November 01, 2013

When you stop at any given place on the battlefield, you can never just take one photo, especially if it’s near dusk and you know it’s the last time you’ll see the field for the day. That one photo turns to “I’ll just take one more from another angle” and before you know it you’ve snapped multiple shots of an area that may or may not have had much historical significance :-) So it was for me at Big Round Top this last August. The above photo was the “only” one I was going to take at this spot . . . the 10^TH Pennsylvania Reserves with a small flag to honor those who died.

 Of course, then I noticed another monument tucked back in, and as this was a mysterious and shadow-darkened sort of place and I’d never spent time here before, I had to go and check it out. It turns out that this monument represents the 9^TH Massachusetts Infantry. The stones at the base of the boulder are flank markers for the two regiments mentioned, though I could have sworn the one on the left was a tombstone. 

 Having taken these photos, I was further drawn in by the old rock wall at right. Was it original? Probably not, but there’s a good chance such a wall existed here in 1863. The darkness of the left-hand boulder is rather strange . . . it seems as if there’s a yawning cave underneath it, but it’s just part of the rock. The 10^TH Pennsylvania Reserves’ flank marker can be seen at center left. Having finally taken my “one photo”, I left satisfied, reeling in the knowledge that I’d been here so many times and had never noticed the beauty and mysteriousness of that Big Round Top hideaway. There’s always something new to see at Gettysburg.

**HONORED TODAY**

LT. GILES H. COOPER

and

TAZEWELL TALIFERRO COOPER

Co. D, 24^TH Virginia Infantry

Lt. Cooper enlisted in June 1861 and somehow managed to survive over two years, but his luck ran out at Gettysburg. His untimely death left behind a wife and a baby daughter named Betty. Giles’ brother Tazewell belonged to the same regiment was also killed at Gettysburg. Tazewell’s death left a two-year-old daughter, Ann Rozelle, and a one-year-old son, Thomas, fatherless. 


(c) 2013 Skies of Blue and Gray