If you walk due east from the High Water Mark on Cemetery Ridge, you find yourself walking downhill for almost a half mile, to the general vicinity of the new Cyclorama building.
During the battle, the area became a haven for support services to gather, out of sight of the Confederate lines, in defilade, as they say. Supply, medical operations, reserve artillery, all gathered there in safety, they thought. It was also a natural gathering place for skulkers, who had no love for facing enemy fire under any circumstances.
What a surprise they had when the Confederate bombardment started! A shell fired just a whisker high exactly followed the topography of the ridge and struck or exploded down in that supposed defilade area. If there was a miscalculation in the length of fuse required, OR if the fuses burned more slowly than what the books said, then the shells had a uniform tendency to burst among the support troops and the skulkers, and so it happened on July 3, 1863. A shell fired high, but properly fused, would have burst over the infantry, but on that day the troops on the line were safer than those in the rear with the gear. This is felt by this writer to be poetic justice. Why should us grunts have all the fun???
J
John Ferry
LTC 2/20th Corps