Club members get history lesson on Battle of Gettysburg on annual Civil War trip

Forty-five National Press Club members and guests enjoyed a fact-filled educational tour of Gettysburg National Military Park on Saturday, 156 years after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War raged over the park's sweeping fields and hills. It was the Club's 15th annual Civil War trip, hosted by the American Battlefield Trust.

Tim Smith, a Gettysburg expert and licensed guide. took the Club group through the three days of horrendous fighting in the July 1-3, 1863, battle, which ebbed and flowed over 20 square miles.

Smith said the Confederate Army arrived at Gettysburg before the Union forces did, with more men.

"The South captured the town, with fighting in the streets," he said, pointing out bullet holes in some of the still-standing homes and other town buildings. At the time Gettysburg had some 2,000 residents, but only one civilian was killed.

Summarizing the wide-ranging fighting, Smith said the Confederate Army won the first day of the battle.

The second day was the bloodiest day of the battle, with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army attacking both ends of a three-mile-plus Union army line.

"Lee's army had to march through woods, over boulders and through bushes -- mostly uphill," Smith said. Despite the difficult terrain the Confederate forces almost succeeded, but the North won the day by staving off a vicious attack at the hill known as Little Round Top.

"Lee thought he could win by attacking the center of the Union line on the third day," Smith said. "After failing against the ends, he thought the center would be weak."

But the attack against a well fortified and elevation position -- the famed Pickett's Charge -- "was a disaster." Some 12,000 Confederate soldiers attacked, with 6,000 to 8,000 killed, wounded or missing.

Why did Lee make the charge?

"He had moved 70,000 men over 200 miles into northern territory, no easy task," Smith said. "This was the time, he had to do something, and he thought the attack was his best chance."

The Club group also saw the small stone house that was Lee's headquarters during the battle. The house and adjacent four-acre property was privately owned and over the years was host to a museum and motel complex. In 2014, the Trust acquired the property and restored the house to its 1863 appearance.

The Club's Civil War Trips started in 2005, under a payment-in-kind arrangement with the Trust, and have been held every year since. Headquartered in Washington, the Trust is a private entity that purchases and preserves battlefield lands. It educates the public on what happened there and why it matters today.