.
The Stony Hill
This area bordering the Wheatfield is possibly best-known as the location of the handsome monument to the Irish Brigade on the NPS drive known as The Loop, seen here above and below.
This bronze plaque on one of the many stone boulders here denotes the position of a Union Fifth Corps field hospital during the battle. according to the text, the hospital was in the woods behind the rock which provided at least a degree of cover for the assistant surgeon, his hospital steward, and their patients.
The past several times I've been at Gettysburg I've attempted to visit certain particular places I'd in the past just skimmed over or even missed altogether on the usual tours outlined in the various NPS folders. (As an example of what I'm talking about, unbelievable as it may seem, Devil's Den is no longer included as a stop on the current park brochure!) This year in the wake of finally actually reading Pfanz' Gettysburg - The Second Day, I decide I wanted to spend a little time exploring the Wheatfield and its neighbor, the Stony Hill to get a "feel" for a place I'd previously only driven past.
Of course this is the scene of what is possibly the most confused and confusing combat on the entire battlefield, and I made no attempt to try to follow any of the specific moves by Regis de Trobriand's or any other successive defending Federal commands, nor the many attacking Confederate ones. Although some of these maneuvers are briefly described on the NPS signage above, my main interest was in visiting the several monuments and observing the "lay of the land" here.
Above, the monument of the 27th Connecticut of Caldwell's Division of the Union Second Corps. My principal "discovery" was that the Wheatfield isn't FLAT, but rather on a sloping hill, a fact not readily discernible from the road; it's also larger than I expected it to be, though that wasn't particularly surprising.
My favorite subject was naturally the only marked position of a battery, Battery D of the 1st New York Light Artillery, attached to the artillery battalion of Sickles' Third Corps.
The Stony Hill
This area bordering the Wheatfield is possibly best-known as the location of the handsome monument to the Irish Brigade on the NPS drive known as The Loop, seen here above and below.
This bronze plaque on one of the many stone boulders here denotes the position of a Union Fifth Corps field hospital during the battle. according to the text, the hospital was in the woods behind the rock which provided at least a degree of cover for the assistant surgeon, his hospital steward, and their patients.
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