GDG- Upcoming Visit

[Alan D. Brunelle]

Hi Ron -

FYI: My son & I spent over 4.5 hours doing Jorgensen's tour in late July of this year (albeit with almost an hour wasted trying to find the Timber's foundation). There are a couple of somewhat difficult places to get to on the tour (Excursion B - Natural Rifle Pit, Excursion C - Captain Fuller Monument come to mind, as the thorns and undergrowth are pretty bad on the way). And with the work being done on the fencing in the past few years, you can't go from stops 17 to 18 directly - there's a Virginia/worm fence along the Wheatfield Road now. So after stop 17, plan on heading down to Ayre's Ave & do Excursion D, and then back to stops 19 & 18. 

Prior to that, I'd suggest going into the Rose Field area (west of stop #16) - there's a slight rise to the south and west that gives you a good view of the areas over which Kershaw's & Wofford's men advanced.

I'm assuming you've read Jorgensen's book ("Gettysburg's Bloody Wheatfield") as that helps a lot in understanding what's going on. If you feel you have the time and inclination, reading Adelman & Smith's "Devil's Den: A History and Guide" is helpful as well: there are (slight) intersections between the works, but understanding that part of the battle gives you a better understanding of the interactions between the action there and what happened in the Wheatfield. If you have the time, walking along the old trolley path south of Brooke Avenue is a great way to see the back-side of the DD action as well as the terrain over which the Confederates attacked the southern end of the Wheatfield.

One last note: it's also interesting to go almost due south from the 2nd NH monument in the Peach Orchard (along the Emmitsburg road) until you get near Rose's Run and looking east - it's another vantage point towards the Stony Hill, and is a great place to view what Kershaw's men saw eastwards towards the Stony Hill area; and then northwards towards the artillery line along the Wheatfield road in the Peach Orchard area. 

Regards,
Alan