(wind rustling) (somber music) - It's a breathtaking sight.

Just imagine the battles, the countless lives who were lost here.

- [Narrator] People have many reasons for coming to Gettysburg.

- Because it's gorgeous and it's full of the history.

And, I mean, just take a look around.

- We're actually tracking the path of our ancestors.

We had a relative that fought here at Gettysburg for the Confederacy, and he died in the peach orchard.

So we went to see where he died.

- [Narrator] Most visitors do know what happened here.

- Think about what these men did for us, north and south.

(somber music) - [Narrator] They know how 50,000 casualties on this Pennsylvania farmland marked a turning point in the civil war.

- [Terry] It made our country what it is.

- [Narrator] But beyond the battle, beyond the impressive Gettysburg monuments (tool grinding) are things most people never see, stories most people never hear.

- It was a unit that really hasn't received its just recognition (somber music) through the years.

- [Narrator] Like the valor and tragedy of the School Teachers' Regiment.

- [Michael] They were basically sacrificing themselves.

- [Narrator] The mysterious bugler who appears every night at sundown.

(somber bugle music) And these Marines, on a Gettysburg mission that might surprise you.

- How would I have my Marines assault that Hill?

How would I have defended this position here?

- When you walk this battlefield, you can always feel like there's somebody maybe walking with you.

- [Narrator] During the next half hour, you'll go where most tour groups never go.

You'll see good deeds that are quietly done.

You'll learn about people who don't show up in the history books.

- They're warm spirits and souls.

A lot of them are here, I believe.

- [Narrator] You'll get a different view of Gettysburg in these stories from the battlefield.

(ominous music) (fanfare music) (weapon firing) - The battle was raging out of control.

(weapons firing) There was chaos.

(weapons firing) There was screaming.

Bullets flying everywhere, artillery shells, just all out chaos.

(weapons firing) (rain pattering) The simplicity of this monument certainly is the antithesis of what was happening here in 1863.

- [Narrator] It's not a monument that stands out to most people.

- [Michael] And I think they intentionally wanted this monument to be simple and just to tell the story of what they did here.

- [Narrator] And it's not a story most people have heard.

- [Michael] It was a unit that really hasn't received its just recognition through the years.

- [Narrator] Michael Dreese is an author and historian who knows about the 151st Pennsylvania volunteers, what they did here, how they died here, and about the sacrifice of these men called the School Teachers' Regiment.

(gentle piano music) - [Michael] The nickname School Teachers' Regiment is derived from the fact that there was at least 60 teachers serving in the ranks of the 151st Pennsylvania.

Most prominently, the commander of the unit here at Gettysburg, Lieutenant Colonel George F. McFarland, who was the principal of an Academy in McAlisterville, Pennsylvania, before the war.

- [Narrator] McFarland's core unit of the 151st was, indeed, made up of teachers and older students.

But the regiment grew as more men signed on, with farmers, factory workers and other tradesmen, eventually outnumbering the teachers.

- The nickname lived on though, because I think it has a very romantic quality to it, to think of teachers and their youthful students fighting here on the battlefield.

Over half of the regiment hailed from Southeastern Pennsylvania, Berks, Schuylkill, Juniata County.

So these soldiers were literally fighting for their homes and families cause the Confederate invasion was getting dangerously close to where they actually lived.

- [Narrator] On the first day of battle, the men of the 151st were sent to plug a critical gap in the Union line.

They clashed in a fierce battle with Confederates at 20 paces.

- [Michael] And they basically just lined up and slugged it out for probably a half an hour to 45 minutes.

It was a very brutal contest.

- [Narrator] The 151st Pennsylvania suffered the second highest number of casualties among all Union regiments fighting at Gettysburg, losing 75% of its men.

Still, the survivors surged on, and with dwindling ranks, joined other Union soldiers to repel the Confederates during Pickett's Charge.

- Well, when I first discovered the very heavy casualties that this unit suffered and their significant role in the action here, I naturally assumed that there will be a great deal of published material on the unit, articles, books, perhaps a regimental history.

And I found that there was a total dearth of information on the unit.

- [Narrator] So Dreese did the research himself, tracking down descendants, talking with other historians, telling the story of the 151st in a book called "Like Ripe Apples in a Storm."

The title is a quote from Lieutenant William Blodgett of the 151st, who wrote a letter to his wife a few days after the battle.

- And he wrote home, he said, "Our poor boys fell around me like ripe apples in a storm.

Some of them fought after they were wounded two or even three times.

They were and are heroes, every one of them."

And that passage really stuck with me because they were near the end of their enlistment term.

And many of them were in the peak of their manhood and looking at their most productive years ahead of them.

- [Narrator] It's that personal angle of the 151st that inspired Dreese.

Through hard to find letters, diaries, and old photographs, he gathered and preserved their stories.

- [Michael] Michael Link, who was fighting as a private in the ranks, he was leveling his rifle to fire at the rebel flag, and that was the last thing he remembered seeing.

As it turns out, a bullet actually went through both of his eyes and would blind him for life.

- [Narrator] A burial party looking for bodies found Michael Link alive.

He would end up here at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, a makeshift hospital for wounded soldiers, especially from the 151st and the Pennsylvania 142nd.

Both regiments were fighting within view of the seminary, which still stands today.

- This building could talk, it would tell a story of great suffering, (ominous music) and human misery, agony, death, but it also tells a story of heroism.

- [Narrator] Even as the battle raged, medical officers and Gettysburg civilians made their way to the seminary to care for the casualties.

One of the wounded was Lieutenant Jeremiah Hoffman.

- Hoffman wrote a very detailed account of what took place here in the seminary during and immediately after the battle of Gettysburg.

(gentle piano music) He talks about the burial of his good friend, Andrew Tucker.

- [Narrator] Lieutenant Tucker died inside the seminary and was taken outside for burial.

The scene lives on because of Hoffman who was in a bunk inside the seminary room, now used for storage.

Lieutenant Hoffman was able to see through an open window, and later wrote about what he saw.

- "I was then lying on the bunk, and by lifting my head, could see into the garden.

I could not assist in the burial but I could look on.

They were holding the body over the grave when the head slipped over the edge of the blanket.

And the lieutenant's beautiful jet black hair dragged over the ground.

The thought of his mother and sisters was called up, and surely, it cannot be called unmanly that a few tears stole down my cheeks."

[Narrator] The seminary functioned as a hospital for about two months after the battle.

The last patient to leave was the commanding officer of the Pennsylvania 151st.

- [Michael] George McFarland, who was also wounded in this building, he had been shot through both legs, one of those legs would actually be amputated here three days later.

- [Narrator] The tally of the casualties is now etched (gentle music) into this monument to the 151st Pennsylvania volunteers.

But Michael Dreese says the carvings hardly convey the Valor of the men remembered as the School Teachers' Regiment.

- [Michael] You couldn't have expected this regiment to perform any better.

And they were thrown in at a desperate time in the battle when the Union lines were breaking.

There's really nobody symbolized on that monument, no one individual.

And I think that kind of serves the focus, the fact that they fought and died together as a unit.

(rain pattering) - When I thought about the importance of horses, and I thought there wouldn't have been a battle if it weren't for horses.

All the way.

They were as essential to the army as the fighting soldier on the ground.

We'll all line up out here.

- [Narrator] Horses still roam this battlefield.

- [Barb] This battle began on July 1st.

- [Narrator] Seeing Gettysburg on a horseback is getting more popular with tourists.

The park and volunteer groups are now working to improve and expand the trails.

Terry Latcher is one of a few licensed guides who give horse tours.

- Doing horseback tours forces you to slow down your pace on this battlefield.

(hooves clacking) (gentle music) (rain pattering) We'll be able to see the placement of some of the troops by the monuments.

- [Narrator] On this group tour Terry wears a microphone.

The riders behind her wear headsets.

- [Terry] Now, as we ride into this area, we're riding on one of the original farm lanes.

Well, I'm a horse person at heart and I love the battlefield, so you combine the two and it's great.

- [Narrator] The horses are limited to a small portion of the battlefield, but riders are still able to take in vistas that cover many miles.

- This equestrian monument is one of many that was put on the battlefield to commemorate the officers and their horses.

- [Narrator] There are about a dozen equestrian monuments on the battlefield, many of them capture the Corps Commanders and the actual horses they rode.

- I really do appreciate the horse monuments.

It's a nice tribute to the horses without taking anything away from the soldiers and the lives of those men who sacrificed here.

- [Narrator] An estimated 80,000 horses served at Gettysburg, riden by calvary, officers, messengers.

(somber music) They pulled artillery, supply wagons, ambulances.

About 5,000 horses were killed here, many others injured.

One of the wounded was Old Baldy, now immortalized on the impressive Gettysburg monument to General George Gordon Meade.

- He was an army man all of his life, fought before the civil war, Was a captain in the army at the outbreak of the civil war and quickly rose to general.

Actually, three days before this battle, General Meade was put in command of the entire Union army of the Potomac.

That's over 90,000 soldiers - [Narrator] General Meade's triumph at Gettysburg was the pinnacle of his military career.

His horse was wounded at Gettysburg, where Mead wrote from his headquarters, that, "Old Baldy has been shot again.

And I fear will not get over it."

But the horse survived.

- [Terry] He was quite a courageous horse, carried Meade through most of the battles in the civil war.

- [Narrator] It's believed Old Baldy was shot five times before the war ended.

He actually outlived Meade, led the General's funeral procession, then died 10 years later.

- That's not the end of Old Baldy.

A couple of weeks after he was buried, some veterans dug him up, severed his head, and his head was stuffed, mounted, and is now in Philadelphia.

(hooves clacking) - [Narrator] Visitors enjoy Terry's stories about the equestrian monuments.

One question she gets all the time is about the connection between the horse's hooves and the fate of the officer on horseback.

- Do you look at the horse hooves?

They can tell you a story.

- [Narrator] At Gettysburg, there's an unusual coincidence in just about every case, if all four hooves are touching the base of the monument, the officer on that horse was not injured.

- [Terry] If one hoof is up, the rider was wounded.

If two hooves are sculpted up, the rider was killed.

- [Narrator] The trivia and the footnotes in history keep the riders moving along, seeing this place the way the soldiers did.

(gentle music) - Rain, shine, heat of the summer and even snow, we do go out.

And that also gives you another perspective.

And sometimes when we're out, and it's 45 degrees and starts to rain, and the visitors on the horses kind of huddled down under their jackets and they look miserable, then I try to use that opportunity to remind them that soldier who have to endure this too.

From the back of a horse, gives me the perspective that many of the soldiers would have, that we don't get in a car or in a bus.

So it just gives you a completely different perspective, at the same time, slowing you down to take it all in.

(wind gusting) - [Narrator] Barb Adams knows the importance of preserving this place.

She's one of about 3,400 volunteers who give their time here.

Some, like Barb, are local, some are from out of state.

Many devote their time to a specific monument.

(rake rustling) - We choose the seventh Ohio infantry.

And we're from Ohio, so we feel close to them and it's our duty to help them out.

- The national park service only has so many men and this is a very big park.

It's a huge park.

And every minute that the volunteers can put in is of great help to the park services.

(leaves rustling) - [Narrator] The volunteers do everything, from landscaping to building or repairing miles of fences.

- Oh, I love to volunteer.

I wake up every morning wanting to know what I can do.

- [Narrator] Barb does a variety of volunteer jobs at Gettysburg, but she puts in most of her time, about four days a week, painting cannons.

- [Barb] The sun does a number on them, the kids like to climb on them, so they get scratched.

So we go back through every few years and try and repaint them just to keep them updated, and nice, and shiny and bright.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] In all, the park has about 400 cannons.

Many are displayed on the battlefield, but you'll find a lot of them (tool grinding) in this place.

That's because keeping Gettysburg's cannons in good shape requires a special operation just for the big guns.

- We call it the Gettysburg National Military Cannon Shop.

And, one, two, three, four, five.

Six spokes have been replaced.

- [Narrator] Joe Catchings is a preservation specialist.

He oversees the work here, from small repairs to major reassembly.

Many of the cannon tubes on the battlefield are true civil war relics, but the carriages are reproductions.

The originals were made of wood and could never have lasted as outdoor displays.

- I think they knew early on that wooden carriages were not gonna last very long in the field.

- [Narrator] So, in the late 1800's, replicas were made of cast iron, but even they require maintenance.

- It takes us a week and a half to two weeks to do the repair work.

It takes another week and a half to two weeks to paint a carriage.

(wheel creaking) - [Narrator] That's where volunteers like Barb come in, helping the small staff of employees in the cannon shop.

- [Barbara] And once they have been restored by the workman down at the cannon shop, each cannon gets approximately six layers of paint.

Then once they're put out on the battlefield, the paint will probably last about seven years.

- [Narrator] Besides painting these artillery monuments.

- The direction of the cannon always is facing your enemy.

- [Narrator] Barb has learned a lot about them.

She says any tourists can too, if they just look closer.

- This is an original cannon barrel.

It was manufactured in 1863 at the West Point Foundry in West Point, New York, it has a three inch barrel, meaning that the bore here is three inch.

The initials of the inspector were DWF.

It weighs 858 pounds, and it's number 14.

This barrel was not necessarily here at Gettysburg, but it did see service during the civil war.

Whenever you see a marker with cannon on either side of it, that monument and those cannons were placed there because that's exactly where that regiment fought.

- [Narrator] And it's in honor of those who fought that has Barb Adams (tool grinding) and so many other (gentle music) volunteers mending, (rake rustling) and raking, and painting.

- I see it as a little thank you to the people who fought here.

- I often think what would the soldiers say if they saw this place now.

And you just gotta think, gee, it's changed so, and yet, it's the same.

- [Linda] I am no one.

- [Narrator] She's somewhat of a mystery.

Few people know her name or much about her.

- [Linda] I'm a simple person.

And I think a lot of the soldiers were simple people.

They came from the farms, they had families, but they came, they believed in something, and they came and they fought.

- [Narrator] So that's why Linda Bell comes here.

- [Linda] Every night, when the sun goes down, I come out to the gate of the National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, and play Taps.

(somber bugle music) Nobody knows me, but I do it.

Sometimes there are people, to listen.

Sometimes there aren't.

Sometimes it is a beautiful night.

Sometimes it's raining, and snowing, and blowing, and I play.

- [Narrator] Linda was inspired by a ceremony she saw in Europe.

She lives near the battlefield and decided to play for the Gettysburg soldiers.

- It's a way for me to remember, not just those who died here during the civil war, but I think the soldiers who died before, and those who are still at war and are dying now.

Men who have been in the war, a lot of them will come up, veterans, and they will say thank you.

(somber bugle music) And often, they are crying.

I usually see people who are here, stand quiet, listen, let me finish.

And then they go on about what they were doing.

- [Narrator] Her bugle has sounded every night for 12 years now.

- [Linda] I'm getting older.

I would like to continue this.

I would love to have a group of us do this.

And we take turns.

- [Narrator] She's trying to draft others to help out, but until then, Linda Bell keeps playing her tribute for the men behind the monuments.

- [Linda] And I play for them.

I don't play for me, I play for them.

(crowd chattering) - There is a party at this home in Gettysburg, with steak, beer and laughter.

(crowd laughing) All happening at the edge of the sacred battlefield.

That might seem like an unusual place for a celebration until you hear the story behind it.

(crowd chattering) - I've got a hundred sergeants up here.

So it's great to get an opportunity, those Marines, who would never normally experience coming to Gettysburg and seeing the history here.

And also get a chance to interact with the Seamus.

- [Guest] Seamus is the coolest guy I've ever met.

- [Narrator] Seamus is Seamus Garrahy, former Marine, whose property borders the battlefield.

A dozen times a year, Seamus fires up his grill.

(grill sizzling) - [Seamus] Doesn't get any better.

- [Guest] No, it doesn't.

- [Narrator] And hosts a steak and beer dinner for hundreds of Marines and others who serve in the military.

This group is from the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico.

Just about all of them have seen active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

- Motivation, determination, honor, courage, commitment, integrity, bearing, camaraderie, It's all on there.

- Allow the Marines to step back and relax from their duties as marksmanship coaches and instructors.

And establish some camaraderie and esprit with themselves and within the organization.

(crowd chattering) - [Narrator] Seamus gets food for the party through donations or pays for some of it himself.

- Thank you bud.

- Steak, beer, beans, and bread, and that's all of it.

- [Narrator] The Marines will stay in Gettysburg for a few days, camping out in Seamus' yard, so they don't have to pay for lodging somewhere else.

- Charge your glasses, turn off the light.

We'll go build a fire.

I need two guys or three guys.

- [Narrator] But this isn't just a weekend of R&R, Early the next morning, (crowd chattering) (bus engine rumbling) these Marines are on the battlefield.

- Today, we're having a professional military education on the battle of Gettysburg, to educate our Marines.

- Imagine being that group of soldiers.

- [Mike] Militarily, you take a look at the tactics and techniques that they use then and learn from that.

- [Narrator] The Marines get briefed on how the troops moved across this battlefield in 1863.

- Think about what it was like with the Alabamians that are coming over.

- [Narrator] They'll see the monuments, study the terrain, and learn who was defeated where, and why.

- [Loren] I've done two deployments, one of which was a combat deployment to Afghanistan.

- [Narrator] One of the Marines in this group is not only looking at this place tactically.

- [Loren] How would I have my Marines assault that Hill?

How would I have defended this position here?

- [Narrator] He's also seeing it emotionally.

- [Loren] My family all fought for this Confederacy in the 47th Alabama infantry.

- [Narrator] Loren Lynch knows of five ancestors who fought for the South.

Three of them were killed here at Gettysburg.

Another, his great, great, great-grandfather survived this battle.

- [Loren] He fought through here, up Big Round Top and down a Little Round Top.

- [Narrator] And just for a little while, Corporal Lynch will leave the other Marines to go off alone, looking for a monument he's always wanted to see.

- [Loren] And this is a big part of my family history.

- [Narrator] He'll find the Alabama State Memorial.

- It's awesome.

It's just weird to think that four or five generations ago, great, great, great-grandfather stood somewhere around here.

(somber music) Wherever you go that you know Americans have lost their lives in battle, you definitely reflect on where you've been, what you've done and what you've seen.

- [Narrator] His observations come from experience, sacrifice and loss.

In Afghanistan, Corporal Lynch's squad was hit by enemy fire.

Lynch was wounded.

Two of his comrades, good friends, were killed.

Nick died in my arms and Ricky was killed maybe two feet from me.

I think about them and I think that war is not pretty, no matter where it's fought, no matter where.

(guns firing) - [Narrator] And from this position, near the Alabama monument, where his ancestors once stood and fought.

- Sure as hell wasn't easy.

- [Narrator] There's time for one more look.

And Corporal Loren Lynch has a better view than many others.

- They fought from here to Little Round Top, the whole way.

And everybody I'm here with has been in combat.

Everybody I'm here with knows what it's like to fight for every inch that you get.

The only thing I can do is stand here and look, look out at what I'm seeing in awe, and just say thank you.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] This program is made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Public Television Network.

The network receives funding from the Commonwealth to provide public television to all Pennsylvanians and by viewers like you.

Thank you.