The Gettysburg Compiler

George Leo Frankenstein’s View of Evergreen Cemetery

The above painting depicts the top of Evergreen Cemetery as it looked in the summer of 1866. The focus of the painting is clearly the gatehouse of Evergreen Cemetery, one of Cemetery Hill’s most prominent landmarks, and a familiar symbol of the Battle of Gettysburg. It is interesting to note not only what the painting prominently displays, but also what it does not. In the bottom right corner of the panorama is the gate to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Why would the artist not make this historically significant and patriotic setting the focus of the painting or at least one of his other paintings? What message was the artist trying to convey?

This painting was one of many of the Gettysburg area completed by George Leo Frankenstein. Frankenstein (1825-1911) was a native of Germany and a member of a family of artists who emigrated to Ohio in 1831. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and in the years following the war returned to many of the great battlefields to preserve them in watercolor “before any changes in their features had been made.” By his own accounting Frankenstein traveled over 3,000 miles in visiting Vicksburg, Knoxville, Gettysburg, Atlanta, and several Virginia battlefields. Continue reading “George Leo Frankenstein’s View of Evergreen Cemetery”

George Leo Frankenstein’s View of McPherson’s Ridge and Reynolds Woods

This 1866 George Leo Frankenstein watercolor encompasses the wooded area where Union Major General John F. Reynolds was killed. Based on Frankenstein???s annotations, the location seems to be in the proximity of the former Gettysburg Country Club, a…

By Braxton Berkey

This 1866 George Leo Frankenstein watercolor encompasses the wooded area where Union Major General John F. Reynolds was killed. Based on Frankenstein’s annotations, the location seems to be in the proximity of the former Gettysburg Country Club, along Chambersburg Pike (U.S. Route 30) at the western foot of McPherson Ridge. Frankenstein, standing on ground between the Union and Confederate lines on July 1st, 1863, was looking east, taking in an area against which A. P. Hill launched a series of Confederate assaults. While the growth of the trees and modern development make it impossible to obtain this view today, Frankenstein’s painting provides a remarkable view of a historic landscape that no other visual evidence captures. Today, if one were to stand where Frankenstein painted this scene, he/she would see the Gettysburg Country Club. The country club, which opened in 1948 and was once a favorite place of Dwight Eisenhower, closed in 2008 because of unpaid back taxes and mortgages. This painting reveals the possibilities of historic preservation, for while much of the former golf course seems likely to end up in the hands of the National Park Service, some of the acreage will remain in the hands of private developers. Due to the modern incursions of man and unchecked natural growth, this piece of art offers a one-of-a-kind view of this portion of America’s most celebrated battlefield, ground over which Archer’s and Brockenbrough’s men marched to defeat, and over which Scales’ North Carolinians passed in the final attacks on the Union position on Seminary Ridge in the distance.
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Frederick Gutekunst’s View of the Seminary

By Brian Johnson ’14

Philadelphia photographer Frederick Gutekunst captured this image within a few weeks of the Battle of Gettysburg. The name Gutekunst may be not as well known as other photographers of the battle such as Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner, but it is Gutekunst’s photograph of the Lutheran Theological Seminary that is believed to be the first image taken of the now famous building after the battle. It is interesting to note that when Gutekunst trained his camera on the building, there were likely several hundred wounded soldiers being cared for inside. Sarah Broadhead, who lived nearby and tended to the wounded at the Seminary, recalled:

The work of extracting the balls, and of amputating shattered limbs, had begun, and an effort at regular cooking. I aided a lady to dress wounds.… I found that I had only seen the lighter case, and worse horrors met my eyes on descending to the basement of the building. Men, wounded in three and four places, not able to help themselves the least bit, lay almost swimming in water. (We) called some nurses to help, and getting some stretchers, the work was begun. There were somewhere near 100 to be removed to the fourth story of the building.

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David McConaughy’s Letter of Invitation to Robert E. Lee

By Braxton Berkey

In the summer of 1869, Gettysburg attorney David McConaughy, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, invited former Confederate commander Robert E. Lee to participate in a reunion of officers in Gettysburg for the purpose of interpreting and memorializing the battlefield. Inviting Lee was an obvious choice for McConaughy. The general, however, was clearly reluctant to attend the event or indulge in Civil War remembrance. In fact, the public attention he received often made him uncomfortable and he became more reticent in divulging his side of the story. At face value, his desire to not “keep open the sores of war” appears to be a magnanimous gesture meant to suppress the ill will engendered by remembrance of the War’s bitter sectional animosities. That Robert E. Lee politely refused to attend a public event celebrating his most famous defeat is understandable. Lee was a reserved individual who rarely betrayed his innermost feelings. For example, Lee delegated the task of writing his famed and emotional farewell address to the Army of Northern Virginia to his aide, Colonel Charles Marshall. However, a look at Lee’s own words and actions in the years following his surrender at Appomattox offers further insight into why the Civil War remained a painful topic of discussion for Lee.

Of all the veterans McConaughy sought to bring to the battlefield the former commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, guaranteed the greatest amount of publicity for McConaughy’s project. After his surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia in April 1865, Lee became the embodiment of both reconstruction and reconciliation for the beleaguered South. Lee’s public persona was that of a defeated yet dignified elder statesman whose grace offered dejected Southerners a model of behavior to emulate. Continue reading “David McConaughy’s Letter of Invitation to Robert E. Lee”

George Frankenstein’s Depiction of the Round Tops and the Valley of Death

By Nathan Hill

A fiery sun is shown breaking through a dark sky. Boulders litter the landscape, while a dirt track, cracked and broken, runs through the foreground. In the distance, two hills are seen, the near sparsely forested and rocky, the far covered in trees. This vivid scene was painted by George Frankenstein in 1866, and is an excellent example of atmospheric perspective, as the warm colors in the foreground progress to the cooler colors in the background. But why did he choose to present this particular view of the battlefield?

A modern observer might recognize that this scene depicts Little Round Top, the leftmost hill, strewn with rocks. Little Round Top has become famous since the late 19th century when Joshua Chamberlain received the Medal of Honor for commanding of the 20th Maine in a gallant defense, protecting the Union flank from obliteration. This conflict has become ingrained in the national consciousness as one of the turning points of the battle of Gettysburg, and has been immortalized in print and film, including The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and the 1993 film Gettysburg directed by Ronald Maxwell, among countless other iterations, including a US Army Leadership Manual, FM22-100. But Chamberlain’s heroics did not become widely known until well after Frankenstein’s painting, and the artist’s vantage point is oriented toward the northern face of Little Round Top, not the southern face where the 20th Maine saw action; thus, Frankenstein did not select this scene with the intention of capitalizing on Chamberlain’s fame. Continue reading “George Frankenstein’s Depiction of the Round Tops and the Valley of Death”

The Case of Private Constantine Dickerson

By the time that Private Constantine Dickerson and the 67th New York Volunteers were called up from reserve on the morning of July 3rd, 1863, two Confederate attempts to take Culp???s Hill from Union defenders had already been repulsed. As Major Gen…

By Brian Johnson ’14

By the time that Private Constantine Dickerson and the 67th New York Volunteers were called up from reserve on the morning of July 3rd, 1863, two Confederate attempts to take Culp’s Hill from Union defenders had already been repulsed. As Major General Edward Johnson launched a third assault, Union defenders called for support. Brigadier General Alexander Shaler and his brigade of New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians, among them Private Dickerson and the 67th, had been held in reserve near the Spangler House since 9 am. Reserve status, however, by no means meant being detached from the fighting. Wounded men had been passing through their ranks all morning, and stray rounds passed overhead. For Dickerson, a veteran, these hallmarks of battle were nothing new. Dickerson had enlisted with the 67th New York (also known as the 1st Long Island) for three years in August of 1861. He had been a part of McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign, seeing action at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks (where his unit suffered 170 casualties), and Malvern Hill Not two months prior to the clash at Gettysburg, he had fought in the Chancellorsville campaign, storming Marye’s Heights. On the morning of July 3rd, however, surrounded by the familiar sounds, sights and smells of battle, as well as his comrades of almost two years, enduring a wait for battle that must have also been familiar, Dickerson went AWOL (absent/away without leave).

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A Wounded Alabamian at Gettysburg

By Brian Johnson ’14

The final drama of the Battle of Gettysburg was an ill-fated Union cavalry assault launched against the extreme right of the Confederate lines. It was likely during this fight on July 3rd that twenty-three year-old Lieutenant J.P. Breedlove, of the 4th Alabama, received his wound. A Minié ball entered the right side of his abdomen just above the inguinal ligament (approximately where the seated man above has an entry wound in his front) and traveled downward, severing part of Breedlove’s large intestine before exiting his body. As terrible as this wound was, Breedlove could count himself lucky. From experience, many surgeons knew wounds of the large intestine to be less fatal than wounds of the small intestine. One of the reasons for this higher rate of survival was the relative infrequency with which large intestine wounds became infected. Breedlove’s own experience seems to confirm this, for despite feces escaping from his wound, it healed steadily with only simple dressings for treatment. With this said, however, his wound had not healed over until well into November, some four months after Gettysburg, and was serious enough to necessitate him being left behind at the close of the battle.

With the devastating repulse of Pickett’s Charge, the Army of Northern Virginia was left in a precarious position. Though the Army of the Potomac had been badly worn down during three days of fighting, the specter of it mounting a counterattack remained. General Robert E. Lee had to get his army back across the Potomac River as quickly as possible in order to effectively disengage the enemy. To accomplish this, any man wounded too seriously to travel in a wagon train had to be left behind – Breedlove and some 5,000 other Confederates all told. Continue reading “A Wounded Alabamian at Gettysburg”

The Aftermath at Gettysburg: The Long Road Home

Case ??? Private William Furlong, Co. G, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, aged 33 years, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1st, 1863, by a fragment of shell, which struck the external angular process of the frontal bone and c…

By Thomas Skaggs

Case — Private William Furlong, Co. G, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, aged 33 years, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1st, 1863, by a fragment of shell, which struck the external angular process of the frontal bone and carried away the left superollinary ridge. The wound was about one and a half inches in width and four inches in length. He was insensible only for a short time, and, considering the serious nature of the injury it us remarkable that he walked with his companions to a sand-bank, and actually dug therefrom, with his own hand, the fragments of the shell which inflicted the injury. He received little or no treatment until July 16th, when he was admitted to Cotton Factory Hospital, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Tepid water was injected into the wound and several spiculae of bone were removed from the substance of the brain. One piece, however, was not removed and still remains, as it was feared that hemorrhage would follow; besides, the conscious condition of the patient did not warrant further interference. The pulse throughout remained normal, and sleep natural. On August 10th, the patient was cheerful, and healthy granulations had commenced. There was considerable tumefacation of the left eye, and inability to move eyelids. On forcibly opening them the pupil was found dilated; the intellect was unimpaired. On August 18th, the pulsations of the brain were still manifest, although granulations were nicely closing the wound. During August and September, scales and spiculae of bone which were forced to the surface by the granulations, were removed. He was discharged on September 14th, 1863. He is not a pensioner. The case is reported by Acting Assistant Surgeon Lewis Post.

The casualty lists from the battle of Gettysburg were unprecedented to that point in American history. Thousands of men died in a small town in south central Pennsylvania.The massive loss of life on July 1st through the 3rd can be attributed to many factors – poor tactics and new military technologies have often been put forth as catalysts for the massive bloodshed during those three hot days in 1863. While statistics reflect the great loss of life, individual stories like that of Private William Furlong of the 153rd Pennsylvania put a human face on the catastrophe. For many, Gettysburg was just a name on a list of many battles. For the civilians who lived in Gettysburg, their town had been changed into a massive field hospital catering to thousands of injured soldiers. For Private Furlong, Gettysburg was a moment that forever altered his life. Continue reading “The Aftermath at Gettysburg: The Long Road Home”

North Carolina and Virginia Memorials at Gettysburg: A Study in Contrasts

Sixty-six years after the repulse of ???Pickett???s Charge,??? the failed July 3, 1863 assault that represented the high-water mark of the doomed Confederate States of America, a host of devotees congregated at Seminary Ridge south of Gettysburg, Pennsy…

By Braxton Berkey

Sixty-six years after the repulse of “Pickett’s Charge,” the failed July 3, 1863 assault that represented the high-water mark of the doomed Confederate States of America, a host of devotees congregated at Seminary Ridge south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to pay homage to those North Carolinians who participated in the epic attack. Among those in the delegation was the then governor of North Carolina, O. Max Gardner, his immediate predecessor, Angus W. McLean, Mrs. E.L. McKee, the President of the North Carolina division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), which sponsored the memorial, and several other enthusiastic Southern partisans. Major-General B.F. Cheatham, the Quartermaster-General of the United States Army, and son of a Confederate major general, was proud to accept this monument on behalf of the United States War Department. During the ceremony, following the addresses of Mrs. McKee and past UDC president, Mrs. Marshall Williams, Cheatham expressed his gratitude toward the ladies of the South for making this monument a reality: “If there is any one person I honor more than a Confederate soldier it is his wife or sweetheart, whose courage, self-denial and moral support made his record possible. You are the daughters of those women, and today it is your persistent effort which finally brings about the erection of monuments and the marking of historic spots where your fathers fought, more than sixty years ago. May I offer you my congratulations upon the accomplishments of your desires here and upon the superlative good taste shown in the design selected.” Continue reading “North Carolina and Virginia Memorials at Gettysburg: A Study in Contrasts”

Rufus Weaver and Gettysburg’s Confederate Dead

Dead in the immediate vicinity of Culp???s Hill, though not in danger of the farmer???s plow, had been buried in shallow, mass graves. Culp???s Hill had been the site of fierce fighting on July 2nd and 3rd as Confederate troops sought to dislodge the Ar…

By Brian Johnson ’14

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Dead in the immediate vicinity of Culp’s Hill, though not in danger of the farmer’s plow, had been buried in shallow, mass graves. Culp’s Hill had been the site of fierce fighting on July 2nd and 3rd as Confederate troops sought to dislodge the Army of the Potomac’s right flank. The above photograph is illustrative of the manner in which Confederate dead were interred by the Union burial parties beginning on July 4th. On July 5th, civilian Clifton Johnson visited the hill and bore witness to the economized strategies of these men. At that point, burial parties were hurrying to deal with bodies that had been lying out for up to three days:

I went over to Culp’s Hill Sunday. They were burying the dead there in long narrow ditches about two feet deep. They would lay in a man at the end of the trench and put in the next man with the upper half of his body on the first man’s legs and so on. They got them in as thick as they could and only covered them enough to prevent their breeding disease.

J. Howard Wert was more impressed with the burial methods at Culp’s Hill, but was nonetheless descriptive of how Confederate dead were piled in trenches. Continue reading “Rufus Weaver and Gettysburg’s Confederate Dead”