Pastoral. Serene. Pleasant rolling hills of farmland. This was the scene we came upon while touring Gettysburg. I imagine it looked very similar in 1863 the day before the battle began. No one could have predicted the three days of carnage that would leave 51,000 people wounded, dead or missing on these peaceful hillsides and change the course of history.
A cemetery was dedicated in November after the “bloodiest battle” of the civil war was fought the previous July. In attendance was Abraham Lincoln who gave his famous Gettysburg Address. Since that time,the park has grown to 5,989 acres in size encompassing most of the area that was used during the battle.
There is a huge visitors center that, fortunately for us, could accommodate large tour groups since bus loads of schools groups arrived at the same time we did. I love visitor’s centers because they almost always have an introductory film which gives a good overview of the site your visiting. This visitor center had a film, a comprehensive museum and a “cyclorama”.
left and below: Weapons and other exhibits in the museum.
The cyclorama resembled a theatre in the round in which the audience stood on the stage completely surrounded by a 377 ft. painting of Pickett’s charge, the defining encounter at the battle of Gettysburg. The painting by Paul Philippoteaux, finished in 1884, is viewed in combination with a light and sound show that documents the maneuvers by both sides which culminates in the retreat of the confederate soldiers.
left: The view from “Little Round Top” where the decisive battle was fought.
The park also includes a 24 mile self guided auto tour through the hillsides with stops at prominent battle sites and numerous monuments dedicated to the battalions from different states.
Guided tours were available but we decided to tour at our leisure which would give the Dudes time to work on their ranger books. This booklet was different than any other ones they have done as most of the previous ones included natural wonders, flora and fauna whereas this one involved war and a very important moment in history.
above: The Big Dude sketches the Pennsylvania Memorial in his rangers book.
The park provided a good “field trip” for the Dudes to immerse them in a bit of American history that could have turned out very differently. It was also a good reminder for all of us about the repetitive nature of the price of war.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
– Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, June 1, 1865
2 Responses to Gettysburg