Overcast Battlefield Fields with Fences, Monuments and Interpretive Sign

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Rolling farm fields, split-rail fences, and a row of monuments under a flat gray sky make up this view of the Gettysburg battlefield, with a roadside interpretive sign standing in the foreground to explain the ground for visitors. The battlefield was the site of the three-day clash in July 1863 that turned back Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North and became a turning point of the Civil War. Today the fences, markers and signs are as much a part of the landscape as the fields themselves, shaped by decades of preservation and memorial building. The overcast light flattens the scene, which tends to draw attention to the structures and the open ground between them.

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