Gettysburg : The BattleOct 25, 2010
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Joe and some local guy
More crowds
| Our campground was less than a mile from the National Park boundary, but since there is so much to see, we spread our visit over 3 days. Late Sunday afternoon we went to the new Visitor and Information Center to plan our attack. We started by watching the movie "A New Birth of Freedom" about the Civil War and Gettysburg, which was narrated by Morgan Freeman. It was extremely well-done and gave us an overview of what the Gettysburg history and experience is all about. We knew much of this from U.S. History classes and the Ken Burn's series on the Civil War, but now we were right there. The crowds over the weekend had been pretty thick, but we again found it helps to be retired and off-season. After the movie we went to see the restored cyclorama, "The Battle of Gettysburg" by French artist Paul Philippoteaux who painted the 42-foot-high work with 20 other artists in 1883-84. It was displayed in Boston at one time, but is now permanently in the Gettysburg Museum. The presentation is a 360-degree show with sound, narration, and lighting, and is a very emotional experience. Afterward we spent an hour or so at the Civil War Museum in the Visitor's Center, and finished our first day. Monday was our day to do the auto tour. This is like walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, only with your car-a good thing because the whole tour is 22 miles and contains 16 spots to get out and view the battlefield and read about what happened at that spot. It is done in chronological order, so we started on July 1, 1863 when the first engagement occured and finished up on July 3 when Lee's conferate forces failed in the battle know as Pickett's Charge. All this took us about 4 1/2 hours and we felt immersed in the action at Gettysburg. It is difficult to explain how we could hear the terrible sounds of battle, the cries of wounded and dying, and the awfulness of it all, but we did. Val is not a military enthusiast at all, but had to admit the experience was not only interesting but very moving. Some highlights: Joe has always been interested in the courage and bravery of the 20th Maine Third Brigade under the leadership of Colonel Chamberlain at Little Round Top, but it became more personal to us when we found out our friend in Mears, Debbie Smith, is a great-great-granddaughter of Joshua Chamberlain. Our visit to Big and Little Roundtop and especially the monuments to the 20th Maine and displays of that event in the battle we felt personally drawn to. The Celtic Cross marks the spot where the chaplain of the Fighting Irish commended their souls to God and exhorted them not to turn their backs on the enemy as they left to fight in the deadly wheatfield. The largest monument is the Pennsylvania Monument and has the name of every soldier of Pennsylvania who participated in the battle. From the spot where Pickett's Charge met the cannons of the Union, one can look across the battlefield and see the Virginia Monument with Robert E. Lee on his horse Traveller. This was where Lee witnessed the final battle at Gettysburg and told his generals it was all his fault. The amount of lives lost is staggering, and we felt we had done enough for our second day. We will visit the National Cemetery tomorrow and make that a separate entry in our journal out of respect to those who gave their all. |
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