May 30, 2025 • 58 mins
In this special episode of Tales, Trails, and Taverns, Joe and Rob take you through their recent journey to one of the most pivotal locations in American history — Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
We explore what it was like to walk the hallowed ground of iconic sites like Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Cemetery Ridge, offering our firsthand impressions of the terrain where so many lives were forever changed.
We also break down the full scope of the Battle of Gettysburg — from the tense days leading up to it, through the brutal, chaotic fighting across all three days, and the heavy toll left in its aftermath.
This episode focuses on the history, the strategy, and the incredible human cost of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle.
Ghost stories and the paranormal lore of Gettysburg? That’s coming next week. For now, lace up your boots and join us as we stand in the footprints of history.
We explore what it was like to walk the hallowed ground of iconic sites like Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Cemetery Ridge, offering our firsthand impressions of the terrain where so many lives were forever changed.
We also break down the full scope of the Battle of Gettysburg — from the tense days leading up to it, through the brutal, chaotic fighting across all three days, and the heavy toll left in its aftermath.
This episode focuses on the history, the strategy, and the incredible human cost of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle.
Ghost stories and the paranormal lore of Gettysburg? That’s coming next week. For now, lace up your boots and join us as we stand in the footprints of history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
She used to get visited by people at night that
died in the mills.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There is a shadow figure standing right next to where
the pictures are on the wall that we had just been.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
At about ten minutes ago. Right when we crossed the bridge.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I saw something.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And as I walk into the hallway, I feel like
I see a little girl out of the right corner
of my eye.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Dude, I see this fucking man quick one too, like
blink my eyes for three seconds and he's fucking gone through.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The inn is haunted by three ghosts. He says, there's
the general, there's a little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
All of a sudden, just gets this weirdest feeling today,
just got really cold all of a sudden. It's like,
kinda within a minute of saying that, we see two
blonde hair, blue eyed children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hear them come up the stairs, but I don't see
the light any he or anything. Ferdie went back down
to get it, and about five minutes later he comes
up the stairs and he's got the light in hand,
and I'm like, dude, what did you do? You forget
the light downstairs the first time? And he's like, what
do you mean. He's like, I heard you come up
the stairs. I didn't see a light. Peers like, dude,
wasn't that wasn't me.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
There's a weird feeling about it. We turned. We well,
these kids are fucking gone too.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
All right, we're back and it's the day for Gettysburg.
We got to go out to Gettysburg on the way
to Para Con. I know you've heard about this already.
We've talked about it several times. You may be getting
sick of it by now, But today we're gonna do
the Gettysburg episode. In the dark forest. Life's the secret
(01:57):
told in broken stories by those who have bore witness
a monster, a murder, a long forgotten ghost town shrouded
in mystery. We're not just here to uncover these stories.
We're here to walk the haunted pads, to seek out
the restless spirits who linger in these forsaken places, and
we want you to come along. Welcome to tails, trails
and taverns where curiosity defy his caution. We venture into
(02:21):
the eerie trails, the abandoned ghost towns, and the old
taverns where echoes of the past still cling to the air.
These are the places others might warn you not to
go to, so lace up your boots, grab a work
and flashlight, and join us together. We'll tell the tails,
hike the trails, and raise a glass of the spirits,
both spectral and distilled, who wait for us at the
(02:43):
tavern's door. Let's talk about first the experience of getting
out there. Man, What oh was it like when we
got there?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It was wild, man, I mean the ride was kind
of long when it take.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
About seven hours. It's only that we got there around
what two point thirty three in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah. Here's here's the thing about that, man. Like I thought,
I thought we were going to get out there and
be able to look around and have and see a
fair portion of Gettysburg. There's no possible way to do
that until we got there, knowing that we had like
two or three hours. And then I saw that the
(03:29):
driving tour of Gettysburg was twenty seven miles and would
last roughly two hours to do.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I mean literally the entire town, except for like this
little like downtown area that has like a KFC and
a couple like little shops and stuff like for people
who live.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
In the town. I mean the top the entire town is.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Dedicated to the history of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I mean probably like every in and every tavern and
stuff like that has some sort of history and is
attached in some way to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I mean it's there's not I don't know if you
read this, but the population of the town is only
like six thousand, Joe, there's not a lot of people
that actually live in the.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Town of Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So, in all fairness, the entire town. Like, so we
get to the.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
All right, we pull into Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
We drive two hours past Phoenixville where we were staying.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
We get to the information center.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And now I'm thinking an information center maybe a building,
you know, not that big, maybe a couple of people,
grab a couple of flyers, a restroom. Bro the fucking
information center was like the size of a Walmart.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Broh got And there were so many people there already
on a Friday, not even not even a weekend. There
are huge groups of people going on the different tours.
There's all kinds of it. There's a huge information desk
with people who are just you know, there was what
half a dozen people there who were just there to
(05:18):
point out what places were on the map and like
to show you where to go if you wanted to
go to a specific place.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It was insane, dude.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They had a whole staff of people working there, just
like massive, you know, like whatever information you wanted, like
historical battle fields or like the twenty seven mile bus tour,
you could sign up and pay for that.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, the two hour self guided tour, self guided driving tour,
the guided driving tours where somebody would hop into your
car with you and then drive you around from place
to place and explain everything to you for two hours.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I mean, honestly, folks. I even told Joe before we
started recording on this thing, me and him could go
back there and spend an entire weekend there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I mean somebody like, Yeah, if you really wanted to
dive into Gettysburg, you could spend several days there just
going from one place to another. And then you know,
you add on the different taverns, like I said, the
restaurants and the inns and stuff that had something to
do with the battle and going to each visiting all
of those too. Like if you wanted to have dinner
or one or whatever, you could spend a week there.
(06:41):
Probably you could probably spend a week there. Take it
all in. If you wanted to see all the monuments
on how many monuments were there, over thirteen hundred, over
thirteen hundred monuments, and.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
We're talking about big stone, beautiful grante monuments that are
like thirty feet high, some.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Of the original buildings, the Cemetery, Cemetery Hill, the National Cemetery.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I felt like I saw but over five hundred repelica cannons.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, I don't know that those are replicas.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's that's what I thought to you. I remember I
actually I said, do you think he's a legit or
are they replicas?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah? But like you said, they were made A bunch
of were made out of copper, And it was like
we were discussing whether or not cannons were actually built
out of copper back then.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I mean that the copper was old because it was
all oxidized and green.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right, I just didn't think copper was a good metal
to build cannons out of. But what do I know.
I didn't fight in the in the Civil War.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, I'm not a Civil War veteran.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I wasn't building canons back in the eighteen hundred, So
what do I know?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
But my god, I mean, me and Joe. We we
went walked into.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That place, and I don't know about you, but I
was I was overwhelmed.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I was like clob and over the head, That's how
I felt.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, it was. It was so much going on. We
walked in there. I wasn't expecting to see I mean,
I was expecting to see a lot of people, but
I was not expecting to see that many people in
a building at Gettysburg. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It was fucking nutty.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But we grabbed a map and we decided to hit
the walking trail.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, we went towards Cemetery Hill and then we went
towards the National Cemetery mm hmmm, which was part of
the ground that was where the National Cemetery is where
the Gettysburg Address was done, where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address.
Cemetery Hill was was a big battle. Yes. Then after
(09:02):
we got we got caught in the rain going back
to the car.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, so about two hours and folks, we got caught
into a thunder and lightning storm.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Super fun trying to hike back to the car in
there thunder and lightning.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We got significantly soaked, but we did take a ride
out to one of the more the most paranormal spots
of the of the battlefield, which was the Devil's Den.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, so we went. We went took a drive over
to Devil's Den and that's right near a little big
top mm hmm. And so we didn't go up We
didn't drive up a little big top. You can drive
up there apparently, or you can hike up there. We
didn't go up there because it had been pouring out.
We didn't want to go too far from the car,
so we just walked around Devil's Den and then we
headed to go get lunch, and we kind of drove
(09:54):
around and we found this another sign that had this
big wheat field and it said Whirlpool of Death. Looked
death side.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I was just gonna say that, so, oh my.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
God, absolutely nuts. We did take little videos here and there,
we did, I didn't we didn't catch anything paranormal. We
weren't really spend a whole lot of time looking for it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I mean at this point, we were just hauling ass,
trying to see as much as we could.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, and we're driving around. We were kind of driving
on part of the driving tour, driving through areas and
there's just monuments all over the place. You can't even
you can't even stop to read them while there's so
many as you're going so man, and I mean the
fields were just the fields where it all happened. We
(10:45):
were just expansive and you were right by the way.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To Joe, we were thirty minutes north of the Mason
Dixon line.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I looked that up later.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it said about thirty five miles or thirty minutes
from the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the the Maryland border or
pretty close to the Maryland border.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
It's the Pennsylvania Maryland border.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, yeah, down the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I feel like that's why there was such a
strong because when we started reading the monuments, Joe, we
saw that troops came in from upstate New York. Troops
came in from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Like yeah, it was fucking nuts, dude. And I'm thinking to.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Myself, like, yeah, we just drove seven hours, well yeah,
seven hours from from Westerly, Rhode Island to to.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Fucking Gettysburg, yep. And I'm thinking in the back of
my head.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
People marched all the way the hell from Maine to year.
Oh yeah, like how many how many weeks or how
many months do you think it took to mobilize troops
to Pennsylvania, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And then you know what was the other thing that
that was was crazy?
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Joe was so anytime we were at a battlefield, it
gave how many casualties, how many wounded, and how many
were missing, And it always seemed like the number of
missing was way higher than like the number of the
ladder two.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, the fact that so many men were just gone
or unidentifiable at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean maybe like like I said, they were hit
with a cannonball and splattered in the punk, missed, or
you know, maybe some people fighting just like threw their
rifle down and said fuck this noise and like ran away.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah. I feel like, if you were smart, you'd have
been the guy who was like, nope, done, I'm out
of here, taking on a different name. I'm just gonna
changing my name and just leaving heading out west.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I'm dude, I wouldn't be shocked if that was was
a thing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, it was a more prominent but I mean the
amount of people that died in this battle is nuts.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, I got the number wrong actually last time. I
think it's what do you have the number of fun of.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You not in front of it. I'll probably get to
it reading this all right.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So, I mean, folks, we only got about three maybe
four hours tops to spend in this town that we
easily could have spent four or five days in. Yeah,
and I don't even know in four or five days
if you're gonna see all of it. Yeah, that's how
how much there is to say.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, we tried to We tried to go grab lunch
at this place that was I don't even remember the
name of the place, but it was one that was
it was either a field it was a field hospital
or something during the war, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
It was.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
It had the aesthetic of like an old bar that
had been turned into a brewery.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah. So it had been the place that was there
during Gettysburg and it was a prominent place during Gettysburg.
We we drove by there because we were like, oh,
well just stop there for lunch, and it was there
was no way the line went halfway around the building
ye to get in. So I went to another another
bar that was good, but it wasn't there during Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean they had a hell of a steak and cheese,
and I'll say that much.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, it was a good place. It was a brewery.
It was a good beer too.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, I have to shout them out if I remember
the name of it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Pennsylvania doesn't doesn't ever the beers pretty well. Yeah, I
have no gripes about any Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Breweries.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, but all right.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Right, man, do you want to get into the history.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I will get into the history. I'm gonna I'm
gonna four part section here. I'm gonna read out for
you guys, and I hope you enjoy it all right.
In the late spring of eighteen sixty three, the American
Civil War was entering a new phase. The Union and
Confederate armies have been locked in brutal combat for over
(15:45):
two years, with neither side gaining a defense decisive upper hand.
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of
General Robert E. Lee, had emerged victorious in a string
of battles, including the stunning triumph at Chancellor Chancellorsville, But
despite these battlefield successes, the Confederacy remained on the defensive,
(16:06):
with much of the fighting taking place on southern soil. Lee,
aware of the South's dwindling resources and in desperate need
of a strategic advantage, made a bold decision he would
take the fight to the north. His goal invade Pennsylvania,
threatened cities like Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and forced the Union
into a position where they would have no choice but
(16:27):
to sue for peace, or at the very least draw
Union troops away from the besieged city of Vicksburg in
the West. A successful northern invasion might also bolster Confederate
morale and possibly sway European powers to recognize the Confederacy
as a legitimate nation. So he was struggling here at
this point, it seems. By June of eighteen sixty three,
(16:53):
Lee began moving his army north through the Shenandoah Valley,
cleverly using the natural terrain to mask his intentions from
Union scouts. He divided his army into three corps, led
by Generals James Longstreet, Richard Ewell, and A. P. Hill.
These corps moved swiftly and stealthily, crossing the Potomac River
into Maryland and then pushing into Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the Union
(17:24):
Army of the Potomac, recently placed under the command of
General George G. Mead after the replacement of General Joseph Hooker,
scrambled to keep peace keep pace. Mediate only be in
command for a matter of days, yet he was tasked
with one of the most critical moments of the war.
His army shadowed these movements from the south, keeping between
the Confederates and the vital Union cities of Washington and Baltimore.
(17:48):
The cities of Pennsylvania were caught off guard. Panic spread
to the countryside as Confederate troops crossed into the state.
Towns like Chambersburg and Carlisle were occupied by Southern forces.
Militia units were hastily assembled, and local governments pleated for reinforcements.
The psychological effect of a Confederate army marching freely on
Union soil was profound, but not always going smoothly for Lee,
(18:12):
His cavalry commander, General J. E. B. Stewart, had embarked
on a wide ranging raid that left Lee effectively blind
to Union movements. Without Stuart's cavalry, Lee lacked vital intelligence
about the position and strength of Mead's army. This lack
of reconnaissance would prove costly. As the Confederate army moved
deeper into Pennsylvania, Lee ordered his scattered divisions to concentrate
(18:36):
near the town of Gettysburg, a small but strategically important crossroads.
The town was the junction of ten roads and surrounded
by high ground, making it a valuable objective for both sides.
On June thirtieth, Union cavalry under Brigadier General John Beauford
entered Gettysburg and recognized the tactical value of the surrounding terrain.
(18:57):
Boufford know that holding the high ground was essential, and
he prepared his men to delay any Confederate advance until
Union infantry could arrive. Early on the morning of July,
first elements of A. P. Hill's Corps approached Gettysburg from
the west, expecting only minor militia resistance. Instead, they encountered
Buford's cavalry. Skirmishing erupted quickly, and the Battle of Gettysburg
(19:20):
had begun almost by accident. What started as a chance
encounter soon escalated into the one of the bloodiest battles
in American history. So that is getting into the lead
up of Gettysburg. So it seems like it was sort
(19:41):
of unexpected that they were going to meet up and
start skirmishing.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
That's crazy, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I mean, I know that Gettysburg was definitely the the biggest,
one of the biggest turning points.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Of the war. Yeah, yeah, all right, So we're gonna
get into day one. It was the morning of July first,
eighteen sixty three, and the quiet hills of south central
Pennsylvania were about to be shattered by the thunder of war.
(20:23):
The fields, farms, and crossroads of Gettysburg, wants nothing more
than a peaceful town of twenty four hundred residents, would
soon become soaked in blood and forever etched in the
American memory. The Battle of Gettysburg had begun. Neither the
Union Northern Confederate forces planned to fight here. This town,
nestled in the rolling terrain of Adams County, was more
(20:44):
of an accident of geography than strategy. But the webber
roads converging at Gettysburg would drop both armies like a
storm toward its eye. General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army
of Northern Virginia was pushing north, emboldened by a string
of victories and hoping to bring war to the Union's doorstep.
Union Major General George Meade, newly appointed just days before,
(21:06):
was rushing his Army of the Potomac to intercept, and
all began just outside of town with a single brigade.
Around seven thirty am, Union cavalry under General John Bufford
were posted west of Gettysburg, watching the approaches along the
Chambersburg Pike. Buford saw what was coming, Confederate infantry under
General Henry Heath marching east toward town. Beuford's troopers, dismounted
(21:31):
and armed with carbines, braced to by time. Outnumbered, out gunned,
but determined, the shots started crackling over her air ridge.
What began as the skirmish turned into a firefight. Buford's
cavalry slowed the advance, and by mid morning Union reinforcements
began to arrive, none more important than the feigned Iron Brigade,
(21:53):
led by General Solomon Meredith. They charged through the morning
fog into the woods near Willoughby, Ruddy, slamming into Confederate
forces like a hammer striking an anvil. The Iron Brigade,
veterans of an anti tim and bull run, where they
wore their distinctive black, hardy hats and fought like men possessed,
(22:14):
but the Confederates struck back hard. General Hest's men were
reinforced by General Dorsey Pender's division, and soon thousands of
gray clad soldiers were pouring into the fields west of Gettysburg.
The Union right under General John Robinson, dug in north
of town along Oak Ridge, and what followed was carnage.
(22:35):
Imagine it. Thick smoke from rifles and cannon shrouded the fields,
men yelling above the roar of gunfire, horses pandicking collapsing
mid gallop. The air was a churning maelstrom of lead
and fear. By early afternoon, more Confederate troops under General
Richard Ewell arrived from the north, striking the Union eleventh Corps.
(22:55):
Union lines, already stretched thin, began to buckle. Then came
the collapse around four pm, with thousands of Confederate troops
pressing from the west to the north. Union lines broke.
Soldiers fled through the streets of Gettysburg, civilians watching in
horror from the windows and cellars. Union General Oliver Howard,
(23:16):
realizing the town couldn't be held, ordered to retreat to
the high ground. South of town Cemetery Hill. They ran
through alleyways, over fences, dropping rifles, bootslapping against cobblestones. Slick
with blood, The Confederates surged into Gettysburg behind them, many
of them shouting, looting, and firing wildly. By sunset, the
(23:37):
Confederates held the town. Union forces, battered and bloody, regrouped
on Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge now behind, and Seminary Ridge
now behind enemy lines. The numbers from that single day
are staggering. In just one day of battle, the Union
suffered over nine thousand casualties. The Confederates around sixty five
(23:58):
hundred men were butchered in wheat fields, churchyards, and peach orchards.
Bodies lay in the hot summer sun, limbs, missing faces, burned,
some still clutching rifles as that they could finish the
fight and death. The Lutheran Seminary, originally built to educate
young men in scripture, became a hospital, reeking of blood
and disinfectant. Surgeons worked without pause, sawing off limbs and
(24:23):
tossing them into piles. Screams echoed through the night. The
dead were so numerous that graves had to be dug
with bare hands or not at all. Many lay where
they fell, mouths open in silent terror, eyes staring skyward.
Their last view a plume of smoke with the face
of their killer. The men who survived the first day
(24:45):
knew more fighting would come. The Confederates, emboldened by victory,
believed they could finish the job. The Union, battered but
entrenched on the hills and Ridges, were ready to hold
the line. As darkness fell over the shattered town of Gettysburg,
no one, not soldier nor civilian, could imagine the scale
of death that was still to come. So that's day
(25:08):
one Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I mean by accident too, Like they didn't realize they
were gonna start fighting each other, and they just started fighting.
They just ran into each other. Yeah, man, I mean,
can you imagine that, Like you're just there one day,
then all of a sudden, ship, here's the here's the Confederates,
and you lose the town.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
No, I can't imagine that. Dude just walking.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Around that area and I'm like where I'm standing, there
could have been like thousands of dead bodies just all
over the place.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Everywhere, Yeah, everywhere.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Like that just kept That was the one thing that
that was to be verberating in my mind, you know
what I mean? Yeah, Like where out the field I'm
staring at right now was probably glittered with thousands of
dead human beings.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, and then all the yeah, you know what I mean.
And that's and then you start to understand, like why
there were so many who were missing, like all the
mass grades that they had to do. The I mean
they're talking about sawing off limbs and just throwing them
into piles.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Oh god, the stench must.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Have been so bad, just trying to save people. Yeah.
I can't imagine the smell of that, especially I mean
July in Pennsylvania, Like we were there a couple of
weeks ago when it was hot. Yeah, you know, not
even it's not even the South's.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah that that Saturday when it hit eighty four, it
was it was a smug eighty four, bro, Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right onwards and upwards. H So it's dawn, July second,
eighteen sixty three. The sun breaks slowly over the Pennsylvania Hills,
casting pale gold across farmland still soaked in blood. Smoke
from yesterday's battle still clings to the low lying valleys.
(27:22):
Gettysburg is no longer just a name. It is now
a place of death. Union General George Meade, newly in command,
had spent the night consolidating his forces along the high
ground south of town. His line ran in the shape
of a fish hook, anchored at Culp's Hill on the right,
running down Cemetery Ridge and curling around to the rocky
(27:43):
hill called Little Roundtop on the left. It was a
strong position defensible, but General Robert y Lee believed it
could be broken. Lead hoped to strike again quickly, but
miscommunications and delays haunted his plants. His right flank, under
General Ewe, had failed to seize Culps Hill the night before,
and now on the morning July second, lisad his sights
(28:06):
on the Union left. He ordered Lieutenant General James Longstreet
to lead the assault. Long Street hesitated. He was a
seasoned soldier, but he knew what kind of slaughter was.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
What's that I said, I would hesitate to it. Didn't
mean to cut you off, but yeah, right, I would
be very hesitant under the circumstances.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I mean, it seems like after the first day they
got the upper hand.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, like the Confederates happened
are under the impression that they're.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
They're winning, they're advancing. Yeah, go on, man, I didn't
mean to cut.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
You off, but I'm just trying to wrap my mind
around this and it's fucking mind boggling, all right, So
go on, bro, I didn't mean to cut you off,
but I just hadet.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Long Street hesitating. He was a seasoned soldier and he
knew what kind of slaughter was coming, but duty outweighed doubt.
By midafternoon, the fields of Gettysburg trembled again. Longstreet's forces,
divisions under General Hood and mcclaws emerged from the woods
south of town. Their target, the Union left flank, a
(29:19):
stretch of ground that would soon become names etched in
history the Peach Orchard, the wheat Field, Devil's Den, and
Little Roundtop. From Confederate positions along Seminary Ridge, nearly one
hundred and forty guns opened fire. Union batteries roared back.
The hills shook, horses screamed and collapsed in mid gallop.
(29:43):
Trees splintered, men were cut in half by iron flame.
At around four PM, Longstreet's infantry surged forward. Thousands of
men advanced in waves, their boots pounding across farmland, fences
and rocky gullies. First came the attack on Devil's Den,
jagged outcrop of boulders just below Little Roundtop. Confederate Texans
(30:04):
and Alabamians fought tooth and nail with Union troops from
New York and Pennsylvania. The rocks turned slick with blood,
bayonets locked, muskets fired point blank. It wasn't a battle,
It was a butchery. Bodies slipped between the boulders like
discarded rag dolls, the cries of the wounded echoing through
stone crevasses. Even today, visitors to Devil's Dens speak of
(30:28):
an eerie stillness. Cameras malfunction shatters, linga linger, and some
say the dead still walk there, searching for unfinished business.
But the fight wasn't over. As Devil's Den fell, the
real danger emerged Little Roundtop. Atop that rocky hill stood
a small, vital Union force. Only moments before the Confederate assault,
(30:52):
Colonel Strong Vincent had rushed his brigade into position. Had
the Confederates taken the hill, they would have rolled up
the U S Union like line like paper, and so
became one of the most legendary stands in American military history.
At the foreign end of Vince's lides to the twentieth Maine,
led by a school teacher turned soldier, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
(31:15):
wave after wave of Alabamians crashed against their line. They
charged up the hill, clonging through rock and brush. Union
soldiers fired until their barrels overheated, until they were out
of ammunition, then used bayonets, rocks, and their bare hands,
and still the Confederates came. When all seemed lost, Chamberlain
made a desperate decision. With his men nearly out of ammo,
(31:38):
he ordered a bayonet charge down the slope. They rushed,
screaming like bangees, catching the shot Confederates off guard. It worked.
The twentieth Maine held the hill Little Roundtop stayed in
Union hands, but at a terrible price. The hillside was
slick with blood. Bodies lay draped across rocks, mouse frozen
(32:00):
in silent screams among them Colonel Vincent mortally wounded. Chamberlain
himself was later awarded the Medal of Honor. Meanwhile, in
the center and right of the Union line, fighting raged
just as fiercely. The wheat field, a sun dappled clearing
surrounded by trees, became a killing ground. Over six separate
(32:22):
charges and counter charges swept through the field, and control
of it changed hands six times in three hours. Men
who had survived Antedium and Fredericksburg said it was worse
than anything they'd seen. The field was carpeted with the
dead men piled atop one another, torn apart by grape
(32:42):
shot and musket balls, and Confederate general later described it
as a red sea of horror, And just beyond the
peach orchard, once a symbol of harvest and peace, became
a death trap. Artillery batteries fought to the last, shell
men loading and firing even as their comrade fell dead
beside them. The orchards, trees caught fire, the scent of
(33:04):
peaches mingling with the iron stench of blood. By nightfall,
neither side had gained a true advantage. The Union line
had held but barely. The Confederates had pushed them to
the brink, but not broken the line, and the cost
was staggering. In one day, July second, the two armies
had suffered nearly twenty thousand casualties. The fields of Gettysburg
(33:28):
were no longer green. They were brown with churned mud,
red with blood, and blackened with smoke. And when night
came again, the groans of the dying echoed through the hills.
Some cried out for water, others begged for their mothers.
A few sang hymns through bloody lips, knowing the morning
would never come. As the stars emerged over Pennsylvania, Mead's
(33:49):
commanders gathered for a council of war. They would stay
and fight. There was nowhere else to go, and Lee
Lee was undeterred. He had thrown everything he had at
the Union flanks and failed, but he believed the center
just up Cemetery Ridge could be cracked. Tomorrow, July third,
(34:12):
he would send General George Pickett and thousands of men
across open fields into the mouth of Union artillery. So
another twenty thousand.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
On day two, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So that's when the So we we were over there
at Devil's Den. You can see little roundtop, and we
passed by the peach and the wheat fields and the
whirlpool of death. That's what that was. That was all
day two fighting.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Can you imagine too, like the horses, that's gotta smell
horrible for dead horses.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, I'm just thinking of like Devil's Dead and all
those rocks, and just thinking about bodies filling the cracks
between the rocks, you know what I mean? Like that?
Oh yeah, and then and then a little big top
man looking down that looking up that hill from Devil's
dewn Could you imagine trying to fight your way up
(35:11):
that hill. To have a bunch of men charged bayonets
down it at.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
You kind of explains why so many people went missing?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Seriously, does I mean.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if if you just
got like shot in the arm and you just like
just laid down and played dead or something, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Like yeah, but I mean, like, dude, grape shot is
you know what grape shot is in a cannon? Fire right?
It's basically it's basically shotgun, but they're like I mean,
they're massive pellets.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, it's a massive, but it looks like a fucking
thirty pound kettle bell ball.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
But it's like the grape shot is like is like
a shotgun shell for a cannon. It's like it's round
balls that say they're about an inch or two round balls.
They're all steel or lead, and they're just packed in there.
There's like probably a dozen or more packed into a cannon,
you know, a cannon's barrel, and then fired out. And
(36:18):
I mean one of those hits you man at close range,
like one of those hits you hits a person directly,
it's blowing a huge hole right through the middle, flattering
the bits. Yeah, and they're just firing them at the
lines as they're coming towards them. Jesus Christ, It's absolutely nuts.
(36:40):
What these guys did?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know, from a veteran standpoint, when you hear stories
like this, do you ever feel a little like inferior
when you hear stories like this.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
About how the service in Iraq versus ship like Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, never in my never, in my time. Never in
my eight years in the Marine Corps, did I ever
see a field carpeted with bodies, No.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
With twenty thousand people dead.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
No, I've I've never. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
The closest thing I could imagine is when when the
Marines retook Fallujah, and I wasn't in the city, so
I only heard stories about it. But there were there
were guys who were pulling the bodies out of Fallujah
and bringing them to the just outside of the cities.
And they're talking about like the smell of three thousand
(37:41):
bodies outside of the city of Fallujah back in two
thousand and four. And I mean you could you could
smell it. You could catch it on the wind when
you were at the right, when you were close enough,
you could smell the stench from the bodies. But I
wasn't like right up and close with them. But these
guys who were like there, who were moving in the
bodies and piloting them and stuff like that, you could tell,
(38:03):
like you could tell it affected them deeply, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
I would be highly concerned if it didn't affect Yeah,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah, I can't imagine. It does make
you kind of feel inferior, like you don't know what
real combat was like, you know. Yeah, like if you
were to say, this is real combat versus whatever whatever else,
if this was the degree, this was this is the standard,
(38:40):
if this is this is what everybody thought combat was,
you know.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, man, it's fucking I am so glad. I was
born in the time I was born, and I served
in the time I served.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And what's what's funny is what's funny is I was
at the DMV the other day and I was getting
I was getting new plates from my other jeep and
and you know, I was getting I was having to
put veteran plates on them. And she's like, oh, you
know what brands you serve in. It's like Marine Corps.
She's like combat vet. And I'm like and like, yeah,
I served in the combat zone. Yes, I'm a combat vet.
(39:16):
But looking at it now, like I would have after
reading this, I would kind of like, was I combat
vet compared to these guys? Was I really? Did? I
really see them?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
And you know what's crazy is like they they got
nowhere near the level of training that we got.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Dude, No, they were just dragging these guys out of their.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Beds, uniform a musta this is how you shoot it
all right, go fight like that.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
That was the extent of their training.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, I mean yeah, their hand to hand combat was
just running at each other with bayonets. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I don't think that was a course to teach you
how to ban that fight back.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Then, I mean and fighting like throwing rocks at each
other too, like off the hill.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Oh my god. When you read that to me, I'm like, yeah,
I would definitely be a missing person.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I'm not fucking fighting to the death with bayonets and rocks.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Dude, dude, No, they're like whatever happened to Rob, Like, oh,
he went missing in action? Like I saw him in
Philly two days ago. We haven't done any fighting since then. Yeah,
I know, he's just he's on my ad.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I'd be out running a homestead in Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
He's heading out west on a wagon trade.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Fuck that, dude, you're telling me I got to fucking
fight people with bayonets and rocks.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah right, I mean I would if I had to.
But oh my god, that's just gruesome.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. All right. So that was only
day two.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Oh god, it gets better, It gets.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Better, all right. So day three. It is the morning
of July third, eighteen sixty three. The fields outside Gettysburg light,
blanketed in a heavy mist. Dew clings to the bloodstained grass.
The groans of the wounded echo faintly in the hills
between Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge. Thousands of men Union
(41:26):
and Confederate alike stir in the early light, their faces gaunt,
their hands trembling, their uniforms torn and blackened with powder
and gore. The third day is about to begin, and
General Robert E. Lee is about to gamble everything. He
believes that the Union center, positioned on the gently sloping
(41:47):
cemetery ridge, is vulnerable. After two days of savage fighting
in the flanks, Lee is convinced Mead has shifted strength
away from the middle, so he devises bit a plan,
a bold, tragic plan. He will hurl nearly fifteen thousand
men across nearly a mile of open field right into
(42:08):
the Union line. It will become known as Picket's Charge.
But before the charge there will be fire. At one pm,
over one hundred and fifty Confederate cannons open fire. The
ground trembles, trees, shut her under the force, shrap no
wines through the air. This is one of the largest
(42:28):
artillery bombardments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Lee
Hope's the barrage will soften up the Union defenses, shred
their artillery, terrify the men in the trenches. But the
Union guns fire back, and through the smoke and chaos,
the defenders hold in. The cops of trees along Cemetery Ridge,
an unassuming little grove that will become the eye of
(42:49):
the storm. Union infantry men crouched behind stone walls, wiping
sweat from their brows, reloading and waiting. The noise is
beyond comprehension. Veterans later said it sounded like the sky
was splitting open. Limbs were torn from bodies, heads blown apart.
A Union soldier wrote that he watched an entire cannon
(43:11):
crew vanish in a single burst of flame, leaving behind
only boots and blood. Then the barrage stops. What's that?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I mean, that's gonna be the majority of the missing
right there.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
I mean, yeah, he said, Ah, an entire cannon crew
vanished in a single burst of flame. Jesus Christ, that's
absolutely nuts.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
I'm sorry I keep interrupting you.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
It's just it's very hard to wrap my head around
this entire fucking.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah. No, it's crazy, now you get Then the barrage stops.
A sudden, eerie silence falls over the field, and out
of that silence, like ghosts rising from the earth, they
come three divisions, led by Generals Picket, Pettigue, Pedigrew, and Trimble.
Row upon Row of gray and butternut uniforms, battleflags snapping
(44:11):
in the hot summer air, bayonets flashing in the sun.
They march out of the tree line in perfect formation,
fifteen thousand men moving as one, some of them joking,
others praying, all them walking towards death. The field between
them and Cemetery Ridge is flat, open and unforgiving nearly
a mile of exposure, no cover, and no shelter. As
(44:35):
they march, Union soldiers can hardly believe their eyes. It's
like watching a parade, only this parade will end in screams.
At three hundred yards, the Union guns open, fire Men
fall in swats. Entire regiments disappear beneath smoke and steel,
but the Confederate line reforms and keeps marching. At two
(44:56):
hundred yards, the cannister shot begins. Canister, the closest thing
to a giant shotgun shell, cannons packed with iron balls
that rip through flesh, leg lightning through dry wood. The
Confederate line stumbles, reforms again, and continues forward. Shouts of
command rise above the thunder advance close ranks. At one
(45:19):
hundred yards, the final fury Union musketry erupts like a
wave crashing over rock. Soldiers behind the stone wall fire
at point blank range. Confederate soldiers scream, fall, crawl, and
die still. Some reach the wall. A handful even breakthrough
at the cops of trees. The blood runs ankle deep.
(45:43):
Brigadier General Lewis Armistead, hat perched on his sword, leads
his men over the wall. Give them the cold steel boys,
he cries, and then he shot down. This is the
high water mark of the Confederacy. It lasts only moments,
and then it crashes. Union troops pour in from both sides,
folding around the survivors like a closing fist. Bayonets, stab, rifles,
(46:07):
club the lion collapses. The Confederate retreat is chaotic and brutal.
Wounded men stumble across the field, dragging shattered limbs, crying
for water. Others crawled, leaving trails of blood behind them.
The field is the charlel House. Over six thousand Confederate
casualties in less than an hour. Pickett's division, the Pride
(46:30):
of Virginia, is nearly annihilated. When Lisi's picket returning, he
is said to have asked him to rally his division.
Pickett's answer, General, I have no division. And just like that,
the hopes of the Confederacy died in the wheat of Pennsylvania.
The next day, July fourth, the reins came. The Union
(46:52):
army held the field. Lee's army, battered and broken, began
its retreat back to Virginia. He had gambled and he
had lost. Gettysburg would prove to be the turning point
of the Civil War, though it would rage on for
nearly two more bloody years. The Confederacy would never again
mount an offensive on that scale. But for those who
(47:12):
walk that ground, for those who screamed, bled and died,
it was not about grand strategy. It was about survival.
It's about watching your best friend crumble beside you, about
writing a final letter home with trembling hands, about staring
up at the sky and wondering if your God had
abandoned you.
Speaker 4 (47:35):
That's deep. So there you go, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I mean, I don't I don't understand the mentality of like, oh,
we've been fighting them on the flanks and then let's
just charge up the middle. Well, yeah, I don't know, man,
I mean a mile they said, a mile of open ground,
(48:07):
and we were I'm pretty sure where we were with
that big cemetery. I'm pretty sure that was cemetery ridge
that we walked up to.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
Yes, it was six thousand men in less than an hour.
Jesus Christ, dude.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, that's one thousand more than the Battle of Aragua.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Wow, in one hour, in one field.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
In one hour. Yeah, that's crazy man.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Fuck. Uh.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Remember Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were in
the same class at West Point.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, I remember hearing about that.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Robberty Lee was the hotshot. He graduated valve victorian.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
You Listedes Grant graduated dead last in that class.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Well, I mean, so maybe.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
It was a little bit of of Lee's arrogance, probably
stubborn headed, stubborn, stubbornness, what do they call it, stubbornness?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean he marched fifteen thousand people across
an open field right into the right, into the center
of the line. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
But maybe there was a sense of him knowing that
his knowing, like personally knowing.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
You listened, ask.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Grant like I can overtake this fucking schlump, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (49:40):
Maybe, and that was.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
His arrogance was his downfall.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Probably it could have been could have Yeah, I mean,
it could have been easier. They they might have thought
that it was easier than fighting in the hills, you know,
coming up, coming up across the more flat land, flat land,
you would, but there's no there's also no protection.
Speaker 4 (50:04):
Yeah, you're out in the open.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
I mean I get that he wanted to you know,
he fired all the art he fired all the already
up there artillery, trying to trying to break the line
before they marched up there, hoping that it would be
a little a little easier to get up the hill.
But ship man, that's crazy, dude. That's it's just it's
(50:30):
nuts the thing. And that's the way they that's the
way they fought it.
Speaker 4 (50:34):
I'm gonna tell you right now, Bros.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
We go back to Para Con, Yeah, I would like
to maybe spend a day just.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
To get his berg.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, I mean if.
Speaker 4 (50:50):
We go, if we go back as vendors and whatnot, and.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
You know what I mean, Yeah, I mean, I've lived.
I'd love to spend some time out there, just just
to go spend some time at Gettysburg, you know.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, even that, I was just gonna say that it
might even be what's going on.
Speaker 4 (51:09):
A couple of days vacation, just just to really really
really get engrossed in the history of Eddiesburg.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Man, I wonder how many people go out there and
like try to hang out after dark, because I notice
all the signs as you're driving around there, all the
signs say, you know, closed after sunset. Park is closed
after sunset. I wonder how many people go out there
and are like, want to do paranormal investigation, or want
to do ghost hunting, or want to see stuff at.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
The sign that I saw, Joe was it opens a
half an hour prior to sunrise and it closes half
an hour after sunset.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Right, But you are right, dude, this's got to be
I mean, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
Of groundcover, and I don't I can't see people like,
oh there's another group. Go Like, there's got to be
people that just wander around all over the place ghost hunting.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
They probably do. I mean, you probably just stop drive around,
you know. I don't think they close those roads that
they close the the auto tour roads, you know, yeah,
or close the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
I mean, I'm sure they like areas like that, but like,
who's to stop you from going the Devil's Den at
fucking nine o'clock at night, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know if they shut those roads.
I don't think they do. I don't think they were
gates or anything. They probably don't keep people from driving
around out there, so I'm sure all kinds of shit.
But still, man, it's it's a massive area. But actually hearing,
you know, actually reading about how the battle went and
(53:00):
then some of the places and putting it together with
some of the places that we went to and checked out,
it does make it a little more It makes it
more interesting, you know, Yeah, kind of. I didn't realize
like the gravity of some of the places that we
were going to, you know, oh my god, Cemetery Ridge
(53:20):
and Devil's Den and Little Big Top. But I didn't realize, like,
you know, I know it was I know, you had
told me about Devil's then being a place where there's
a lot of paranormal activity and people go there and
see a lot of stuff, pick up a lot of stuff.
But I didn't think. I didn't realize like how many
people had actually died there fighting, you know, how bad
(53:43):
it really was.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Yeah, man, it was crazy, just.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
An absolute slaughterhouse.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Yeah, yeah, literally neat.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Well, man, I'm glad you got into the history. Do
you want to tell them what? Uh?
Speaker 2 (54:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (54:14):
What what we're doing uh for next week?
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah? Next week we're going to we're gonna look into
all the the hauntings and we're gonna try to look
into that as much as we can. And I'm sure
there's a lot of it. I guarantee there's gonna be
so many stories of hauntings out the Gettysburg that's gonna
fill the entire episode up. And that's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna find a lot of those stories and we're
(54:39):
gonna bring them all back here.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
I mean, personally, we didn't really, I don't.
Speaker 4 (54:45):
Did you experience anything?
Speaker 2 (54:48):
No? No, I mean because normally I don't. I didn't
see anything weird. I didn't see any shadows or figures
or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
There were moments where I was, like I said, I
was staring at an open field, or when we were
on top of Devil's Den, I'm like, where I'm staring
there could have been thousands.
Speaker 4 (55:09):
Of dead human beings.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean, Like that, that thought
did cross my mind quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Yeah, I was I was wondering whether or not people
were running up a little big, little big top, and
I was looking up that hill trying to imagine what
it would be like going trying to fight up that
Now that I'm now that I realized that, yes, they
did in fact fight up that hill and then charged
down it. That and like the grandeur of the whole
the whole place, the monument where that is, in the
(55:41):
place where the Gettysburg Address was given, like just knowing
how much history happened in that place, you know.
Speaker 4 (55:50):
I didn't think about it when I was reading it,
but then like later on, when I was.
Speaker 5 (55:53):
Like really really, like when we got back home from
Pennsylvanian ship and I was reading score in seven years ago,
it was like, oh my god, I've heard.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
This so many times when I was a kid, Like.
Speaker 5 (56:04):
I took two and two together, but I'm like, that's
that's like Getty's Burg address.
Speaker 2 (56:09):
Yeah, four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so
(56:29):
dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is all together fitting and proper that we should
do this, But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate,
(56:51):
we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far
above our power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is
for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to
(57:13):
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion. That we here highly resolved that these deads
shall not have died in vain, that this nation under
(57:36):
God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from this earth. Absolutely nuts man. So
glad we're able to get out there. Glad we're able
to check it out. See the places that we did,
especially the Devil's Den, little bits Top, the Whirlpool of Death,
(57:59):
that Wheat Field, the Peachfields, and then Cemetery Ridge. You know,
interesting to read all about that after having gone out
there and seen it all. You know, guys, thanks for listening.
I'm glad you got out here to enjoy the Gettysburg
st Stay tuned next week Gettiesburg Part two, all about
(58:22):
the hauntings. Also, don't forget to check us out a
horror movie. Mondays. We got a good one coming on
next Monday. Oh yeah, so we'll see you until next time. Man,
get out there and find your spirits.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Follo
She used to get visited by people at night that
died in the mills.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There is a shadow figure standing right next to where
the pictures are on the wall that we had just been.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
At about ten minutes ago. Right when we crossed the bridge.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I saw something.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And as I walk into the hallway, I feel like
I see a little girl out of the right corner
of my eye.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Dude, I see this fucking man quick one too, like
blink my eyes for three seconds and he's fucking gone through.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The inn is haunted by three ghosts. He says, there's
the general, there's a little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
All of a sudden, just gets this weirdest feeling today,
just got really cold all of a sudden. It's like,
kinda within a minute of saying that, we see two
blonde hair, blue eyed children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hear them come up the stairs, but I don't see
the light any he or anything. Ferdie went back down
to get it, and about five minutes later he comes
up the stairs and he's got the light in hand,
and I'm like, dude, what did you do? You forget
the light downstairs the first time? And he's like, what
do you mean. He's like, I heard you come up
the stairs. I didn't see a light. Peers like, dude,
wasn't that wasn't me.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
There's a weird feeling about it. We turned. We well,
these kids are fucking gone too.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
All right, we're back and it's the day for Gettysburg.
We got to go out to Gettysburg on the way
to Para Con. I know you've heard about this already.
We've talked about it several times. You may be getting
sick of it by now, But today we're gonna do
the Gettysburg episode. In the dark forest. Life's the secret
(01:57):
told in broken stories by those who have bore witness
a monster, a murder, a long forgotten ghost town shrouded
in mystery. We're not just here to uncover these stories.
We're here to walk the haunted pads, to seek out
the restless spirits who linger in these forsaken places, and
we want you to come along. Welcome to tails, trails
and taverns where curiosity defy his caution. We venture into
(02:21):
the eerie trails, the abandoned ghost towns, and the old
taverns where echoes of the past still cling to the air.
These are the places others might warn you not to
go to, so lace up your boots, grab a work
and flashlight, and join us together. We'll tell the tails,
hike the trails, and raise a glass of the spirits,
both spectral and distilled, who wait for us at the
(02:43):
tavern's door. Let's talk about first the experience of getting
out there. Man, What oh was it like when we
got there?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It was wild, man, I mean the ride was kind
of long when it take.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
About seven hours. It's only that we got there around
what two point thirty three in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah. Here's here's the thing about that, man. Like I thought,
I thought we were going to get out there and
be able to look around and have and see a
fair portion of Gettysburg. There's no possible way to do
that until we got there, knowing that we had like
two or three hours. And then I saw that the
(03:29):
driving tour of Gettysburg was twenty seven miles and would
last roughly two hours to do.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I mean literally the entire town, except for like this
little like downtown area that has like a KFC and
a couple like little shops and stuff like for people
who live.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
In the town. I mean the top the entire town is.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Dedicated to the history of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I mean probably like every in and every tavern and
stuff like that has some sort of history and is
attached in some way to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I mean it's there's not I don't know if you
read this, but the population of the town is only
like six thousand, Joe, there's not a lot of people
that actually live in the.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Town of Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So, in all fairness, the entire town. Like, so we
get to the.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
All right, we pull into Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
We drive two hours past Phoenixville where we were staying.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
We get to the information center.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And now I'm thinking an information center maybe a building,
you know, not that big, maybe a couple of people,
grab a couple of flyers, a restroom. Bro the fucking
information center was like the size of a Walmart.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Broh got And there were so many people there already
on a Friday, not even not even a weekend. There
are huge groups of people going on the different tours.
There's all kinds of it. There's a huge information desk
with people who are just you know, there was what
half a dozen people there who were just there to
(05:18):
point out what places were on the map and like
to show you where to go if you wanted to
go to a specific place.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It was insane, dude.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They had a whole staff of people working there, just
like massive, you know, like whatever information you wanted, like
historical battle fields or like the twenty seven mile bus tour,
you could sign up and pay for that.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, the two hour self guided tour, self guided driving tour,
the guided driving tours where somebody would hop into your
car with you and then drive you around from place
to place and explain everything to you for two hours.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I mean, honestly, folks. I even told Joe before we
started recording on this thing, me and him could go
back there and spend an entire weekend there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I mean somebody like, Yeah, if you really wanted to
dive into Gettysburg, you could spend several days there just
going from one place to another. And then you know,
you add on the different taverns, like I said, the
restaurants and the inns and stuff that had something to
do with the battle and going to each visiting all
of those too. Like if you wanted to have dinner
or one or whatever, you could spend a week there.
(06:41):
Probably you could probably spend a week there. Take it
all in. If you wanted to see all the monuments
on how many monuments were there, over thirteen hundred, over
thirteen hundred monuments, and.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
We're talking about big stone, beautiful grante monuments that are
like thirty feet high, some.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Of the original buildings, the Cemetery, Cemetery Hill, the National Cemetery.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I felt like I saw but over five hundred repelica cannons.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, I don't know that those are replicas.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's that's what I thought to you. I remember I
actually I said, do you think he's a legit or
are they replicas?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah? But like you said, they were made A bunch
of were made out of copper, And it was like
we were discussing whether or not cannons were actually built
out of copper back then.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I mean that the copper was old because it was
all oxidized and green.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right, I just didn't think copper was a good metal
to build cannons out of. But what do I know.
I didn't fight in the in the Civil War.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, I'm not a Civil War veteran.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I wasn't building canons back in the eighteen hundred, So
what do I know?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
But my god, I mean, me and Joe. We we
went walked into.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That place, and I don't know about you, but I
was I was overwhelmed.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I was like clob and over the head, That's how
I felt.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, it was. It was so much going on. We
walked in there. I wasn't expecting to see I mean,
I was expecting to see a lot of people, but
I was not expecting to see that many people in
a building at Gettysburg. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It was fucking nutty.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But we grabbed a map and we decided to hit
the walking trail.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, we went towards Cemetery Hill and then we went
towards the National Cemetery mm hmmm, which was part of
the ground that was where the National Cemetery is where
the Gettysburg Address was done, where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address.
Cemetery Hill was was a big battle. Yes. Then after
(09:02):
we got we got caught in the rain going back
to the car.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, so about two hours and folks, we got caught
into a thunder and lightning storm.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Super fun trying to hike back to the car in
there thunder and lightning.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We got significantly soaked, but we did take a ride
out to one of the more the most paranormal spots
of the of the battlefield, which was the Devil's Den.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, so we went. We went took a drive over
to Devil's Den and that's right near a little big
top mm hmm. And so we didn't go up We
didn't drive up a little big top. You can drive
up there apparently, or you can hike up there. We
didn't go up there because it had been pouring out.
We didn't want to go too far from the car,
so we just walked around Devil's Den and then we
headed to go get lunch, and we kind of drove
(09:54):
around and we found this another sign that had this
big wheat field and it said Whirlpool of Death. Looked
death side.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I was just gonna say that, so, oh my.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
God, absolutely nuts. We did take little videos here and there,
we did, I didn't we didn't catch anything paranormal. We
weren't really spend a whole lot of time looking for it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I mean at this point, we were just hauling ass,
trying to see as much as we could.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, and we're driving around. We were kind of driving
on part of the driving tour, driving through areas and
there's just monuments all over the place. You can't even
you can't even stop to read them while there's so
many as you're going so man, and I mean the
fields were just the fields where it all happened. We
(10:45):
were just expansive and you were right by the way.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To Joe, we were thirty minutes north of the Mason
Dixon line.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I looked that up later.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it said about thirty five miles or thirty minutes
from the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the the Maryland border or
pretty close to the Maryland border.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
It's the Pennsylvania Maryland border.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, yeah, down the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I feel like that's why there was such a
strong because when we started reading the monuments, Joe, we
saw that troops came in from upstate New York. Troops
came in from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Like yeah, it was fucking nuts, dude. And I'm thinking to.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Myself, like, yeah, we just drove seven hours, well yeah,
seven hours from from Westerly, Rhode Island to to.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Fucking Gettysburg, yep. And I'm thinking in the back of
my head.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
People marched all the way the hell from Maine to year.
Oh yeah, like how many how many weeks or how
many months do you think it took to mobilize troops
to Pennsylvania, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And then you know what was the other thing that
that was was crazy?
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Joe was so anytime we were at a battlefield, it
gave how many casualties, how many wounded, and how many
were missing, And it always seemed like the number of
missing was way higher than like the number of the
ladder two.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, the fact that so many men were just gone
or unidentifiable at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean maybe like like I said, they were hit
with a cannonball and splattered in the punk, missed, or
you know, maybe some people fighting just like threw their
rifle down and said fuck this noise and like ran away.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah. I feel like, if you were smart, you'd have
been the guy who was like, nope, done, I'm out
of here, taking on a different name. I'm just gonna
changing my name and just leaving heading out west.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I'm dude, I wouldn't be shocked if that was was
a thing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, it was a more prominent but I mean the
amount of people that died in this battle is nuts.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, I got the number wrong actually last time. I
think it's what do you have the number of fun of.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You not in front of it. I'll probably get to
it reading this all right.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So, I mean, folks, we only got about three maybe
four hours tops to spend in this town that we
easily could have spent four or five days in. Yeah,
and I don't even know in four or five days
if you're gonna see all of it. Yeah, that's how
how much there is to say.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, we tried to We tried to go grab lunch
at this place that was I don't even remember the
name of the place, but it was one that was
it was either a field it was a field hospital
or something during the war, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
It was.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
It had the aesthetic of like an old bar that
had been turned into a brewery.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah. So it had been the place that was there
during Gettysburg and it was a prominent place during Gettysburg.
We we drove by there because we were like, oh,
well just stop there for lunch, and it was there
was no way the line went halfway around the building
ye to get in. So I went to another another
bar that was good, but it wasn't there during Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean they had a hell of a steak and cheese,
and I'll say that much.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, it was a good place. It was a brewery.
It was a good beer too.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, I have to shout them out if I remember
the name of it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Pennsylvania doesn't doesn't ever the beers pretty well. Yeah, I
have no gripes about any Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Breweries.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, but all right.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Right, man, do you want to get into the history.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I will get into the history. I'm gonna I'm
gonna four part section here. I'm gonna read out for
you guys, and I hope you enjoy it all right.
In the late spring of eighteen sixty three, the American
Civil War was entering a new phase. The Union and
Confederate armies have been locked in brutal combat for over
(15:45):
two years, with neither side gaining a defense decisive upper hand.
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of
General Robert E. Lee, had emerged victorious in a string
of battles, including the stunning triumph at Chancellor Chancellorsville, But
despite these battlefield successes, the Confederacy remained on the defensive,
(16:06):
with much of the fighting taking place on southern soil. Lee,
aware of the South's dwindling resources and in desperate need
of a strategic advantage, made a bold decision he would
take the fight to the north. His goal invade Pennsylvania,
threatened cities like Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and forced the Union
into a position where they would have no choice but
(16:27):
to sue for peace, or at the very least draw
Union troops away from the besieged city of Vicksburg in
the West. A successful northern invasion might also bolster Confederate
morale and possibly sway European powers to recognize the Confederacy
as a legitimate nation. So he was struggling here at
this point, it seems. By June of eighteen sixty three,
(16:53):
Lee began moving his army north through the Shenandoah Valley,
cleverly using the natural terrain to mask his intentions from
Union scouts. He divided his army into three corps, led
by Generals James Longstreet, Richard Ewell, and A. P. Hill.
These corps moved swiftly and stealthily, crossing the Potomac River
into Maryland and then pushing into Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the Union
(17:24):
Army of the Potomac, recently placed under the command of
General George G. Mead after the replacement of General Joseph Hooker,
scrambled to keep peace keep pace. Mediate only be in
command for a matter of days, yet he was tasked
with one of the most critical moments of the war.
His army shadowed these movements from the south, keeping between
the Confederates and the vital Union cities of Washington and Baltimore.
(17:48):
The cities of Pennsylvania were caught off guard. Panic spread
to the countryside as Confederate troops crossed into the state.
Towns like Chambersburg and Carlisle were occupied by Southern forces.
Militia units were hastily assembled, and local governments pleated for reinforcements.
The psychological effect of a Confederate army marching freely on
Union soil was profound, but not always going smoothly for Lee,
(18:12):
His cavalry commander, General J. E. B. Stewart, had embarked
on a wide ranging raid that left Lee effectively blind
to Union movements. Without Stuart's cavalry, Lee lacked vital intelligence
about the position and strength of Mead's army. This lack
of reconnaissance would prove costly. As the Confederate army moved
deeper into Pennsylvania, Lee ordered his scattered divisions to concentrate
(18:36):
near the town of Gettysburg, a small but strategically important crossroads.
The town was the junction of ten roads and surrounded
by high ground, making it a valuable objective for both sides.
On June thirtieth, Union cavalry under Brigadier General John Beauford
entered Gettysburg and recognized the tactical value of the surrounding terrain.
(18:57):
Boufford know that holding the high ground was essential, and
he prepared his men to delay any Confederate advance until
Union infantry could arrive. Early on the morning of July,
first elements of A. P. Hill's Corps approached Gettysburg from
the west, expecting only minor militia resistance. Instead, they encountered
Buford's cavalry. Skirmishing erupted quickly, and the Battle of Gettysburg
(19:20):
had begun almost by accident. What started as a chance
encounter soon escalated into the one of the bloodiest battles
in American history. So that is getting into the lead
up of Gettysburg. So it seems like it was sort
(19:41):
of unexpected that they were going to meet up and
start skirmishing.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
That's crazy, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I mean, I know that Gettysburg was definitely the the biggest,
one of the biggest turning points.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Of the war. Yeah, yeah, all right, So we're gonna
get into day one. It was the morning of July first,
eighteen sixty three, and the quiet hills of south central
Pennsylvania were about to be shattered by the thunder of war.
(20:23):
The fields, farms, and crossroads of Gettysburg, wants nothing more
than a peaceful town of twenty four hundred residents, would
soon become soaked in blood and forever etched in the
American memory. The Battle of Gettysburg had begun. Neither the
Union Northern Confederate forces planned to fight here. This town,
nestled in the rolling terrain of Adams County, was more
(20:44):
of an accident of geography than strategy. But the webber
roads converging at Gettysburg would drop both armies like a
storm toward its eye. General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army
of Northern Virginia was pushing north, emboldened by a string
of victories and hoping to bring war to the Union's doorstep.
Union Major General George Meade, newly appointed just days before,
(21:06):
was rushing his Army of the Potomac to intercept, and
all began just outside of town with a single brigade.
Around seven thirty am, Union cavalry under General John Bufford
were posted west of Gettysburg, watching the approaches along the
Chambersburg Pike. Buford saw what was coming, Confederate infantry under
General Henry Heath marching east toward town. Beuford's troopers, dismounted
(21:31):
and armed with carbines, braced to by time. Outnumbered, out gunned,
but determined, the shots started crackling over her air ridge.
What began as the skirmish turned into a firefight. Buford's
cavalry slowed the advance, and by mid morning Union reinforcements
began to arrive, none more important than the feigned Iron Brigade,
(21:53):
led by General Solomon Meredith. They charged through the morning
fog into the woods near Willoughby, Ruddy, slamming into Confederate
forces like a hammer striking an anvil. The Iron Brigade,
veterans of an anti tim and bull run, where they
wore their distinctive black, hardy hats and fought like men possessed,
(22:14):
but the Confederates struck back hard. General Hest's men were
reinforced by General Dorsey Pender's division, and soon thousands of
gray clad soldiers were pouring into the fields west of Gettysburg.
The Union right under General John Robinson, dug in north
of town along Oak Ridge, and what followed was carnage.
(22:35):
Imagine it. Thick smoke from rifles and cannon shrouded the fields,
men yelling above the roar of gunfire, horses pandicking collapsing
mid gallop. The air was a churning maelstrom of lead
and fear. By early afternoon, more Confederate troops under General
Richard Ewell arrived from the north, striking the Union eleventh Corps.
(22:55):
Union lines, already stretched thin, began to buckle. Then came
the collapse around four pm, with thousands of Confederate troops
pressing from the west to the north. Union lines broke.
Soldiers fled through the streets of Gettysburg, civilians watching in
horror from the windows and cellars. Union General Oliver Howard,
(23:16):
realizing the town couldn't be held, ordered to retreat to
the high ground. South of town Cemetery Hill. They ran
through alleyways, over fences, dropping rifles, bootslapping against cobblestones. Slick
with blood, The Confederates surged into Gettysburg behind them, many
of them shouting, looting, and firing wildly. By sunset, the
(23:37):
Confederates held the town. Union forces, battered and bloody, regrouped
on Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge now behind, and Seminary Ridge
now behind enemy lines. The numbers from that single day
are staggering. In just one day of battle, the Union
suffered over nine thousand casualties. The Confederates around sixty five
(23:58):
hundred men were butchered in wheat fields, churchyards, and peach orchards.
Bodies lay in the hot summer sun, limbs, missing faces, burned,
some still clutching rifles as that they could finish the
fight and death. The Lutheran Seminary, originally built to educate
young men in scripture, became a hospital, reeking of blood
and disinfectant. Surgeons worked without pause, sawing off limbs and
(24:23):
tossing them into piles. Screams echoed through the night. The
dead were so numerous that graves had to be dug
with bare hands or not at all. Many lay where
they fell, mouths open in silent terror, eyes staring skyward.
Their last view a plume of smoke with the face
of their killer. The men who survived the first day
(24:45):
knew more fighting would come. The Confederates, emboldened by victory,
believed they could finish the job. The Union, battered but
entrenched on the hills and Ridges, were ready to hold
the line. As darkness fell over the shattered town of Gettysburg,
no one, not soldier nor civilian, could imagine the scale
of death that was still to come. So that's day
(25:08):
one Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I mean by accident too, Like they didn't realize they
were gonna start fighting each other, and they just started fighting.
They just ran into each other. Yeah, man, I mean,
can you imagine that, Like you're just there one day,
then all of a sudden, ship, here's the here's the Confederates,
and you lose the town.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
No, I can't imagine that. Dude just walking.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Around that area and I'm like where I'm standing, there
could have been like thousands of dead bodies just all
over the place.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Everywhere, Yeah, everywhere.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Like that just kept That was the one thing that
that was to be verberating in my mind, you know
what I mean? Yeah, Like where out the field I'm
staring at right now was probably glittered with thousands of
dead human beings.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, and then all the yeah, you know what I mean.
And that's and then you start to understand, like why
there were so many who were missing, like all the
mass grades that they had to do. The I mean
they're talking about sawing off limbs and just throwing them
into piles.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Oh god, the stench must.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Have been so bad, just trying to save people. Yeah.
I can't imagine the smell of that, especially I mean
July in Pennsylvania, Like we were there a couple of
weeks ago when it was hot. Yeah, you know, not
even it's not even the South's.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah that that Saturday when it hit eighty four, it
was it was a smug eighty four, bro, Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right onwards and upwards. H So it's dawn, July second,
eighteen sixty three. The sun breaks slowly over the Pennsylvania Hills,
casting pale gold across farmland still soaked in blood. Smoke
from yesterday's battle still clings to the low lying valleys.
(27:22):
Gettysburg is no longer just a name. It is now
a place of death. Union General George Meade, newly in command,
had spent the night consolidating his forces along the high
ground south of town. His line ran in the shape
of a fish hook, anchored at Culp's Hill on the right,
running down Cemetery Ridge and curling around to the rocky
(27:43):
hill called Little Roundtop on the left. It was a
strong position defensible, but General Robert y Lee believed it
could be broken. Lead hoped to strike again quickly, but
miscommunications and delays haunted his plants. His right flank, under
General Ewe, had failed to seize Culps Hill the night before,
and now on the morning July second, lisad his sights
(28:06):
on the Union left. He ordered Lieutenant General James Longstreet
to lead the assault. Long Street hesitated. He was a
seasoned soldier, but he knew what kind of slaughter was.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
What's that I said, I would hesitate to it. Didn't
mean to cut you off, but yeah, right, I would
be very hesitant under the circumstances.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I mean, it seems like after the first day they
got the upper hand.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, like the Confederates happened
are under the impression that they're.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
They're winning, they're advancing. Yeah, go on, man, I didn't
mean to cut.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
You off, but I'm just trying to wrap my mind
around this and it's fucking mind boggling, all right, So
go on, bro, I didn't mean to cut you off,
but I just hadet.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Long Street hesitating. He was a seasoned soldier and he
knew what kind of slaughter was coming, but duty outweighed doubt.
By midafternoon, the fields of Gettysburg trembled again. Longstreet's forces,
divisions under General Hood and mcclaws emerged from the woods
south of town. Their target, the Union left flank, a
(29:19):
stretch of ground that would soon become names etched in
history the Peach Orchard, the wheat Field, Devil's Den, and
Little Roundtop. From Confederate positions along Seminary Ridge, nearly one
hundred and forty guns opened fire. Union batteries roared back.
The hills shook, horses screamed and collapsed in mid gallop.
(29:43):
Trees splintered, men were cut in half by iron flame.
At around four PM, Longstreet's infantry surged forward. Thousands of
men advanced in waves, their boots pounding across farmland, fences
and rocky gullies. First came the attack on Devil's Den,
jagged outcrop of boulders just below Little Roundtop. Confederate Texans
(30:04):
and Alabamians fought tooth and nail with Union troops from
New York and Pennsylvania. The rocks turned slick with blood,
bayonets locked, muskets fired point blank. It wasn't a battle,
It was a butchery. Bodies slipped between the boulders like
discarded rag dolls, the cries of the wounded echoing through
stone crevasses. Even today, visitors to Devil's Dens speak of
(30:28):
an eerie stillness. Cameras malfunction shatters, linga linger, and some
say the dead still walk there, searching for unfinished business.
But the fight wasn't over. As Devil's Den fell, the
real danger emerged Little Roundtop. Atop that rocky hill stood
a small, vital Union force. Only moments before the Confederate assault,
(30:52):
Colonel Strong Vincent had rushed his brigade into position. Had
the Confederates taken the hill, they would have rolled up
the U S Union like line like paper, and so
became one of the most legendary stands in American military history.
At the foreign end of Vince's lides to the twentieth Maine,
led by a school teacher turned soldier, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
(31:15):
wave after wave of Alabamians crashed against their line. They
charged up the hill, clonging through rock and brush. Union
soldiers fired until their barrels overheated, until they were out
of ammunition, then used bayonets, rocks, and their bare hands,
and still the Confederates came. When all seemed lost, Chamberlain
made a desperate decision. With his men nearly out of ammo,
(31:38):
he ordered a bayonet charge down the slope. They rushed,
screaming like bangees, catching the shot Confederates off guard. It worked.
The twentieth Maine held the hill Little Roundtop stayed in
Union hands, but at a terrible price. The hillside was
slick with blood. Bodies lay draped across rocks, mouse frozen
(32:00):
in silent screams among them Colonel Vincent mortally wounded. Chamberlain
himself was later awarded the Medal of Honor. Meanwhile, in
the center and right of the Union line, fighting raged
just as fiercely. The wheat field, a sun dappled clearing
surrounded by trees, became a killing ground. Over six separate
(32:22):
charges and counter charges swept through the field, and control
of it changed hands six times in three hours. Men
who had survived Antedium and Fredericksburg said it was worse
than anything they'd seen. The field was carpeted with the
dead men piled atop one another, torn apart by grape
(32:42):
shot and musket balls, and Confederate general later described it
as a red sea of horror, And just beyond the
peach orchard, once a symbol of harvest and peace, became
a death trap. Artillery batteries fought to the last, shell
men loading and firing even as their comrade fell dead
beside them. The orchards, trees caught fire, the scent of
(33:04):
peaches mingling with the iron stench of blood. By nightfall,
neither side had gained a true advantage. The Union line
had held but barely. The Confederates had pushed them to
the brink, but not broken the line, and the cost
was staggering. In one day, July second, the two armies
had suffered nearly twenty thousand casualties. The fields of Gettysburg
(33:28):
were no longer green. They were brown with churned mud,
red with blood, and blackened with smoke. And when night
came again, the groans of the dying echoed through the hills.
Some cried out for water, others begged for their mothers.
A few sang hymns through bloody lips, knowing the morning
would never come. As the stars emerged over Pennsylvania, Mead's
(33:49):
commanders gathered for a council of war. They would stay
and fight. There was nowhere else to go, and Lee
Lee was undeterred. He had thrown everything he had at
the Union flanks and failed, but he believed the center
just up Cemetery Ridge could be cracked. Tomorrow, July third,
(34:12):
he would send General George Pickett and thousands of men
across open fields into the mouth of Union artillery. So
another twenty thousand.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
On day two, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So that's when the So we we were over there
at Devil's Den. You can see little roundtop, and we
passed by the peach and the wheat fields and the
whirlpool of death. That's what that was. That was all
day two fighting.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Can you imagine too, like the horses, that's gotta smell
horrible for dead horses.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, I'm just thinking of like Devil's Dead and all
those rocks, and just thinking about bodies filling the cracks
between the rocks, you know what I mean? Like that?
Oh yeah, and then and then a little big top
man looking down that looking up that hill from Devil's
dewn Could you imagine trying to fight your way up
(35:11):
that hill. To have a bunch of men charged bayonets
down it at.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
You kind of explains why so many people went missing?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Seriously, does I mean.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if if you just
got like shot in the arm and you just like
just laid down and played dead or something, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Like yeah, but I mean, like, dude, grape shot is
you know what grape shot is in a cannon? Fire right?
It's basically it's basically shotgun, but they're like I mean,
they're massive pellets.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, it's a massive, but it looks like a fucking
thirty pound kettle bell ball.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
But it's like the grape shot is like is like
a shotgun shell for a cannon. It's like it's round
balls that say they're about an inch or two round balls.
They're all steel or lead, and they're just packed in there.
There's like probably a dozen or more packed into a cannon,
you know, a cannon's barrel, and then fired out. And
(36:18):
I mean one of those hits you man at close range,
like one of those hits you hits a person directly,
it's blowing a huge hole right through the middle, flattering
the bits. Yeah, and they're just firing them at the
lines as they're coming towards them. Jesus Christ, It's absolutely nuts.
(36:40):
What these guys did?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know, from a veteran standpoint, when you hear stories
like this, do you ever feel a little like inferior
when you hear stories like this.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
About how the service in Iraq versus ship like Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, never in my never, in my time. Never in
my eight years in the Marine Corps, did I ever
see a field carpeted with bodies, No.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
With twenty thousand people dead.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
No, I've I've never. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
The closest thing I could imagine is when when the
Marines retook Fallujah, and I wasn't in the city, so
I only heard stories about it. But there were there
were guys who were pulling the bodies out of Fallujah
and bringing them to the just outside of the cities.
And they're talking about like the smell of three thousand
(37:41):
bodies outside of the city of Fallujah back in two
thousand and four. And I mean you could you could
smell it. You could catch it on the wind when
you were at the right, when you were close enough,
you could smell the stench from the bodies. But I
wasn't like right up and close with them. But these
guys who were like there, who were moving in the
bodies and piloting them and stuff like that, you could tell,
(38:03):
like you could tell it affected them deeply, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
I would be highly concerned if it didn't affect Yeah,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah, I can't imagine. It does make
you kind of feel inferior, like you don't know what
real combat was like, you know. Yeah, like if you
were to say, this is real combat versus whatever whatever else,
if this was the degree, this was this is the standard,
(38:40):
if this is this is what everybody thought combat was,
you know.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, man, it's fucking I am so glad. I was
born in the time I was born, and I served
in the time I served.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And what's what's funny is what's funny is I was
at the DMV the other day and I was getting
I was getting new plates from my other jeep and
and you know, I was getting I was having to
put veteran plates on them. And she's like, oh, you
know what brands you serve in. It's like Marine Corps.
She's like combat vet. And I'm like and like, yeah,
I served in the combat zone. Yes, I'm a combat vet.
(39:16):
But looking at it now, like I would have after
reading this, I would kind of like, was I combat
vet compared to these guys? Was I really? Did? I
really see them?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
And you know what's crazy is like they they got
nowhere near the level of training that we got.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Dude, No, they were just dragging these guys out of their.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Beds, uniform a musta this is how you shoot it
all right, go fight like that.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
That was the extent of their training.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, I mean yeah, their hand to hand combat was
just running at each other with bayonets. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I don't think that was a course to teach you
how to ban that fight back.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Then, I mean and fighting like throwing rocks at each
other too, like off the hill.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Oh my god. When you read that to me, I'm like, yeah,
I would definitely be a missing person.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I'm not fucking fighting to the death with bayonets and rocks.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Dude, dude, No, they're like whatever happened to Rob, Like, oh,
he went missing in action? Like I saw him in
Philly two days ago. We haven't done any fighting since then. Yeah,
I know, he's just he's on my ad.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I'd be out running a homestead in Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
He's heading out west on a wagon trade.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Fuck that, dude, you're telling me I got to fucking
fight people with bayonets and rocks.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah right, I mean I would if I had to.
But oh my god, that's just gruesome.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. All right. So that was only
day two.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Oh god, it gets better, It gets.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Better, all right. So day three. It is the morning
of July third, eighteen sixty three. The fields outside Gettysburg light,
blanketed in a heavy mist. Dew clings to the bloodstained grass.
The groans of the wounded echo faintly in the hills
between Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge. Thousands of men Union
(41:26):
and Confederate alike stir in the early light, their faces gaunt,
their hands trembling, their uniforms torn and blackened with powder
and gore. The third day is about to begin, and
General Robert E. Lee is about to gamble everything. He
believes that the Union center, positioned on the gently sloping
(41:47):
cemetery ridge, is vulnerable. After two days of savage fighting
in the flanks, Lee is convinced Mead has shifted strength
away from the middle, so he devises bit a plan,
a bold, tragic plan. He will hurl nearly fifteen thousand
men across nearly a mile of open field right into
(42:08):
the Union line. It will become known as Picket's Charge.
But before the charge there will be fire. At one pm,
over one hundred and fifty Confederate cannons open fire. The
ground trembles, trees, shut her under the force, shrap no
wines through the air. This is one of the largest
(42:28):
artillery bombardments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Lee
Hope's the barrage will soften up the Union defenses, shred
their artillery, terrify the men in the trenches. But the
Union guns fire back, and through the smoke and chaos,
the defenders hold in. The cops of trees along Cemetery Ridge,
an unassuming little grove that will become the eye of
(42:49):
the storm. Union infantry men crouched behind stone walls, wiping
sweat from their brows, reloading and waiting. The noise is
beyond comprehension. Veterans later said it sounded like the sky
was splitting open. Limbs were torn from bodies, heads blown apart.
A Union soldier wrote that he watched an entire cannon
(43:11):
crew vanish in a single burst of flame, leaving behind
only boots and blood. Then the barrage stops. What's that?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I mean, that's gonna be the majority of the missing
right there.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
I mean, yeah, he said, Ah, an entire cannon crew
vanished in a single burst of flame. Jesus Christ, that's
absolutely nuts.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
I'm sorry I keep interrupting you.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
It's just it's very hard to wrap my head around
this entire fucking.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah. No, it's crazy, now you get Then the barrage stops.
A sudden, eerie silence falls over the field, and out
of that silence, like ghosts rising from the earth, they
come three divisions, led by Generals Picket, Pettigue, Pedigrew, and Trimble.
Row upon Row of gray and butternut uniforms, battleflags snapping
(44:11):
in the hot summer air, bayonets flashing in the sun.
They march out of the tree line in perfect formation,
fifteen thousand men moving as one, some of them joking,
others praying, all them walking towards death. The field between
them and Cemetery Ridge is flat, open and unforgiving nearly
a mile of exposure, no cover, and no shelter. As
(44:35):
they march, Union soldiers can hardly believe their eyes. It's
like watching a parade, only this parade will end in screams.
At three hundred yards, the Union guns open, fire Men
fall in swats. Entire regiments disappear beneath smoke and steel,
but the Confederate line reforms and keeps marching. At two
(44:56):
hundred yards, the cannister shot begins. Canister, the closest thing
to a giant shotgun shell, cannons packed with iron balls
that rip through flesh, leg lightning through dry wood. The
Confederate line stumbles, reforms again, and continues forward. Shouts of
command rise above the thunder advance close ranks. At one
(45:19):
hundred yards, the final fury Union musketry erupts like a
wave crashing over rock. Soldiers behind the stone wall fire
at point blank range. Confederate soldiers scream, fall, crawl, and
die still. Some reach the wall. A handful even breakthrough
at the cops of trees. The blood runs ankle deep.
(45:43):
Brigadier General Lewis Armistead, hat perched on his sword, leads
his men over the wall. Give them the cold steel boys,
he cries, and then he shot down. This is the
high water mark of the Confederacy. It lasts only moments,
and then it crashes. Union troops pour in from both sides,
folding around the survivors like a closing fist. Bayonets, stab, rifles,
(46:07):
club the lion collapses. The Confederate retreat is chaotic and brutal.
Wounded men stumble across the field, dragging shattered limbs, crying
for water. Others crawled, leaving trails of blood behind them.
The field is the charlel House. Over six thousand Confederate
casualties in less than an hour. Pickett's division, the Pride
(46:30):
of Virginia, is nearly annihilated. When Lisi's picket returning, he
is said to have asked him to rally his division.
Pickett's answer, General, I have no division. And just like that,
the hopes of the Confederacy died in the wheat of Pennsylvania.
The next day, July fourth, the reins came. The Union
(46:52):
army held the field. Lee's army, battered and broken, began
its retreat back to Virginia. He had gambled and he
had lost. Gettysburg would prove to be the turning point
of the Civil War, though it would rage on for
nearly two more bloody years. The Confederacy would never again
mount an offensive on that scale. But for those who
(47:12):
walk that ground, for those who screamed, bled and died,
it was not about grand strategy. It was about survival.
It's about watching your best friend crumble beside you, about
writing a final letter home with trembling hands, about staring
up at the sky and wondering if your God had
abandoned you.
Speaker 4 (47:35):
That's deep. So there you go, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I mean, I don't I don't understand the mentality of like, oh,
we've been fighting them on the flanks and then let's
just charge up the middle. Well, yeah, I don't know, man,
I mean a mile they said, a mile of open ground,
(48:07):
and we were I'm pretty sure where we were with
that big cemetery. I'm pretty sure that was cemetery ridge
that we walked up to.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
Yes, it was six thousand men in less than an hour.
Jesus Christ, dude.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, that's one thousand more than the Battle of Aragua.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Wow, in one hour, in one field.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
In one hour. Yeah, that's crazy man.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Fuck. Uh.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Remember Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were in
the same class at West Point.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, I remember hearing about that.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Robberty Lee was the hotshot. He graduated valve victorian.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
You Listedes Grant graduated dead last in that class.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Well, I mean, so maybe.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
It was a little bit of of Lee's arrogance, probably
stubborn headed, stubborn, stubbornness, what do they call it, stubbornness?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean he marched fifteen thousand people across
an open field right into the right, into the center
of the line. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
But maybe there was a sense of him knowing that
his knowing, like personally knowing.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
You listened, ask.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Grant like I can overtake this fucking schlump, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (49:40):
Maybe, and that was.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
His arrogance was his downfall.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Probably it could have been could have Yeah, I mean,
it could have been easier. They they might have thought
that it was easier than fighting in the hills, you know,
coming up, coming up across the more flat land, flat land,
you would, but there's no there's also no protection.
Speaker 4 (50:04):
Yeah, you're out in the open.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
I mean I get that he wanted to you know,
he fired all the art he fired all the already
up there artillery, trying to trying to break the line
before they marched up there, hoping that it would be
a little a little easier to get up the hill.
But ship man, that's crazy, dude. That's it's just it's
(50:30):
nuts the thing. And that's the way they that's the
way they fought it.
Speaker 4 (50:34):
I'm gonna tell you right now, Bros.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
We go back to Para Con, Yeah, I would like
to maybe spend a day just.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
To get his berg.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, I mean if.
Speaker 4 (50:50):
We go, if we go back as vendors and whatnot, and.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
You know what I mean, Yeah, I mean, I've lived.
I'd love to spend some time out there, just just
to go spend some time at Gettysburg, you know.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, even that, I was just gonna say that it
might even be what's going on.
Speaker 4 (51:09):
A couple of days vacation, just just to really really
really get engrossed in the history of Eddiesburg.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Man, I wonder how many people go out there and
like try to hang out after dark, because I notice
all the signs as you're driving around there, all the
signs say, you know, closed after sunset. Park is closed
after sunset. I wonder how many people go out there
and are like, want to do paranormal investigation, or want
to do ghost hunting, or want to see stuff at.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
The sign that I saw, Joe was it opens a
half an hour prior to sunrise and it closes half
an hour after sunset.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Right, But you are right, dude, this's got to be
I mean, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
Of groundcover, and I don't I can't see people like,
oh there's another group. Go Like, there's got to be
people that just wander around all over the place ghost hunting.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
They probably do. I mean, you probably just stop drive around,
you know. I don't think they close those roads that
they close the the auto tour roads, you know, yeah,
or close the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
I mean, I'm sure they like areas like that, but like,
who's to stop you from going the Devil's Den at
fucking nine o'clock at night, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know if they shut those roads.
I don't think they do. I don't think they were
gates or anything. They probably don't keep people from driving
around out there, so I'm sure all kinds of shit.
But still, man, it's it's a massive area. But actually hearing,
you know, actually reading about how the battle went and
(53:00):
then some of the places and putting it together with
some of the places that we went to and checked out,
it does make it a little more It makes it
more interesting, you know, Yeah, kind of. I didn't realize
like the gravity of some of the places that we
were going to, you know, oh my god, Cemetery Ridge
(53:20):
and Devil's Den and Little Big Top. But I didn't realize, like,
you know, I know it was I know, you had
told me about Devil's then being a place where there's
a lot of paranormal activity and people go there and
see a lot of stuff, pick up a lot of stuff.
But I didn't think. I didn't realize like how many
people had actually died there fighting, you know, how bad
(53:43):
it really was.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Yeah, man, it was crazy, just.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
An absolute slaughterhouse.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Yeah, yeah, literally neat.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Well, man, I'm glad you got into the history. Do
you want to tell them what? Uh?
Speaker 2 (54:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (54:14):
What what we're doing uh for next week?
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah? Next week we're going to we're gonna look into
all the the hauntings and we're gonna try to look
into that as much as we can. And I'm sure
there's a lot of it. I guarantee there's gonna be
so many stories of hauntings out the Gettysburg that's gonna
fill the entire episode up. And that's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna find a lot of those stories and we're
(54:39):
gonna bring them all back here.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
I mean, personally, we didn't really, I don't.
Speaker 4 (54:45):
Did you experience anything?
Speaker 2 (54:48):
No? No, I mean because normally I don't. I didn't
see anything weird. I didn't see any shadows or figures
or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
There were moments where I was, like I said, I
was staring at an open field, or when we were
on top of Devil's Den, I'm like, where I'm staring
there could have been thousands.
Speaker 4 (55:09):
Of dead human beings.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean, Like that, that thought
did cross my mind quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Yeah, I was I was wondering whether or not people
were running up a little big, little big top, and
I was looking up that hill trying to imagine what
it would be like going trying to fight up that
Now that I'm now that I realized that, yes, they
did in fact fight up that hill and then charged
down it. That and like the grandeur of the whole
the whole place, the monument where that is, in the
(55:41):
place where the Gettysburg Address was given, like just knowing
how much history happened in that place, you know.
Speaker 4 (55:50):
I didn't think about it when I was reading it,
but then like later on, when I was.
Speaker 5 (55:53):
Like really really, like when we got back home from
Pennsylvanian ship and I was reading score in seven years ago,
it was like, oh my god, I've heard.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
This so many times when I was a kid, Like.
Speaker 5 (56:04):
I took two and two together, but I'm like, that's
that's like Getty's Burg address.
Speaker 2 (56:09):
Yeah, four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so
(56:29):
dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is all together fitting and proper that we should
do this, But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate,
(56:51):
we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far
above our power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is
for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to
(57:13):
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion. That we here highly resolved that these deads
shall not have died in vain, that this nation under
(57:36):
God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from this earth. Absolutely nuts man. So
glad we're able to get out there. Glad we're able
to check it out. See the places that we did,
especially the Devil's Den, little bits Top, the Whirlpool of Death,
(57:59):
that Wheat Field, the Peachfields, and then Cemetery Ridge. You know,
interesting to read all about that after having gone out
there and seen it all. You know, guys, thanks for listening.
I'm glad you got out here to enjoy the Gettysburg
st Stay tuned next week Gettiesburg Part two, all about
(58:22):
the hauntings. Also, don't forget to check us out a
horror movie. Mondays. We got a good one coming on
next Monday. Oh yeah, so we'll see you until next time. Man,
get out there and find your spirits.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Follo
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