Gettysburg- Monday, April 2, 2018

     It felt like a late April Fool's joke when I woke up to see 2-3 inches of thick heavy snow on the cars in the parking lot outside my window in Bedford.  I had come early hoping to get a little better weather today.  It actually ended up cool- in the low 40s- but dry, and I got to do almost everything I wanted to, but it did seem to be a bad way to start the day.  While I was checking out of the hotel, I saw a brochure for the Bedford Banjo Shop, which specializes in vintage instruments and cases.  My banjo desperately needs a new case, and I was excited to remember that I had it with me.  When I got to the shop, around 9 AM, the sign said it wouldn't open until noon.  I still had over an hour and a half to drive to get to Gettysburg, so I decided to leave and maybe try again on the way home.
      After I got to Gettysburg, I decided to make my first stop the Lutheran Seminary.  I had originally planned to make it one of the stops on my epic walk today, but since the walk seemed to be on hold, I parked the car there to make sure I visited it.  Schmucker Hall, the iconic building of the seminary, has been recently opened as the Seminary Ridge Museum and now lets people up all the way up to the cupola (for an extra fee).  At the time of the battle, the 24 seminary students used the building as a dorm, and several other people lived there as well, including the Ziegler family with small children.  The building itself dominates the landscape of the July 1st AM battlefield, and the cupola was famously used by Union General Buford to survey the "very good" ground that his cavalrymen would have to defend.  From there, he is supposed to have seen the approach of General Reynolds with the infantry of the First Corps, the first Union infantry to arrive.  There is some controversy as to whether Robert E. Lee also used the cupola as an observation post, but there is no doubt that the building became one of the largest hospitals in Gettysburg and eventually a place where some several hundred wounded from the battle were taken care of.
     The museum itself is quite well done and receives high marks from me.  There are three floors to see, from top to bottom, which cover the themes of the First Day of the battle, the human cost of the battle (including a focus on the use of the building as a hospital), and its use as a Lutheran seminary (which included a look at the moral quandaries that citizens of the time had to face.  Schmucker himself was the leading abolitionist voice of the Lutheran church).  I had about 20 minutes to explore the museum before my 11:00 tour time to get up into the cupola.  The original cupola burned down after a lightning strike, but the current one was built to the original specifications.  The view from the cupola is a mix of what it probably looked like at the time of the battle and modern intrusions, but a knowledgeable tour guide helped decode what I was seeing.  The view to the west and north is of the first day's battlefield and that is very similar to what Buford had seen.   To the south and east, the town of Gettysburg has grown a lot, and some closer treetops now block what must have been a pretty good view of what would become the Union positions on Cemetery Hill on the far side of town.  I did enjoy the tour, but it seemed a bit expensive.  It was $10 to get into the museum (which was fair), but an extra $20 on top of that for the tour of the cupola (which is the only way to get to see it).   I knew the cost going in, but it would have been expensive for a family of four.  (Although come to think of it, if the girls had been along, I bet that they would have skipped that and they could have gotten pictures of me in the cupola waving to them on the ground.)
      After the cupola, I finished going through the rest of the museum and then made my way to the hotel on Steinwehr Avenue.  It was about 12:30, and I didn't think my room would be ready, but I was hoping that I could park at the hotel and go wherever I was going to go then.  It turned out that my room was, in fact, ready and I proceeded to unload the car.  By a little after 1:00 I was ready to go.  The weather was looking better-- cool but warming, no precipitation seemed imminent, and there was even a little sun poking through.  So I quoted Capt. Jim F. to myself and said, "Gentlemen, let's take a walk."  (Those were the words he used to start the Excelsior Mess on our hike down to the Rose Woods in 1988-- the walk that became known as his "Death March."  My walk today was probably going to be twice that long or more.)
     So walk I did.  I started by going to the back of the balcony of the hotel because it overlooks the 136th New York's monument.  I had always known it was there, but I hadn't really thought much about how much action the regiment would have been in there.  The modern world has blocked in their position on the original battleline, and like many other people, I occasionally make the mistake of thinking that the battle stopped where the National Park stops.  It didn't.  The boys of the 136th were continually under fire throughout the daylight hours of the 2nd, 3rd, and even into the 4th of July.  They and the other members of Orland Smith's 11th Corps brigade didn't face a glorious charge or dramatic moment that would represent their service here.  Instead, they were put out into picket lines, where they faced fire from Confederates moving out from Seminary Ridge and from rebel sharpshooters in the buildings of the southern edge of the town.  In this "quiet" corner of the battlefield, the regiment lost 17 killed and 89 wounded along with 3 missing from their original 488 men they brought here.  My walk began by going over some of the "forgotten ground" that the 136th and the rest of Orland Smith brigade fought on.  It extends from my hotel, out across Steinwehr, into the residential area beyond.  The ridge they were trying to hold extends out from the modern Gettysburg hospital, and it is not hard to see the ridge-- IF you know where to look for it.  That was another first for my trip to Gettysburg this time.
     From there, I took some of the back streets to get back to the Lutheran Seminary.  Since I'd already done the cupola this morning, I continued past it to Robert E. Lee's headquarters.  The area around this historic stone building has completely changed over the last few years.  I had long known it as the center of a motel/restaurant/gift shop area, but all those modern intrusions have been taken down.  I saw this area from a distance when I was on one of the trips with the 8th graders, but this was my first chance to see it's newly restored look up close.  The building itself was closed (and apparently empty) but it was interesting to see the new-old look.
      I then went on to the fields below the seminary.  I have seen this area many times, but I've never walked its whole length.  Previously, I had thought that a person probably wouldn't even try it.  But I got it into my head to do it a few weeks ago, and now it had to be done.  I walked out the Chambersburg Road.  I turned into the First Corps lines, and went past the site where General Reynolds was mortally wounded, to the statue of his replacement as commander of the First Corps- Abner Doubleday (who is occasionally incorrectly credited with "inventing" baseball).  I went all the way around Reynolds's Woods, through the area where the "Black Hats" of the Iron Brigade fought.   I got back to the rest station on the Chambersburg Road, across from the statues of Buford and Reynolds.  I ate my modest lunch on a bench there.  In the distance you can see the Eternal Peace Light Memorial, and after my brief rest, I continued on.  I crossed the Unfinished Railroad Cut, and followed the roads past the familiar monument to the 9th NY Cavalry and made it to the Peace Light.  From there, it was already impressive to look back to Seminary Ridge and see how far I had come.  Way off in the distance was the blue water tower on Cemetery Ridge that I would have to return to, but my battle cry today was "No Shortcuts!"
      I stopped at the small observation tower on Oak Ridge, at the extreme right of the line of the 1st Corps.  I did climb it and looked around.  I learned that the time was shortly before 4:00.  I had been walking for about three hours.  I followed the Mummasburg Road back to Howard Avenue and the start of the 11th Corps lines.  I had been listening to random Civil War songs from my mp3 player while I was doing much of the walk today, but I forced it to play Morgenrot several times through as I walked past the monuments to the German regiments there.  (And while there isn't a monument to Col. Krzyznowski specifically, I wished him a Happy Dyngus Day today.)  I made it to the Biglerville Road and could have turned right to start my return to town, but "No Shortcuts!" - I went on to Barlow's Knoll instead.
     Barlow's Knoll is very nearly the far right of the two divisions of the 11th Corps.  Most people probably think it IS the far right, but down in the woods below the knoll is a small marker showing where the Germans of the 54th New York had skirmishers out who were among the first to face the Confederates in that area.   I've never seen this marker, and have only recently learned that it's even there. It is probably one of the least visited monuments on this end of the battlefield.  However, the ground is spongy and wet today from all the snow that has melted, and there is no real path to it that I know of.  Rather then get lost in the mucky ground of the woods today, (on legs that were starting to feel the wear from today's hike) I decided to postpone that visit for now.  (That's not compromising my "No Shortcuts!" plan... much.)
     I followed the road from Barlow's Knoll to Harrisburg Street, and from there I finally walked back into town.  It was no problem finding the northern end of Stratton Street, which led me right to Coster Avenue.  I listened to several "Rush the Growler" recordings of 154th NY songs while I visited the familiar monument here again.  I continued along Stratton Street to the monument remembering Amos Humiston and the picture of his three children.  I listened to several more 154th songs there.  During a rest at the fire station there, I started reflecting on how much I had actually done today.  I experienced that  odd feeling that I get when I can't really believe that all I had done was all just one day.  Today's morning seemed to be ages ago.  I love getting that feeling at the end of days like this.
     I continued to the town square, out Baltimore Street, and stopped briefly at a new comic book store that was still open.   The clock on the Adams County Court House was striking 6:00 as I passed it.  I continued out past the familiar shops of Steinwehr Ave.  As I passed Tommy's Pizza, I put in an order for dinner.  I didn't want to stand for twenty minutes and wait, so I took my stuff back to the hotel room and returned.  Evidently I hadn't yet walked enough today.  I got my pizza and wings and went back to the hotel to enjoy my favorite dinner- wings and pizza, and my favorite drink- a Diet Coke poured over hotel ice.