June 26, 2013

High on the summit of Culp’s Hill there stands a man whose bronze visage glints in the sun, whose finger points eternally toward the enemy. No, he’s not a figment of an overactive imagination . . . he’s Gen. George Sears Greene in statue form. There are a few features in this photo that might get overlooked, but if you analyze the background carefully, you’ll find some interesting things.

First, being a cannon lover, I couldn’t help but notice the Napoleon peeking out just to the right of the monument. This piece represents Battery K of the 5TH U.S. Artillery. The plaque (read from the “Gettysburg Stone Sentinels” website) says that on the second of July the battery “assisted in silencing Confederate Batteries on Benner’s Hill.” It was also responsible for giving the Southerners quite a wake-up call early the next morning.


To the right of Battery K stands a granite monument. It honors the 7TH Indiana Infantry, which fought on the third day of battle. “Stone Sentinels” mentions that this unit formed up alongside the surviving men of the Iron Brigade who had somehow escaped the firestorm of July 1^ST. The large structure in the background is one of the Gettysburg National Military Park’s three observation towers, constructed just thirty years after the war and rising over fifty feet above what was once a chaotic battleground.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. LIVINGSTON G. COBB

Co. H, 45^TH North Carolina Infantry

Born 1827 --- Died August 16, 1863 at age 37

Pvt. Cobb had the misfortune of incurring a “shot fracture of right leg and amputation of thigh”, as Gettysburg’s Camp Letterman General Hospital records state. He suffered “secondary hemorrhaging” and was later buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Left behind in Rockingham County were his wife of seventeen years, Sarah, and five children, Mary (age fourteen); Amanda (age eight); John (age seven); George (age six); and Eugenia (age two).


(c) 2013 Skies of Blue and Gray