From Georgia to it’s Confederate infantry
It is the weekend before the 150th Anniversary of Picket’s Charge. The re-enactors are swarming into the town in droves. Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic would have called these people farbs . But I call them enthusiasts and diehards…
One hundred and fifty years ago confederate General Picket , Major General George Pickett, Brig. General J. Johnston Pettigrew and Major General Issac Trimble let 12,500 men in a “charge”, against Union forces. General Pickett’s banner was held high as he took a lead at the right side of the attack. Unfortunately accounts say he took a bullet into the head less than 15 minutes into the charge. He was quickly removed to a hospital tent and was not around to witness the “high-water mark” of the Confederacy’s battles.
Less than 50% of the men who marched out returned alive. Rumor has it that Union soldiers took up a chant of “Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg” as they fired at the quarter mile long line of soldiers advancing up-hill and over fences towards them, referencing a previous and similarly disastrous attack on the Union’s side.
(Historians believe that one of the main reasons the Civil War cost so many lives was due to the archaic battle tactics both sides utilized, specifically following the tactics in one Military Atlas, from West Point.)
General Lee was so inconsolable as his broken troops came retreating back that he rode out to meet them, claiming that each individual death was “all my fault.” This charge was the last day of General Lee’s campaigning in Pennsylvania.
Today, I have traveled to Gettysburg to exuberantly trample the fields men once cursed and died on. I become crispy and red as I wander under the sun plodding from information sign plackard to information sign placard. Little Round Top, Big Round Top, Pickett’s Field and the Longstreet Tower are only a few of the choice destinations I traipse towards. Busses of tourists and reinactors drive by me preferring to take the “auto tour”- informational signs are conviently located next to the road so that you never have to leave the comfort and airconiditioning of your SUV…
I watch as re-enactors wander acres of fields both publicly and privately owned. This year after a few heated court claims several of the landowners have conceded their year’s crops to the re-enactors and the estimated 250,000 tourists who have showed up for the anniversary of this disastrous event. The re-enactors plan to file out across the actual fields the Confederates would have marched on 150 years ago to the date and will make the charge uphill…
While the casualty rate will not be particularly accurate (due perhaps to: a lack in forcible conscription, and the disenchanting prospect
laying in the grass, under the hot sun all day) there are sure to be some brilliant bloaters (a dying technique perfected by hardcore re-enactors) and a mighty volume of: smoke, noise and trust as thousands of people parade around in semi-controlled chaos, waiving muskets, practically-period bayonets and hopefully correctly loaded blanks…
The re-enactors aside the town of Gettysburg is as homey as a historical college town can dare to be. The citizens of the town have valiantly capitulated their town to touristic capitalism since 1863. I find the only open parking places are located near the Battlefield Mini Market (AKA, a gas station in other cites). I explore Johnny Como’s Cupcakes and Coffee (I suppose cupcakes could be taken as an evolution of Johnny cakes?), The Gettysburg Farmers Market, (where all every type of original Hand-created Civil War souvenir is available for your purchase at your pleasure), along with the enchanting, yet crowded Gettysburg National Cemetery.
My favorite stop for the day is Mr. G’s where I purchase a “Hoppy Spring Soldier’s Icee”. As I exit the shop a not-so-delicate-re-enactor blocks my way, desperately fanning herself with a closed parasol. (I think about suggesting that she open the thing for better results, but decide against it. They have lobotomized young people for less snark than that….). The lady stands in the center of the sidewalk swinging her hoop skirt from side to side, attempting to get some airflow under her many layers, then attempts to sit down as the front part of her hoop skirt pops up above her head.
Re-enactors these days, they just don’t understand the spheres of domesticity and republican motherhood they are meant to live within in I guess…
*Special thanks to: National Parks and Recreation for their information Placards all over Gettysburg, PA. To: Tony Horwitz, “Confederates in the Attic” and William, Gienapp, “Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America” for the general information and references provided.
intrepid trekking 