The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1908-12-26
THE FIELD of GETTYSBURG
The Following Descriptive Article Written for
Idaho Press by Lieut.. Geo. Steunenberg,
from Mantanzas Cuba.
"Gettysburg!"

ing lines of blue and gray. This i'm
preston rather grows on one as he
alights from the train and walks past
line of buggies whose drivers are
calling out, Carriage for the battle
field" He is on historic ground now
and even a stroll through the streets
of the quaint old town reveals traces
of the great battle. Here a piece of
shell is seen sticking into the wall of
brick building; there an old board
fence is riddled with bullet-holes-
not dainty perforations such as are
made by our rifles of today, but clean
holes an inch in diameter, knocked
through by ounce slugs. At street
corner signboard reads "Outposts
of Confederate sharpshooters," while
a short distance away is the famous
Jenny Wade house." the home of the
only woman who was killed in all the
three days fighting.
1t is neat cottage, this Jenny Wade
house, now a small museum contain
ing relics of the battlefield and souve-
mir spoons, and considered one of the
points of interest by the thousands of
tourists who annually flock to Gettys-
burg. The killing of Jenny Wade was
purely accidental. The women and
children of the town had taken to the
cellars early in the fight, but some i'm
portant duty on this day had persuad-
ed her to venture to the kitchen. The
big bullet holes still show where a
stray ounce of lead crashed through
two doors and struck her dead.
Gettysburg is visited by more spec
tators than any battlefield in the
world, excepting, perhaps, Waterloo;
for, while the battle did not equal
Waterloo in magnitude and was, in
fact, less bloody than some other bat
ties of our rebellion, Gettysburg
stands unique as being the battle
which turned the tide of the greatest
rebellion the civilized world has ever
seen. 1t was the high water mark"
of the rebellion.
And our government has made it
we'll worth visiting by buying up 25
square miles of the historic ground
and Transforming it into an enor-
NOUS park, dotted with beautiful
monuments and traversed by magnifi-
cent avenues. Where Waterloo has it's
siIgle monument, and Antietam has
pehaps a hundred, Gettysburg has
mde than 500, whose combined cost
is more than a million dollars. No
nfuments are erected to the Con-
ferates, but massive. bronze tablets
nix the ground they occupied and
the story of their movements. 1t
he best marked battlefield in the
Id; in fact so well marked that
stranger scarcely feels the need of
ulde, for the story of the mighty
pggle is written in bronze and
mite from one end of the field to
other
lie who visits Gettysburg with the
bectation of walking over the bat
field will find that he has a twenty
lie walk ahead of him, and he will
30 probably find the mental picture
has formed of the battle to be en-
fely wrong. The popular concep-
pm of the battle of Gettysburg seems
be ridge running east and west
th the Confederates charging up
cm the south and the Union army on
bp driving them back AS a matter
~ ksfaet this state of affairs was almost
- petely reversed, for the Confed-
Rs came down from the north.
II was an enthusiastic army that
bral Lee led up into Pennsylvania
II lBune, 1863. Fresh from their vic
~ at Characteristic they came
q kuring into the north, many of them
\ jagged and barefooted. but all burn
ing with enthusiasm and admiration
or their great leader, and with every
Econfidence in his ability to land them
Jim the heart of New York. The army
OF the Potomac was at that time In
Maryland. but at this bold movement
of Lees they hurried northward to
intercept him. Lee, to avoid being
struck In the flank or rear, turned
southwark to crush his adversary, and
thus 1t was that the two great armies
happened to clash at Gettysburg.
IL seems difficult to picture the field
in print. for the reader becomes con-
fused in a maze Of Seminary ridge,
Cemetery ridge, Round Top and
Culp's hill, until the entire field be-
comes blur. But one trip over 1t, or
even one look at 1t from the top of
one OF the observation towers, and the
whole battle becomes an open book.
In order to explain what is to follow
Will attempt brief description.
Several miles south of the town of
Gettysburg stands rugged hill
known as Round Top. Frem here
ridge called Cemetery ridge runs due
north almost to the town. when 1t