Monday, July 24, 2006

Little Round Top

My favorite part of the battlefield at Gettysburg is Little Round Top. Looking down from the rocks the vista is stunning. Eerily, it is identical to the battlefield of 1863, so comparing battlefield photos taken by civil war photographers with my photos today is striking. The picture above is the view from Little Round Top looking southwest. The triangle seen by the intersection of two roads is known as the Slaughter Pen. Just beyong the road you can see the rocks that made up Devil's Den. The field in the foreground was known the Valley of Death.

This picture is the view immediately to the right of the previous. If I lined all three of these photos up it would be a 180 degree scan of the land below Little Round Top. These view is the center, and shows the Valley of Death. A creek running through the area below became known as Bloody Creek because it ran red by the end of the battle.

The view is facing more northwest. The top of the arc of the view from Little Big Top. The statue commemorates a Union officer. He surveyed the land and figured out that the Union was in danger of being outflanked. (I think--I'm too lazy to actually look it up. If you are really interested read a book about the battle or watch Gettysburg the movie which I highly recommend.) In the distance you see Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.

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