The Archive / Season 1, Episode 7
The Fields of Gettysburg
THE ARCHIVE Season 1, Episode 7: "The Fields of Gettysburg" --- [ARCHIVAL NOTE: The following letters were written by soldiers from both the Union and Confederate armies during and after the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. The battle was the bloodiest of the American Civil War, with approximately 50,000 total casualties. These letters have been preserved in archives, museums, and family collections across America. They represent the voices of men who fought for opposing causes but shared a common humanity.] --- [LETTER ONE] From: Private Samuel Morrison, 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry (Union) To: His wife, Portland Date: July 2, 1863 (evening, after the defense of Little Round Top) My Dearest Catherine, I am alive. By God's grace and nothing else, I am alive. We held a hill today. Little Round Top, they called it — a rocky slope at the end of the Union line. Colonel Chamberlain said if we lost that hill, the whole army would be flanked. The Confederates would roll up our line like a carpet, and the war would be lost. They came at us five times. Five times, Catherine. Alabamans, mostly — tough men, brave men, screaming that rebel yell as they charged up the slope. We shot them down, and they kept coming. We shot until our rifles were too hot to hold,...