gettysburg
chiquimonkey
Posts: 9,337
anybody been? toying with the idea of stopping thru on a road trip
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Yeah.....the Soldiers Cemetery outside the museum is massive and worth a walkthrough. Plus, the spot where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address is right outside of the cemetery. Beyond that there really isn't much that I saw, but then again I only had a few hours there with only enough time to do the drive. So there may be plenty of other stuff I missed. Give yourself plenty of time to drive around the battlefield. It's massive beyond belief. Also, if you would like a good book about Gettysburg, I recommend Thomas Desjardin's "These Honored Dead." It does a good job with the story while correcting some of the things we've come believe through legend.
We arrived at the park around 9 in the morning. They say get an early start b/c it gets busier as the day goes on. We decided to wait to tour the museum until after the drive. The drive itself took a while. We started at 9:30 and didn't finish until 2 or 3PM. Since I am a history buff, I stopped probably more frequently and for a much longer time than some. Gettysburg is littered with statues and things to read about. While I didn't take a lot of time with many of the statues, there are some not to be missed. One in particular is the statue is the lighthouse-like memorial of the Irish Brigade that fought in the battle. The "Devil's Den" is an incredible stop just for the view as well as the site of Pickett's Charge. I stood on both sides of that battlefield trying to imagine what it must've been like to cross that field under heavy Union fire. Anyway, give yourself 3 hours and some change at the least. It's an 18-mile trek, but you can only drive so fast and you make many stops.
The museum doesn't take as long, but there is still a few things to look at....most importantly the amount of weapons they have.
No problem. Glad I could help.
"What a stupid lamb."
"What a sick, masochistic lion."
depending on your time schedule, you should take a bus tour of the battlefield with a guide that narrates along the way. the guy we had was very informative. or just drive through in your car, either with a cd you can rent, or a pamphlet type thing they hand out. words can't describe the scope of the battlefield, and just trying to imagine, something like 50,000 dead over three days. that said, its a very peaceful place to be at the same time.
check out sach's bridge too, its a gorgeous covered bridge, very photogenic. its a hotspot for ghost hunters also, its rumored that civil war deserters were hung from there.
if you plan on staying over night, speaking of ghosts, gettysburg has its fair share of haunted tours too! check out the jennie wade house, she was the only civillian killed in battle. the house is somewhat of a "hang out" for all the spirits of the dead soldiers, as well as the children from the orphanage across the street, which also gives haunted tours. children who were left without parents after the war were put in this orphanage, but the head mistress was evil and tortured them in the basement. sad sad story.
they have walking tours around town also that takes you up around gettysburg college and all over, with the guide giving ghost stories along the way. theres probably a lot more i'm not telling you but i don't wanna bore you! here's some of my pictures if you wanna check it out http://www.flickr.com/photos/22037544@N00/sets/72157603952883530/detail/
I was at Gettysburg when I was in 7th grade, and that was many, many, many years ago. However, I still remember it and would like to go back as an adult. We were there only for a short time though and I only remember driving through the area with the monuments.
What I remember most is going to the gift shop afterwards and buying a slug that was found on the battlefield. Apparently there were so many that they felt it was o.k. to sell them for like 50 cents each. I still have it somewhere. Everytime I run across it I think of my Great-great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War for an Illinois Infantry and was shot in the back at Vicksburg. He survived and my great aunt told me that for many years the slug that was dug out of his back was kept by the family. Somewhere down through the years it was misplaced. So anyway, I associate the slug from the Gettysburg battlefield with the one my g-g-grandfather was shot with.
I wonder if the gift shop still sells those slugs.
and i damn near freaked when i saw the pics of eastern state penitentiary :eek: i'm a huge ghost hunters fan and they did an investigation there that was out of control! so of course i look it up....it's right there in philly! i am so intrigued to go. now to convince my dad and sis...they'll think i'm on some death tour lol
quarter yeah, i definitely want to make the effort to go visit. being on the west coast we aren't exposed to much civil war history, and it's something i'd like to learn more about. going to places like that makes one feel the history more, i dunno.
riverrunner, thank you for sharing the story about your great-great-grandpa. makes you wonder how many stories like that are out there, considering how many people fought and died on that battlefield over 3 days!
Common misconception about Gettysburg. Only 10,000 people actually died. 50,000 were wounded.
ahhh very good to know! still, ONLY 10,000 over three days is still sort of unfathomable
Very much true....especially when you take into consideration the stories of the Bloody Wheatfield.
as i'm constructing our itinerary, i'm worried we might end up not having time to do it :( it sounds like something i don't want to rush. i'll have to see what i can figure out (and how fast i feel like driving lol)
standing on those battlefields, in the little fenced spot signifying the
furthest north that the south advanced, the cemetery...
completely overwhelmed me.
i hope you can find the time, it will stay with you forever.
Yes, I've been there. Very much worth visiting. I took a fantastic tour there and there is a very nice museum.
On a side note, I had a friend that went to college at Gettysburg. He told me some funny stories about tripping on acid on the battlefield at night, and having some intense visions and experiences.
7-6-2006 Las Vegas. 7-20-2006 Portland. 7-22-2006 Gorge. 9-21-2009 Seattle. 9-22-2009 Seattle. 9-26-2009 Ridgefield. 9-25-2011 Vancouver.
11-29-2013 Portland. 10-16-2014 Detroit. 8-8-2018 Seattle. 8-10-2018 Seattle. 8-13-2018 Missoula. 5-10-2024 Portland. 5-30-2024 Seattle.
Oh, and just for perspective.....60,000 seems like a lot, but imagine around 160,000 fighting. That was the estimated sizes of both armies combined.
ten thousand americans died. go. take a tour. avoid the hall of presidents. read the headstones. swim @ the pool at the holiday inn. stay for four days. go to boyds bears.
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also, if you're going to DC, on the way back (although it might be out of your way a little bit) i would recommend stopping in sharpsburg, MD to see the battlefield at antietam. i've been there several times and it never seems any less amazing. there's a few really cool monuments there, plus sites like burnside bridge and the sunken road that are really worth seeing. the bloodiest single day of the civil war took place there, with casualties really heavy on both sides. it was after that battle that lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation; there's a cool 15-20 minute film they show in the main building there that's worth watching as well. i think you can get a CD and do your own tour of that place too, but i'm not sure, as i went with history teachers/professors and never had to utilize one of those. anyway, it's just a thought.
By the way, for people not from the South, don't get the idea that they are still teaching that the civil war was the "war of northern agression" and that we wished the south won the war, or that they teach that the war wasnt about slavery and it was about states' rights. Only old men still think it was about states' rights anymore here in the South. We were just reinacting the march to get an idea of what happened.
well i understand wanting to maintain that it isn't the "war of northern aggression" because it wasn't. but as far as it being about states' rights: that's the crux of the war. that's exactly what it was about. i hope they are still teaching that, because it is the one positive truth. it took the civil war to make the states understand that states' rights were no longer in effect as it were. it was like part II of the american revolution. it did not start over slavery, so i really hope they aren't teaching you that.