September 02, 2015

** This blog published Mondays and Wednesdays **

Well, here we are on a typical Gettysburg day. :-) I do love overcast weather and that fresh-air rain scent, but when you’re walking up to the Peace Memorial and back, that hint of rain isn’t quite so pleasant. (Also, this picture didn’t capture the thing that made the trip so eerie: the buzzards circling overhead!) I stood at the King William Artillery, overlooking Mummasburg Road (at right) and the winding North Confederate Avenue (at left). Iverson’s ill-fated brigade emerged from Forney’s Woods at right, and part of the ground they crossed is visible from right to left. Right about where that tree is standing at far left is where the old John Forney barn stood, which the soldiers would have seen in some form in 1863.

**HONORED TODAY**

CPL. JACOB LALE

Co. F, 38th North Carolina Infantry

Born February 07, 1832 --- Died July 01, 1863 at age 31

Cpl. Lale, whose surname is also given as Lael and Lail, enlisted in October 1861. He was a farmer and was married to a lady named Matilda. They had seven children, five of whom (Frances Eleanor, 1854, Mary Jane, 1856, George, 1857, Lavina, 1858, and Debbie, 1860) were already born when Cpl. Lale enlisted. Two more children Susan and Adolphus Alexander, were born later. Cpl. Lale was killed at Gettysburg when his youngest child was only eight months old.

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