Charge!!!

DD: So we were off of Gettysburg which we both found to be very interesting. For one thing, I don’t think either one of us realized the magnitude of the area in which the battle at Gettysburg was fought covering over 6,000 acres of land. Along with these 6,000 acres land, there’s the town of Gettysburg itself and over 1,400 monuments throughout the park. We arrived late in the afternoon and after setting up camp at the Artillery Ridge Campground decided to drive around to get a feel of the area and figure out exactly what we wanted to see the next day. We stopped at the Visitors Center and picked up a map of the park along with a park guide which gave us information on times and what programs were available.

Just a small portion of the Diorama

With Emma in tow, we headed out the next morning to the middle of town to the Gettysburg History Center where we found the Gettysburg Diorama which happens to be the largest military scale model in the United States. Someone put a lot of time and energy into this display because there’s more than 20,000 hand-painted soldiers, horses, cannons and Gettysburg buildings that became famous during the battle. They even went as far as making the hills, roads and fields accurate to scale and created a light and sound show which provides and overview of all three days of battle.

View from Little Round Top

We took the park tour of the Little Round Top and also the park tour of the Battlefield Cemetery where we were told men were killed at a rate of 2.33 per second at Gettysburg. There were other tours we would like to have seen but these were the only two that worked best with our schedule.

BD: The view from Little Round Top was exceptional. The Yankees were able to see miles out in a 180 degree direction. The Rebels really didn’t stand much of a chance. It was sort of like king of the hill! So we listened to the ranger and got a better feel of what went down in this part of the battlefield.

Soldier's National Cemetery
at Cemetery Hill

The area was known as Cemetery Hill, was in fact on top of the hill outside the town of Gettysburg. Gettysburg also withstood heavy casualties, as well as the only civilian who was killed by a stray shot from someone with poor aim. Probably a Rebel! It turned out to be some poor woman slaving over a hot stove. She is buried in the civilian cemetery with a massive headstone to boot.

We also learned the iron fence which separates the civilian and military cemetery is actually the fence which surrounded the White House in DC! From what I remember, they said the fence was moved to it’s current location during the Eisenhower administration when they needed tighter security around the White House. The interesting thing about this area is that it’s also where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address, all 2 minutes of it. And all throughout the area are “history” trees which they have identified as being there before the Civil War even began! How do they know this? They learned all this by taking core samples…… interesting. Sorry my tree hugging friend, Craig!

McPherson Barn

DD: Gettysburg was special to me as my great-great grandfather, John T. Hand, fought and actually survived Gettysburg. Ok, I admit, he was captured the first day of battle and held prisoner for the next two years but as I tell Brian, all my ancestors actually fought while his was just a stinkin’ fifer!!

John T. Hand fought with Co. B 13th AL Infantry also known as Archer’s Brigade. I learned while talking to a park ranger exactly where my great-great grandfather fought so we headed over to the area of McPherson Ridge where McPherson‘s barn is still standing to this day. It was fascinating to know I was in the same area where an ancestor had been so obviously had to call mom to let her know as she’s been working on her side of the family genealogy for years.

Everyone we came across while in Gettysburg was friendly and extremely helpful. We ran across one young woman from Ireland, sorry we can’t remember her name, but it was such a pleasure to talk to her and learn more about her home country which we hope to visit one of these days. She got the biggest kick out of Emma not being able to hold her tongue in and had to take pictures to post on her Facebook page and show to all her friends.

My only regret in visiting Gettysburg is we didn’t spend enough time in the area as there is quite a bit to do and see. I suppose this is reason enough for another return trip!!!