Your favorite spot on Gettysburg battlefield

My favorite location is at the marker showing where the 13th Vermont began to line up as they swung into position to attack Pickett's right flank on July 3.

My great-grandfather was in the 16th Vermont, which fell in at the far end of the 13th Vermont's line.

There's fencing in that area now. I don't know whether the fencing is in the precise position where it would have been on July 3, 1863, or even whether there was any fencing there at all. (Actually, I suspect that what fencing there might have been was removed by one side or the other for firewood.)

So I can't point in any specific direction with certain knowledge that I would be pointing straight down the line that the two regiments would have formed. Even if I could do that, I still wouldn't know exactly how far down the line my great-grandfather would have been positioned.

But I know that if I point straight out from that 13th Vermont marker and then move my arm to the right and the left, somewhere in that span I'll be pointing directly at the spot where my great-grandfather was.
The 14th Vermont stepped off too far in front of Daniels 9th Michigan battery during the repulse of Pickett's brigades. Many of the 14th Vermont fell victim to friendly cannister fire......
 
And Powers Hill, just because someday I'm going to find a link to my family--we were stonemasons in Maine who came down through PA on our journey to Ohio, then Missouri, then Texas (by 1858).
I made it there for the very first time in 2016 during our September to Remember visit!

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[QUOTE="James N., post: 1994424,
Very nice photos! Agree do like the spot and monument. Ever notice how various spots on the battlefield have an eerie feeling when other folks are not present?

On my first trip I stayed at the Best Western on Steinwehr Avenue, it was early evening so just getting dark so I walked to the Angle and I was the only one there, quite eerie but peaceful and memorable.
 
On my first trip I stayed at the Best Western on Steinwehr Avenue, it was early evening so just getting dark so I walked to the Angle and I was the only one there, quite eerie but peaceful and memorable.
I had a similar experience back during the 125th anniversary of the war when following the reenactment of Antietam I drove on to Gettysburg and a motel in that area where I showered and changed out of my dusty and torn Rebel garb into my Union staff officer's uniform: first I walked to the Farnsworth House for dinner, then after dark back into the park and down to the Angle where I too was quite alone.
 
I made it there for the very first time in 2016 during our September to Remember visit!

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As you'll recall, I could barely make it on flat ground at the time--just did a drive-by, but it was exciting! Ready to go back this summer with Hood's Brigade and take a couple of days on our own so I can make it to the top.
 
Stepping out of the woods and beginning the walk up to the copse of trees. It's all at once humbling and extremely sad, but also uplifting as you take those first few steps. Maybe it'll work this time? You know it won't, but just for a moment... there's a spark. That's what I feel when I'm there.
 
Count me in. I can channel John Buford on that morning, looking out across the valley and deciding that he was going to fight.

Buford, to me, is the most man in the world and I feel him so strongly there on McPherson ridge. Jyst talking about it sends a chill up my back.

Sorry.
Count me in. I can channel John Buford on that morning, looking out across the valley and deciding that he was going to fight.

Buford, to me, is the most man in the world and I feel him so strongly there on McPherson ridge. Jyst talking about it sends a chill up my back.

Sorry.
Count me in. I can channel John Buford on that morning, looking out across the valley and deciding that he was going to fight.

Buford, to me, is the most man in the world and I feel him so strongly there on McPherson ridge. Jyst talking about it sends a chill up my back.

Sorry.

totally agree with both of you. Had to be a sleepless night for John Buford, June 30-July 1, 1863. I find him an inspiring man.
 
Like many others there are several locations on the Gettysburg battlefield that are "favorites". Presently the Bliss Farm is an area I have been going to on visits since I began reading on the fighting that took place there.
 
[QUOTE="James N., post: 1994424,
Very nice photos! Agree do like the spot and monument. Ever notice how various spots on the battlefield have an eerie feeling when other folks are not present?

So true about the eerie feeling when other folks are not present. I've noticed that multiple times!
 
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*photo by buckeye bill


What is your favorite location on the Gettysburg battlefield and why. MrsMRB favors Oak Ridge because of the tales surrounding Iverson's Pits. I favor Little Round Top for an unknown reason. I just feel at home there in a way. We both feel Gettysburg has some type of magnetism to us, as we just can't get enough!

My favorite spot is also a rock. Every time I do a living history event at Gettysburg by the PA monument for the NPS, I have my image struck at Hampton’s Battery Rock, which is next to the campsite. There is no marker there, but wounded members of Hampton's Independent Light Artillery Battery F were taken behind this rock for protection from the Confederate barrage. It is also known as “shelter rock.” There are a couple of good threads on this forum about this site with more pictures of the rock and its history. The PA monument itself also has great acoustics. It's a favorite spot for musicians. More about the rock on this thread: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/hamptons-battery-rock-at-gettysburg.132412/

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Spangers spring. One of the monuments up on a knoll. I can't remember which one it was. Just consider that I had a experience up there a few years ago, and I'm not the superstitious type.
 
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