Destroying the trees on the Gettysburg Battlefield (vanity)

Old Lady ^ | March 18, 2005 | Old Lady

[Age of Reason]

How many more living things must die on that field to serve man's vanity?

[Old Phone Man]

http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/79/07/Formerwoodlot.jpg Former heavily wooded area. This picture was taken from the intersection of Wheatfield Rd and Sedgwick Ave, looking southwest. The wheatfield is in the left corner. For someone who studies the battlefield as I do, it seems ridiculous to cut all those trees down just for a vista from 1863. All you have to do is stand in the same spot with the trees and you get the picture. Training aids -- such as maps -- are easy to get online from the Library of Congress. There was no need to rape this land.

[Old Phone Man]

http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/79/07/TreecutdownatSedgwickAveWheatfieldRD.jpg


Notice my shoes in the photo to get the scale of this tree. The tree was so large I could not get the entire stump in the picture frame.

Of course, I'm not an "expert" like those who decided to cut the trees down, but I did count the rings on this baby, and when I reached 120 I stopped because there was a lot more than 143. This proves to me -- a novice, of course -- that this was a Witness Tree that should never have been cut down.

[Old Phone Man]

[Old Lady]

Post 154, beautifully said.

[Old Lady]

see picture at post 164

[Age of Reason]

I recently visited a small cemetery down the road from my brother's home.

The cemetery is of the type that served a family or small local farming community from the early 19th century on back.

No one has been buried in it for generations.

This small cemetery has a fence around it, and the graves seem cared for now.

But there must have been a time when it was neglected--probably after the farmers left and during the early years of suburbia growing around it.

During this time trees had begun to grow among the graves.

One tree had grown directly over one grave--just in front of the headstone.

That headstone says the person beneath fought in America's War for Independence.

But all that is left of that tree is a broken old stump.

This tree had lived out its long life and died of old age, so old is this grave.

[Old Phone Man]

What a beautiful vignette!

[Radix]

"A monument every 6 feet, etc....Can't imagine the battle."

The excess number of monuments I also found distracting during my visit a while back. I have been to a number of Civil War sites but the sheer number of monuments at Gettysburg seemed to me to be rather redundant.

[SamAdams76]

I'm on the side of the Park Service. Restore the battlefield to 1863 conditions.

[potlatch]

Your American Trilogy page is great devolve. I saw it in email and forgot to write you about it. That canons fire and smoke is real looking!!

[from occupied ga]

Nobody saw much from Little Round Top then, either.

You were there?

[from occupied ga]

Old Cedar, over 100 years old.

That makes them 20th century woody weeds.

[from occupied ga]

who owns the land

The government owns the land and can do with it what it wants.

[RightWhale]

One difference between Gettysburg and many other battlefields is that there is a lot of terrain at Gettysburg and not a lot of acreage, much of it cleared and fenced off for farms. Anybody that got up high enough to see anything through the smoke and confusion got picked off. The battle at the base of Little Round Top was intense, and blind since it was a cornfield and nobody could see anything.

[alan1]

Anyone know if the Park Service is going to clear the trees that on the top of Big Roundtop?

[civilwar]

I am really surprised how many people THINK that they know what the civil war veterans would or would not support.
I have been to Gettysburg to many times to count and talked to alot of knowledgeable people there and as far as any one I have talk to the only witness tree that stands is off by it self in a field. If you look at any of the books written by William Frassnito, on Gettysburg, you will be able to see that the trees grew well after the battle. If you go look at the spirt of St Louis do you want to see it or do you want to see it with a coat of paint that is not suppose to be there. Please don't use civil war history to try to save a few trees, tell the truth you don't want to see any tree cut.

[civilwar]

Please! I bet you belive in little green men from Mars.

[Badeye]

I’m fully in favor of restoring the battlefield to what it looked like in 1863, sorry.

Of the Civil War battlefields I’ve seen, Gettysburg is by far my least favorite. A monument every 6 feet, etc....Can’t imagine the battle.

Antietam, by contrast, is about 10 times better. Far more moving seeing an empty field.

Its been fifteen years or so since my wife and I made a vacation out of Civil War battlefields. Gettysburg and Antietam being two of them.

Like you, I’m in favor of restoring the Gettysburg battlefield to what it looked like in 1863. On the other hand, if its the trees I recall from Devil’s Den, it was a very nice place on a hot day to stop and ‘reflect’ as noted above.

Antietam was a great place to visit, learned a lot, and the people of Sharpsburg are top notch. I hope to someday make a return trip via motorcyle.

[Badeye]

My wife and I actually talked about buying the Cordori farm when we visited, couldn’t believe it was ‘on the block’ for only around a 100k back then