Happy Father’s Day!
Dad meeting President Reagan when he won a WH News Photographers Assoc award for editing @nbcwashington (~1980 WRC-TV). Also won 4 local Emmy’s (3 w/Byline Lea Thompson). Didn’t know he was meeting Reagan, so we had 2 meet my dad in Tysons w/his suit!
@achdidaho can you give westbound Victory at Meridian just 10 more seconds for a green light in the morning? Only 8 cars making it through the light is ridiculous. I know a mile south, westbound Amity has a longer light. Please, make them the same!!
The Union troops by way of fife & drum try to renew the spirit of the town & encourage the citizens to come out of hiding
They march thru town on Independence Day celebrating a victory
But, when the citizens emerge...they find there isn't much to celebrate
#Gettysburg
🔵Independence Day 1863
It's raining at 6am
Wounded soldiers still on the battlefield are getting their first drink of water from the skies
A cool rain was surely a welcome thing for them after lying out there all night
More rain ...torrential rain is coming
#Gettysburg
Goodnight all from South Central PA!
Thank you again for following along the past 3 days
Your support means the world to me & to all of those who lost their lives 162 years ago
You are keeping their memory alive
#Gettysburg#Gettysburg162
Lee is back at his headquarters
It's time to get the hell outta Pennsylvania
He summons Gen Imboden
"We must return to Va...you will guard our train....I am afraid you will be harassed by the enemy's cavalry..." -Lee to Imboden
#Gettysburg
I must admit every "last day" I get quite sentimental
No 3 days in the 365 that we're given ea trip around the sun move me more than July 1st, 2nd & 3rd
I'm 1 of those saps who stands out at the stone wall & looks across the field & cries
This battle is significant
Period.
The flickering lanterns on what once were just farmer's fields & are now battlefields look like fireflies hovering above the dead & wounded
Tonight, the citizens of #Gettysburg are either still underground...
or tending to the wounded...
sleeping, most wouldn't be doing
#Gettysburg went from a population of 2,400 to about 15,000 in a matter of 72 hours
The citizens were now left with thousands of wounded soldiers spread out through town in barns...
sheds...
private residences...
churches
THANK YOU to my new followers from the coverage over the last 3 days!
I'll be covering the retreat & The Burning of Chambersburg later this month so don't go anywhere!
Keep #History alive for the NEXT 162 yrs after us!
Thank you, from South Central Co. PA!
#Gettysburg162
By the numbers:
Lee sent 15,000 (approx) soldiers across the field on this day 162 yrs ago
6,000 were killed, wounded, captured in 45 min
that's 133 losses per min
#Gettysburg
#Gettysburg citizen WB Bayly recalls on the evening of July 3
"Wagon trains, stragglers & camp followers began drifting back in the direction whence they came, our host visitors are folding their tents & quietly slipping away..."
#thecivilwar#Gettysburg162#AmericanHistory
As darkness fell over #Gettysburg this evening, the screams & moans of wounded & dead soldiers filled the air
Screaming for help for water or food for God for someone to just put them out of their misery
Flickering flames on the fields could be seen this evening...
There's a new air blowing this evening & it carries the screams & cries of wounded & dying soldiers from both sides
It carries the smell of lingering smoke
It carries the smell of bodies & carcasses baking in 80 degree heat
"You could smell #Gettysburg before you saw it."
Lee thought the Union may counter attack but it didn't come
The only thing left for Lee to do...
...was to retreat
and he would
The one maneuver he would execute successfully in North country
#Gettysburg#Gettysburg162
As Confederates retreat to the line of trees there's still a war waging in town
Citizens remain underground
They aren't sure what's happening above
Jennie Wade's body lay in her sister's basement w/her fam, her hands still covered in flour
#gettysburg
The 3/4 mile stretch of field looks different now
Dead soldiers
Wounded soldiers missing arms, legs, parts of their faces, some ripped in 1/2 screaming & crying for help for God, for it to be over
Body parts broken fences dead horses
The horror has just begun #Gettysburg162
Let us remember & honor at this time Alonzo Cushing who was killed at the height of this charge
Fighting to the last, wounded & still requesting orders
He was 22 when he died on the field
He would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor in 2014
#Gettysburg162#Gettysburg