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Date Posted: 13:15:10 11/01/02 Fri
Author: Jeremy Mazur
Subject: Gettysburgarama 2003

Pards,

I yanked this post off of the Off Topic Boy's Forum. Kinda says some interesting things about what we can expect at Gettysburg next year. I can't help from noticing the line, "we will be dissapointed".

-brother maynard

---------------------------
Gettysburg Meeting Report

I have attached my report to the command of the 1st Federal Division, of the walk-through of the Gettysburg site I attended last weekend

This site is totally unacceptable for a GB reenactment, much less a large-scale event.
I went with the greatest of hopes, and looking forward to an outstanding event. As I stood up on that ridge, and listened,and observed, I was crestfallen, and greatly dissapointed. This is going to be a shambles, and I don't see how it will resemble anything like the battle of Gettysburg. Those of you who want directions, for either Rememberance Day, or to see for yourselves, I'll gladly forward them on to you.
There is nothing to reccomend this event to anyone, except those who stand to make money off the public, and the reenactors. Perhaps, finally, it is time we say "Enough is enough" and demand events worthy of our efforts, and locations that resemble the battles we are recreating.
I am available for any questions, or clarifications.
My Respects:
Mike Lavis
_______________

Here's the report:
.

First off, I must say that the organizers, etc. are putting an immense ammount of effort into this event. They are working hard to correct some common eastern event problems, and some things that happened at Antietam. They are doing their best to accomodiate all aspects and philosophies of reenacting.
Not everything is set in stone, but the basics seem to be inplace. They have already run into opposition on their policies of limiting the ammount of cannons for each side, and setting a 10AM Friday morning cutoff for cars in camp.
There are two engagements planned for each day, more on this later.

Now, onto the issues:

First: The Union army is to be organized into 3 divisions. The 1st FD is to be put in Tony Daniels' division with the National Regiment and the Mifflin Guard.
This would mean that we would be in one brigade, and possibly some battalions split into another brigade, depending on the numbers, etc. This wasn't specified.
When I questioned Gen. Valuska about it, he was a bit confused as to our organization, but stuck to his set up. He also mentioned that he had heard from Dave Shackleford and that the CG was to be in another division. (I didn't catch that commanders' name).
Incidently Tony Daniels was there and made no effort to discuss this with me.
This, puts us under the command of two levels of easterners (Army and Division). The organization and communications that made Perryville such a success would be broken up ,and subjected to the chain of command of those who have a history of infighting and failure at large eastern events.
My suggestion would be that we get ahold of all the western organizations, and insist that we be together, under our own command. If we try this without all the units, we won't have the numbers to back up our request. We could organize into two brigades, with artillery. Our Southern brethern face the same problem. The Federal calvary commander plans to organize into two wings, eastern and western. (So far).

They are planning a "preservation march" which will consist of being bussed, or marching to a staging area, and then moving out to the Friday afternoon battle; McPherson's Ridge. This march is close to a mile in length, mostly downhill.

Let me digress to describe the basic site. There is a 2 lane road that runs north and south between two fairly high ridges, parallel to that road. Most of the reenactment site is on the east side of that road. The beginning of the march is at the top of the western ridge.
On the east side of the road, there is a flat area, with wood lots and fields on the north, open ground in the center and west. This valley is disected by the beginnings of Rock Creek, After a couple of hundred yards, or so, the eastern ridge rises up, and is mostly clear of trees. There are farm buildings at the top. The ridge here levels off for some distance. The registration building is in an auction barn, in the valley, on the east side of the road, and near the center of the entire site.
The main Federal infantry camps are in two large fields, at the northern edge of this valley, with parking just beyond. Next to the infantry camps, the ridge is less steep, and covered in woods, which is to be the Cav. camp. Directly to the south of the camps is the open valley, and ridge, which is the battle site for all the scenarios. The registration barn marks the southern edge of the battlefields. The suttlers and civillians are to be at the top of this ridge, overlooking the battlefields, next to the farm buildings, with the Confederate camps just beyond them, and also bordering on the Union Cavalry camps. I didn't catch exactly where the U.S. artillery camp is to be located; somewhere in the infantry camp area. Parking for spectators will be mainly on the southern edge of the site, on both sides of the road. The cars will be in plain view of all the battles.
Frankly this is my biggest dissapointment. It just dosen't look anything like any part of the Gettysburg battlefield. All the fighting is to be done in one place, with a slight turning of the lines. The ridge is way to high, and will be overlooked by the circus on top. The wheatfield fighting could easily spread into the union camps, and one, long bare ridge just does not work for Little Round Top, or East Cemetary Hill.
The creek in the center of the flat land breaks up most formations. And even with them constructing a stone wall, most of the military crest is way too high for Cemetary Ridge. Plus when they do make a stone wall, it should mess up the LRT and McPherson's scenarions. There is nothing resembling a RR cut, and not a rock in sight, all the bare ridge.
On the plus side, there is a nice period-looking barn on the western side of the road, that will be in the staging area for the Confederate infantry. However, it is near a modern steel building. Besides that, the way it is currently laid out, the civillian modern camping will be on the western ridge, overlooking the entire valley, and any units marching towards the battle will have to go right by it.
The paved road will serve as the Emmitsburg Pike. And I think they are orienting Picketts Charge so that the road will be at the proper angle.
The Federals will get a great panoramic view. The Rebs will get a great view of lots of canvass on top of the ridge.
Almost forgot: The valley will also become the East Calvary Field on Sunday. Of course the creek will be a problem, and they could spill into the Union camp, or into the parking lot of the Auction Barn.
AND>>>> if we get lots of rain, that valley will become a swamp. (It was today).

I don't mean to be negative, but we are bringing alot of people, along way to this event, and I think they will be dissapointed with the battlefield. Especially when they see we fight on the same place for three days. To give you an idea, it would serve nicely as a Marye's Heights scenario, with the creek as the canal.

Looking at the maps, it seems like they have set aside more land for spectator parking than for the battlefield. There is one spot on one map that is listed as battlefield on top of the eastern ridge, but it was not mentioned as such during the walk-through, instead it seems as if more camps, or civillians will be put there.
Note: I am no expert on civillian camps, but I don't see how all the civillians can possibly fit into that one space they have allocated for it.

The Friday morning fight is to be a tactical, around the valley floor. There is no room to manuver, it'll look like a recreation of Grovetown. I asked the General if perhaps we could take the entire division up to the western ridge staging area on Thursday, bivouac there, and march to the battle on Friday afternoon. There are two reasons for this: 1- The tactial won't be worth it, we can accomplish more by having battalion drill in the staging area. 2- If they try to get all those who want to do the march (both US and CS will be staging from the same area) up there at the same time, it will either take forever, or result in a huge mess when we get there.
The answer is that it may be possible, but due to dealing with the landowner, can't be promised as of yet.

I also asked if they had any plans for a "campaigner camp". Dave said that he was looking for a campaigner officer to work with, and that he had some ideas. When I asked him again, while we were in the camp sites, he pointed to a decent parcel of woods, on the west side of the road, directly across from the rest of the US camp, and said that we may be able to use those woods for such a camp. But he needed to know numbers, command, etc. He indicated that using those woods was much more possible than being able to stay in the staging area for Thursday night.

As to the water supply, they have planned it well (no pun intended). But there may be a shortage in the civillian camp, if there are lots of people there. They did think to put a 6000 gallon tanker at the eastern ridge staging area.
Firewood will be dropped at the division HQ's, dispersal to be handled by the QMs.
(Another reason to get our own divisional command structure).

This concludes the main portion of my report. It has taken me more than 2 hours to write it, because I am not trying to slam anyone, or ruin the event. If the energy I saw today was put into the site of the 135th event, I would be saying that this could be the event that turns around reenacting in the east. It would be potentially one of the very best ever held. But I was ordered to attend and give an honest appraisal of the current situation. This I have done to the best of my ability. I know that Mike Moore will be sending in a report as well, so I did not dwell upon things from the CS perspective. We did confer, before and after the meeting.
After we left, we went to visit a friend, who does engineering, surveyor, and permit work for several of the local towns. His home is on the portion of the battlefield that contains the 49thNY monument. I wondered about the permits, especially since the 135th had problems in that reguard.
He is confident that all the permits will be granted, he was the one who told me that the stream there was Rock Creek. He also said that the flat land can be real wet there. My response to his question as to what I thought of the site was "It just dosen't look like the battlefield." He smiled and nodded his head.
Try as I might, I can't escape the feeling that if the NSA goes to this event, we will be dissapointed ,and consider it a wasted weekend.

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