March 07, 2016

** This blog published Mondays and Wednesdays **

I’m going to have fun with this one. Details, details, everywhere! Let’s kick it off, left to right. At far left is the “slaughter pen” at the base of Big Round Top, while the boulders of Devil’s Den are easily identifiable. Beyond the den, one can barely see the grouping of boulders which contains the Elephant Rock, and, further right, the open plane of Triangular Field with a stand of trees scattered here and there. At the center bottom of the photo is the “valley of death”, and above the valley is the slope of Houck’s Ridge.

The white structure far in the center distance is the Philip Snyder farm. If you have really good eyes, you might be able to pick out the short white object to its left: this is the Arkansas Memorial. A very few monuments are visible on this photo: the tall white obelisk at center right, directly above the black edge of the “Valley of Death” marker on Little Round Top, is the 6^TH New Jersey Infantry monument. If you look to the right of the Witness Tree (that lighter green tree directly above and to the right of Devil’s Den) you’ll see a little white dot which I believe is the marker for Smith’s New York battery. Beyond that, a brown monument standing out by itself, is, I believe, the 99^TH Pennsylvania Infantry. The white monument at the tree line at the center of the photo should be the 124^TH New York.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. HORACE W. NICHOLS

Co. F, 137^TH New York Infantry

Born 1832 --- Died July 03, 1863 at 31

                                       

Pvt. Nichols enlisted in August 1862, bidding farewell to wife Clarinda and his little son Adelbert, who was only five. Being mortally wounded on Culp’s Hill, Pvt. Nichols was taken to the Henry Spangler farm, his initial place of burial, and was later reinterred at Gettysburg National Cemetery.

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