Gettysburg Day 1 - First Shot - Where Fate Meets History

This is part of my real time Sesquicentennial series.  Originally published on forbes.com on July 1, 2013.

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My covivant and I rose early this morning, because I wanted to be there for the first shot.


The site of the first shot is the Ephraim Wisler Home on Chambersburg Pike.  John Buford had moved into town the day before and sent out pickets in an arc to the north and west.

Credit for the first shot is accorded to Lt. Marcellus Ephraim Jones. According to the flyer that was handed out at the event:

A little after 6:00 AM, Pvt. James Hale at this post noticed a cloud of dust rising to the west along the pike.  Pvt. Thomas Kelly (Jones' cousin) galloped back Herr's Ridge to notify Lt. Jones, in charge of the posts in this area, of the advance of a large Confederate column which turned out to be Maj. Gen. Henry Heth's Division.  When Jones arrived here, he borrowed a Sharps carbine from Sgt. Levi Shafer, rested it on a fence-rail in the corner of the yard, and fired at the column - the First Shot to open the Battle of Gettysburg.

The flyer was a surprise.  The "First Shot" event was unofficial.  The earliest official event was at 8:00 AM - cannon fire at the Lutheran Seminary, which is having a grand opening for a new museum.  I was sure that there would be people at the spot regardless.  CV was skeptical.  Although the house is now property of the Park Service, they don't own much around it, so you could understand the logistical problems that prevented them from staging an event there.  We parked in a church parking lot just a little past the spot and walked up to it.  At 6:50 AM, there were only a couple of people there.



The crowd gradually grew and then someone came along and started handing out flyers.  David Petruzzi and Steven Stanley, authors of The Complete Gettysburg Guide had arranged a brief ceremony. An actual bugler, with a battered bugle from riding on a horse was there.  He represents a member of the 2nd US Regulars, Company H.  He played several calls including Boots and Saddles, To Horse, Commence Firing, Cease Firing and Recall.  We had a long discussion of the organization and reorganization of the US Cavalry.

Mr. Petruzzi spoke and it is to him that I owe the line "where fate meets history".

Thankfully for posterity, there were some actual reporters covering the event which ended up including about seventy people.  Among them were Terry Burger of Public Opinion who wrote:

Even at an estimated 70 people the little side yard to the Wisler's old house, now empty and owned by the National Park Service, was crowded. People chatted, compared re-enactor gear, and took photos of their kids leaning against the small stone set to commemorate Jones's actions.

I came up with seventy independently, so it is probably a pretty good estimate.

Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote:

Allan Guelzo, a professor from Gettysburg College and among the leading  historians of the Battle of Gettysburg, was dressed for work, but wore the cap  of a Union foot soldier. He is an exceedingly busy man as the nation marks the  150th anniversary of the battle that drove General Robert E. Lee's Confederate  Army back to the South.

But he felt an inexorable pull to the first shot marker.

"Where else would you want to be at 7:30 in the morning on July 1?" he asked.  "It's really something spectacular to be able to stand right here where they  stood exactly 150 years ago and under exactly the same weather conditions."

My sentiments exactly, Professor Guelzo.

After the ceremony, CV and I retired to the parking lot of the Lutheran Seminary beneath the very cupola from which Buford scanned the horizon hoping for relief.  The cannons were firing as scheduled, but frankly after a couple of blasts it can be a bit tedious.  There were preparations for the grand opening under way, but we were not there for it.  We had another mission, which will be the subject of my next post.

You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.

 

Gettysburg Braces For Invasion

Originally published on forbes.com on June 30, 2013.  By following these post's you will be able to experience last year's Gettysburg Sesquicentennial in real time.

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I got a late start looking for a hotel room for the Gettysburg sesquicentennial.  I threw it out as a challenge to somebody I knew in the time share business, but he came up empty.  Then I had my travel agent try and amazingly, he came up with two rooms at the Gettysburg Hilton.  He was kind of amazed telling me that it looked like Super Bowl pricing.  I figure every 50 years or so, I can afford to splurge.  Public accounting has been good to me.  So my covivant and I are encamped at the Gettysburg Hilton.  The other room was taken by my friend from Central Florida who brought his family his wife, Mrs. CF and three boys CF1, CF2 and CF3.

CV and I arrived in Gettysburg around 9:30 AM on Saturday and headed for the Visitor Center.  As we walked by the Ranger Activity stations, we stopped to listen to a woman in period costume talking about what it was like for the residents of the town cleaning in up in the time after the battle.  The smell of rotting bodies of men and horses.  Kids being injured and killed as they fooled around with loaded muskets left on the field and unexploded ordnance.  At the other activity station, kids were being "enlisted".  We would see them learning to March on the way out.

Oddly the crowds have not started getting huge.  The battle went from July 1 - July 3, but apparently the biggest crowds will be next weekend when the largest number of re-enactors are expected.  The Park Service does not allow re-enactors to be tramping around the actual battlefield firing muskets (Just the powder charges, no bullets).  There will be "interperters".  Near the Pennsylvania monument, we saw a campground being laid out, with one large tent already set up.  It had a "hospital' sign on it.  It was set up by Bob Tycenski, a Verizon power technician, who represents the medical services of the 14th Brooklyn.  He told us that the Society of Civil War Surgeons, who will be represented there, has some real physicians as members.  Bob said he did re-enacting for about 15 years, but got tired of running around in the hot sun, so he transitioned to something where he could sit in the shade and talk to people.  I saw his uniform hanging in the tent.  A blue jacker with red pants.  The 14th Brooklyn fancied themselves "Chasseurs".  Brooklyn's hipster roots are deeper than I realized.

I spoke with Rick, a paramedic with the Gettysburg Fire Department.  They are volunteers.  The Borough of Gettysburg does not have  a very large population, less than 10,000.  Rick said it is shrinking.  Thanks to battlefield preservation there is no development and old houses on the main drags are converted to gift shops and the like.  Since 1863, the Borough has become accustomed to being invaded.  Rick told me that many residents have rented out their houses, although he did not know what the going rate.  Others have just moved out for the week.

Rick was directing traffic in front of Meade's headquarters for Empire Productions.  There was some massive  sound and video equipment in the adjacent field for live coverage of some of the events. I briefly chatted with a sound crew from AVS Production, who were in from New York.  They did not know who exactly they were setting the equipment up for.  As a veteran of the hotel industry (two and a half years as a night auditor), I knew where I could get intelligence on the matter.  According to the front desk clerks, there are a lot of people from A&E encamped at the Hilton with me and CV.  Somebody also mentioned the History Channel.  I didn't know that the History Channel was still interested in history.  Whenever I turn it on it seems to be overweight guys struggling with family dysfunction.

The big splurge yesterday was hiring a private tour guide.  Traffic was still pretty light.  Although I consider my knowledge of the Late Unpleasantness pretty superficial, it is rather deep compared to CV.  Licensed guide Fred Wieners kept it very interesting for both of us.  Mr. Wieners is a retired Air Force officer who has taught at the War College.  The battlefiled was under the supervision of the War Department till the 1930s when it was turned over to the Park Service.  Cadets from West Point would do battlefield tours to learn small unit tactics among other things.  Maybe they still do.  That is why Dwight Eisenhower retired to Gettysburrg.  Mr. Wieners told us that he made many of the lessons about communications and intelligence that are illustrated here relevant to young officers training in cyber warfare.  He told us that there is something called cyber high ground.

The team from Central Florida rendezvoused with us at Camp Hilton last night.  When we were foraging at Ruby Tuesdays, the hostess asked us how many and we said seven.  I was inspired to say "Magnificent Seven", so I may stick with that in the rest of my reports.  I have to close out now as we are going to start scouting soon.

You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa