One of the most visited spots at Gettysburg National Military Park is the High Water Mark Memorial on Cemetery Ridge.It marks the site of the bloody repulse on July 3, 1863 of 12,500 Confederates in what became known as Pickett’s Charge (named for one of the three Confederate division commanders in the assault.) It symbolizes the furthest Confederate advance during the battle and what some believed was the great turning point of the whole Civil War. The High Water Mark Memorial, erected in 1892, is a granite and bronze monument of an enormous book of history with the Confederate units that participated in Pickett’s Charge listed on the left side of the book and Union units that defeated them on the right side of the book. It was designed by John B. Bachelder, superintendent of Tablets and Legends for the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, the organization responsible for managing the postwar battlefield until the federal government took over the management in 1895.

It’s no accident that Bachelder came up with the the phrase “high water mark.” Bachelder was born and raised in New Hampshire, educated at a military school and taught at a military school in Reading. Securing a commission in the local militia, he often referred to himself as “Col. Bachelder.” He later supported his family with portrait and landscape paintings. Before the Civil War, Bachelder spent years researching for a massive painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill, an early battle in the War for Independence, which he never completed.

Sometime in 1862, Bachelder decided he was going to produce a written and illustrated history of the Civil War’s most decisive battle. He traveled with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign anticipating the great battle. Immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg concluded, he journeyed to the battlefield and spent 84 days studying it. Bachelder literally interviewed hundreds of survivors (mostly on the Union side). He completely mapped the battlefield with the assistance of the veterans and eventually produced a map showing the positions of every unit on the field. The map is still widely used by modern students of the battle. For years, Bachelder walked the fields with veterans and collected letters and papers written by participants on both sides—today known as the Bachelder Papers, still one of the greatest resources ever collected on Battle of Gettysburg. Bachelder’s expertise was so widely acknowledged that the U.S. government awarded him the enormous sum of $50,000 to produce a written narrative of the battle. At the time, the yearly salary of a U.S. senator was about $5,000 at the time.

Bachelder recalled the moment it occurred to him that the repulse of the Confederate attacks on July 3, 1863 was the great turning point of the war. In the summer of 1869, Bachelder and Col. Walter Harrison, who served onGen. Pickett’s staff, spent several hours near the famous “Copse of Trees” that was said to be focal point for Confederate attack. Bachelder, on hearing from Harrison about the importance of the landmark, said “Why, Colonel, as the battle of Gettysburg was the crowning event of the campaign, this copse of trees must have been the high water mark of the rebellion. From that time on, I felt a reverence for those trees.” After many years of arguing for protection of the trees as a sacred spot, a fence was erected around the copse in 1887 to prevent vandalism. With this insight, Bachelder spent the remaining years of his life defining this innocuous clump of trees as the site of the war’s turning point.

The opportunity literally put this concept in stone came in the 1880s when the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association approved placing a permanent marker to explain the importance of the copse of trees and the movement of the troops in the area. Not satisfied with a mere marker, Bachelder worked tirelessly to produce a larger more impressive memorial and, after 20 discarded designs, today’s memorial design was approved. Bachelder secured the $6,500 funding needed to cast and sculpt the memorial from Northern state legislatures.

At the top of the memorial, John Bachelder’s definition is permanently etched in bronze—“the High Water Mark of the Rebellion.” The message to posterity is quite clear—the whole Civil War turned right here.

In the next issue, we’ll explore the various meanings and interpretations of the “High Water Mark.” Was it really the High Water Mark of the Rebellion? Did the whole Civil War turn after Pickett’s Charge? How was “High Water Mark” used as a symbol of reconciliation in the years after the Civil War? Find out in the July/August issue.

Jim Martin serves as a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg. These guides are independent contractors licensed and supervised by the National Park Service as historical interpreters of the Battle of Gettysburg. To book a battlefield tour, call the Gettysburg Foundation at 877-874-2478 or 717-334-2436.

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