November 11, 2014

Today is Veteran's Day, one of those days when Adams County residents may gain free admission to the Gettysburg National Military Park museum and the fabulous Cyclorama painting.  We took advantage of this opportunity to visit for the second time.  We skipped our jog, arrived early, enjoyed the show, and drove on to the East Cavalry Fields, a section of the park that is lightly visited. 

There on July 3, 1863 a large element of cavalry commanded by one J.E.B. Stuart hid along a forested ridge and at the Rummel farm east of Gettysburg.  Their intention was to wait for Mr. Lee's infantry to push the Union army off of Cemetery Ridge and then rake the retreating troops and complete their destruction.  Things did not go entirely as planned.

Instead of a retreating infantry, a unit of Daniel Gregg's cavalry wandered in front of the Confederates and a battle separate from the main action ensued involving some six thousand Confederate and five thousand Union cavalrymen. 

The somewhat superior attacking Confederate force brought forth a tough fight decided in part by their limited ammunition and a determined counterattack led by one, George A. Custer.  A stalemate ensued and both forces fell back.  Stuart's Cavalry slipped away on the Forth of July with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia, returning to Virginia.

Today the wooded ridge and the Rummel farm remain.  One field is high with parsnips and barley, another green with young wheat, and another  yellow with ripe soybeans.  Rich earth well used.  Various signs and memorials and a few cannon along the lane note the event.  A statue of Mr. Custer stands atop a monument raised for the Michigan Brigade of Cavalry. 

On this lovely fall morning we birded along the lane and across the quiet fields.  We found no special birds but enjoyed a fine walk at a memorable place on Veterans' Day.

November 15, 2014

Having explored the “East Cavalry Fields” last week, we decided to inspect the location of the second cavalry engagement of the Battle of Gettysburg after church on this lovely clear and freezing day.  We parked along South Confederate Avenue near where the end of the right flank of the Army of Northern Virginia was positioned on July 3, 1863.  The soldiers positioned there stayed put, as ordered, all day even as farther north General Pickett led the famous and futile charge against Cemetery Ridge.

The Confederates flank held a strong position on top of an embankment above a poor farm on low ground with scattered fences, walls, trees, and small marshes.  It was and is not easy ground to walk across nor practical to ride across, so they probably expected no attack.  But at about five o’clock in the afternoon, a small force of Union cavalry charged across that farm at them.  A Confederate lieutenant is said to have exclaimed, “Cavalry, boys, cavalry! This is no fight, only a frolic, give it to them!"  

The silly engagement between a small force of cavalry attacking across broken ground a large and partly entrenched infantry was at the order of Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick who was then an inexperienced but probably always a foolish commander, sometimes called Kill-cavalry.  His most infamous defeat in the Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads or Kilpatrick’s Shirttail Skedaddle was punctuated by his near capture and escape from a log cabin he was sharing that night with a Carolina woman he had only recently met.

At Gettysburg Elon Farnsworth, commander of one of the brigades under Kilpatrick’s direction stated, “General, if you order the charge I will lead it, but you must take the awful responsibility."  Farnsworth died some minutes later.  A stone marks the spot in the field where he fell.  It is hard to find much reference to Kilpatrick on this field. 

Major William Wells, commander of one of the battalions sent across it, earned a Congressional Medal of Honor for exposing himself to “withering enemy fire” and finding a route of retreat for what was left of his battalion that had become trapped between enemy lines.  It was a sad event in the history of the United States Cavalry and scarcely discussed among the grand stories of Gettysburg.  The action was especially tragic because it came at the close of the great fight at Gettysburg that was a Union victory.

While walking in the footsteps of giants we found our first Winter Wren of the year near the monument to Major Wells and the 1st Vermont Cavalry. 

November 19, 2014

We enjoyed this year’s Dedication Day ceremony very much.  The event was smaller and much more quiet than in the past few years, perhaps because it is a year after the 150th Anniversary and the temperature was in the teens.  We were invited to move into the half-empty reserved section just before the start of the ceremony.  There we joined some fifty sailers from the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln who came to Gettysburg from Norfolk today to participate in the ceremony and see a bit of Pennsylvania on this fine November day.  After the main event we followed their march to the memorial where wreaths are silently presented to those who rest in Soldiers’ Cemetery.

The main speaker, author Kent Masterson Brown, briefed us on the subject of one of his books, Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor this year.  Reports suggest he was a diligent and savvy artillery officer who was scarcely inclined to waste his unit or unnecessarily risk his own life.  But on July 3, 1863, some eleven thousand Confederate soldiers from various points began a march with the intention of crushing through the Union line at the place where Cushing’s battery was positioned. 

He could have retreated as his guns, horses, and men were destroyed, or when he was wounded once slightly and again seriously.  He saw no opportunity for that when his remaining cannon were all that stood in front of the advance.  He was literally held aloft by his sergeant to give his final order to fire before he was shot in the head and died.  His position was breeched, but the tide had turned and the Confederate advance melted back across the field. 

Cushing was twenty-two years of age.  A descendent of Mayflower pilgrims but poor, his father had died, he chose a military career and was admitted to West Point.  He graduated in 1861 and joined and experienced the horror of “the first modern war” and was one of those about whom Mr. Lincoln said The World . . . can never forget what they did here! 

The ceremony ended as it has in the past few years with a citizenship ceremony.  Sixteen people were certified as having exhibited skills and knowledge of civics and the English language and stood to renounce their past loyalties and swear duty to this nation.  They received the largest applause of the event. 

I have always been a hopeless conservative with regard to citizenship.  We have been blessed with an “underpopulated” land and I have enjoyed that.  I once hoped we would studiously limit inward migration.  That hope was dashed with the “amnesty” that was pushed through in the early 1980’s with the argument that it would put a stop to illegal immigration.  I thought strong employer sanctions and massive deportations would work much better.  Today, there are too many parties with much to gain from unconstrained immigration.  So, we have that now.  How unfair to people such as those sworn in this day who truly earned their citizenship.