DAY 26 – July 24, 2012 – Gettysburg

I don’t even know if I can put into words the things I feel in my heart after Gettysburg.  I think the older boys believe they’ve had a great lesson on history, battles, and weapons.  But what I felt here is so different from that.  I haven’t seen death much in my life, but I’ve lost people I love.  I am a mother, who can’t imagine sending my sons into such a battle.

Last year I visited Arlington Cemetery.  Never in my life have I felt such a strong feeling of emotions at a historical site.  But to stand in the place where so many are buried after protecting our country, my heart swelled to burst.  Gettysburg was different from that only in that along with the death, was the personal stories, the carnage, the blessings and miracles, and the sadness that happened here.  It is the bloodiest battle that has happened in United States history on our soil.  I hope it will never be matched.

I had no idea the scope of Gettysburg.  I was thinking a couple of hours and we would be off.  But we were here for 7 ½ hours, and we could have been here longer.  They really push having a tour here, I thought it seemed so commercialized, but now I realize, you have to know the stories to appreciate Gettysburg, or the monuments will mean nothing.

Before we arrived I ordered an audio tour guide book from TravelBrains.  It was very good and worth every penny.  But I will say, when we arrived at “Little Round Top” (a battle area), we met up accidentally with a guide from the National Parks Service.  He talked there for at least an hour, and we followed him.  He was mesmerizing, and the stories he told, were so much more in depth than the audio book we had.  If you have the money, it is well worth that tour.  Although, I think I would still buy the audio books also, they filled in a lot of blanks.

For me there where two spots that took my breath away.  The first was “Little Round Top”.  It’s a hill that overlooks almost all of the battle lines.  So after having listened to the stories of different battles, we now stood over the hill looking down on all of them.  To see the big picture of the battles fought was amazing.  Then to hear the guide tell the stories of the generals and men that fought these battles.  They truly were brave, many times they were brilliant, but what they all did is like nothing I can imagine anyone I know doing.  A storm was coming, and although we saw no rain, we could here thunder in the distance.  One of my sons asked if they were firing cannons somewhere, because that is what it sounded like.  So we listened to the stories, and looked over the battlefields, and sounds like cannons filled the air.  It was truly breathtaking.

I am not a good story teller, especially retelling stories I’m not familiar with.  But there were some that stuck with me.  One such is of a confederate brigade that was 25 miles from the battle when they were told they were needed immediately.  They marched those 25 miles in 12 hours, and arrived at the battlefield exhausted on a hot July day (which today was).  They were dehydrated from their rapid march in scorching temperatures.  They sent men to look for water, but those men were captured.  They had to walk into some of the toughest fighting on the fields of Gettysburg under those conditions.

There was a man named Strong Vincent, who was called out of obscurity with no war training to protect “Little Round Top”.  If he was not able to complete his task, Gettysburg could easily have been lost to the Confederates.  He made decisions in the 10 minutes time he had, which have been studied for years by aspiring military.

Another moving site was “High Water Mark”.  You cannot go there without feeling the emotions of the battle.  The Confederates made a risky calculated attempt to split the Union army.  You can see the field laid out before you.  You can see where the cannons were positioned, the fields the army marched through in open site to the attack.  You can imagine the Confederates being fired upon in the open, but steadily moving forward.  Then the firing ceasing as the Union soldiers are told to hold their fire to save bullets for when they are closer.  The soldiers strain their eye across the open fields, and can’t help admire the courage of these Confederate men lined up in perfect rows marching towards them.  Then they take careful aim, and begin firing with deadly impact.  Many survivors likened it to walking through a hailstorm.    The firing was so thick that one of the fence planks along the road had 836 holes in it after the battle.

And all this is happening, not to a stranger, some enemy from a far land, but countrymen killing countrymen.  Monuments dot the 25 acres of battles showing which brigade, regiment, division, or corps were at each spot.  Arkansas, Kansas, Delaware, Wisconsin, Texas, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts…it just goes on, the lists of all the states that are represented in the deaths and fighting on these fields.

It’s an experience I will never forget.  Gettysburg is amazing, the stories unimaginable.  Don’t ever pass Gettysburg and not come by to hear the history of a nation at war against itself.  If only all could hear to know they don’t ever want to repeat such an atrocity.

Summary of Day 26

Drove:  96 miles

Places we visited or saw: Gettysburg, drove to Washington DC

NOTES ON GETTYSBURG:  Make sure you note what time the Visitors Center Closes.  It’s 5pm, and we missed getting back there after our tour.  The older kids wanted to look longer at the gift shop and the younger kids had paperwork to turn in to earn another Junior Park Ranger badge, but we missed it.  The park itself is open until 10pm.

Favorite thing we did today:
Jawbreaker: Little Round Top and Pickets Charge
Spitz:
Bazooka: Grave for General Armstead
Warhead, Starburst,Fireball: Visitors Center
Mr.S: Pickets Charge
Mrs. S: Little Round Top and Pickets Charge (High Water Mark)