Gettysburg

One day on our trip we rented a car and drove up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the day. It was just about 1 1/2 hours from Washington and it was a nice break from the walking we had been doing every day. Like so many other places we visited, they had just opened a new museum and visitor's center and we spent a couple of hours going through everything there. Once again Preston finished way before the rest of us and I was the last one finishing and had to skip all the last part. We don't do much shopping but we hit the gift shop and everyone made a purchase there.
One thing we purchased was the audio guide CD to tour the battlefield with. It came with a book and map and the road was marked for the audio tour but we missed the very first turn. This delayed the start of our tour by about an hour by the time we went through road construction, then realized we were lost and then went back through the construction and found the spot we needed to turn. We did get a nice drive through rural Pennsylvania though.

We finally got to the first audio stop and were so impressed with all the monuments that cover the 25 square miles of the battlefield. Every state militia that fought there had a least one monument to them and some militias had several. This monument is to the Pennsylvania soldiers.

The monuments lined the roads that run through the battlefield. You can see people walking along this road and it gives you a sense of scale.

The area is beautiful and still similar to what it looked like over 140 years ago. Some of the battle field is being farmed again and some of the original barns and farmhouses that where in the battle are still there. In this picture we are standing on the Small Round Hill which was the scene of fighting on the second day of the three day battle. The Union army held this high ground and the Confederates almost succeeded in taking it.

This is the scene of Pickett's Charge where a mile long wall of Confederate soldiers, numbering 12,500, came out of the woods and advanced towards the Union army. The men who saw this advance stated that is was an amazing site to see. I took this picture where the Union forces were at ant you can see the trees far in the back where the Confederates came out of. While we were there two guys (one in Confederate uniform and carrying a flag) who walked across the field and finally made it just as we were leaving.

Gettysburg was the last time the Southern army was ever on the offense and the furthest point north they ever got. After the losses the Confederates suffered here they were never able to recover. The cannons and wagons are placed where they would have been during the battle only there would have been many more.

It was getting dark (we'd wasted too much time being lost) by the time we made it back into the quaint town of Gettysburg and since we still had a long drive back to DC we didn't get a chance to stop on go through the town. And much to my dismay we never saw the signs to the cemetery or memorial where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg's Address. Once we got back to the hotel and I laid out all the maps I found that we had driven by it at least four times!