Gettysburg

General Meade

I have always been a Civil War fan, well, at least since about 10 years old. I read book after book on battles of the Civil War while in grade school. I also have a few letters written from ancestors who were enlisted in the Union army during the war. Gettysburg has always intrigued me and I looked forward to going there one day. One guy from the 20x class I teach at church mentioned wanting to go there again and that snowballed into last weekend's whirlwind trip.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it certainly ended up being larger and definitely busier than what I imagined. The great thing about Gettysburg is that, at least on the west and south sides of the town, growth was limited as to not detract from the wide open fields surrounding the town on which the bloodiest battle ever waged in America was fought. The new (one year old) visitor center and museum is tastefully done and created with an agrarian feel to not detract from the rural experience. Overall, you would get the picture whether in town or in the surrounding battle field sites, that you've stepped back in time to the war.

Meade's Headquarters

I don't know that I would have expected all of the monuments lining the ridge on which the Union army positioned themselves, or in the surrounding fields. The Pennsylvania monument offered a fantastic observation deck with information as to the location of certain advancements of the South. Another nice thing was that so many of the farms and farmhouses dating to the war that dotted the countryside are preserved, many serving as headquarters or hospitals.

Pennsylvania Memorial & Observation Deck

One of the more amazing things was the approximately 120 year old enormous cyclorama painting done by a French artist. This is housed in the new museum's "round barn" and is an impressive thing to view. Easily we should have spent much more time there, including taking in the "killing fields" by moonlight.....some believe they are haunted. We finished our time in Gettysburg with our final stop at the place where Lincoln gave his now immortal speech "the Gettysburg Address". Which seemed all-together appropriate for the finale'.

Gettysburg Cemetery & Address Memorial