Finally back in travel mode. After a couple of nights getting here from Ohio, I am at Gettysburg. I remember being here before, but it was at least 45 years ago, when I had small kids with me. Much easier when you are alone.
My first stop was the visitor center and getting tickets for the Gettysburg Cyclorama. This is a circular painting of the battlefield with a light and sound show that lit up and described the progress of the battle over several days. Personally, it was a little too much detail for me, so I watched most of it, then slipped out to visit the gift shop. Got some postcards and booklets of letters soldiers sent home. I enjoyed walking through the museum better.
It was hard to get a picture of this tree because of all the people standing around, but if you look closely, you can see a lot of small cannonballs buried in the tree.
The photo below this sign is the one described here.
Same with this sign and flag, except it is a Confederate flag.
General Lee's tent and bed.
And some regular soldier's tents and supplies.
One reason Gettysburg became the site of such an important battle, we were told, is because it was the center of so many roads--easier to supply troops.
I had considered driving around the battlefield, but I decided that
since it was a rainy and overcast day and the roads were narrow, that it
made more sense to take the bus tour. Following are just a few of the photos I took. It seems as if every time we got out of the bus, it started raining, so I did not take as many as I should have.
One interesting thing is that there are a LOT more trees now than there were during the actual battle. The National Park Service is hesitant to remove any trees anywhere, but the decision has now been made to remove some of these newer growth trees to make the area more historically accurate. So the area below will someday be the tree-less fields it once was.
I found the barns and houses interesting. Barns were mostly huge with lots of windows as shown here. Houses are also mostly stone.
Now you're in my neck of the woods. 45 years ago did you by any chance stop at the Howard Johnson's in Gettysburg? Because if you did, I probably took you to your seat and cashed you out. I worked there in the summer of '76 between my Jr. and Sr. years of college.
ReplyDeleteA friend who went to Gettysburg College insists that the best pizza in the world is on the square in Gettysburg (I forget the name of the place. Might have been Village Pub or something like that.) She's wrong of course because the best pizza is at Bill's Pizza in Palm Springs, CA, but you might want to check it out.
Just south of Gettysburg is my hometown, Westminster, MD. The battle would've taken place just outside my home town on Pipe Creek had the Union general had his way. I'm sure glad he went north to meet Lee at Gettysburg. I would've hated growing up in a tourist town.
Sorry to have missed you, but I just checked my old photos, and we were there in 1978!
ReplyDeleteI had a friend when I was in high school who worked at a Howard Johnson's and my friends used to go there when she was working to have blueberry sundaes! Yum. Also, nothing like their fried clams.