Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - U.S. Civil War Battlefield

Before William Tecumseh Sherman became a great Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.
In October 1861, William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of Union forces in Kentucky, told U.S. Secretary of War Simon Cameron he
needed 60,000 men to defend his territory and 200,000 to go on the offensive. Cameron called Sherman’s request “insane” and removed
the general from command. In a letter to his brother, a devastated Sherman wrote, “I do think I should have committed suicide were it not
for my children. I do not think that I can again be trusted with command.” But in February 1862, Sherman was reassigned to Paducah,
Kentucky, under Ulysses S. Grant, who saw not insanity but competence in the disgraced general. Later in the war, when a civilian
badmouthed Grant, Sherman defended his friend, saying, “General Grant is a great general. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood
by him when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always.”

View Towards the
Field of Pickett's Charge.

McPHERSON RIDGE
McPherson Ridge is a landform used for military engagements during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, First Day, when the I Corps (Union Army)
had a headquarters on the ridge and was defeated by the Confederate division of Major General Henry Heth.
On July 1, 1863, at ~8 am, Buford's 3,200 dismounted cavalrymen held the ridge until 10:30 am against 7,000 Confederates until the arrival of
the 1 Corps infantry. After the Union forces retreated to Seminary Ridge, 2 companies of the 55th Virginia Infantry attacked the "large barn in
which many of the Yankees took refuge. … An officer standing in the door of the barn, when ordered to surrender by Major Lauson, refused";
and after the barn was captured it was used as a field hospital.