Days 20-21 Gettysburg, PA

[Kalon]  Wow!  Talk about trying to take a drink from a fire hose.   It's the end of the 2nd day as I write this, and I feel that while I have learned so much about this part of the US History I have scarcely scratched the surface.

When we arrived I first headed to the National Cemetery, wanting to try and get my head in the right place.  This isn't about a fascinating military exercise, but about real people giving their lives for what they believed in.  I wanted to say to all of them, Union or Confederate, a simple "thank you", and "it turned out for the best".  But, while heartfelt, that's pretty simplistic.

 

The national cemetery at Gettysburg.

At that cemetery there was a memorial to Abraham Lincoln who gave that memorable "Gettysburg Address" talk after the battle.

At the visitor's center there were numerous ways to experience the events of July 1-3. 1963.  You could walk, you could drive, you could take a bus, a scooter, a horse, a bicycle, or a carriage.  With or without a bus driver, guide, book, CD, or smart-phone app.  I elected to walk the afternoon of the first day, and then K and I drove our car the 2nd day.   

On the first day I walked the union line from Cemetery Hill to the middle of the line, and of course the focus was on the events of the third day of the battle with the infamous "Pickett's Charge" across the open land between Seminary Ridge (from where the confederates started their attack) and Cemetery Ridge (where the Union held and repulsed it.) 

This marker memorializes the high point of Pickett's Charge.

In the morning of the 2nd day we focused more on events toward the far left of the Union Line.  We drove to Big Round Top (a large hill in the southern part of the engagement) and I walked to the top.    While there were monuments here (as indeed there were throughout the extensive battle field)

I think I was most touched by finding among the vegetation a little rock wall where a few Union infantrymen had scratched together a place where they could find shelter and confront any confederates who were attacking up the slopes in front of them.

Leaving  Big Round Top we drove to Little Round Top where the views of the battlefield were much more expansive.   From here we could see the "Devil's  Den" and the "Valley of Death".

We then visited other significant landmarks (the Wheat Field, and the "Peach Orchard" before breaking for lunch and then the Cyclorama and movie at the Visitor Center.  Then we drove along Seminary Ridge (the Confederate line) with its memorials:

 

Robert Lee memorial

And ended up at the Klingle House on the southern end of the day 3 battlefield.  I joined a several hour walking talk by a Park Service guide who was quite convincing that Lee had developed a masterful battle plan that, alas, (from the Confederate viewpoint) was not well executed.  And then Karen and I shut down for the day with much to much to think about.

Gettysburg is an amazing place (both now and in 1863), and I wonder if any of my grandparents (or their parents) - from New Hampshire -  were directly involved.

Tomorrow on to Vassar College for a bit of nostalgia.

[Karen] Hoorah! Hoorah! We are done with Civil War battlefields!  Too bad I can't inflict sitting in the car for hours on Kalon while I look at Amish quilts.