The Truth About Lee's Headquarters at the Battle of Gettysburg with Tim Smith

[00:00:02][music] >> You know, there are plenty of sources that Robert E. Lee used this site as his headquarters.

[00:00:13]And sometimes I wonder what we're really arguing about anyway.

[00:00:18]So, um early on like the Bat Shutter isometric map drawn in 1863, the Elliott burial map drawn in 1864, you know, Michael Jacobs' book that was published in 1863, a letter by a professor of Gettysburg College written in 1863, two letters written by a correspondent that come here for the Gettysburg Address, and um a uh reporter from like a Philadelphia newspaper, all in 1863 say Robert E. Lee used the house as his headquarters.

[00:00:53]And when Robert E. Lee's staff officer, uh Charles Marshall, uh when his memoirs are published, he says that the house is a headquarters.

[00:01:04]But a headquarters is more than Robert E. Lee.

[00:01:08]Uh sure, Lee's in charge. But, you know, in the Civil War, a headquarters uh can for a general, especially an army commander, consists of all of his staff officers.

[00:01:23]And all of his staff officers have a staff.

[00:01:27]And they all have tents.

[00:01:29]So, a headquarters would be a large grouping of tents.

[00:01:35]And so, you know, this whole area was probably occupied as Lee's headquarters.

[00:01:42]And also, um you know, the headquarters is there's always someone who knows where Robert E. Lee is located.

[00:01:53]So, let's say you're a general and you need to get a message to Robert E. Lee, you don't go looking down Seminary Ridge and trying to find him. Your staff officer brings the message to army headquarters.

[00:02:09]And someone at army headquarters always knows where Lee is.

[00:02:14]And so Lee relates messages back to the headquarters and are sent out from the headquarters and messages coming in come into the headquarters and go out of the headquarters. So it's very um you know much more complicated uh matter than people want to you know assume. The other thing is we know that Robert E. Lee himself arrives in Cashtown that afternoon.

[00:02:44]He talks to A.P. Hill and they hear cannons firing at Gettysburg. And so what does Lee do?

[00:02:51]He rides forward to Gettysburg.

[00:02:56]And so at the end of the battle on July 1st at some point he comes up on Seminary Ridge and he looks over and sees Cemetery Hill.

[00:03:06]You know, I ordered fire on that hill.

[00:03:10]Remember that line in the movie? One of my favorites.

[00:03:13]So I think there's every reason to believe that Lee is along Seminary Ridge.

[00:03:17]Everyone agrees that Lee's headquarters is right here. And again, what are we arguing about anyway?

[00:03:23]Was he in the house?

[00:03:25]Or was he just in a tent over here?

[00:03:28]Or maybe he slept in the tent but only had meetings in the house. Or maybe he slept in it on the first day. I mean, is that really worth arguing over? Oh, come on. They're here, whatever.

[00:03:41]But what ends up happening?

[00:03:44]In the early in the 1890s, people start to deny that Lee was ever here. And you heard already, Dustman who lives next door is telling everybody he never slept here.

[00:03:57]And in the 1896, there's a fire in Lee's headquarters and uh, the inside of the building burns.

[00:04:05]And in the article they happen to mention that battlefield guides had stopped pointing it out to visitors as a site of Lee's headquarters because it was being used as a brothel.

[00:04:20]And sure enough, I looked through the court records. There's a lady named Emmeline Fister.

[00:04:26]And she's actually arrested and charged with running a bawdy house at Lee's headquarters and she pleads no contest. I forget what the you know, what what the fine is, but yes, in fact, it's true.

[00:04:43]And um, uh, you know, whether that kept people from denying it or saying it wasn't Lee's headquarters or not, it's it's really hard to say.

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