The vast history of the Battle of Gettysburg will probably never be completely known.  With the nearly countless number of soldiers and officers involved, along with the 2,400 civilians who were in the midst of the conflict, there were many witnesses, who formed many part of the great whole.

The overwhelming scope of this pivotal battle, however, has been well documented and many of the veterans, which numbered in the thousands, wrote and explained their roles at Gettysburg.  Out of the many who worked tirelessly to keep the memory of Gettysburg for the future generations, one man stands out.  He was John Badger Bachelder, the first, and foremost, historian of the great battle.  Without his tireless work on understanding what happened during those three days in July, we would not know what we do about this pivotal conflict.

John Bachelder was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire on November 29 (some sources claim he was born on September 29), in 1825.  His father, Moses, worked in the lumber business.  From childhood John demonstrated an artistic flair and an interest in all things military.  He attended military school in New Hampshire.   From 1849 to 1853 he taught military tactics at the Pennsylvania Military Institute in Reading.  While employed there, he married Elizabeth Stevens in Nottingham, New Hampshire.1 

From 1855 until the outbreak of war, Bachelder spent years painting a series of scenes of New England, entitled Gallery of Cities.  When the war came, he enlisted in the army, and was detached to create maps in order to aid Union soldiers in learning the details of their fields of battle. 

Bachelder did not fight at the Battle of Gettysburg, but arrived there soon afterward, on July 5, 1863.  He wrote, “When I arrived at Gettysburg, the debris of that great battle lay scattered for miles around.  Fresh mounds of earth marked the resting place of the fallen thousands, and many of the dead lay yet unburied.   It therefore required no guide to point out the locality of the battle.”  He began to work, sketching the field.2

The artist and soldier realized immediately the significance of the battle, and the need to document what had happened there.  It would be a monumental task.  “The whole Summer and Fall of 1863, he spent on the field,” wrote one Gettysburg contemporary, “and the following winter he was with the Army of the Potomac learning the story of the battle.  As soon as the war was over, he spent months with the Confederate officers and soldiers, gathering information.”3

During the summer and fall of 1863, while he stayed in Gettysburg, Bachelder interviewed the Union wounded, as well as the Confederate wounded and captured, as they convalesced at Camp Letterman.  As some of them improved, they took Bachelder over the field, locating the positions they had occupied, and explaining what had taken place there.

When he traveled with the Army of the Potomac, Bachelder interviewed General Meade and the surviving corps, division, and brigade commanders.  He asked officers to sketch the battlefield while the memory was fresh in their minds.  Putting it all together, John Bachelder proceeded to categorize the battle until it became cohesive.

The process he started continued after the war.  Colonel Bachelder corresponded with many veterans, from high-ranking officers to enlisted men.  Many of these letters survive and are archived at Gettysburg National Military Park.  Some of Bachelder’s correspondents included Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, Alexander Webb, Joshua Chamberlain and William Oates.

From the myriad correspondence and equally numerous trips to the battlefield with those who had participated in the fight, Colonel Bachelder was able to detail his isometrical map almost to perfection.  The Bachelder Map remains extant, and is the pride of its creator.

John Bachelder lived in Hyde Park, near Boston, Massachusetts after the war with his wife and daughter.  He made numerous visits to Gettysburg, often at the request of the Gettysburg Battlefield Commission, of which he was a founding member.  Bachelder assisted with monumentation – the High-Water Mark Memorial on Cemetery Ridge is one of his designs – and insisted that the Confederate side be documented with monumentation as well.  His wish was to make Gettysburg a place where the pivotal “high water mark of the Confederacy” became a place where all could come and learn and understand.  He was tireless in his effort, and showed “unflagging industry” for Gettysburg.4

In the early 1890s, businessmen wanted a trolley to take visitors around the battlefield.  Many of the Battlefield Commission, including the colonel, were against the plan, worried that Gettysburg would become more like an amusement park and that the sacred ground would be desecrated.  The plan, nevertheless, pushed through, and Bachelder then visited Gettysburg in an effort to help the plan avoid some of the more sanguinary spots, such as the Valley of Death.  He had earned great respect, and his ideas were followed.5

Bachelder became one of the great historians of the battle.  His mind was encyclopedic.  He gathered such a plethora of information, that he continually wrote and revised, planning a great tome of the history of the great Battle of Gettysburg.  When not interviewing and writing, he lectured on the battle.  “An awestruck contemporary,” it was recorded, “after attending one of his lectures, pointed out that Bachelder challenged anyone in the audience to ask him to locate the position and describe the part of any corps, division, or brigade, or regiment…and a hundred interrogatories were immediately put to him, each and every one of which he answered without hesitation and with absolute firmness and accuracy.”6

Sadly, his book was never written, but the facts gleaned from the memories of the veterans, his lifetime pursuit, are extant, making Gettysburg one of the most well documented battles in history.

One of the crowning achievements of this artist and historian stands at the famed Copse of Trees on Cemetery Ridge.  As the 25th anniversary of the great battle neared in 1888, Colonel Bachelder was asked to design a monument to stand as a reminder of the great turning point of the battle, Pickett’s Charge.  The repulse of the epic charge proved a turning point for the war, and was known as “The High-Water Mark of the Confederacy”.  Bachelder created a most appropriate design, which was heartily accepted.  The High Water Mark Memorial was dedicated in 1892.7

Colonel Bachelder became seriously ill in June of 1894, but as soon as he recovered, he returned to Gettysburg at the request of some Louisiana veterans who wished to show him where they had deployed during the battle.  In November that year, the imposing, white-haired Bachelder, with his impressive mutton-chop whiskers, walked the field with the aging veterans, marking their positions for future generations.8

John Bachelder died suddenly, a few days before Christmas, on December 22, 1894 – just weeks after visiting Gettysburg.  The cause of death was pneumonia.  He was 69 years old.  His death came as a blow to the people of Gettysburg, as he had been among them for much of the last thirty years, and had been “ in robust health ” the last time he had visited Gettysburg.  He was buried in Hyde Park, Massachusetts.9

“His life has been for Gettysburg ” lamented one who knew him – and his words were exactly true.10

Much is remembered about the famous battle at Gettysburg because so many wrote down their experiences during those three tumultuous days in July in 1863.  A lion’s share of those witness testimonies was recorded and kept by one man, who had visited the battlefield just hours after the guns grew silent, and returned again and again for thirty years.  He was a soldier and an artist who wanted to search through the debris and the destruction and make sense of it all, to find the truth.  And find it he did.