June 24, 2013

 For a different and intriguing shot, I once took this photo of one of the Union cannon perched atop the High Water Mark monument at the Copse of Trees. Naturally, during the battle, the Union artillery (this isn’t an original piece) would have been turned in the opposite direction toward the men embarking on the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge, but this angle allowed me to identify a few monuments, one of my all-time favorite blog activities :-)

The monument at which the cannon barrel is aiming represents the 106^TH Pennsylvania Infantry (see my post of June 17). To the left is a statue monument honoring the 1^ST Pennsylvania Cavalry. The multi-tiered monument to the left is dedicated to Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb. To the left of Webb’s monument, a large base with a bronze plaque can be seen in the distance. This is the base of the equestrian monument for Gen. George G. Meade.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. CHARLES A. ROUSE

CO. D, 4^TH Michigan Infantry

Born 1842 --- Died July 02, 1863 at age 21

Pvt. Rouse’s young life ended in an unassuming wheatfield owned by a farmer called George Rose, a field that would infamously become known as the “Bloody Wheatfield” because of one day during the battle of Gettysburg. That particular part of the field is located on the opposite side of Sickles Avenue but was considered part of the larger field in 1863. Pvt. Rouse had enlisted in June of 1861 and left behind five brothers and two sisters. He had become an orphan at the age of thirteen when his mother Elsa died; father Van Rensselaer had passed away in 1842. Pvt. Rouse was buried at Gettysburg National Cemetery.


(c) 2013 Skies of Blue and Gray