Aerial View with Labels

[Gettysburg Greg]

For those of you who opened the aerial view I posted earlier today, here is a labeled version of the picture identifying many battle related locations. @Bee

 

[Bee]

I blew it on the Peach Orchard -- it seems much further out than I expected! This picture really illustrates how far out Sickles had placed his line.

 

[Wallyfish]

Added a photo showing the 9th Mass and the Trostle Barn in the background for reference.

Good stuff. I don't know why I thought of the 9th Massachusettes Artillery but this aerial view really shows how far they retired by Prolonge. Follow The Wheatfield road from the Peach Orchard. A bit east of where Sickles Avenue joins The Wheatfield road sits one of the monuments to the 9th Massachusettes Artillery. That is where they started to retire by Prolonge. Now follow an imaginary line through the field from their Monument along the Wheatfield road to their second monument near the Trostle Barn. That is approximately how far they retired by Prolonge. Their Wheatfield Road monument sits a bit south of where Sickles Avenue makes that turn just north of the Wheatfield Road.


9th Massachusetts Battery
Capt. John Bigelow
1st position left gun Wheatfield Road
4:30 to 6 p.m. July 2, 1863.

Shelled Confederate Batteries on Emmitsburg Road also the enemy around Rose Farm buildings. Enfiladed with canister Kershaw's Brigade C.S.A. moving across field in front from Emmitsburg Road to woods on left where battle was raging in front of Round Tops.

6 p.m. – alone on field. Graham's Brigade 3rd Corps forced from Peach Orchard had retired by detachments.

By 'prolonge firing' retired before Kershaw's skirmishers and Barksdale's Brigade C.S.A. 400 yards.

2nd position angle of stone wall near Trostle's House where the Battery was halted by Lieut. Colonel McGilvery and ordered to hold enemy in check until line of artillery could be formed 560 yards in the rear. Was without support and hemmed in by stone wall. Enemy closed in on flanks. Man and horses were shot down when finally overcome at 6:30 p.m. Lieut.-Colonel McGilvery had batteries unsupported in position near the Weikert House covering opening in lines between Round Tops and left of 2nd Corps 3/4 mile occasioned by withdrawal of Graham's Brigade.

7:15 p.m. Willard's Brigade 2nd Corps and later Lockwood's Brigade 12th Corps came to support of artillery.

Anyone else have a story to tell on Greg's aerial?

Thanks Greg for throwing in the Timbers Farm. Great views of LRT from there and many never find the foundation.

 

[Arioch]

It's amazing....it really puts a 'frame' around things....it makes the battlefield seem much more local / small when you look at it this way.....how centralized this large portion of the battlefield is....

Just to re-orient myself from this perspective....the Roundtops: are to the West (maybe even a little Southwest) from this perspective...correct?

 

[Arioch]

I blew it on the Peach Orchard -- it seems much further out than I expected! This picture really illustrates how far out Sickles had placed his line.

It really does, doesn't it?....no wonder Meade flipped when seeing Sickles that far out, unsupported....

I'm sure Meade wanted to bar-b-cue Sickles for forcing him (Meade) to support / rescue him for that maneuver....

 

[E_just_E]

It's amazing....it really puts a 'frame' around things....it makes the battlefield seem much more local / small when you look at it this way.....how centralized this large portion of the battlefield is....

Just to re-orient myself from this perspective....the Roundtops: are to the West (maybe even a little Southwest) from this perspective...correct?

LRT is just in front of you, BRT to the left. The image is facing W-NW

 

[bdtex]

For those of you who opened the aerial view I posted earlier today, here is a labeled version of the picture identifying many battle related locations. @Bee View attachment 116819

What is the clearing in the woods about a third of the way up on the extreme left of the picture? Looks like a rock fence or wall there.

 

[E_just_E]

What is the clearing in the woods about a third of the way up on the extreme left of the picture? Looks like a rock fence or wall there.

It's a clearing The 1st VT Cavalry monument is in the middle of it, and there is a path/road that takes you to the Snyder farm through the Snyder woods. Just of the W side of the road (S Conf. Ave) from BRT. That W edge of the Woods after the clearing is Plum Run

 

[Wallyfish]

If you park on South Confederate Avenue near the 1st Vermont Cavalry marker you walk through that clearing.

There is a path behind their monument that continues on to the Slyder Farm. You get a great perspective of what the confederates had to deal with charging over that ground. Some of that ground can get pretty soupy after rains.

Many people stop at the 1st Vermont Cavalry monument but never walk any further. Farnsworth Charge fans make that a mandatory stop on their Gettysburg visit. Go to Google maps using the satellite view and follow that path all the way up Slyder Farm Lane to the Emmitsburg Road if you have the stamina.

Some detail on the Slyder Farm compliments of Gettysburg Stone Sentinel site.

The John Slyder farm was on the western side of Big Round Top, just down Plum Run from the Devil's Den. (39.788893° N, 77.246741° W; Google map; Tour map: Bushman Hill & Slyder Farm)

John had moved from Maryland and bought the 75 acre farm in 1849. By the 1860's it included a two story stone house, barn, blacksmith and carpenter shops, an orchard of peach and pear trees, thirty acres of timber and eighteen acres of meadow.

On July 2nd Confederate General John B. Hood's Division swept across Slyder's farm in its advance toward the Devil's Den and Little Round Top. The crops and orchards were trampled and destroyed and the farm buildings became a Confederate field hospital, with the family's possesions looted or spoiled.

Two months after the battle, in September, John sold the farm and moved to Ohio.

The Slyder family had connections with other Gettysburg families. John's wife Catherine was the sister of Lydia Leister, whose house became General Meade's headquarters during the battle. And in October of 1863 John's son William married Josephine Miller, the granddaughter of Peter and Susan Rogers, whose farm lay on Emmitsburg Road.

The farm passed to the Snyder family, who owned it around the turn of the century. It is now owned by the National Park Service. The monument to Companies E & H, Second United States Sharpshoters (Vermont Sharpshooters) is beside the driveway in front of the farmhouse.

 

[James N.]

My September photo looking from the "sharpshooter's den" across the freshly burned-off Triangular Field towards Warfield Ridge in the far background. There appears to be a period house barely visible in the top center hidden behind a clump of trees but I'm not sure which one it is.

 

[bdtex]

It's a clearing The 1st VT Cavalry monument is in the middle of it, and there is a path/road that takes you to the Snyder farm through the Snyder woods. Just of the W side of the road (S Conf. Ave) from BRT. That W edge of the Woods after the clearing is Plum Run

Haven't been to Gettysburg yet.

 

[JohnW.]

Excellent photo....the area is so much bigger than it looks in the photo...especially if one is walking the battlefield like I did. LOL

 

[E_just_E]

Excellent photo....the area is so much bigger than it looks in the photo...especially if one is walking the battlefield like I did. LOL

And this is pretty amazing because what is depicted is at most about 1/8th of the battlefield (and I am not including the horse stuff)

 

[pamc153PA]

It's a clearing The 1st VT Cavalry monument is in the middle of it, and there is a path/road that takes you to the Snyder farm through the Snyder woods. Just of the W side of the road (S Conf. Ave) from BRT. That W edge of the Woods after the clearing is Plum Run

That clearing is known as the D-shaped field . . . Because it's shaped roughly like a D.

 

[pamc153PA]

My September photo looking from the "sharpshooter's den" across the freshly burned-off Triangular Field towards Warfield Ridge in the far background. There appears to be a period house barely visible in the top center hidden behind a clump of trees but I'm not sure which one it is.

That would be the Snyder farm house, over on Warfield Ridge.

 

[bdtex]

That clearing is known as the D-shaped field . . . Because it's shaped roughly like a D.

You guys are cracking me up.

 

[pamc153PA]

If you park on South Confederate Avenue near the 1st Vermont Cavalry marker you walk through that clearing.

There is a path behind their monument that continues on to the Slyder Farm. You get a great perspective of what the confederates had to deal with charging over that ground. Some of that ground can get pretty soupy after rains.

Many people stop at the 1st Vermont Cavalry monument but never walk any further. Farnsworth Charge fans make that a mandatory stop on their Gettysburg visit. Go to Google maps using the satellite view and follow that path all the way up Slyder Farm Lane to the Emmitsburg Road if you have the stamina.

Some detail on the Slyder Farm compliments of Gettysburg Stone Sentinel site.

The John Slyder farm was on the western side of Big Round Top, just down Plum Run from the Devil's Den. (39.788893° N, 77.246741° W; Google map; Tour map: Bushman Hill & Slyder Farm)

John had moved from Maryland and bought the 75 acre farm in 1849. By the 1860's it included a two story stone house, barn, blacksmith and carpenter shops, an orchard of peach and pear trees, thirty acres of timber and eighteen acres of meadow.

On July 2nd Confederate General John B. Hood's Division swept across Slyder's farm in its advance toward the Devil's Den and Little Round Top. The crops and orchards were trampled and destroyed and the farm buildings became a Confederate field hospital, with the family's possesions looted or spoiled.

Two months after the battle, in September, John sold the farm and moved to Ohio.

The Slyder family had connections with other Gettysburg families. John's wife Catherine was the sister of Lydia Leister, whose house became General Meade's headquarters during the battle. And in October of 1863 John's son William married Josephine Miller, the granddaughter of Peter and Susan Rogers, whose farm lay on Emmitsburg Road.

The farm passed to the Snyder family, who owned it around the turn of the century. It is now owned by the National Park Service. The monument to Companies E & H, Second United States Sharpshoters (Vermont Sharpshooters) is beside the driveway in front of the farmhouse.

Also, this area--the Slyder farm, Bushman Hill--is part of South Cavalry Field. From Civil War Trust site: ". . . one of Kilpatrick's brigadiers, Gen. Elon Farnsworth, despaired at having to make a mounted charge against infantry over terrain broken by boulders and stone walls. Farnsworth's charge was met by Alabamians and Texans of Hood's division, who made quick work of repulsing the Federal horsemen. Among the casualties of Kilpatrick's ill-conceived attack was Farnsworth himself."

@Eric Wittenberg would know a little something about that.

 

[pamc153PA]

You guys are cracking me up.

Glad you liked it, but that's what I've heard the old-timers call it, so that's what I call it.

 

[pamc153PA]

Here's a little map of the Slyder farm/South Cav field area.

 

[Wallyfish]

Been called the D shaped field for a long time.

Many written references to the D shaped field. If you are a Farnsworth fan, you know that field.
A monument to the 1st Vermont Cavalry Regiment stands in what is called the D-shaped field on the Slyder farm. This is the approximate location where official accounts reportedly indicate that General Farnsworth was killed, while receiving the fire of five Confederate regiments and two batteries.

Great piece by Eric Wittenberg is found in the site below.

http://threedaysatgettysburg.historicalblogs.com/index.php/farnsworth-bio-2/