The Road to the Death Strewn Slope: Part Two

The second of a nine-part series about the journey of Benjamin Franklin Heald and Llewellyn Heald to Gettysburg with the Twentieth Maine Regiment.

The bugle sounded reveille before daylight and the men of the Twentieth Maine heeded the command to fall in. The heat diminished but the rain made the marching all the more miserable, as worn-out and ragged, they walked foot-sore for another twenty-five miles before making camp. That day, June 30, in lightest possible marching order, they passed through Unionville, Union Bridge, Uniontown, and bivouacked for the night at Union Mills. They were names all reminiscent of friendlier territory*. Now only five miles from the Pennsylvania border, they heard cannonading off to the northeast, toward Hanover. Two days before, on the Sabbath, after a sixteen day hiatus when the regiment received no mail, Frank and Lew sat down with letters from home. Now, on this night, Sumner Hill had never seemed farther away, nor more missed. *Thomas A. Desjardin, “Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine” pg. 25

The Road to the Death Strewn Slope: Part One

The first of a nine-part series about the journey of Benjamin Franklin Heald and Llewellyn Heald to Gettysburg with the Twentieth Maine Regiment, June 29-July 2, 1863.

For some time now they had known that a large battle was brewing to the north. There were signs of heightened tension in camp and in the Fifth Corps. In the last three days, they had trudged nearly sixty miles in intense summer heat. On June 29, with colors unfurled, they marched through Frederick, Maryland. Flags were flying from nearly every window and the weary men were welcomed with food and water. Among the soldiers of the Twentieth Maine were Benjamin Franklin Heald and his cousin Llewellyn, both farmers from Sumner, a town in the foothills of the western mountains. Later that day, toward evening, a heavy rain began to fall. Without tents, they hunkered down as best they could and awaited the dawn.