Photo by Randy Drais. His ancestor may have been treated in this field hospital after the Battle of Gettysburg.
Randy Drais, a lifelong resident of York, has created an interesting new website specifically pertaining to the Battle of Gettysburg. Covering a broad and diverse range of topics, Randy's site has something for everyone, including a page with ideas to help children understand the battle and the Civil War experience.
Randy has pages devoted to out-of-the way locations that often are of interest to even the casual battlefield tramper, as well as pages for side-trips (including York and Hanover), recaps of National Park Service battlewalks, interesting monuments, and much, much more! For those who want to dive deeper into the battle's details, Randy includes an array of weblinks and books organized by topic and battle sequence.
Randy's great-great-grandfather, Felix, was a private in Company A, 12th U.S. Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Colonel Hannibal Day), 2nd Division (Brigadier General Romeyn Ayres), in Major General George Sykes' Fifth Corps. Felix was wounded on July 2, 1863, during the battle for the Wheatfield and Little Round Top.
Shot through both legs, he was taken to a field hospital (possibly the Jacob Weikert farm) and then probably to Camp Letterman before convalescing further in a home in nearby Littlestown. Later, he purchased a farm (where today's Granite Hill Campground is along the Fairfield Road, Route 116) and lived out his years in the Gettysburg area. He is buried in Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery.
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