November 30, 2016

** This blog published Mondays and Wednesdays **

 

Here’s the place where those epic Little Round Top scenes recreated in the “Gettysburg” movie took place . . . the site of the struggle between Joshua Chamberlain’s Mainers and the rugged Alabamians. As a Yankee I have no problem with giving the 20^TH Maine their due, but it seems to me as if the 15^TH Alabama doesn’t generate nearly as much admiration. Considering that they’d marched thirty miles with no water, then made multiple charges up the slopes before being repulsed, I think they ought to be equally praised. Just to the right of this photo is the 20^TH Maine monument which, judging by the amount of pennies left on the base, is visited quite often.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. DEGRASSE HANNESS

and

PVT. ELIAS HANNESS

 

Co. C, 147^TH New York Infantry

Pvt. DeGrasse and Pvt. Elias Hanness were father and son, both killed at Gettysburg. Elias was born c. 189 and died July 15 while DeGrasse was born c. 1843 and died on the first day of battle, July 1^ST. DeGrasse was described as being 5’10½” tall with blue eyes and dark hair. Both were farmers, and Elias also worked as a miller. Both men are buried in Gettysburg’s National Cemetery. Elias’s stone spells his surname “Hannis.”

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