Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1913-07-11
FORREST STUART ATTENDS
REUNION AT GETTYSBURG
Writes Interesting Account Of the Notable Gath
ering There Last Week--Relates Several
Amusing Incidents.

man Payne of New York, / left for
Gettysburg at 4 o'clock the morn
ing of July 2. The street cars were
not running and we found 1t neces-
sary to take taxi to the union
depot in order to catch the
o'clock Pennsylvania train. We
reached Baltimore at a. m. and
transferred to the Western Mary
land. By 10 o'clock the thermometer
In our car registered 95. We arrived
at destination shortly before noon
and Immediately began to hike.
Gettysburg is located 100 miles
directly north of Washington, d. C.
It is a town with population of ap-
proximately 1000, and lies in little
valley surrounded on all sides by
rolling hills. Looking west one gets
an excellent view of the South Range,
a portion of the Blue Ridge. Half a
mile west of town is q somewhat
elevated ridge, called Seminary Ridge
from the Lutheran Seminary stand
ing upon it. This ridge begins at
commanding knoll nearly a mile and
q half north of the seminary, called
Oak HILL The ridge extends south
ward from Oak Hill and is covered
throughout its whole length with
open woods. Directly north of town
the country is fiat and open. Half
a mile south of town is Cemetery
Hill, rising 80 feet above the level of
the valley below. BY lower ridge,
which curves southwark and then
northward, this hill is connected
with Culp's Hill. a rocky, wooded
knoll half a mile further east. Culp's
Hill reaches southwark nearly half
mile, ending In low ground near
Spangler's Spring. The country is
dotted with farms, connected by
cross roads and cut up and separated
by stone walls and fences. 1t was
upon the ground west and north of
the town that the fighting took place
on the first of July, 1863-the first
of the three days of the battle of
Gettysburg. The Confederate line,
six miles long, extended from point
northeast Of Spangler's Spring west
ward through the city to Oak Hill
and thence south along Seminary
Ridge. The line occupied by the
Union forces was Ave miles In length
and had the shape of huge fish hook,
with its point near Spangler's Spring,
Its barb at Culp's Hill its bent part
at Cemetery Hill and its shank along
Cemetery Ridge, running south from
Cemetery Hill distance of two miles
from this point 1t rose abruptly, TAX
ing in the peak of Little Round Top
and in the eye of the hook-Big
Round Top, whose summit is 500
feet above the land below. The
two Round Tops, separated by a
narrow depression, look like great
heaps of boulders covered with
scrubby bushes and trees that spring
out of every crack and crevice. The
knolls command all of the country
round about and from a distance
appear Inaccessible to man" At the
base of their steep western slopes
flows a small marshy stream, Plum
Run. It's banks overf1owed with
blood once. Beyond this stream
500 yards due west of Round Top
rises another hill, not so high, but
just as wild and steep. 1t Is Devils
DEN. 1t has taken that impious nams
from the country folk thereabout
ridge, along which runs the Emmeits
burg road, reaches from the sounth
west, becoming lower and fatter un
til merging with Seminary Ridge
It joins the foot of the slope from
DEVILS Den at the Peach Orchard
just one mile west of the lower par
of Cemetery Ridge. The Peael
Orchard is higher than this part o
Cemetery Ridge. It was here tina
General Sickles was wounded an
his command almost entirly annihilai
ed.
Gettysburg has the best marke
battlefield in the world. Thousand
Of hAa aAn
stand to the memory of the Unio
soldiers who fell during the conflic
A mile to the west. on Seminar
Ridge, only bronz plates mark til
spots where Lees men were station
ed. was told that UP to a fe
years ago the Southern States wei
not given the privilege of placin
any monuments at Gettysburg. Bl
a magnificent statue is now beir
erected by the State of Virginia
honor of General Robert e. Lee {
the spot where he stood on the thil
day Of the battle and watched Il
maneuVers of the two armies. 1t
only matter of time until that sit
of the field will also be covered wi
monuments. So much for a bri
description of the battlefield.
Before leaving washington we hi
read exaggerated reports concernfl
the situation at Gettysburg and \
came prepared for the worst Pc,
wore a riding suit and was mistake
for an army engineer or walking |
formation bureau by many OF the o
vets, who asked him the thousal
impossible" questions to which
the great majority of cases tn
would receive the automatic respon
81 don't knowi" Amt you suppS
ed to know all about this here place
asked an old gentleman from Y.
mont. Receiving a negative reply
continued: well then, young (
ler, you amt got no business wei
ing them there clothes"
Arriving at Bloody Angle, we n
Charles Warren, now residing
Salt Lake City who was In Picket
famous charge and who was one
the few to leap the stone wall and '
within q few feet Of General Ar
stead when the latter fell He
struck in the forehead with q ba
net and went to the ground but r
again and retreated among q IN