Spring Break - Part 3

Gettysburg

Cemetery Ridge looking toward Seminary Ridge

The highlight of the spring break trip for me was the battleground of Gettysburg. I was a Civil War buff as a kid. I think I read "This Hallowed Ground" at least 3 times and recreated some of the battles with lincoln log forts and plastic soldiers. So actually standing on Cemetery Ridge behind a little wall next to some cannons, looking across the valley at the Confederate positions was a dream come true. It wasn't hard to picture Pickett's charge and hear the rebel yell from there.

We stopped at the visitor center and picked up an audio car tour that took us chronologically through the 3 days of the battle. The narrator related eyewitness accounts as he told us where to park and what to look for. The battlefield seems littered with monuments set in haphazard fashion. Most of the regiments that fought there raised money and built their own monuments on the ground where they fought. I found the information on the monuments to be somewhat biased. One inscription said something like "We held the position until 4PM when we were outflanked and forced to withdraw", while the narrator gave an account by their own leader expressing his disgust at the way they broke and ran like scared rabbits.

Devil's Den

I was impressed with how well preserved the place is. It seems little changed since the 1860s. Many of the farmhouses that were landmarks then are still there. The town is pretty and so are the surrounding hills. I was most impressed with the hill Little Round Top. It has a dominating view of the whole battlefield. Devil's Den was a great jumble of rocks that was a fun place to climb and play. Cemetery Ridge was the climax of the battle but I always pictured it as being more imposing. It's just a little rise, nothing like some of the other formidable hills.

Leah and Meg got out and climbed around any rocks or cannons they could find while Brita mostly stayed in the car and read her book and made friendship bracelets.

I'm glad they tolerated a whole afternoon of exploring the greatest battlefield in American history.

The view from Little Round Top