Father Corby, Courtesy of StoneSentinels.com

Today, for most visitors, Father Corby may be simply a drive-by monument as sights are set on the battlefield’s biggest monument a few hundred yards away, the Pennsylvania Memorial on Hancock Avenue. But like all those other monuments – of muskets, bayonets and stone – this one has a story too.

But it also begs the question, in a war filled with chaplains, why Father Corby? What’d he do to deserve a monument on the war’s most hallowed ground?

Father Corby was one of a handful of priests from Notre Dame University who joined regiments in the Union Army. Corby became part of the 88^th New York Infantry, as part of the beloved and heroic Irish Brigade.

And like other chaplains, Father Corby accompanied the 88^th on numerous battlefields throughout the war – giving comfort to wounded soldiers and giving absolution to the dying, according to StoneSentinels.com, his greatest moment came at Gettysburg.

Courtesy of HorryRebels.com

It was July 2, 1863, and to the south, the men of the Third Corps were suffering great casualties. As the 88^th New York prepared to storm The Wheatfield, Father Corby mounted a large rock and offered the men – just 500 of the 3,000 remaining – absolution for their sins. We found various accounts of what was actually said, including GettysburgDaily.com and StoneSentinels.com.

One account reads as such, as according to a blog, Almost Chosen People …

He decided, due to the certainty that many of the men of the brigade would soon die, to give a mass absolution, an application of the sacrament unknown in America. Father Corby sternly reminded the soldiers of their duties, warning that the Church would deny Christian burial to any who wavered in their duty. The members of the Brigade were instructed to confess their sins to a priest in the usual manner at their earliest opportunity. Then the entire brigade knelt, Catholics and Protestants alike.  Father Corby raised his right arm and recited the ancient words of forgiveness.

The regiment faced fierce fire from the Confederates that afternoon and lost more than a third of their men within minutes. They fought bravely, and survivors remembered their moment with Father Corby well, so well in fact that they fought to have him issued The Medal of Honor in 1893. And while their request was denied, Father Corby is forever memorialized on the Gettysburg battlefield – and some say on the very rock in which he offered absolution.

After the war, Father Corby went back to Notre Dame and served as president of the school. He died in 1897, and his monument in Gettysburg was dedicated in 1910. A similar monument stands at Notre Dame and notes his ties to the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Father Corby monument in Gettysburg resembles one of many examples of how faith played such a big part in our nation’s biggest conflict. It’s often a site for Christians to gather and pray, bringing to light the bravery and sacrifice the men of the 88^th New York experienced that July afternoon.

The Father Corby monument is between stops 11 and 12 on the Self-Guided Auto Tour, just south of the Pennsylvania Memorial.

The towering peak on the south end of the Gettysburg battlefield avoided major bloodshed in July 1863, but because of that, many visitors avoid it today. Instead, visitors hone in on neighboring Devil’s Den and Little Round Top, the scene of one of the conflict’s most courageous and movie-worthy battles on July 2.

Battlefield visitors taking the battlefield’s Self-Guiding Auto Tour make a quick jaunt along the southern and western slopes of Big Round Top, spotting a few monuments – the 1^st Vermont Cavalry or the 10^th Pennsylvania Reserves – but it’s mostly just a nice scenic drive along South Confederate Avenue.

Big Round Top, as seen from Seminary Ridge

The most adventurous of visitors will park in a small lot half-way up and take Big Round Top by foot along a hiking trail. There usually aren’t a lot of cars because it’s quite a climb to the top. But up there, you’ll find a collection of monuments – to that of four Pennsylvania regiments and a second monument to the famous 20^th Maine, popular for its heroic fight at the extreme left flank of the Union army on July 2.

But one of the most interesting finds at the peak of Big Round Top is the foundation for an observation tower, similar to those found at Culp’s Hill, West Confederate Avenue and Oak Hill. The tower that once stood there gave an incredible view of the southern end of the battlefield. Its view was vastly higher than those on the crest of Little Round Top.

The tower was disassembled in the late 1960s, according to a June 19, 1968 article in the Gettysburg Times. The National Park Service announced it would remove the monument rather than replace or repair the late 19^thcentury structure, deeming it uneconomical “considering its condition and very limited use” in recent years.

The view from the Big Round Top Observation Tower, courtesy of GettysburgDaily.com and the Center for Civil War Photography

“The tower reached by a lengthy climb up the side of Big Round Top, was used only by the hardiest of tourists,” the article read. “Most who started the climb gave out en route, and upon reaching the tower decided against continuing the climb to the top of the metal conservatory.”

But it was more than 20 years earlier that talks began about removing the tower from the battlefield’s second highest (Culp’s Hill is higher) peak.

In 1937, a local state legislator – John Rice – announced that a commission would be formed along with a memorial fund to create the so-called “Gettysburg Peace Memorial” in preparation for the 75^th anniversary of the battle the next year.

Of course, the memorial – now called the Eternal Peace Light Memorial – sits atop Oak Hill overlooking the town of Gettysburg and the first day’s battlefield. But that wasn’t always the location marked for the monument.

In initial plans outlined in 1937, according to the Gettysburg Compiler, designs called for “an observation platform 75 feet from the base, while 30 feet above, and from the top, will be an eternal flame.”

That would have certainly made an impact on not only Big Round Top, but the remainder of the Gettysburg battlefield, as its flame would certainly be seen from across the Valley of Death, Wheatfield and Peach Orchard, all the way to the Confederate line on Seminary Ridge.

“The memorial will be dedicated to every man, woman and child who participated in any way in the Civil War,” the article continued.

The Eternal Peace Light Memorial

In all six designs and several locations were considered, but of course, the final decision was to place the monument on Oak Hill. That monument was finished in time for a dedication in July 1938 by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

We encourage you to lace up those hiking boots someday and take the climb up Big Round Top. Those soldiers certainly deserve your time and recognition.

Courtesy of Findagrave.com

And strangely enough, the first casualty came before the first official shot of the three-day battle.

George Washington Sandoe, a local boy growing up in the hills surrounding Gettysburg, mustered into service on June 23, 1863. He was 20 years old. He served in Capt. Robert Bell’s Independent Cavalry, later to become the 21^st Pennsylvania Cavalry.

On June 26, Sandoe and fellow cavalryman William Lightner were scouting the roads around Gettysburg three days later. As they came upon an area known as McAllister’s Mill, an Underground Railroad site just yards from Rock Creek south of Gettysburg, the two came upon Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon’s brigade “hidden behind brush and bushes.”

Gordon’s men ordered Sandoe and Lightner to halt. Lightner quickly turned his horse around and rode down the Baltimore Pike to safety. Sandoe did not. His horse fell as he tried to mount and ride off. A southern soldier shot him as he tried to flee on foot.

And of course the first official shot was recorded early morning on July 1^st.

The 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument, Courtesy of StoneSentinels.com

Sandoe would never know what would come in the week ahead. Four days after his death, Union Gen. John Buford would arrive and encounter an onslaught of Confederates in the first day of the three-day long battle.

That battle would become the turning point of the Civil War and go down in history as the biggest conflict on American soil.

Two monuments stand in Gettysburg today to honor the men of the 21^st Cavalry, both along Baltimore Pike not far from where the young Sandoe lost his life. Among the 1,300 monuments and markers in Gettysburg, he is the only private memorialized on this battlefield.

Today, the McAllister’s Mill Underground Railroad site is part of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. During the summer, tours of the site are given every Saturday at 10 a.m. by a fellow Sandoe – Debra McCauslin. Click here for more information.

As well, members of the 21^st Pennsylvania Cavalry regularly set up camp in Gettysburg at the American Civil War Wax Museum.

But there’s one monument that perhaps represents more of what this soldier did after the battle than actually during the three-day fight.

William Brooke Rawle - Courtesy of Findagrave.com

Standing tall above the surrounding evergreen trees along Gregg Avenue on the East Cavalry Battlefield is a flag pole. There’s no flag – just the pole. It’s rusty, but the plaque remains readable – “To the memory of Brevet Lieut. Colonel William Brooke Rawle, 1843 -1915.”

Rawle doesn’t exactly make it into the same conversations as say, Chamberlain, Culp, Cushing, and other Gettysburg soldiers, but that’s not to say his name didn’t make it into the history books. In fact, it’s on the cover.

William Rawle Brooke, as he was named at his birth, was a Philadelphia man, and arrived to Gettysburg as part of the 3^rdPennsylvania Cavalry under Capt. William E. Miller. On the third day of the battle, during cavalry action against Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Miller disobeyed orders to hold his troops in the woods and charged into a cavalry column attempting to get to the Union flank.

3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument - Courtesy of Draw the Sword

According to one account … “With but thirty men of his Company, Brooke Rawle was posted on a slope of Lotts’ Wood, on the Confederate left flank. Captain Miller, with a like number from another Company of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, was in command of the little squadron, and he, in a letter of four days later, gives the conclusion of the story: ‘At Brooke’s suggestion, I ordered him to close up the squadron whilst I looked out for a point to strike. We struck Stuart’s left flank in rear of his colors and cut him in half, turned the rear portion and drove them like sheep.’

This action, in which Rawle participated in, forced the Confederates to retreat on July 3. Rawle’s testimony years later helped Miller receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery, according to the Pennsylvania Department of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Rawle’s modesty would not permit his friends to present his name for the same honor.

The William Brooke Rawle Flagpole

A monument to the 3^rd Pennsylvania Cavalry was dedicated in 1890, and today stands down a grassy lane just yards from what’s known as the Cavalry Shaft or Gregg’s Cavalry Shaft, dedicated six years earlier with the help of Rawle, who delivered an address at the occasion.

The East Cavalry Battlefield is often missed by Gettysburg’s visitors, but it’s worth the short drive down Hanover Road to learn about such soldiers as Rawle, Miller, Stuart and George Custer. And, of course, you can always ask your Licensed Battlefield Guide to give you a tour that focuses in on this famous fight on July 3.

Hummelbaugh Farm - Courtesy of StoneSentinels.com

Today, if they aren’t careful, visitors might miss the Hummelbaugh Farm as it sits at the corner of Taneytown Road and Pleasanton Avenue, not far from the Pennsylvania Memorial.

The farm was used most on July 2 and 3, 1863, and strangely enough, the hospital’s most famous patient was William Barksdale – a Confederate general from Mississippi.

After fierce fighting on July 2 against the Union’s Third Corps, Barksdale was mortally wounded and his men were forced to retreat without his body. He was taken to the Hummelbaugh Farm and was said to have died before dawn on July 3.

William Barksdale

Barksdale’s body was buried in the yard outside the Hummelbaugh house, and this is where the story gets interesting, if not odd.

It has been said that much later, but before the war ended, Barksdale’s wife made the trip from Mississippi to Gettysburg to retrieve her husband’s body. With her, she brought her husband’s favorite hunting dog. She would later regret bringing her traveling companion.

As written on CivilWarTalk.com …

“In unearthing the burial site, the dog whimpered and acted strangely. This grew into a full wail by the dog. Once the general had been recovered, the dog refused to leave the gravesite and no coaching would work. Finally, the animal had to be left behind. Residents recalled seeing the dog as he remained steadfast by the site.

Some say the dog guarded the grave and became vicious when anyone approached. The dog would accept neither food nor water. Each night, the poor animal could be heard howling and whimpering. Finally, there was silence. The dog had either starved to death or had died of a broken heart.”

A different account reads … “Before the war was over, Misses Barksdale traveled to Gettysburg to retrieve the body of her husband.  She took William’s dog along.  When they reached the grave where Barksdale was buried, the dog began to act peculiar.  When they began digging, the dog began to behave irrationally.  Once the body was removed and placed in the wagon, the dog could not be coaxed away from the grave.  Misses Barksdale spent the night in Gettysburg and before leaving the next morning attempted once more to take the dog home.  Still the dog would allow no one to approach the old grave. Barksdale’s wife was forced to leave the dog in Gettysburg and return home to Mississippi.”

Others reported that this lasted a week before the dog’s death and even more accounts claim that the dog was buried in the grave where Barksdale was removed. One questioned whether Mrs. Barksdale went home with the right body.

Meanwhile, Barksdale was reburied in a cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi where he remains today.

On your next visit, make a stop at the Hummelbaugh Farm, now owned by the National Park Service. If you’re on the Self-Guided Auto Tour, you’ll drive by on your way to stops 13 and 15.

For more on Barksdale’s military actions throughout the war, click here.

155th Pennsylvania Infantry

There are some breathtaking views of the battlefield in Gettysburg, but perhaps no other has a better vantage point than Samuel W. Hill. He stands on the northern slope of Little Round Top, with views of not only the Valley of Death below, but to well-known sections of the battlefield such as The Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, Devil’s Den and maybe a glimpse of Pickett’s Charge.

Hill stands atop the monument to the 155^th Pennsylvania Infantry, who were brought to that high ground on July 2 to defend the Union Army’s extreme left flank, alongside such well-known men like Chamberlain, Vincent, Weed, O’Rorke and Hazlett.

Lt. Col. John H. Cain brought 424 men to the hill that day. Six were killed and 13 were wounded. And while those numbers aren’t staggering compared to those of other regiments – especially Confederate – of that day, it’s the story of the monument that brings us here.

Just 23 years after the battle, veterans and family members of the Pittsburgh area regiment arrived in Gettysburg on Sept. 17, 1886 to dedicate a monument to the 155^thPennsylvania Infantry. Samuel Hill was not present – at least he wasn’t carved in stone. The monument dedicated that day was on that of what today looks like the pedestal. There was no statue of Hill on top.

Courtesy of the 155th Pennsylvania Website

Three years later, when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided it would dole out $1,500 to state regiments to help place a monument at Gettysburg, the veterans of the 155^th Pennsylvania, according to the monument database Stone Sentinels, decided to add a statue to the top of theirs rather than add another monument as many other regiments did.

The statue bears the likeness of Samuel Hill, of Company F, but not how he looked at Gettysburg. He’s wearing the notable “Zouave” uniform, something the regiment earned the right to wear more than six months after the battle. At Gettysburg, the soldiers wore the standard Union uniform of dark blue coat and light blue pants. The veterans – proud of that accomplishment – wished to display it atop their monument at Gettysburg, thus explains the 155^th’s unusual uniform.

The members of the 155^th came back to Gettysburg three years after their first monument dedication in 1886 to rededicate the monument on Little Round Top, this time with Samuel Hill looking down over them and the line the regiment held on July 2.

More about the monument can be found on the Stone Sentinel’s website.

Because monuments must all face the enemy in Gettysburg, most views of the 155^th monument are from the rear, but if you’re down on Wheatfield Road, or even as you first turn onto Crawford Road below Little Round Top you’ll see Samuel Hill looking out over the majestic countryside.

To find out more about the 155^th Pennsylvania, ask your Battlefield Guide or take the short walk down the northern slope of Little Round Top and not only look at the monument above you, but appreciate the line in which the 155^th fought so hard to protect.

Dale Gallon, Courtesy of www.gallon.com

Dale Gallon is everywhere in Gettysburg. He’s in hotel lobbies, restaurants, stores and art galleries. He has made an impression by not only capturing the essence of the nation’s bloodiest battle, but has brought history to life through his painstakingly detailed works of art.

The genre of Civil War art, he says, was just in his infancy and he’s proud to have blazed a trail and set a high standard.

Two hundred paintings later, and here he is, a resident of Gettysburg for the past 25 years and an artist known throughout the world for his works. He’s featured Union and Confederate; artillery, infantry and cavalry, officers and privates, statesmen and civilians. While many of his paintings are of the fierce action at Gettysburg, some paintings reflect battlefields elsewhere.

Gallon's "Of the People"

Perhaps one of his most famous paintings in Gettysburg is “Of the People,” a painting of President Abraham Lincoln as he’s leaving the Gettysburg Railroad Station and begins his walk to the town square. Often we try to imagine the gravity of that moment and what Lincoln first saw went he arrived into this war-ravaged town. Of course, we know the rest of the story – he walked up to the David Wills House and the next day, delivered what would become one of the most remembered speeches in world history. “Of the People” is often presented to special guests in Gettysburg, most notably the Dedication Day speaker every year.

Here in this video, Dale Gallon talks about his painting, “Lee.”

Gallon's First Painting

Dale’s paintings aren’t just beautiful, they are – as he put it – “history lessons on canvas.” He focuses detail on the brushstrokes and the history. In fact, Dale works with a historian on each painting to ensure accuracy and that’s something all of us can appreciate – novice historians and buffs alike.

Dale is happy to call the battlefield his office. His work has not only graced the walls here in Gettysburg, but has made its way into the homes of our visitors – into living rooms, dens and their offices.

The work of Dale Gallon is featured at his gallery on Steinwehr Avenue, just south of the corner of Baltimore Street. You can see all his paintings at www.gallon.com.

And of course, Gettysburg is home to many great artists including Wendy Allen, A.V. Lindenberger and many others.

Courtesy of Historical Marker Database

It stands just after the woods west of Sickles Road overlooking the Wheatfield. Zook hardly gets the attention of many other Day 2 officers such as Warren, Vincent, Hood, Law and especially Sickles himself, but like many other men on the Gettysburg battlefield, his story is noteworthy.

Zook, just 42 years old when he arrived in Gettysburg with the Union Second Corps, grew up surrounded by the rich history of Valley Forge, according to an excerpt from Larry Tagg’s “The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America’s Greatest Battle.”

“(Zook) was infatuated with the military from early childhood,” Tagg wrote. “As a boy he enjoyed commanding his schoolmates on the fortifications around his home (even to the point of ‘arresting’ his sister for failure to obey orders).

Despite his passion for everything military, he was not a product of military schooling. Zook’s work as a young man was in the telegraph industry, even stringing the wires to the Mississippi River. By the time the war broke out, he had worked his way up to superintendent of the Washington and New York Telegraph Company.

Before the war started, he joined the 6^thNew York Militia, Tagg wrote, and worked his way up to lieutenant colonel.

Courtesy of StoneSentinels.com

Zook eventually earned Brigadier General after Fredericksburg, but it came at an enormous cost. His brigade lost 527 men over those three days. “If I don’t get my star, I’m coming home,” he wrote following the battle.

In Gettysburg, Zook was shot off his horse early in the battle for the Wheatfield. As an officer on horseback, he made an easy target and was shot in the stomach. Zook was one of the first casualties of the Wheatfield fighting. He was taken to a field hospital along Baltimore Pike but died less than a day later.

Tagg shares with his readers a humorous side to the general …

“Zook was a firm disciplinarian, a man known to be blunt and severe, who hated cowardice. Despite his Mennonite upbringing, he often expressed his sentiments with a towering mastery of profanity. In this, he was even able to hold his own with the redoubtable Maj. Gen. Winfield Hancock, according to an enlisted man’s description of an incident on the road to Chancellorsville: ‘It was the greatest cursing match I ever listened to; Zook took advantage of Hancock, by waiting until the latter got out of breath, and then he opened his pipe organ, and the air was very blue.’”

Zook was buried in Norristown, Pa., and later moved to New York. One of his pallbears was Chester Arthur, the 21^st President of the United States.

In addition to Tagg’s work, there is a book about Zook written by A.M. Gambone, “… If Tomorrow Finds Me Dead.”

To learn more about Zook’s monument, visit the Stone Sentinel’s Website.

The next time you’re out and about, pull over the car and explore by foot. Like Zook’s, there are many great stories out there.

Courtesy of the Civil War Academy

Love it or hate it, one of the most known statues on the Gettysburg battlefield, is also one of the newest – that of Confederate Gen. James Longstreet.

Few would argue that the 1998 statue was long overdue. Commanding the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, Longstreet played a crucial role in the battle, specifically on July 2 and 3^rd when Confederates attacked the Union left at the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top, and at Pickett’s Charge. Longstreet’s role was highlighted in the epic movie, “Gettysburg”, just five years shy of his monument dedication.

The Longstreet Monument is tucked away in Pitzer’s Woods along West Confederate Avenue. A sign points visitors to the parking lot near the monument, located not far from the battlefield’s amphitheater.

Courtesy of Gettysburg Stone Sentinels

Sculptor Gary Casteel explains the situation as an agreement between he and the Gettysburg National Military Park two years earlier as a matter of maintenance for a bronze monument perched high off the ground, and the fact that Casteel wanted the monument to be one in which he wanted “the general on the ground to be touched, loved and appreciated as one of us,” as he explained on CivilWarTalk.com.

He later argued that Longstreet should be lower than Lee, because Longstreet was below Lee in rank. Lee, of course, sits atop his horse Traveller on the Virginia Monument on the same road and dedicated 80 years earlier.

“I wanted to do something different, because Longstreet was different,” Casteel said in this videoon YouTube.

Courtesy of www.garycasteel.com

Some also question the size of Longstreet in comparison to his horse. There is a rumor that the horse is only 7/8 scale, while Longstreet is full-size. But what people enjoy most is the emotion and movement captured by Casteel in his brilliant work.

You can’t argue that a statue to Longstreet is a welcome addition to the Gettysburg battlefield. His vital role in the Confederate attacks are worth his weight in bronze.

The statue is located at Stop No. 6 on the Self-Guided Auto Tour on the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Longstreet’s monument is among 1,300 monuments and markers on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Each one is different and each is a work of art. Art, as we know, is all about interpretation.

 There are many stories told about Pennsylvania soldiers crossing the border and defending their home state after two years of fighting in the south. Marching north, they unfurled their flags, enthusiastically sang Yankee hymns and walked proudly as families came running out into the streets and to their front porches to root on their Union heroes.

Company K, of the 1^st Pennsylvania Reserves, had an even stronger bond with the fields and streets in and around that crossroads town of Gettysburg. These men were recruited and mustered right here in Gettysburg. And perhaps the most-known of those 100 local soldiers was Henry Minnigh, who detailed his story – from the Battle at Mechanicsville to the Battle at Bethesda Church, and everywhere in between.

Company K arrived in Gettysburg on July 2, as part of Gen. George Sykes’ Fifth Corps.

Minnigh wrote, “in a number of instances we passed near the homes of relatives and friends, but with the meerest greeting, the boys kept their places in the ranks. Members of the company … could see their homes – all of them within the enemy’s lines.”

Their immediate orders were to support Sickles’ Third Corps near Little Round Top.

Courtesy of Stone Sentinels

 Company K took the crest of Little Round Top overlooking the Wheatfield, looked down over the field of carnage and swept down the face of the hill, “meeting with the Rebels as they came rushing forward on the face of the hill.”

The men of Company K and the 30^th Regiment halted on the eastern edge of the Wheatfield.

“It has been a source of amusement to the “boys” who chased many a rabbit all over these hills, and gathered berries in these valleys, played hide-and-seek among these rocks and boulders, to be told by strangers and pretenders, where we were on the evening of July 2nd, when the enemy had almost seized this strong-hold at the Round Tops,” Minnigh recounted.

The company remained at the stone wall the rest of the evening and throughout Pickett’s Charge on July 3^rd. Many of  the men, said Minnigh, went home – with or without leave, each one returning in time to join the pursuit of the Confederates in the coming days.

“To lay joking aside, it was serious matter to be thus summoned in defense of our homes. We had gone out two years before, to conquer the enemy on his own soil, but we were now returning, after two years of struggle to meet him face to face at our own door. We had seen enough of the ravages of warfare in the south-land, to cause us to be anxious for the welfare of our loved ones, now exposed in like manner,” Minnigh reflected.

In Gettysburg, you can learn more about Company K by taking either a Historic Guided Walking Tour or head out to the Wheatfield and explore the hallowed ground that Company K fought so bravely to defend.