Page 5 - Gettysburg weekend book

believed to be a small detachment of Union militia that had been
seen the night before.

It is not commonly known but the Confederates took nine Gettys-
burg residents captive during their occupation of the town send-
ing them to Southern prisons where several of them died, Free
blacks were also captured and sent South into slavery.

Pickett’s Charge- although named after Maj. Gen. George
Pickett, his division was only one of three that was involved in
the assault. Pickett’s division marched on the Confederate right
and that of Brigadier General James Pettigrew on the left. Addi-
tionally, two brigades of Maj. Gen. Isaac Trimble’s division came
behind Pettigrew in support, and the brigades of Brig. Gen. Cad-
mus M. Wilcox and Brig Gen. Edward Perry (the latter led by
Colonel David Lang) were behind and to the right of Pickett to
protect his flank. Pickett’s was the only fresh division in the as-
sault, having arrived only the night before, and the Confederate
commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee, had specified it was to lead the
assault. The attack consisted of 12,000 Confederates sent against
approximately 6500 dug in Union soldiers.
Plum Run- the official name of the creek that runs between Dev-
il’s Den and Little Round Top. It gained an alternate name as
“Bloody Run” as the stream ran red with the blood of fallen sol-
diers during the battle. The surrounding area also became known
as “The Valley of Death.” On July 4, 1863, in heavy rain, the
creek overflowed and drowned some wounded Confederate sol-
diers still on the field. The area was so littered with wounded and
dead soldiers that it took over a week to attend to them.
There are over 1100 monuments of varying sizes in around the
Gettysburg battlefield. The monuments are representative of both
armies and some even of civilians like John Burns. Most unit
monuments are placed as near as possible to their positions held
during the battle. Some units and officers have multiple memori-
als, like Gen. John Reynolds and the Iron Brigade..