June 07, 2013

 There are many state monuments at Gettysburg, ranging from the small and unassuming to the grand and gigantic, and one of the more modest memorials is the Georgia State Monument. If you’ve visited the battlefield often enough to have some idea of what goes where, it’s located near “Longstreet Tower” along West Confederate Avenue. This is across from Warfield Ridge.

The streamlined and somehow appropriately solemn monument dates from the early 1960s and is constructed of granite quarried in Georgia. Observant visitors will notice the state seal at the top of the monument, as well as the word “GEORGIA” raised on the shaft. Personally, I find this to be one of the prettiest areas of the battlefield, as the fields beyond the Georgia State Monument dip and roll for a longer distance, the view unbroken by obstructions unlike much of the area.

I’m not sure if the stone wall seen behind the monument is an original. I believe many of Gettysburg’s stone walls have been rebuilt but that most if not all probably occupy the locations of earlier walls.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. JESSE J. BAKER

Co. E, 20^TH North Carolina Infantry

Born 1846 --- Died July 1863 (age 17)

Pvt. Baker never got the chance to see much of the world, but his fateful trek three states north proved to be his death. He was wounded during the horrific “Iverson’s Pits” disaster in which North Carolina soldiers under Gen. Alfred Iverson were sent forward without a clear idea of how many men they faced and where they were going. They were shortly ambushed and many were killed outright. Pvt. Baker was mortally wounded and lingered until July 3^rd. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.


(c) 2013 Skies of Blue and Gray