Gettysburg

This will be a long entry describing our tour of Gettysburg. Ready?

We visted the Gettysburg National Military Park . We arrived Saturday night (after checking out Trenton and Valley Forge, q.v.), spent all day Sunday traipsing around, then left early on Monday.

I had spent the previous week downloading maps, etc., of the battle so that we would have some understanding of the events of this critical battle of the Civil War. The best decision was purchasing the "Travel Brains" Gettysburg Expedition CDs. The audio CD tour is great; even those in the car who aren't history buffs were surprised at how interesting and informative the narrated tour was. And the CD-ROM animated maps clearly showed the overall strategy and hour-by-hour tactics of the battle.

(For those following along at home, the National Park Service or Wikipedia have good overviews.)

(A map of our trip is being hosted at YourGMap - Gettysburg Trip )

National Cemetary

Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center - plenty of artifacts to see - and then across the street to the National Cemetary. This is located next to the town's main cemetary and indeed, this elevated north/south ridge-line is now called "Cemetary Ridge", precious high ground for the Union Forces. The picture is of one of the many cannons which have been placed around the entire battlefield showing their precise locations during the conflict.

Seminary Ridge

During the second and third day of the battle, the Confederate forces held the high ridge opposing the Union. Due to the nearness of a Lutheran school, this elevation is called "Seminary Ridge".  Here's a shot from the left flank of the Confederate positions on Seminary Ridge. In the far distance are Little and Big Round Top.

Lee

Here's a monument to Robert E. Lee. The various Virginia regiments were aligned here and to the right as they bombarded the Union forces and charged across the fields.

The panaroma shows the fields and Little and Big Round Top. (Little Round Top is the slightly lowert hill with the denuded hilltop -- the parks department has been engaging in a process of returning the battlefield to its 1860s look'n'feel which had far fewer trees than in recent times).

Devil's Den

Here are some shots of the boulders around Devil's Den. The leftmost picture is the classic formation visible in photos taken just after the battle.

The middle picture shows the sniper's view of Little Round Top from the wall at the front of that formation. The right picture shows that this boulder formation is isolated from other rock formations in the area.

The Angle

The panaroma shows, on the left,  the "Copse of Trees" - the supposed point to which Pickett's Charge was aiming; in the middle-left is the small monument where General Amistead was killed, the "High Water Mark" of the Confederate rebellion; the rest shows the low wall from which the Union forces devastated the South's desperate infantry's charge on the last day of the battle.

In the distance, through the Copse, you can see (again) Little & Big Round Top. The recent movie Gettysburg was based on the historical novel The Killer Angels ; both used the story of Joshua Chamberlain and the courageous defense of Little Round Top as a main dramatic focus for the battle. (And why, for example, I feature it in many of these photos!) . But just as critical was the defense of the right  Union flank on Culp's Hill (upon the front of which our hotel was situated) and also the major calvary battles to the east of Cemetary Ridge (if the Confederate calvary had managed to penetrate to the rear of the Union lines during Pickett's Charge, the Angle may have been totally compromised). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit either site.

Lodging

We stayed at the Holiday Inn "Battlefield" Hotel, located between the Visitor's Center and downtown Gettysburg. An adequate, cheap hotel; but probably the best view of any other building in town. Go in the summer and make sure to get a room on the 5th floor to get a great view of the surrounding terrain. This shot was taken moments after arriving at our room, Saturday evening.