Gettysburg

Well, I purchased some extra storage for my blog. I had used 1GB in 2 1/2 years and now I have another 10GB, I get to use this for a year, then have to pay again. I figured it was an ok deal. Even if I don't pay again, those photos I have loaded will stay here. I thought about just starting a new blog but that seemed alot of effort to avoid paying for storage. It took a couple of days to get the upgraded storage and for me to work out how to access it, so here we are finally my post of Gettysburg is complete.

Enjoy!

To lighten things up a little before the battlefield and battle...some more road signs which made us laugh..



You have all heard of Gettysburg, it was the location of the deciding battle in the American Civil war. It was quite a moving experience to visit the actuall battlefield, to see a reinactment and learn a little about the people involved. All Civil wars are tragig, brother fighting brother. Many of the opposing Generals had been class mates at West Point. Imagine D having to fight against his class mates.

Gettysburg is also the place where Abraham Lincoln made his famous "4 score...speach.

Gettysburg Battlefield
D and chn at the NY memorial. We had just driven from NY and took 4 hours to do it...imagine walking all that way with all your equipment etc in July in New England...then we saw a Vermont memorial. We have done the drive from here to Vermont and that was another 6 hours.


The fences are pretty much in the orignal places. They give us an idea of how the soldiers were held up by them when advancing, making a great target by climbing over, or taking some time to dismantle them.


M, checking out the battlefield with his binos.


J and me at The Angle.


Cannons are placed all around the battle field in the places they originaly were, accompanied by a memorial to the battery that was there.


The Pennsylvania Memorial.



These photos show the battlefield and the place of Picketts Charge. in the distance is a memorial and some cars, that is where General Lee sat upon his horse commanding the confederate attack and ordering the charge. The cannon were along the line of the stone wall. The cannon shot were exploding amongst the trees where the confederate soldiers were formed. The distance of the charge is quite remarkable when you consider they were on foot, in July (very hot/humid) in wool clothing, carying very heavy weapons and ammunition. Being fired on by cannons at point blank range...but they all did it, all of them got on their feet and walked toward the Union line. Brave or just really scared of being left behind who knows?



This photo shows The Angle where two stone walls meet at 90 degres. Here Confederate General Armestead (sp) rallied the surviving confederate soldiers (aobut 200) by placing his hat on his bayonet and calling them forward. They managed to take some of the guns but there were not enough of them to hold them and they were retaken by the union. General A was mortally wounded. But we met him later the next day and he looked pretty good!


This is pretty cool. The Union General Sickles used this building as his command post. Aparently he was a bit of a lad and there are rumors that he spent some time in the farmhouse with the farmers daughter rather than with is soldiers. In any case he certainly was involved when the cannon ball flew through the building and took off his leg. He used to visit his leg in a museum after the war...what a great man!

The hole in the wall just below the two diamond is the actually hole the cannon ball made.


The Reinactment.

Union Gun battery. We were down the Union end so we did not see much of the Confederates, this was mostly a cavalry battle, though the artilerty was involved too. There were also a few small skirmishes involving the infantry.





Cavalry sword battle (actually this happened after the pistol battle below - you know they are getting serious when they pull out the swords.

M loved this entire battle, anything with horses. W on the other hand was dissapointed that no one pretended to die and fell off their horse.

Cavalry pistol and rifle battle.

Union Cavalry.


Confederate Cavalry.


Union Soldiers and Cavalry.



Confederates.


Conbfederate General J.E.B. Stewart.


Helping out the medics prepare for wounded from the battlefield. W was disapointed he did not actually get to see the doctor actually remove any limbs.





We listened to General Lee and some of the other Confederate Generals talking about various aspects of the Battle. It was as if these fellows had been transported in time. J.E.B. Steware arrived late as he did apparently to the battle and the made a joke of that. General Longstreet was frighteningly like his namesake as was General Picket and General Lee...very interesting.





The children had a chat to a Union Soldier.

And I met General George Picket...of the famous "Sir, I have not division" statement, after his fateful and tragic charge. I was rather excicted to meet him I have to say since he looks just like he did 350 years ago and is one of the Confererate Generals that I know most about. So I asked him what he did after the battle at Gettysburg, he went to Richmond, reformed his division and continued to participate in the war...how about that!



Back at the camp site. It was not a bad place to camp, showers, toilets and hot water and a Pool. Probably the best thing was our neighbors across the road and the horses we could visit - they were 'camping' with their owners.