West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1903-06-04
MEMORIAL DAY
On the Battlefield at Gettysburg.
Special to The Argus.


After receiving the generous gift of
the good folks OF the Presbyterian
church in Kingwood, and not only
thus supplied with the means OF
taking a good vacation. but also
with the command they laid upon
me, "go take vacation, spend and
spare not and take a good one"
What could a person do but run
away as fast and as far as rail could
carry him and use use up the money
in as quick way as possible.
One benefit of going to a battle
field with little boy is that he has
no end of questions to ask, and in
answering them, one must find out
the facts.
Gettysburg Battlefield is much
larger than / had dreamed-about
five miles long by four miles wide,
(not to mention cavalry positlons)
good 20 square miles-with Union
positions or monuments on nearly
every acre of it. The Battle lasted
three days and the two armies occu-
pied different positions on different
days, SO that it is the most complex
battlefield in history, and it teaches
one to be very slow in criticising
the generals, for il ever there was
battlefield that called for good
generalship, that field was this one.
1t is no wonder that General.Sickles
could no. follow the orders of
I General Meade, and it is no wonder
that General Meade did not insist
upon them. One excellent thing
in Gettysburg now is that there are
several very high observatories
erected by the Government and
rising over 200 feet above the field
OF battle and at equidistant points
of about two miles radius. Had
General Meade been on one of these
observatoriss, he might have seen
the battle, but to think OF him
guiding the battle so well from the
place he stood on the third day of
the battle is simply absurd. / had
thought that Little Round Top
and Big Round Top and Seminary
Ridge were mountai nous, or at
least high hills, but the person who
should call Gettysburg Battlefield
billy to West Virginian would be
laughed at. The place on Seminary
Ridge from which the Pickett
charge was made has certainly two
or three higher points before one
reaches the "Bloody Angle" and
the ''Stone WALL" The charge,
the most famous perhaps in history,
was a much longer one than | had
supposed. 1t surely is not much
short of mile. Think of it /
Nearly mile dash of that noble
army in the face of cannonading
fire. Round Top, Little Round
Top and Cemetery Ridge (not
Seminary Ridge, for it was from
that point the Confederates came),
How mortal man stood it is a
mystery.
! Among the monuments the one to
John Burns, the old farmer of 10,
who fought in the woods, is perhaps
the notwithstanding. Gen. Doubleday
gives him very high praise. The
statute to the Iron Brigade is, as a
piece of sculpture, a noble work.
do not think the National Monu-
ment as great piece of work as
some think, but / am no Judge.
One or two of the New York monu-
ments are, in some respects, superior
to 1t. The monument to the r6oth
Pennsylvania, which ought to be the
grandest on the field, at she "Bloody
Angle" is by no means a remarka
bic one. The Heroic Equestrian
statues of Meade and Reynolds, are,
of course, good work. That the
Pennsylvania State Government
paid SIS, 900 for the one for Meade
is not in itself any factor, for some
of the smaller monuments are above
J all nrice