Yesterday was a bright sunny day, so we went 80 miles north to the Gettysburg battlefield. It is just across the Mason-Dixon Line (which is market by a sign along the highway) and a couple of miles into Pennsylvania. They have a nice new museum and visitors center and I'm sure the displays were very nice. We were feeling a little cheap, so we skipped the $36/person total package and opted to create our own tour using a brochure the lays out a 24 mile driving tour of the area and a printout of the Wikipedia article on Gettysburg. If I had the money, I might have paid the $65 to have a personal guide ride in our car with us and tell us all about the sites. We saw the guides all over and they seemed to know everything, a true dream job for the Civil War nerds among us. The battlefield is huge (at one point the Confederate line was over 5 miles long) and in the 3 1/2 hours we were there we only saw the major highlights.
Welcome to the Museum and Visitor Center
Kelly took a picture of a barn just for Dad.
They have constructed a road along the battlefield that pretty much follows the battle lines. The big monuments you can see mark the center of the line of each group of men. They were all built by the state or group that they represent and show a little character of the home state. They usually say "Pennsylvania 5th Regiment," or something like that, and then list battle dates, casualties, and other campaigns they were involved in. Between each of the large monuments there are often small stone markers that show where the left and right flank of each group were. Some groups held a line that was only 50 or 100 feet long, while others held several hundred yards.
There are a few observation towers around the battlefield that allow you to get above the trees and see the lay of the land. This one was about 80 ft tall.
Kelly hiding behind a wall on top of Big Round Top. This wall is probably new, but there were still remnants of old walls all over the battlefield.
The view from Little Round Top, looking down into the Devil's Den. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but from the top you can see most of the battlefield and you can see why it was such an important strategic position.
Apparently the Pennsylvanians didn't want to feel left out, so they built this 110' tall monument in the middle of the battlefield.
"The Copse of Tress" - this is the group of trees that was the target landmark for Pickett's Charge. This area also represents the high-water mark of the Civil War, or the furthest that Confederate troops ever made it into Northern territory.
Pickett and others led around 12,000 men from the far treeline and across this 3/4 mile open field. If you enlarge the picture and look closely in the middle of the treeline, you can see a kind of gap or open area in the trees where Pickett started his charge. A few Confederate soldiers made it over the stone wall that represents the Union line before the charge was completely turned back.
