2010 - Vacation - Gettysburg

Gettysburg National Military Park

One of our last stops on our vacation was Gettysburg. Beverly drove down the evening before and joined us at the hotel. The next morning we went to the Gettysburg Battlefield - beginning with the visitors center. But first - I'm one of those people that thinks every American should visit this place. It's unique in the history of our country and this battle determined what our country would be like. Not that the result had an immediate impact - but it did determine the direction.

Gettysburg was a small town then and still is. The town was surrounded by the battlefield then and is surrounded by the park now. Over the years more and more land has been acquired by the park service. A tour of the battlefield takes you down the streets of the town and it's sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Because this was such an important battle, it and the aftermath were photographed extensively. There were also reunions where the men who fought there, returned there. A lot is known about just exactly how things were at the time and the park service is doing an incredible job of keeping it as it was. There are fences now where fences were then. If trees get to tall they are cut down and replaced. So when you visit and you do see it, it's very much as those that fought there saw it. So I think all Americans should visit here. They should first learn about what happened and when they visit they can see where and why it happened that way. Start with Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address".

The visit begins at the "Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center" and you can meet Abe Lincoln just before you walk in.

Your ticket includes admission to the museum and to the Cyclorama. I only took a couple pictures in the museum. This one is from the section on Lincoln but the other part has a different look and has very much to say about the time and place.

There is a short movie about the battle and then you take the escalator up to the Cyclorama. You really don't know what to expect here. This is a giant painting done in 1884 - in the round. It is 27 feet tall and 359 feet long - longer than a football field. You stand in the middle and it's all around you. The foregrounds are landscaped and it gives a three dimensional appearance. In reading about this I expected it to be a little "hokey". But when I saw it and heard and saw the presentation, it was very moving. Because it's round and the area is darkened you can't really photograph it - but here's an effort to show a small part of it.

We looked at our options for seeing the battlefield. You can do it on your own, ride tour buses, etc. But we quickly determined that the best (and for three people or more, the least expensive - a rare combination) was to hire one of the private guides. They drive your car and give you a two hour private tour of the battle field. So we signed up and then went to lunch where we tried some food that the soldiers ate then - hard tack and peanut soup. The hard tack is also know as sea biscuit. (Sounds like a horse.)

Then, of course, there's the gift shop - Lincoln, Lincoln, nothing (almost) but Lincoln.

And then the time came when the guide walked up and called for the Willis party. The picture below was taken a little later in the tour but this is our guide - a very friendly guy that enjoys doing this. He spends six weeks a year in Gettysburg. All of these guys are certified and they know the answers. In the 25 square miles of the park, he took us to the small Texas monument.

Major-General John Reynolds of the Union Army killed
on the first day of battle. The monument was built in 1878.

The map below shows the town of Gettysburg and the battlefields and is marked with the events of the three days - day one in the upper left, day two towards the bottom of the map, and day three towards the center of the map. That's the route that the guide took us - beginning with the fighting of the first day.

We then went by the Confederates positions of the third day as that was between the day one and the day two sites. Monuments have been placed throughout the battlefield beginning very early on after the battle. Some are for the officers, some are for particular regiments, brigades, etc. The one below is a detail of the monument for the State of North Carolina and is placed on the field in their position on day two.

Below - This is the James Longstreet memorial - Lee's second in command

Below- Little Round Top and Big Round Top as seen
from Seminary Ridge

Our guide said not to put too much into the names at Gettysburg. Cemetery Ridge (like Cemetery Hill) is where the cemetery was. Seminary Ridge is where the seminary was, etc.

He pointed out this monument for Georgia and read the words. It's still a powerful message to him.


I'd have to add one that I saw in the museum. It refers to the killed and wounded there and was published in the Gettysburg Compiler just a few days after the battle:

"Every name is like a lightening stroke to some heart, and breaks like thunder over some home, and falls a long black shadow over some hearthstone"

Little Round Top - We stopped there and walked out where we could see the valley and he pointed out the places of the fighting on the second day. I took the picture below of Devil's Den from there.

The picture below doesn't look like much but the guide says that it still effects him every time he comes there and I was already having difficult time with my composure when he said that. This was taken from Cemetery Ridge from the spot that was the focus of Pickett's Charge. You can see the futility of that move - the last ever of the Napoleon like charges where the only chance of success is to advance more men than the enemy can kill. Thousands of men died in that field between where the picture was taken and the trees in the distance.

And this is where our tour ended.