Visiting Hallowed Ground--Gettysburg National Military Park

On Monday 6/2 we arrived in Gettysburg, PA just after noon and checked into Artillery Ridge Campground, a Passport America campground giving us a 50% discount on campsite prices, from $50 a night down to $25!!.  We signed up for 3 nights so we could really see everything on this visit.  We stayed at this campground on a previous visit and liked its facilities and quiet but really appreciated its closeness, about a mile, to the National Park Visitor Center, Museum and Cyclorama and the entrance to the Battleground Auto Tour Route. After a quick lunch in the rig, we headed for the Visitor Center.

The Battle of Gettysburg, on July 1-3, 1863 was one of the most important battles of the Civil War and its bloodiest with over 51,000 men killed, wounded or captured out of approximately 168,000 soldiers fighting on both sides in the 3 day battle.  It pitted the Union Army of the Potomac led by General George Meade against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee.

Union General George Meade

Confederate General Robert E Lee and his horse Traveler

General Lee invaded Pennsylvania to try to draw the Union Army away from the Confederate capitol of Richmond.  Fierce fighting over the 25 square mile Gettysburg battlefield for 2 days with inconclusive results led to a Confederate decision on the 3rd day to fire a massive artillery barrage at the Union positions but that was matched by Union cannon in a 2 hour bombardment.  Then Lee launched a 12,000 Confederate soldier march called "Pickett's Charge," after one of the Confederate generals, across open fields toward the Union positions that was repulsed by murderous Union fire. This was a disastrous move with 5000 Confederate soldiers lost in this one hour engagement and the Battle of Gettysburg was over,  Lee's remaining troops marched south on July 4. Total casualties in the 3 days of fighting--23,000 for the Union Army and 28,000 for the Confederate Army.   And the Civil War had nearly 2 more years of fierce fighting left!

When the fighting was finally over, both armies departed,. leaving only a few officials to clean up the battlefield and properly bury the dead.  The town of Gettysburg, which was severely damaged in the battles, also had to take care of the thousands of wounded men that were crowded into nearly every building in town.  The Governor of Pennsylvania commissioned a local attorney to buy land for a cemetery and he lobbied the Federal government to form a 17 acre National Cemetery which was approved.  Over 3500 Union soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg were reburied in the new Soldiers' National Cemetery on Cemetery Hill.  The official dedication of the new cemetery was on November 19, 1863, only 4 months after the end of the fighting.

The principal speaker for the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Edward Everett, the nationally known preeminent orator of the day, gave a 2 hour long speech detailing the complete history of the Battle of Gettysburg to thunderous applause at the end.  The President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, had been invited to "make a few appropriate remarks", but it had been assumed he would be too busy with the war to travel the long distance by train to Gettysburg.  The town was amazed when Lincoln arrived by train with one bodyguard the night before the dedication.  After Everett's long speech, Lincoln stood and delivered in his rather high-pitched voice a masterful speech of 272 words that took all of two minutes!  His speech gave meaning to the sacrifice on the battlefield and was designed to inspire the Union citizens to continue the fight, win the war, and reunite the country.

Mr. Everett of the 2 hour speech told President Lincoln at the end of Lincoln's speech "I should be glad if I came to the central idea of the occasion, in 2 hours, as you did in 2 minutes!"   Most all U.S. schoolkids know Lincoln's speech as the Gettysburg Address and many of us had to memorize it in elementary school.  We were fortunate to be part of a Park Ranger walk though Soldier's National Cemetery and learn much more about the design of the cemetery and the dedication speeches.  

Soldier's National Monument

There are several essential  sites to visit in Gettysburg.   First, the National Park Service Visitor Center, where you can find the daily schedule of activities and ranger walks as well as a number of exhibits.  For $11.50 per person for seniors, you can get a combination ticket for 3 venues--the excellent new film,  "A New Birth of Freedom", visit the Cyclorama, a marvelous sound and light show of the spectacular 377 foot painting of Pickett's Charge completed in 1884 and just completely restored and enhanced. And 3rd, visit the new Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War, all in the same building adjacent to the Visitor Center.

And then with all this background, be sure to get in your vehicle and spend a couple hours touring the actual Battlefield on the 30 miles of Auto Tour road.  See the actual buildings still standing involved in battles, the hills, fields, the woods, stone fences, cannon, the railroad cut, the boulder fields and the whole landscape.

Most impressive are the Monuments that were erected after the Battle on the sites of many of the engagements, showing the actual places where different regiments fought, the generals and other heroes of battles and the salutes from both the Union and Confederate states to their soldiers with modest monuments up to extremely large monuments like Pennsylvania or North Carolina.  There are 1328 monuments and memorials on the Gettysburg Battlefield and 3 large observation towers to get a higher level view.  The Auto Tour routes are free and open 6AM-10PM daily.

Gettysburg National Military Park is about a pivotal moment in U.S. history and should be viewed by every American citizen to understand what built this country.  The National Park Service has done a great job interpreting the battle and the site. It is truly Hallowed Ground!