Gettysburg, PA — Fourth Of July Carnage
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Gettysburg, PA — The Battle of Gettysburg took place during the third year of the Civil War on July 1, 2 and 3 of 1863. Because the anniversary is during the 4th Of July holiday week, it often gets overlooked. Perhaps to pause and remember the carnage that lay on the battlefields of Gettysburg on July, 4 would be a good idea?
“The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory in the summer of 1863 that ended General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the “High Water Mark of the Confederacy”, it was the war’s bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the setting for his most famous address.
In the aftermath of the battle, every farm field was a graveyard and every church, public building and even private homes were hospitals. Medical staff were strained to treat so many wounded scattered about the county. To meet the demand, Camp Letterman General Hospital was established east of Gettysburg where all of the wounded were eventually taken to before transport to permanent hospitals in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Union surgeons worked with members of the U.S Sanitary Commission and Christian Commission to treat and care for the over 20,000 injured Union and Confederate soldiers that passed through the hospital’s wards, housed under large tents. By January 1864, the last few remaining patients were gone and so were the surgeons, guards, nurses, tents and cookhouses. Only a temporary cemetery on the hillside remained as a testament to the courageous battle to save lives that took place at Camp Letterman.”
– National Park Services
