Tag Archives: Gettysburg National Military Park

Recent photos suggest the Little Round Top restoration is winding down

Photos recently released by the National Park Service suggest that the too-long-by-far closure and restoration of Little Round Top may soon end. The NPS closed LRT and its approach roads in July 2022 for a restoration project scheduled to take 12 to 18 months to complete (as advertised then). The project’s complexity obviously made 12 […]

Park Service will close Little Round Top for rehabilitation

Later this year the National Park Service will close Little Round Top to public visitation as this highly visited area undergoes rehabilitation at Gettysburg National Military Park. The Park Service plans major improvements to Little Round Top to address “visitor safety, resource protection, and accessibility for all visitors,” NPS Communications Specialist Jason Martz indicated in […]

What good are Union monuments at Gettysburg (part 3)?

After questioning the usefulness of Union monuments in part 1 and explaining their 19th-century value in part 2, I think that maybe there’s hope — or at least its inkling — in at least some Americans taking pride in what those monuments represent. In late June I conducted research at Gettysburg, across Stone Mountain, and […]

Artillery back story at Gettysburg, part 1

An oxidized cannon and a granite stone have a story to tell. Mainers visiting Gettysburg National Military Park naturally drift to its Maine monuments, usually starting with the 20th Maine Infantry’s modest gray monument on Little Round Top. There are many others,including two monuments to the 5th Maine Battery. So back to that oxidized cannon […]

Gettysburg Burning

Why was Gettysburg burning? Had Confederate Brig. Gen. John McCausland burned the town down as effectively as he did nearby Chambersburg in late July 1864? Not quite. Smoke still wisped amidst the now ashen undergrowth as I stepped onto the summit of Little Round Top on Wednesday, April 12. Brilliant redbud blossoms had brightened the “back […]

The 16th Maine Infantry monuments at Gettysburg

  From time to time we will wander to Gettysburg and visit the monuments left there by Maine units. Today let’s walk where the 16th Maine Infantry Regiment fought and died. Late afternoon on July 1, 1863, Col. Charles Tilden and his 16th Maine were west of Gettysburg, holding a line that essentially stretched from […]