On The Road to Gettysburg

Bright and early Tuesday morning found us on the road to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to tour the great battlefield. This have me a chance to test my driving skills against Washington DC traffic. DC traffic kicked my butt! I missed my first really important turn, and therefore had to do some fancy re-calculating of my internal GPS, along with some help from Dave and my iPad, my trusty team of navigators. We managed to right ourselves rather quickly, and before we knew it we were approaching the great crossroads much like the Army of Potomac did 148 years ago (I don't think they had Kias back then, however.)

We started out our day at the Visitors Center. It's an all new facility they they have built-in response to all of the interest in the battlefield from tourists. This was a great way to start the day. First, we watched a video that capsulized the events leading up to Gettysburg, the actual three days of battle, and then the aftermath. Anyone going to Gettysburg really needs to watch this video.



After the video we were treated to a Cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge, on the third day of the battle. It was a huge 360 degree painting on canvas, painted in 1884.

Then we spent about two hours walking through the museum at the Visitors Center. I don't imagine that the museum curators downtown were any too happy about this new museum, because it's easily the best one around. It's full of pictures and stories and relics from the battle. Very cool.

We decided to forego the guided tours and just set off on our own, following the Auto Tour signs. The first stop was at McPherson's Ridge, where Day One of the battle took place.


Then we made our way across Seminary Ridge, which was the offensive position that the Confederate Army held for the second and third days of the battle. On Day Two, some of the bloodiest action took place here in The Devil's Den:



This what it looked like from the Union Army's vantage point, high atop Little Round Top:


There's a very, very, very tall observation tower on Seminary Ridge, which Dave climbed. He said the view was breathtaking. I took his word for it. (Do you see how tall that thing is?) If you look closely, you can see Dave walking down the steps:


Day Three of the battle ended with Pickett's Charge, and served as the "high water mark" of the whole Civil War. It's as far as the Rebels got before they were turned back. Their objective was to charge across this field and make it over the stone wall...



...to this "clump of trees":



Of the 12,000 men that started the charge, only a handful made it over the wall, and that was the last thing they ever did.

Our Auto Tour took us through the cemetery that Lincoln dedicated with his famous Gettysburg Address.


A monument marks the approximate spot where Lincoln stood for those brief few minutes and made history:



After the tour was over, we drove into historic downtown Gettysburg, and we saw the house where lincoln stayed the night before he delivered his famous speech:


Then we had a beer to toast our successful afternoon, and filled our bellies full of burgers and fries at The Pub:


It was a hot, 90 degree day, but it was worth it. It was fun revisiting Gettysburg, and seeing all of the things I had been reading and singing about for the last ten years. We popped into a few gift shops to look for my CD, but didn't find it. What are they thinking?

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