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Civil War Gettysburg Battlefield Vacation Photographs - McPherson Ridge - Index of Photos
Photographs of McPherson Ridge from our Civil War Vacation at Gettysburg Battlefield, from Family Travel Photos.com

Keywords: family travel photos, vacation, gettysburg battlefield, civil war, Devil's Den, Slaughter Pen, Valley of Death, Triangular Field, Little Round Top, Peach Orchard, Bloody Wheatfield, The Angle, High Water Mark, Copse of Trees, Pickett's Charge, Virginia Monument, Opening in the Trees, Battlefield Memorials, Culps Hill, cemetery hill, Gettysburg National Cemetery, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Seminary Ridge, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Sachs Bridge, McPherson's Ridge, Boyd's Bears factory, Battle of Gettysburg Diorama, Gettysburg Ghost Tour, Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters, Cashtown Inn, national military park

 
 
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PA MD WV Trip July 2009 584
PA MD WV Trip July 2009 585
PA MD WV Trip July 2009 586
PA MD WV Trip July 2009 593

This album has 2064 photos in total.
Album was created 8/5/09 9:14 PM.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought on July 1–3, 1863, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is often consideredas the war's turning point. Fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg saw 165,000 Union and Confederate soldiers clash in a three day battle that resulted in more than 51,000 casualties. On the third day of the battle, Confederate soldiers in an attack called Pickett's Charge reached the copse of trees near The Angle (a corner in a low stone wall) on Cemetery Ridge; this represented the farthest point north that Robert E. Lee's forces reached during the Civil War. For this reason the copse of trees is often referred to as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy.

Pickett's Charge was a disaster for the Confederate forces and ended Robert E. Lee's plan to move his forces north to Harrisburg Pennsylvania and on to Washington DC. While the Civil War continued on for two more years, the Battle of Gettysburg changed the dynamics of the war and General Lee was never truly on the offensive again.

McPherson's Ridge played an important role on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Union General Buford chose this land as the place to stand against the coming Confederate forces until the bulk of the Union Army could arrive. The first shots of the Battle of Gettysburg were fired in this area as well. From the cupola on top of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, General Buford watched over the battle on McPherson's Ridge on July 1 as he waited for reinforcements from General John Reynolds. From this vantage point, Buford probably could have watched as General Reynolds was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet on McPherson Ridge. Union forces were ultimately driven off McPherson Ridge and through the town of Gettysburg on July 1, to the areas of Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill, south of the town. By the end of that day, General Robert E. Lee had set up his headquarters at a farm house within a few hundred yards of the Lutheran Theological Seminary and very close to McPherson Ridge.