Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Ed Suplee, is standing near the monument to the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment on the south slope of the “Stony Hill.” The monument to the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is in the background. This view was taken facing southwest at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Ed Suplee continues his series on the field hospital for the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. In our first post, he introduced us to the field hospital location, and showed us how Anderson’s Georgians attacked the 32nd Massachusetts position on the Stony Hill. In today’s post, he shows us how the field hospital was forced to pull back to the northeast side of Rose’s Wheatfield (THE Wheatfield).
See the following related posts:
32nd Massachusetts Monument and Plaque on April 27, 2008.
Slathering the Loop with Asphalt on September 13, 2008.
This map shows the location of where our 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital videos were produced. Videos #1-#2 and #6 were on the Stony Hill near the site of the first 32nd Massachusetts field hospital. Video #s 3 and 5 were taken at the 32nd Massachusetts monument and right flank marker on the Stony Hill. Video #4 was taken on DeTrobriand Avenue giving a perspective of how Anderson’s Georgia Brigade attacked the 32nd Massachusetts. Video #7 was taken on the western side of the Wheatfield. Video #8 was taken at the northeast corner of the Wheatfield. This map was created facing north at approximately 9:15 PM on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
In Video #5 (Videos #1-4 were shown in our previous 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital post), Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Ed Suplee explains how a wife of the of the soldiers killed in the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment came to the battlefield to find his body on the Stony Hill. When Ed mentions the “Compiler,” he is speaking of the Gettysburg Compiler, one of the local weekly newspapers. This view was taken facing southwest at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
Ed has now moved back to the area where the large rocks shielded the field hospital of the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. The monument on the rock is to the 5th Michigan Infantry Regiment. The plaque for the 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital is in the rock on the right. This view was taken facing west at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
In Video #6 Licensed Battlefield Guide Ed Suplee is standing near the field hospital marker for the 32nd Massachusetts. He explains how Georgians were attacking from the left or south and then Kershaw’s South Carolinians came from the west, over the crest of the Stony Hill in the background. This view was taken facing west at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
One of the methods by which the 32nd Massachusetts medical staff distinguished their position as a field hospital (to their friends and foes) was placing green cloths on the boulders. This is a diorama of the 32nd Massachusetts field hospital at Gettysburg’s Stony Hill. The diorama is located at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland.
Another method by which hospitals distinguished themselves was by displaying the yellow and green hospital flags.
Ed Suplee has now moved east of the 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital site on Stony Hill. He is by the monument to the 57th New York Infantry Regiment at the west edge of the Wheatfield where the ambulances for the 32nd Massachusetts were located. This view was taken facing west at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
When the 32nd Massachusetts retreated from the Stony Hill/Loop area, the regiment became separated from the field hospital. The regiment went to the left or north. The field hospital went directly behind Ed to the northeast. This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
In Video #7 Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Ed Suplee shows us where the ambulances for the 32nd Massachusetts were located, and in what directions the regiment and field hospital retreated from this area after they became separated. This view was taken facing west to north to northeast at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
Although this picture was obviously a winter scene, and not a Gettysburg scene, it does show a line of ambulances against a woodline, much as the ambulances for the 32nd Massachusetts were parked along the woods at the west side of the Wheatfield on July 2, 1863. This view was taken between 1861 and 1865.
Ed Suplee is now standing at the second location of the field hospital for the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He is at the northeast side of the Wheatfield. There would have been a stone wall running right to left (north to south) in the location where he is standing. Houck’s Ridge is directly behind Ed, and Little Round Top is in the background. This view was taken facing southeast at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
In Video #8 Ed Suplee shows us the second location of the 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital, and the direction by which they finally leave this area. This view was taken facing southeast to south to every direction except north at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
When the 32nd Massachusetts Field Hospital finally retreats from this area the afternoon of July 2, 1863, they go to the north side of Little Round Top, over Munshower Hill (the direction in which Ed is pointing). This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
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