“Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain”

Few visitors to the Gettysburg battlefield take note of the peculiar grassy rise in the fields southeast of the town between Seminary and Cemetery ridges. It was there that the Bliss home and barn once stood, between the lines in a no-man’s-land during the largest battle of the Civil War. The 60-acre farm witnessed back-and-forth bloody clashes that began on the morning of July 2, 1863, as a fitful episode between skirmishers and ended in a small but important combat all its own. The fight played an oversized role in the overall battle and directly impacted the massive rolling Confederate assault later that afternoon.

In a bit more than 24 hours, the back-and-forth Bliss farm combat would attract at least 10 Union and Confederate regiments, draw heavy artillery fire, disrupt the seemingly unstoppable Confederate assault moving northward against Cemetery Ridge, and kill and wound hundreds of men. This study is based on official records, letters, diaries, and other unpublished archival sources. A new foreword by award-winning author and Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide James Hessler opens this facsimile edition, which originally appeared to great acclaim in a small print run in 1994.

Elwood Christ’s extraordinary “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain”: The Struggle for the Bliss Farm at Gettysburg, July 2nd and 3rd, 1863 remains the only book ever published on the subject.