Gettysburg and German POW camp (1 Viewer)

Very interesting. Never knew about any of this. -- Al
 
braddinpa said:
Here is an interesting link about a German POW camp built where Longstreet Assault occurred. http://www.gdg.org/Research/NPS Files/POW/pow.html
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Ya' I didn't know that either.

It is me, or is anyone a bit disturbed by the fact that the government took a rather scared ground and built a WWII NAZI prisoner of war camp on "THAT site? {sm2}

I mean, there are millions of acres of land in the western deserts, swamps down south, endless wilderness here in Maine and such they built a camp on arguably the most noted battlefield and revered location in the US?

What do you Civil War guys think about that? --- Larry
 
Larry Allen said:
Ya' I didn't know that either.

It is me, or is anyone a bit disturbed by the fact that the government took a rather scared ground and built a WWII NAZI prisoner of war camp on "THAT site? {sm2}

I mean, there are millions of acres of land in the western deserts, swamps down south, endless wilderness here in Maine and such they built a camp on arguably the most noted battlefield and revered location in the US?

What do you Civil War guys think about that? --- Larry
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Larry, that's a great point and one I wondered about. I mean, what was the reasoning behind such a decision? Was it economic somehow? Sure is strange on the face of it. -- Al
 
lancer said:
Larry, that's a great point and one I wondered about. I mean, what was the reasoning behind such a decision? Was it economic somehow? Sure is strange on the face of it. -- Al
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Even if for some undisclosed reason the POW camp had to be in that geographical location .... why not a mile up or down the lane or even in a location behind the Union lines? --- Larry
 
The military has also conducted lots of training at battlefields, including Gettysburg. I too am surprised about a POW camp though.
 
During the 1st World War Camp Colt was located in the same Area with Tank traning. There is a famous picture of a tank going up a pile of dirt near the Bliss house (where it was located). So the ground was really disturbed before the prison camp. I will try to dig up the picture. I think the NPS blog has a pic of it.
 
That is very interesting, including the human interest part of the girl and her family "helping" the prisoners. Seems like justice was done.

On the point about the battlefield, I found this line from an article interesting:

Captain Thomas, who was a school superintendent before re-entering military service, explained that the prison camp was placed here at the request of the War Manpower Commission and the Adams county canners. "The prisoner labor is not competitive and is not intended to be used where free labor is available. If no need for labor should exist here, the camp would disappear overnight."

Seems not just the Federal Government, but the local business association and government had a role.
 
Thanks Larry. It is an awesome website. It hasn't been updated in a while. But it is maintained by Licensed Battlefield guides. You should find the video's on the theory's of where the "harvest of Death" photo's were taken.
 
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