Gettysburg in picture and story: George Linn Keiffer, lecturer

              GEORGE LINN KEIFFER, LECTURER

Gettysburg IN PICTURE and STORY

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GEORGE LINN KIEFFER LECTURER

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Mr. George Linn Kieffer is a lecturer with a real subject.  Gettysburg has a message for every American.  It is the Mecca of American Patriots.  It stands for the spirit of the greater liberties of a Re-united Country.  In 1913 it was the scene of the World's Greatest Peace Camp.

Mr Kieffer is eminently qualified to speak on this subject.  He is a graduate of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, at Gettysburg, and together with his years of experience as a guide on the Gettysburg Battlefield, has acquired a thorough knowledge of the scenes of this great conflict, second to none.  He is manager of the Gettysburg Chautauqua Assembly and in 1912-13 helped to organize in 7 States the 102 Chautauquas of the Chautauqua Association of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore, Pa.  He is also a member of the International Lyceum Association of America.  He has made a special study of the battle of Gettysburg and is familiar with every foot of the field.  No one is better prepared to give an intelligent description of the three days' battle.  Mr Kieffer is recognized as an authority on all subjects relating to the battlefield and the Battle of Gettysburg.  200 of the finest views obtainable aid in making his lecture one of the rarest treats ever offered.  The veterans are enabled to live again the epoch-making days of the great struggle.  The new generation receive the inspiration of the message of that struggle and the young learn many new facts concerning the most important chapter of American history.  As Mr. Kieffer pictures the scenes of conflict by word and views, the battle seems to be taking place and the message of the Immortal Lincoln at Gettysburg is again attuned to the heart throbs of a nation.  Mr. Kieffer's permanent address is Gettysburg.


THE ANGLE—1863



CEMETERY RIDGE, THE ANGLE—1913


Copies of this can be had by sending 15 cents in postage to Mr. Kieffer.


R. R. CUT   OAK HILL   CARLISLE ROAD   HARRISBURG ROAD
BARLOW'S KNOLL






THE NATION'S HOLY GROUND

Gettysburg, The Battle and the Battlefield
BY GEORGE LINN KIEFFER

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, Gen. Geo. G. Meade and his 90,000 Boys in Blue met, at Gettysburg, Pa., Gen. Robert E.  Lee and his 85,000 Boys in Gray.  Over hill and plain waged a mortal combat between brothers until at last the Boys in Blue were victorious, having decided the destiny of the nation and having given the world the word Gettysburg with all its significance.  Gettysburg to-day stands higher in the world's knowledge and reverence than do Marathon and Waterloo.

In 1913 Gettysburg gave to the world a renewed interpretation of its significance.  75,000 veterans, of whom more than 13,000 were Confederates, camped for four days on the battlefield and celebrated the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle.  The average age of the yeterans was 72 years—one veteran being 112 years.  The anniversary cost the Nation—the United States government and the several States—almost $2,000,000.  This was all eminently worth while.  Never in the history of the world has it been known for two contestants, within fifty years of the close of a mighty struggle culminating after a century of mutterings, to meet and join hands in peace, harmony, and good will for the welfare of their country.  Coming together, each frankly and sincerely acknowledging that the other fought for his construction of a common Constitution and each admiring the valor and heroism with which the other maintained its principles.

General Lee's Corps Commanders were Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. Hill.  His cavalry was under J. E. B. Stuart; his artillery under Pendleton.

Meade's infantry was divided into seven corps, each much weaker in men than the Confederate organization of the same name.  The Corps Commanders were, First, Reynolds; Second, Hancock: Third, Sickles; Fifth, Sykes; Sixth, Sedgwick; Eleventh, Howard; and Twelfth, Slocum.  Meade's cavalry was under Pleasanton's command; his divisions being under Buford, D. M. Gregg and Kilpatrick.  The Federal Artillery was commanded by Hunt.

On July 1st, 1863, the scattered Confederate forces concentrated upon Gettysburg from the west, north and east, using during the day 38,000 men.  The Union forces that were available, 16,000 men, formed along the long low ridges about a mile to the west of the town, and held the Confederate forces in check from 8 o'clock in the morning until about 2.30 P. M. when more Confederate forces came in from the northeast and the east, and a simultaneous attack was begun along the entire Union line by the Confederate forces.  The Confederate forces moving in the rear of the Union line to the north of the town, caused this line to give way; these and other Confederates moving in the rear of the Union line to the west of the town, caused it also to give way, and the advanced Union forces had to retreat through the town and rally on East Cemetery Hill which had been fortified through the foresight of Gen. O. O. Howard.  The town was occupied by the victorious Confederate troops.  At 4 o'clock Gen. Hancock arrived from the south and helped to rally the Union forces, now about 8,000 in number.  The Union forces had lost 50 per cent.  of their number; the Confederate forces had also lost 8,000 men.  From 5 o'clock until 9 P. M. Robert E. Lee had 30,000 men facing the small number of Union forces on East Cemetery Hill, Culp's Hill and Cemetery Ridge.  Gen. James Longstreet desired Lee to follow up his success, but Lee decided to wait until the morning of July 2nd.  This ended the first day.

On the morning of July 2nd, 1863, the Confederate forces had a line, semi-circular, extending over the hills to the east of the town, westward through the town and south along Seminary Ridge which lies west of the town, with two-thirds of Gen.  Longstreet's forces in reserve in position to the west of Seminary Ridge.  In the morning Gen.  Lee inspected from the hill east of Gettysburg, from the College tower north of Gettysburg and from the Seminary cupola northwest of Gettysburg the line assumed by the Union forces during the night.  He observed that it stretched from the south over Culp's Hill, westward on Cemetery Hill, southward on Cemetery Ridge and southwest ward along the Emmitsburg Road, through the Peach Orchard and southeast through the Wheatfield into the rocky Devil's Den with the Round Tops

Copyrighted 1913, by George Linn Kieffer



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within the left end of the Union lines on the south unoccupied.  He therefore determined after a conference with his officers, to send Longstreet to take the Round Tops.  General Longstreet received his orders at 11.30 A. M. After marching seven miles, he was, at 3.30 P. M., in position along the ridge opposite the Round Tops extending the former Confederate line to the south two miles.  In seven piece-meal attacks his battle line of 22,000 men moved against the Union line, which was reinforced until 24,000 Union men had been used at the Round Tops, Devil's Den, in the Wheatfield, in the Peach Orchard and along the Emmitsburg Road; but Longstreet succeeded in driving the Union forces back to a position along the Cemetery Ridge including the Round Tops.

While Longstreet was still waging this battle on the Union left wing, General Ewell tried, from 8 P. M. until dark, to take East Cemetery Hill, the most northern Union position; although he succeeded in capturing the guns on the hill and waged a hand-to-hand conflict, Union reinforcements were brought up and the Confederates were driven from East Cemetery Hill.  From half past six on that same evening, Gen.  Ewell had tried, and had continued into the night to try, to take Culp's Hill on the Union right using 7,000 men; only 1,500 Union men had been left on the south slope of Culp's Hill in some of the fortifications, leaving the remainder of the Union fortifications unoccupied.  The forces which had built the fortifications had been sent as support to the Wheatfield.  The 1,500 Union forces in the fortifications on the south slope of Culp's Hill held the 7,000 Confederate forces in check even though the Confederates established a line but a hundred yards in front of the Union line.  Thus ended the second day on which Lee attacked both ends of the Union line.

The fortifications which were vacant, had been occupied by the Confederates.  When the Union forces came back from the Wheatfield, during the night of July 2d, they formed a line southwest and south of their fortifications, and on the morning of July 3rd, at 3.30, started to regain them; but the Confederates massed their forces endeavoring to retain what they had won so easily; and therefore, it took the Union forces until 11 A. M. of July 3rd to regain all of the fortifications on the south slope of Culp's Hill.

So by noon the 3rd of July, 1863, Lee had driven back the Union line of the first day; had tried both ends of the Union line on the second, and on the morning of the third had lost his gain on Culp's Hill.  He now, at 11 A. M. on the third day of the battle, determined to strike the center.  Along Seminary Ridge for two miles and extending out to the Peach Orchard for another mile, Lee had placed 150 cannon with a converged fire upon the left Union center on the Cemetery Ridge.  The Union forces placed 80 guns for two miles along their line on Cemetery Ridge and from 1 until 3 P. M. replied to the Confederates' artillery fire—the greatest artillery duel ever waged upon the American Continent.  According to Lee's plans, there now followed Pickett's charge from the west upon the Union center, assisted at the same time far away by Stuart's cavalry moving from the north and then from the east toward the Union rear.  Thus the Confederates endeavored to break the Union line by a heavy blow from the west and a cavalry charge from the east.  At 3 P. M. Pickett's forces supported by Hill's corps—15,000 Confederates in a battle line a mile long, six men deep—left Seminary Ridge west and south of the town and started upon a charge upon Cemetery Ridge a mile away to the east.  When two-thirds of the distance had been covered, the direction of the march had to be changed to the left, and thus unexpectedly Pickett lost his support on the right, and about the same time lost most of his support on the left; but the center of his columns, in spite of the artillery and musketry fire of the massed Union forces rushed on and reached the Union line and even broke through as its wild onslaught crossed the stone wall at the Angle—the Confederate officer, Armistead, falling dead forty yards within the Union lines.  When this blow was spent, it was followed by the precipitate retreat of the remnant of Pickett's forces—6,000 men, the remains of 15,000—the loss of a charge and retreat in one hour.  Four miles to the east of Gettysburg Stuart's Cavalry of 7,000 were in the meantime defeated by Gregg and Custer's 5,000 Union Cavalry in the greatest cavalry battle of the Civil War.  Thus at 4 o'clock the final effort of Lee had failed.  The Umbrella-shaped cluster of trees at the left Union center on Cemetery Ridge which had been the guiding mark for Pickett's charge, the pivotal contest of the pivotal battle of the Civil War, was now destined ever to be

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 known as the High Water Mark of the Civil War.  At 6 o'clock, amid the rocks that flank the Round Tops, the gallant Farnsworth charged the Confederate fortifications.  Farnsworth was killed and most of his saddles emptied.  Thus ended the third day, and thus ended the Battle of Gettysburg.

From midnight of July 3rd until the same hour of the night of the 5th of July the Confederate forces retreated from the battlefield, using the two roads leading westward.  The wounded were placed in wagons making a train seventeen miles long.  At Gettysburg, Lee lost, including killed and wounded and captured, 28,000 men, while Meade lost likewise 23,003.  Thus 51,000 men were lost in three days at Gettysburg, of which number about 10,000 were killed outright.  Five hundred and sixty-nine tons of deadly missiles were expended during the battle, the Union artillery alone expending 32,781 rounds.  After the battle there were on the field 5,000 dead horses and mules, besides thousands that were wounded and worthless.

For months after the battle, Gettysburg and the surrounding country for miles was one vast hospital.  Every church, the College and Seminary buildings, in fact every public building, and many houses and barns were used for hospital purposes, and a general hospital was established in and near the grove on the hill to the east of Gettysburg.

For three days two armies had been in mortal combat and had wrought desolation and death.  Let us get an idea of the size of two gigantic forces totalling almost 200.000 men.  Were they with all their equipment following each other in an ordinary road in marching order they would make a column two hundred miles long and the line would extend across the State of Pennsylvania from the New York State line to fifty miles beyond the Mason and Dixon line.  No wonder that on the first day the Union forces had a battle line three and a half miles long and the Confederate forces a line about five and a half miles, and on the second and third days the Union forces a line six and a half miles and the Confederate forces a line of about nine and a half miles.

This battlefield on which so many noble men fought and died, is, as it deserves to be, the best marked battlefield in the world.  Up to the present time over $7,000,000 has been expended upon it.  It covers an area of 24,460 acres of land or a little more than 38 square miles.  There are 2550 acres in roads and monumental sites, 40 miles of fencing; 57 miles of roads, of which 35 miles are Macadamized and Telford roads; the latter having been constructed at a cost of about $11,000 a mile.  There are on the battlefield 1,296 monuments; 385 mounted cannon, as nearly as possible the same guns.  occupy the original battle positions.  There have been erected five steel observation towers and five equestrian statues—of Meade, Reynolds, Hancock, Slocum and Sedgwick; the erection of another equestrian statue has been proposed to Howard, while the Virginia State monument is surmounted by an equestrian statue of Lee.  The U. S. Government has marked the positions of both armies, equally with army, corps, division and brigade markers.  The Union States have marked the regimental positions of their volunteers.  The State of Maryland is so far the only State that has erected a Confederate regimental marker.  The United States Government has marked the positions which were held by the United States Regular Army organizations, and has also erected one large monument to them.  Four States have erected memorials, viz: Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.  The New York memorial cost over $60,000; the Pennsylvania memorial over $200,000.  The latter memorial is over 100 ft.  high, and 80 ft.  square at the base.  It is in the form of a double triumphal arch and is surmounted by a dome which in turn is surmounted by Winged Victory.  Above each arch is a granite relief representing the cavalry, the infantry, the artillery and the signal corps and the engineer branches of the army.  Each side of the arch is supported by two columns between which have been placed the bronze figures of the officers from Pennsylvania and also those of Lincoln and Curtin—Pennsylvania's War Governor.  Around the base of the monument are bronze tablets which contain the names of all the Pennsylvania soldiers, officers and men who took part in the battle—34,530 in number, or over one-third of Meade's forces.

Soon after the battle it became apparent that the dead were not buried properly, many having been buried just where they had fallen.  Hon.  David Wills, afterward Judge of Adams County, called the attention of Governor Curtin to the fact.  He in turn asked the other seventeen Governors to cooperate in giving the dead decent burial.  They appointed commissioners who came to Gettysburg and organized, electing Judge Wills chairman.  This commission selected the highest portion of the Union line on Cemetery Hill, overlooking the town as a suitable burial place for the Union dead.  Edward Everett was invited to be the orator when the plot should be dedicated.  The date set for the dedication was Oct. 23, 1863, but Everett found he needed more time for preparation in order that he might come to Gettysburg and study the battlefield more minutely and accurately.  So, in compliance

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 with his request, the date was changed to November 19, 1863; and the commission agreed that it was fitting that the President should be present and make a few dedicatory remarks.  After Edward Everett had concluded his masterpiece—so minute a description of the battle that the field could have been marked as it is to-day by using the oration alone—Lincoln arose and made his few dedicatory remarks.  They live to-day and will live as long as the English language is spoken.  but Everett's masterpiece is practically unknown.  There are 3,654 bodies buried in this cemetery, 979 are totally unknown.  This was the first cemetery in which only bodies of soldiers were buried.  It was in charge of the above named commission from 1863 to 1873, at which time the United States Government, by the National Cemetery Act of Congress, assumed charge of it.

Shortly after the battle, John D. Bachelder came to Gettysburg and by means of the wreckage lying upon the field located the positions of the various organizations and made his famous map which was copyrighted in 1863 and was bought from him by the United States Congress.  Thus was started the work of preserving the Battlefield.  In 1864 representatives from various States formed the Memorial Association which began to buy land and in 1873 began to mark the battlefield; its work was continued until 1895, when, by Act of Congress of 1893, creating the National Military Park, the United States Government took charge of it.  Since then it has been in the hands of three commissioners under the War Department, Col. John P. Nicholson being the able chairman of the commission.

Gettysburg was founded in 1780 by Gen. James Gettys.  Prior to the Civil War days, in the South especially, it was noted for its carriages, many of which were manufactured in it.  In 1863 it was a town of 2,100 inhabitants.  During the three days of the battle only one citizen was killed, namely, Miss Jennie Wade.  Since the wounded, first of the Union, later of the Confederate forces, were placed within its limits, the town was not shelled.

To-day this old town is the Mecca of American Patriotism.  The South, as well as the North, claims it for its own, for here the valor of its sons still is, and ever will be, apparent.

My Dear Mr. Kieffer:—I am still under the spell of yesterday on the Gettysburg battlefield.  I had seen it before, and I have been reading of it for years, but it needed you to open my eyes to the real nature and meaning of it all.  You have given me one of the imperishable days of my life and I am grateful.

Faithfully yours,
WM. T. ELLIS.


REYNOLD'S GROVE   McPHERSON BARN   CHAMBERSBURG PIKE
HAGERSTOWN ROAD   R. R. CUT