November 19, 2014

I love everything this photo has going for it! Smith’s 4^TH New York Independent Battery steals the scene, while the 99^TH Pennsylvania monument (distance, center left) and the downward slope of Little Round Top can be seen. And let’s not forget the oldest thing in the picture: The Devil’s Den witness tree, whose branches (and some straggly leaves not yet lost to autumn winds) are visible at the top of the photo. The leaves were really flying around while we were walking from the Sharpshooter’s Nest to Triangular Field, and I joked that it would really be something to be hit in the head with leaves from the witness tree :-)

**HONORED TODAY**

1^ST LT. THOMAS J. WHEELER

Co. A, 75^TH Ohio Infantry

Born November 28, 1837 --- Died July 28, 1863 age 25

1^ST Lt. Wheeler, who enlisted in October 1861, was taken prisoner and subsequently released at 2^ND Bull Run/Manassas in 1862. He suffered three wounds at Gettysburg and later died of his injuries, being buried at Ingomar Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A photo can be found here.


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