National Park Service at Gettysburg Photos

The photographs below show the flank markers placed by the National Park Service at Gettysburg to indicate the position of the 16th Maine Infantry Regiment at the time it was surrounded and overrun by the Confederates. The distance between the left and right flank markers shows how compressed the regiment became. By comparison, the distance between the National Park’s left and right flank markers that indicate the 16th Maine’s original position before being surrounded is approximately 450 feet.  The “tree stump” behind the 16th’s flank markers is a granite monument of the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment who fought in the same place later in the day. Their veterans decided to erect an allegorical monument – the lifeless stump represents the destruction of war, the twisting vine represents renewal, and the barely visible nest of fledgling birds represents the rebirth of hope. A more conventional monument raised by the 16th Maine is located nearby.