Day Twenty-Seven – Gettysburg

When deciding which roads to take on our way back home from New England, we considered many options and routes. Traveling south to Gettysburg made it to the top of our list, especially after several family and friends asked if we planned to go there.

Although history classes teach about the Civil War and the battle of Gettysburg, visiting the actual site and looking upon the various fields of battle, really brought the history to life.
The visitor center had an excellent movie describing the three days of the battle of Gettysburg. In addition, there was a narration of the cyclorama.  “Cyclo-what?” You may be asking... the cyclorama is a 360-degree oil painting that fills a whole room. It is 42 feet tall and 377 feet wide. The painting depicts the last day of the battle of Gettysburg. The way in which the lighting changes during the narration draws the attention of the audience to particular portions of the painting. At one point the narration describes the smoke from the cannon fire lifting above the field; the lighting made the painting shimmer, as if from smoke. It was a very impressive presentation.

A guided bus tour around Gettysburg explained the various battles over the three-day unplanned engagement. The tour guides all have to be certified and take numerous tests in order to ensure accurate information is being shared with visitors. 

Often our guide would share background stories that explained the moves of the various military troops. For example, this statue of General Warren sits at the top of Little Round Top. He was actually the chief surveyor for the Union, but when he realized that Little Round Top was undefended, he ordered troops to secure it. That battled was a turning point for the Union.

Another good thing about the bus tour, it helped us identify some places to go back to when we went on the self-guided auto tour. They have done a nice job labelling the route of the auto tour, so it was easy for us to follow on our own. The Gettysburg battlefield has the most detailed record and markers for each skirmish, which military group fought where, and where some of the individuals fell during battle from any other military battle in history. In large part that was due to those who survived Gettysburg going back after the battle to place markers indicating where they were during the battle.

This park is known to have the largest number of monuments, statues, and markers of any other American battle. Some sculptures were created by famous sculptors like this one which was created by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of Mt. Rushmore) called “Pickett’s Charge”.
A couple of places we re-visited were the crest of Little Round Top and the field of the Pickett’s charge. 

Also, we were impressed by the way the statues of General Robert E. Lee sat atop his horse by the Confederate line

and General George G. Meade on his horse by the Union line faced each other across the field of the last battle of Gettysburg.

The following day we went to Cemetery Hill to pay our respects to the fallen. We found the national cemetery with the marble headstones for veterans. However, then we realized those were from more recent wars. 


It took awhile before we found the Civil War markers. They were placed in a semi-circle around a knoll. The names were etched into curved cement markers. Taller stones were placed indicating the state and how many soldiers had fallen, as for this one from the Minnesota troops. 

The small rectangular stones marked the graves of unknown soldiers. It was sobering to look around the hilltop and reflect on the souls buried there.
Some say the ghosts of Gettysburg haunt the battlefield. It is not hard to imagine ghosts walking those fields.

Maybe they monitor the Eternal Light Peace Memorial which was dedicated on July 3, 1938 to acknowledge the peace and unity in a nation reunited after the Civil War. The sentiment behind the flame that never extinguishes was, “An enduring light to guide us in unity and fellowship”.

As we left Gettysburg, we wondered have we, as a nation, forgotten the lessons learned as a result of the Civil War?

Comments

  1. LoriOctober 2, 2025 at 12:27 PM

    Incredible and very moving I'm sure. Is there a field over there painted red? Maybe that was decades ago?

    ReplyDelete

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