Between the Union Line and the Confederate Line is Sickles' Line From a Park guide sign at the Peach Orchard

The Battle of Gettysburg is haunted by "what ifs." What if Stonewall had lived, and commanded the Confederate left on the first day? What if Stewart had stuck close to Lee with the South's best cavalry, screening and scouting instead of raiding the Union rear? While I have opinions on these and other unanswerable questions, many a full length text book has been written to explore them. I've chosen to focus on a question best explored with web pages and pictures, rather than textbooks...

Why did General Sickles move his Third Corps forward without orders? Sickles claimed this was the proper tactical maneuver. The position favored by Meade was "in a hole." At Chancellorsville, a few months earlier, he had been ordered to give up a dominating height, to retreat to low ground. The Confederates then occupied the height, and bombarded Sickles' Corps. Thus, at Gettysburg, he was not content sitting in a hole.

In moving forward, did he save the Union? Did he force Meade to fight at Gettysburg, rather than Meade's supposed intent to retreat to the Pipe Creek defensive line? Did he move forward from a weak position suggested by Meade, to a much stronger position? In defending his advance, Sickles made all these claims and more. Alternately, did he nearly blow everything by overextending his line, giving up strong positions for weak ones, stretching his men over a line three times as long as his original position, and leaving both his flanks dangling in thin air?

The short answer is D. Sickles nearly blew the battle by moving forward to an untenable position without support or orders. And yet, the above Park Service sign doesn't quite do Sickles justice. While to the right, the Union Line was indeed anchored on Cemetery Ridge, the above "Cemetery Ridge" label isn't entirely accurate. It might better read "Plum Run Valley." General Sickles' original position was indeed in a hole.

The focus of these pages was originally on the pictures of the field and General Sickles' Third Corps. The site keeps growing. Every time Sickles' Hole feels complete, just one more thing seems required. First, no single picture gives a perspective of the entire battlefield, so the cyber maps were added. To explain who had the numbers advantage on a given day and why, Lee's strategy, Meade's response and the resulting marches are described. While the focus was initially on the Sickles controversy, Longstreet's reluctance to fight at Gettysburg is equally controversial, as is Meade's 'timid' follow up of his victory. As many find Sickles' Hole based on searches for Civil War or Gettysburg photos or maps, special emphasis was added in these areas. There is a very basic primer on Civil War tactics and military organization. I am adding more detailed accounts of a few of the better known actions, including the fighting at The Angle, and the 20th Maine's fight on Vincent's Spur. Finally, a few words were added on the Dead and Cemetery pages that hopefully address more than the cold tale of tactics, terrain and maneuver.

The result is hopefully a decent introduction to the battle as an historical event. It is hardly the final word. The controversies are such that there will likely never be a final word. For further exploration, links are provided below. Recommended books may be found on the Technical page.

The following map is rotated as compared to the Park Service map, to the traditional north at the top of the map. In blue, the well known "fishhook" shape of the Union line is shown. The eye of the hook begins at Little Round Top (LRT). The "shank" flows through Plum Run Valley (HL, H, HR), to Cemetery Ridge (A) and Cemetery Hill (CH). The hook then curves east to Culp's Hill (CH) and Spangler's Spring (SS).

Confederate General Longstreet's Day 2 jump off position, the south portion of the red confederate line, including T but not so far as VL also has a hook shape. This is in part an attempt to reach around the Union left flank, but it also reflects the tree line of the major field at Gettysburg. The red positions to the south are as close as Longstreet could get to the Union Army without exposing his position to watchers on Little Round Top and elsewhere.

Near the town of Gettysburg, another Confederate hook shaped line is attempting to reach around the Union right flank. Lee and the Confederates had made a living the first several years of the war, attacking Union flanks. It worked well at Chancellorsville, and elsewhere. In this case, Lee's smaller army in striking both flanks was attempting to surround the slightly more numerous Union army. General Meade had seen flanking movements often enough to secure both flanks on strong positions, Culp's Hill and Little Round Top. The fish hook also gave the Union the advantage of "interior lines." They could move troops from side to side to patch a threat much quicker than the Rebels could.

This web site can be navigated several ways. The above map and table of contents will take you to many points on the battle field. Alternately, the photo pages are linked in clockwise order, starting from where Sickles should have been (HR, H, HL, LRT, VS), touring through where he ended up (DD, VD, WF, PO, SR), then finishing with July 3rd's major action, Pickett's Charge (VL, PC, A). In addition, the page describing the July 1st opening battle has a few photos of northern fields (PM, OK, RR). The navigation bar at left also reflects the clockwise tour of the field. The shorter table of contents below covers the non-photo page categories.

Sickles' Hole

• Approaches to Gettysburg How they got here from there, including maps.
• Corps, Division and Brigade commanders, South and North.
• An Introduction to Civil War Tactics and Organization.
• The First Day A painfully short summary, including map.
• The View from Cyberspace. Maps based on USGS digital data.
• HR Hole Right Start of Photo Tour
• Closing Comments A painfully short summary of Days 2 and 3, with maps.
• Period photos, of the survivors, and the dead.
• Memorials
• Technical Stuff and Credits
• Author's Home Page Warp Nine Flying False Colors
• Mail to the author, Robert Butler

The 1913 Pennsylvania Railroad map of the Gettysburg Battlefield
The view is from the south looking north. Click on map to reach picture pages.

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Links

• The Longstreet Chronicles - While Sickles' Hole is focused on the military side of the Northern controversy - Sickles v Meade - Brian Hampton is focused on the political and public relations aspects of the Southern controversy - Longstreet v Lee. A good source of battle reports and accounts from people who were there, with an emphasis on the southern perspective.
• The Meade Archive -Jim Campi vindicates Meade much as Brian vindicates Longstreet. Again, a good collection of period documentation, but this time with the accent on the Army of the Potomac. TMA includes a posting of Sickles' "Historicus" letter and the original testimony on Gettysburg presented to the U.S. Congress.
• While I favor Longstreet in the southern controversy, and Meade in the northern, during the late 1800s truth was less important than politics. After the war, Longstreet renewed friendships with Grant and other northerners, including Dan Sickles. Longstreet's post war problems came less from his action on the battlefield, but from his readiness to drop the Lost Cause, unreadiness to join the Lee cult, and willingness to rejoin the Union. Sickles' version of the battle was used to defend Longstreet's actions, which likely helped Longstreet not at all. The Longstreet Chronicles has posted Sickles' preface to Lee and Longstreet at High Tide, published by Helen Longstreet after her husband's death.
• Devil Dan Sickles' Deadly Salients - Gary Rice has more to say on Sickles the man, and contends that Sickles took the III Corps out of position at Chancellorsville too, creating another undefendable salient and depleting the XI Corps reserves. A short article that concurs pretty much with Sickles' Hole.
• The Gettysburg Discussion Group - A large group of dedicated and knowledgeable Gettysburg fans, both professional and not. Sickles' Hole is at best an introduction to the battle and the associated controversies. If you believe the controversies are inherently resolvable and that the truth can be known with certainty, a brief visit to GDG is apt to cure you. An argument was made on the GDG list server that no mistakes were made during the Gettysburg campaign. If a mistake was made, the GDG would agree that it was a mistake. As the GDG can agree on nothing, not a single mistake was made during the entire campaign. There were only controversial decisions. (As a corollary to the above thesis, as the GDG can agree on nothing, all decisions made at Gettysburg were controversial.) The GDG site includes discussions of Dan Sickles and Pickett's Charge, among many others. One of the more amusing discussions is daydream on "If you could be there." What single event, time or place during the Gettysburg battle would you go back in time to witness? (Kevlar is allowed.) Naturally, they couldn't agree on that, either.
• Gettysburg National Military Park - The National Park Service's page. A broader and less partisan approach to Gettysburg. Includes additional maps.
• Gettysburg.com - Not the National Park Service's page. Various commercial organizations supporting the tourist and Civil War recreation community are represented here. If you are planning a visit, this site provides links to motels, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, tours, attractions and the like. If one is looking for images of what the battle might have looked like, visit the Gettysburg.com's Reenactment Center. Every year thousands of reenactors show up to replicate parts of the battle. Battle and camp pictures are provided. Gettysburg's 1998 reenactment is claimed as "the largest civil war reenactment on American soil."
• Civil War Virtual Battlefield Tours - A links page with pointers to many good sites covering Gettysburg and many other Civil War fields.
• Dan Sickles' Leg - Let's not get too serious about this...

Those interested in U.S. and military history might wish to visit some of my other sites.

• Flight by Committee - An introduction to air combat maneuver.
• Polyticks - If every four score and seven years there is a new birth of freedom, might the recent UN interest in enforcing world wide human rights be significant?
• Recognizing the Battle Flag - If you think Gettysburg has its controversies, try exploring the issue of slavery against state's rights.
• USS Massachusetts - Another photo tour, this time of a World War II fast battleship.
• USS Galveston Scrapbook - Shore leave photos and navy humor from the late 1920s.

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