Trans-Mississippians at Gettysburg

Hopefully readers will bear with me as I cross the mighty Mississippi in this posting. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Gettysburg, my first visit to that battlefield since I was a teenager. In advance of the trip, I arranged for a tour with a licensed battlefield guide and asked to see the following sites:

--the area where the Texas brigade fought on July 2nd

--the area where the 9^th Massachusetts Artillery (Bigelow’s battery) made their stand on July 2^nd

--the place where the 1^st North Carolina Cavalry fought on July 3^rd

My interest in the 1^st North Carolina Cavalry stems from the wartime correspondence of Theophilus and Harriet Perry that I edited a number of years ago. Harriet’s brother, Jesse Person, served in the 1^st North Carolina Cavalry and was one of two soldiers killed in that unit on July 3^rd in the fighting east of town. He was buried in the Great Conewago Presbyterian Cemetery in Hunterstown on July 4^th , and I also requested that the guide take me there if there was time. Accompanying me on this jaunt was my friend, Kyla, who has a limited interest in the Civil War but was game to go on the tour.

Jim Clouse, our licensed battlefield guide, met us on the morning of June 7^th and took us away on a super tour that lasted four and a half hours. After driving through the areas fought over on July 1^st and orienting Kyla to the battle, Jim drove us to the area where the Texas brigade launched its attack on July 2^nd. There have been many fine historians who have documented the actions of the 1^st Texas, the 4^th Texas, the 5^th Texas, and the 3^rd Arkansas on that bloody afternoon so I will not “reinvent the wheel” by describing their actions yet again.

This monument, with its wreath of yellow roses, commemorates the actions of the Texas brigade.

Here is a view of the triangular field from the position of the 124^th New York; the 1^st Texas crossed this field in a charge on the position of the 124^th New York (the Orange Blossoms).

And a view of the triangular field from the perspective of the 1^st Texas; the monument to the 124^th New York is in the middle of the photograph.