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Published: November 15th 2007
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Gettysburg Seminary Hot Springs
That's why they call it the Yellowstone of the East. Or maybe it was just a steam pipe. Obfuscator writes: We left our State Park camping site in the morning with little fanfare. The camping had been more or less sardine style, which we were less than thrilled about, but at least we had been able to camp, and no one stepped on us during the night, so one of our bigger concerns was thus avoided. Our big plan for the day was Gettysburg. If you haven't been there before, and are interested in such things, be forewarned that Gettysburg is a full day. If you get bored with such things, you can certainly get through it faster, but we got there just after 8:00 AM and didn't leave until 5:00 PM. We could have spent more time there, but it was dark.
Construction is well underway for the new visitors center at Gettysburg, and I think they may have said that it would be open by spring. I guess that means we could have been among the last visitors to the old visitors center. It's an old one, but has a pretty good museum, which is free. Apparently the museum boasts one of the most complete collections of Civil War small arms in existence. Not that I've
North Carolina Memorial
Carved by none other than our old friend BORGLUM! gone around to check these things out, but I could believe it, since looking at several walls of pistols alone sort of boggled my mind. Funny enough, most of them look pretty much the same, but you know how collectors of things are.
The museum also has a cool exhibit that shows you how Civil War artillery worked. It's complete with diagrams on fuses and the various types of shot they used, and explains what they were good for. There are lots of other fascinating informative bits throughout the museum, but the most impressive thing about it is simply the staggering amount of memorabilia they have displayed, and that just from or related directly to the Battle of Gettysburg. The museum at Gettysburg, unlike the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, is almost entirely made up for collector's items.
Best as I can tell, the Park Service makes its only money at Gettysburg by selling the car tours. The battlefield is massive and sprawling, so the only practical way of covering it is by driving around the various areas. The car audio tours are a godsend in this regard. They guide you through the field, and show you
the highlights of all three days of fighting, including many of the spots where some of the most intense fighting occurred, or where famous people died. The car audio tours aren't cheap, but they're worth it. The one we got was produced by a company called TravelBrains, and while it cost a bit more than some of the others, it was a good product with nice color maps and pictures. Of course, with our interest in reading monuments and getting out of the car, the 3 hour audio tour took us closer to 5 hours.
This particular tour, and I think all of them, start in the Northwest corner of the park, where the Confederates first appeared and drove back Union forces on the first day. The Confederates took up position on Seminary Ridge, and two ridges to the north of it, which run along the western edge of the town, while the Union withdrew to Cemetery Ridge, which runs along the eastern edge of the town.
The tour then continues along Seminary Ridge and the Confederate position to show how they were all deployed, as well as where Pickett's Charge originated, before swinging around the southern end
View from Little Roundtop
You can see the Devil's Den of the battlefield, toward the Roundtops, where the Union forces very nearly lost the battle. From Little Roundtop, you can see out over most of the battlefield. This was also the site of fighting by Chamberlain's 20th Maine.
From there, we swung toward the interior of the Battlefield, into the Devil's Den and the Wheatfield. Both of these were also contested on the second day, at about the same time that Little Roundtop was being assaulted. The Devil's Den is a strange formation of rocks, which eventually were used by Confederate sharpshooters as hiding spots, so they could shoot at Little Roundtop. The Wheatfield was where a series of charges and counter-charges occurred throughout the second day. The bloodiest fighting occurred there, to the point where it was said that you could walk across the entire Wheatfield without touching the ground.
Finally, the tour took us along Cemetery Ridge, where the Union positions were. This included the receiving end of Pickett's Charge, and the Northeastern end of the battlefield, at Culp's Hill. Pickett's Charge of course, failed, and signaled the end of the battle.
We left Gettysburg after sundown, and drove toward Baltimore. If you're like me,
A New York Memorial
It's atop Little Roundtop you have little concept of just how close Gettysburg is to many other things. It's only about 40 miles to Baltimore, and Baltimore is more or less right next door to Washington. It's only about 20 miles to Harrisburg, and probably only 70 or so to Philadelphia. Thus when we arrived in Baltimore, it was still fairly early. We ate at what may be the worst Applebee's in business, and found a tolerable motel. The food, unfortunately didn't agree with us, which made the rest of the night slightly less pleasant.
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