First-shot marker a mile or so west of town.
One of over 1,300 monuments.
Eternal Light Peace memorial at the NW edge of the battlefield.
One of many farms on the battlefield.
Flank markers of all shapes and sizes mark the end of a unit's position.
This cupola of the Lutheran Theological Seminary was used as an observation post by both sides. The Seminary also gave the name to Seminary Ridge, which parallels Cemetery Ridge, both used as positions of strength.
Dilger's Battery monument near Barlow's Knoll.
Old Alms House cemetery.
The Abraham Brian farm was near the center of action on Cemetery Ridge. After the battle he sued the government for over $1,000 in damages, eventually getting $15.
This used to be a wheatfield, which came to be known as "the bloody wheatfield" after a series of back-and-forth attacks.
Another monument near the wheatfield.
The Trostle farm, with cannon-ball hole.
The 20th Maine defended the hill known as Little Round Top at the southern end of the Union line, and made a successful bayonet counter-attack when they ran out of ammo.
Brig Gen Warren views the battlefield from Little Round Top. He organized its defense only minutes before it was attacked.
The Devil's Den area below the Round Tops.
The famous photo of a dead Confederate sharpshooter at this location was staged a few days after the battle.
On the NW side of Devil's Den is "the triangular field" which had back-and-forth fighting.
View from Culp's Hill tower looking NNW across Gettysburg. The Eternal Light Peace memorial is in the background, and the spire of Gettysburg College is in the center.
An area east of town known as the East Cavalry Field saw fighting on day two between (mostly) dismounted cavalry troops, including George A Custer.
The Pennsylvania Memorial, largest on the battlefield. I thought it might have a spot-light or something at night, but there are no lights on the battlefield. Although I was shining a maglite all over the monument, the shadows tell me it was the moon that lit it up during a 30 sec f5.6 ISO 400 exposure.
The Sherfy farmhouse. Park rangers live in some of these houses.
The Snyder farmhouse.
Looking W across the fields from the left side of the Confederate viewpoint. Their objective was the clump of trees about 1/3 from the left (now disputed as possibly a larger group of trees to the north).
Near the Confederate position before the attack. Approximately 170 cannons fired for almost 2 hours to soften up the Union positions.
Trees on Big Round Top.
More monuments and flank markers near the Round Tops.
On the southern end of Cemetery Ridge.
Cemetery Ridge marker and farm.
1st Minnesota had 215 casualties out of 262 men during their bayonet charge toward the Confederate troops who were advancing from the peach orchard, and lost 17 of the remaining 47 the next day.
This was Gen Meade's headquarters. Coincidentally, a teenager, Tillie Pierce, fled from her home in town on the first day to this location for safety. As the fighting approached this house on day two, she went to another farm down the road near the Round Tops, that also became under fire...She wrote a book about it later in life.
This is supposedly the "copse of trees" that was the center of the 2-hour cannon bombardment and subsequent infantry attack during "Pickett's charge". The label stuck to Pickett although he was only one of three commanders. Later, when asked why he thought the attack failed, he replied, "I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it".
This tree marks the corner of the wall known as "the bloody angle". It was here that Brig Gen Armistead and a hundred or so Confederates broke through the Union forces and captured a cannon battery to the left, before being driven back. This location is referred to as "the high-water mark of the Confederacy", because the South never came as close to victory afterward.
Back at the location where the armies first clashed in the morning of the first day.
Thanks for looking.