April 29, 2013

Those who have spent time on the Gettysburg battlefield in all kinds of weather are probably aware that on rainy days or after dark, the site of the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge is particularly eerie. The above photo was taken on just such a day. It’s quite easy to “feel” the sorrow emanating from the battlefield, especially here. The monuments to the right both represent the 72^nd Pennsylvania Infantry, the “Philadelphia Fire Zouaves.”

Despite the monuments (and the Virginia State Memorial located just to the left of the closest monument) the site looks much as it would have in 1863; stone walls and wooden fences still crisscross the fields and the trees of McMillan Woods still loom in the distance. I believe the trees to the left are part of the Nicholas Codori farm thicket. I find the line of rocks in the center of the photo very interesting . . . smaller than the famous Gettysburg boulders, but still indicative of the battlefield.

**HONORED TODAY**

LT. COL. HEZEKIAH LEE ANDREWS

Co. F, 2^nd North Carolina Infantry

Born 1839 --- Died July 01, 1863 at age 24

Lt. Col. Andrews’ pre-war residence was likely Randolph County, North Carolina. Gettysburg certainly wasn’t his first brush with fate. In 1862 he found himself a prisoner of war but was later released. He subsequently rose in the ranks until he became Lieutenant Colonel just twenty-five days before his death. He received his mortal wound at Gettysburg at the hands of the Pennsylvania Bucktails while struggling to gain a foothold on McPherson’s Ridge. Though Lt. Col. Andrews was originally buried on the field, he was later laid to rest at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, where many Confederate dead now lie.


(c) 2013 Skies of Blue and Gray