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Feeling the Past at GettysburgBy Glenn W. LaFantasie | Civil War Times | 22 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post On a cloudy April day so many years before, I had walked almost the entire length of the battlefield. Toward late afternoon, I ended up on Little Round Top, standing beside the 20th Maine monument. I knew next to nothing about the regiment and its commander. I certainly knew nothing about William Oates, his brother John, and the luckless 15th Alabama. So I stood in front of the monument, reading the names of all the Maine soldiers who had defended this hill. Subscribe Today
All at once, a wave of emotion came crashing over me, and I felt remarkably connected to these courageous Maine boys. I pondered all the lost souls. I wondered about the poor families whose lives were shattered when they learned they had lost loved ones on a rocky Pennsylvania hillside. I thought about how those families must have felt cheated, bereft and alone. And then I thought about my own father, buried on a grim hilltop in Rhode Island. It was then—more than at any time since his unexpected death at 46—that I understood how much I missed him.  Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine Regiment A few weeks after the battle Oates learned of John’s death and met a Union courier who, under a flag of truce, returned his brother’s personal effects—a gold watch, a little money and a small bloodstained book. Not until July 1910 did William Oates learn that John’s body had been removed from Gettysburg in the early 1870s and laid to rest in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. After years of searching, William had finally located his lost brother. Two months later, he died at the age of 77. His Gettysburg nightmare was at last over. Sarah and I left Gettysburg that evening before sundown, driving south along the Emmitsburg Road, which took us past Warfield Ridge one last time. Just for a moment, I pulled the car over onto the shoulder. There in the gathering twilight we could see Big Round Top, its dark form silhouetted against the sky. We stayed long enough to watch the outline of the hill fade in the falling darkness. Then, without saying a word, I pulled the car back on the road and headed for home. Our pasts are locked up inside us. Sometimes, when we least expect it, they come spilling forth and intersect with other parts of our lives. On this day of discovery in Gettysburg, Sarah and I happened on several converging pasts, not all of them our own. Our journey had brought us both to a personal understanding of some of the many meanings of Gettysburg. The past is not always tangible or even knowable. But sometimes it can be seen, and every now and then it can be felt. On a misty spring day, across the lush fields and hills of Gettysburg, my daughter and I felt far-reaching echoes of our history. Glenn W. LaFantasie, the Richard Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History at Western Kentucky University, is the author of Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground, published in March 2008 by Indiana University Press. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Civil War, Civil War Times, Gettysburg
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22 Comments to “Feeling the Past at Gettysburg”
What a truly wonderful article. One of my favorites. Made me laugh and even made me tear up a bit.
By Eric Weider on Jun 14, 2008 at 10:44 am
one of the very best cival war stories iever read out standing.
By bobbybartram on Jun 14, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Artfully, and captivatingly written. My first visit to Gettysburg was in april of this year. I don’t believe anyone who has visited has not felt – something.
As I approached the 20th Maine Monument, a tour group of high school students from Minnesota was leaving. They had left roses and small American flag at the base. I was deeply proud of, grateful to, and moved by these students; so much younger than I, and whom I would never know.
I know, or, rather, understand what Sarah Felt. I felt the same something at Little Round Top.
By Greg Schaaf on Jun 17, 2008 at 1:21 pm
One time while walking Devils Den in the fog my daughter felt a “sense” that scared her and she just backed away from the rocks facing the Round Tops. I myself had a feeling of something stepping heavily on my foot on the paved road where Gen. Farnsworth made his cavalry charge. The battlefield will always remain alive in its own way.
By Ed Mignone on Jun 17, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I also felt something at the Devil’s Den. As I stepped up on the rocks there, I slipped, fell and took a bit of a gash on my leg.
My girlfriend was with me that day and asked if I was going to be O.K., to which I could only chuckle and tell her that another Texan bleeding at the Devil’s Den seemed somehow appropriate and that I was much lukier than most of those who had done it before.
By Craig Deaton on Jun 17, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Gettysburg-A place where people hush and the ghosts speak lodly!
By Fred Mossbrucker on Jun 17, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Sorry. That’s loudly.
By Fred Mossbrucker on Jun 17, 2008 at 8:54 pm
A Truly wonderful read. Having stood at the base of Little Round Top, Awe Struck by a sense of history, your piece sums it up so much better than I ever could. Thank you for writing it.
By John C on Jun 18, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I visited Gettysburg about two years ago. I was alone my wife was at a meeting, so I drove to the battlefield. It was more than I had imagined. I was so moved with emotions, that I had to share it with someone,so I called our oldest daughter. She was as excited as I was at the time.I was sad,happy,upset,overwhelmed,shaken,changed by it all as I stood there and prayed.I long to return and feel overpowered once again.
By Rev. David L. Hopkins on Jun 20, 2008 at 10:11 am
I have followed the same path led by a gentleman I met by chance who later became a battlefield guide. Thank you for leading me over the same never-forgotten ground.
By Fred Boyle on Jun 20, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I once rode my bike to Little Round Top at dawn…the feeling was transcendental…it was a truly overwhelming feeling to ride past the monuments in the breaking daylight,culminating with the view of Devil’s Den,where I did not feel alone,despite no man being near me….
By Joe Messore on Jun 22, 2008 at 10:17 pm
When I received my August issue I was expecting another story about Joshua L. Chamberlian. When I opened up and began reading I was surprised and impressed with the article about William Oates Alabamians. The struggles they went through even before they were engaged in battle brings their story closer to home, for historians as well as the casual observer. I only wish that William Oates was featured on the cover instead of Chamberlain.
By Scott J Payne on Jun 23, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Many of us have had this same experience, apparently. Geetysburg was the first place I ever truly felt a presence, and I have felt it at every other battlefield I have visited since. However, somehow, there was a different quality to it at Gettysburg–more intense and a storng mixture of pride and tragedy. A very touching article.
By Bob on Jun 25, 2008 at 9:10 am
Three years ago myself and other reenactors walked Pickett’s Charge in our uniforms and with battle flags flying. That whole walk I had chills and the hair was standing up on my arms. I felt like the men of Pickett’s Division were walking with us that day. Gettysburg is a very sad place because of all the lives that were lost there, but the sacrifices that were made by the men of both sides, helped make this country a better place.
By Brian Logan on Jul 10, 2008 at 2:52 pm
What a wonderful article. As a very young man I have always had a desire to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield. May of this year I was able to go and spend four wonderful days there. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the experience of walking this hollowed ground is an experience that I will never forget. The emotions ran high at the thought I had family that fought both sides of this war. I too felt a presence as I walked the Wheatfield and climbed the rocks of Devils Den. The evening view from Little Round Top was an emotional one for me as I looked down and across where many a man died for a cause they truly believed in.
By Wesley C. Norris on Jul 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm
It is not possible to be a student of the Civil War without a visit to Gettysburg. As so many before me and likely after as well, I walked as much of the battle field as possible to try to get some perspective of the events of those days. It is overwhelming. There are so many things to experience. Try lying in the ditch, imagining defilade fire all around you. Screams of those unlucky enough to be in a spot the shot fell upon.
God, it is humbling, even for a career soldier with some combat experience.
By CSM (Ret) Lee Ingram on Jul 22, 2008 at 10:41 pm
What a truly amazing article. I had the pleasure of taking my first trip to Gettysburg two years ago and remember the emotions that overwhelmed me as I stood looking out of Little Round Top. Can’t wait to go back and spend some serious time exploring a part of history that captivates me.
By Stephen Creech on Jul 29, 2008 at 1:59 pm
i also felt something at the Devil’s Den. I don’t beleive that.
sorry……..
By parvez akhtar on Sep 16, 2008 at 11:30 am
I visited Gettysburg as part of my research for a novel (Hiram’s Honor: Reliving Private Terman’s Civil War which was just made available on Amazon). My ancestor was captured July 1 as the 82nd Ohio was overrun. Standing on the very spot north of Gettysburg stirred my DNA and helped me write as could no other experience. Makes one appreciate the preservation of such sites.
By Max Terman on May 27, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Great story I have been to Gettysburg A lot you are right you can still smell the smoke.
By Bob Baronti on Jun 19, 2009 at 4:17 pm
i was never a civil war buff, but years ago a girlfriend and i, out visiting friends at blue ridge summit, stopped to check out the battlefield. i didnt expect much, but i experienced much of what people have described here. holy cow. it wasnt even that long ago was it
By dave on Jul 27, 2009 at 4:39 pm
yup
By jonathan on Sep 14, 2009 at 5:38 pm