Blogs from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, North America - page 4

Several years ago a Houston doctor came to make a presentation to the Bellville Historical Society on “Medicine during the Civil War.” The official number of the men who died during that conflict is 620+ thousand, but the doctor figured the number was closer to 700,000 when the men who left the battlefield and headed home with injuries that resulted in septicemia and death were taken into account. No penicillin in those days of course. A person cannot possibly visit Gettysburg and not feel the history. In the three day battle here fifty-one thousand men were either killed, injured or were missing. The wounded and dying were crowded into nearly every building in Gettysburg and the dead lay in shallow inadequate graves; some had not been buried at all. Land was purchased for a proper burial ... read more

Hi, We started our day by getting really neat pictures out of our 9th floor window. We checked out and went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. We ate at the largest McDonalds we had ever seen in our lives, on one side it had four kitchens and on the other side of the room the same and a McDonald’s dessert station. We spent a couple of hours at the museum, had fun, took pictures and bought souvenirs. We then went to the Library of Congress and did a Geocache, so we could say we did one in Washington, D.C. We then headed to Gettysburg, we kept getting off the pike, but we never found a gas station. We did find a gate to the CIA, a gate to the Park Police headquarters, and ... read more

Winter certainly snuck up on us! Officially I suppose it’s still autumn, but today was bleak and brisk and felt every bit like winter to me. Perhaps the cold breezes and gray clouds and the bundled coat to keep out the 40-degree chill were an appropriate setting for a viewing of a battlefield carrying the memory of so much death. I’m not trying to sound cynical, but I just don’t consider Gettysburg to be a very cheerful place. It’s an interesting place to visit and included a beautiful drive through part of the Pennsylvania countryside, so it made a great day-trip for us. Once we arrived, we started out with a free, 90-minute walking tour around the battlefield, guided by a friendly employee of the National Parks Service. I was freezing, and my hips didn’t appreciate ... read more

We left Charlottesville and headed north as we drive to Gettysburg. Mid morning we entered Shenandoah National Park and drove the beautiful Skyline Drive on a clear day in May . Traffic is sparse with no tourists so early in the season. Karen drove and I enjoyed the scenery, spotting a bear walking through the woods. Gettysburg National historic site is a memorable place. Over one hundred years later the impact of three days of deadly battle in a hot July and a two minute speech is difficult to describe. We spent all day visiting the museum, cyclorama center, and battlefields. This is certainly a place that should be on everyone's "Bucket List". ... read more

Paul, Jim and I drove to Gettysburg to see the new visitor center. It is much larger than the old one and covers US history from before the Civil War until the Civil Rights era. I hope you enjoy the photographs. We did not have time to tour the entire battlefield, so we concentrated on the High Water Mark and the Devil's Den. I am always amazed that Pickett's men actually reached the stone wall and a few crossed it. It is a mile from the High Water Mark to where the charge began. ... read more