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>> We've arrived at Auto Tour Stop Two on the Gettysburg Battlefield, Oak Hill.
And today, Oak Hill is dominated by the monument that you see behind me,
the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.
Dedicated on July 3, 1938, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
On July, 1938 was also the occasion of the final reunion of the surviving Civil War veterans.
If you're a Civil War veteran, regardless of where you live, North or South,
and you're still alive in 1938, you got a free ticket to come back
to the Gettysburg Battlefield, to take part in this final reunion, on the anniversary
of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 75th anniversary of the battle.
And over 1,000 Civil War veterans actually came back to the battlefield to take part in this.
Their average age was in the 90s.
The oldest was allegedly 112.
And when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial,
not only were hundreds of thousands of visitors present,
but many of these aged Civil War veterans were here, as well.
The Eternal Light Peace Memorial physically depicts the reunited country after the ravages
of the American Civil War, with a base made of granite from the state of Maine,
and a shaft made from Alabama limestone,
it symbolically depicts the two halves of the country, joined together.
Topped with an eternal flame, it again represents peace eternal in a nation reunited.
We're now standing on Oak Hill, Auto Stop Two on the Gettysburg Battlefield,
and we're looking roughly due South, towards the town of Gettysburg.
Gettysburg today is marked by the prominent buildings you see in the background.
The Battle of Gettysburg, by about noon on July 1, 1863,
settled into a lull, as both sides pulled back.
As we already mentioned at previous stops, Major General John Fulton Reynolds,
commanding the First Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac committed the Union Army to battle
by taking up a position at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
And roughly 30 minutes later, he's out of the fight.
He's killed.
Why did John Reynolds decide to fight at Gettysburg?
Well, a big part of that is Cemetery Hill, just South of the town of Gettysburg.
Find the prominent glass tower, located on the Gettysburg College campus today.
The tallest tree line behind it marks Cemetery Hill.
In 1863, unlike today, Cemetery Hill was completly clear of trees.
It sticks out like a sore thumb.
It dominates the landscape around it.
It's an excellent position for artillery.
It has a great field of fire.
If you're John Fulton Reynolds, or if you're the Union Army of the Potomac,
and you're going to fight the Confederate Army in a battle that could decide the war,
you want to hold onto that key ground South of the town of Gettysburg.
John Reynolds recognized that, and by deploying West of town, is hoping to buy enough time
to keep the Confederates at bay long enough for the remainder of the Army of the Potomac
and George Gordon Meade to arrive on the battlefield.
Now, neither Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia,
nor George Gordon Meade, Commander of the Army of the Potomac,
expected a battle to happen at Gettysburg on July 1st.
Again, it happens almost by accident.
It's a collision, as these two armies kind of bump into each other.
But as the hours and minutes pass on July 1st, the battle gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
During this lull, reinforcements from both sides will arrive on the battlefield.
And roughly around 1:00, on Oak Hill, 8,000 Confederate infantrymen,
led by a Confederate General named Robert Rodes, will arrive on the battlefield.
Now, these 8,000 Confederate infantrymen had only a few days previous, been near the town
of Carlisle and right outside the capitol of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.
But they marched South, and they arrived on the battlefield
at the exact right time, at the exact right spot.
And when they arrived on Oak Hill, they see roughly the same thing that you're looking
at today, except in place of the monuments and markers, they see infantrymen of the Union Army.
Now, Robert Rodes, around 2 o'clock, will launch his division, again 8,000 men,
against the Union position, stretched out in the fields to our south.
The intent is to drive back the Union Army, crush Union resistance and drive them back
into the town of Gettysburg itself.
However, these Confederate attacks are poorly coordinated, and Union reinforcements,
occupying Oak Ridge, again, marked by the prominent monuments
and markers along the park road today, are able to drive those Confederate attacks back.
Thus far, Union troops have been able
to hold off these Confederate assaults, but the battle is far from over.