For the better part of the last two weeks I have taken my vacation from work. Although it had seemed like I had taken a lot of time off taking those three day trips, I still did five shifts a week, I just did them in four days. This was an actual, vacation.
We did an East Coast road trip . We hit four major sites and two minor ones. We went to Niagara Falls for a day and a half, Gettysburg for two and a half days, then two days in Washington D.C. From there we drove to Philly for just over two days. We stopped at Fort McHenry on our way to Philly. Also while traveling home we stopped at Monmouth Battlefield.
Although, I will probably put some pictures of D.C. Philly and Niagara on my blog, I'm not going to do any posts describing them. I have detailed almost every detail of each from attractions, food, and lodging. If you have any interest in any of those three places, you can type at the top left corner of the blog the keyword Washington, Niagara, or Philadelphia. There is a lot of useful information for a traveler. If you'd prefer to look for them by clicking on the year in the right column, this is when I wrote them-
Washungton D.C.- Four posts December 2010
Niagara- Five posts June 2013 (including best places to get photographs)
Philadelphia- 5 posts from Aug/Sept 2017
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Gen. John Reynolds was the highest
ranking officer to die at Gettysburg |
Okay, now that I got the housekeeping out of the way, as Bill would say "On to Gettysburg". This was the third time I went to Gettysburg. The first time was in 1984 when I was a wee lad. The second time was in 2006. We spent a couple days there this trip, and honestly, it was the place I was most excited about visiting.
Gettysburg is roughly 6.5 hours from my home in North Attleboro. It is the site of the largest battle of the Civil War. In the three days of July1-3, 1863 there were 51,000 casualties. The battlefield is preserved by the National Park Service.
There is plenty of lodging around town. We stayed in one of the campgrounds. It was named Gettysburg Campground. Tent sites were $38/ night. It is mostly an RV campground with a couple hundred RVs. There is one road with about ten campsites specifically for tents. The sites are on top of each other and there's no privacy. I was worried everyone around us would be drinking and making noise by their fires. Quiet hours were 11-7, but everyone was pretty much in bed by 10:30. There is a river right behind the tent sites named Marsh Creek. I was hoping it would be a slow, deep, muddy, stream loaded with catfish, but it looks like a shallow, gravelly, limestone stream.
There is a lot to do in Gettysburg. For a real history buff, I'd say it would take five days to really see the battlefield, do some tours, and hit some interesting tourist traps. If you are going to drive the battleield, get out at stops, and read a lot of the historic information then that itself would take a full day. The Park Service has about 20 ranger programs/day throughout the summer. They are free and chock full of info.
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| The Virginia Memorial is a statue of Robert E. Lee |
The battle line ran across two ridges. The South was on Seminary Ridge. The North covered a line from Culp's Hill to Little Round Top. On day one, the battle was fought north of town, as the Union was trying to stop the South's advance. They did delay the Rebels but at a high cost. The Southerners routed the undermanned blue troops the first day. However the North secured the high ground. Day two the South tried to hit the Union at both flanks. This did not work and the Northerners held there ground. Day three, the South hit the Union Army in the center after the largest artillery duel in the Western Hemisphere (to date). The Southerners advanced a mile over open ground. The north bombarded them with canister fire wiping out whole sections of rank and file. When the marching Southerners got within range, the North opened up a hellish musket fire. All told, the South had 5000 casualties out of 15,000 marching men in 45 minutes. And that is the briefest summary one could possibly post about such a large three day battle.
Battlefield-
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This is the field the Southerners had to cross to reach Union
lines during Pickett's Charge. They lined up in the trees in the back.
They had to cross this mile wide field while being bombarded with
canister shells from the entire Union line. You can see fences
in the picture they had to climb over, further delaying
their advance. |
The battlefield was basically two ridges with a mile wide valley in the middle. There are roads that take you to all the important stops including Little Round Top and Devil's Den. There are monuments and statues seemingly everywhere. It seems like every brigade from the North has a plaque or statue. The south has far fewer monuments. A combination of the South lost this battle and they were economically far less well off. You can buy an audio cd at the gift shop that matches up with numbered sites on the field. One could also take a narrated bus tour for $35 too. Another option is to hire a battlefield guide to ride around with you in your car. These people are true history junkies and know everything about the battle. Or you can simply drive your car and read all the info for free.
As I mentioned above the Park Service runs roughly twenty ranger programs a day. You can get the info on the website or the Visitor Center. I love ranger programs and wish we had time for more. We did four of them. We walked the Soldier's Cemetery and learned roughly where Lincoln read the Gettysburg Address ( no one is positive of the exact spot, just the general area based on photos).
Another tour we did was a campfire program. The topic was southern Civil War medicine and hospitals. We also did an overview of the battlefield which was very informative.
Lastly we took a bus ride to Spangler Farm. It costs seven dollars and the farm is only accessible by bus. The farm was turned into a Civil War hospital and stayed one well after the battle. We learned a lot about amputees and treatment. It was well worth seven dollars and two hours of our time.
Other things to do-
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The bed Lincoln slept in the night before giving the
Gettysburg Address |
There is a lot to do in Gettysburg and there are a lot of tourists. The community relies on these folks. As I said there are a lot of accommodations for travelers Finding food is pretty easy. There are a couple fast food places. There are also local mom and pop spots. Getting an ice cream after supper is a must but expect long lines.
There are bunch of attractions, too many for the short amount of time we were there. We didn't do our typical research because two days just isn't enough time. So I will only write about what we did. I am quite sure there are plenty of lists online about Gettysburg Attractions
David Will's House
In downtown Gettysburg is a house now owned by the park. It used to be owed by a lawyer named Davis Wills. It was his idea to have a National Cemetery. He bought the land from farmers so the Union soldiers could be buried there. When they dedicated it, he wrote a letter to Lincoln and asked him if he would come and say a few words. Lincoln accepted and stayed at his house the night before the ceremony. Only takes a few minutes to tour the house but you see where Lincoln slept and where he made changes to his famous address
Ghost Tour- Laurie believes in ghosts, and I don't until I actually see one. However ghost tours are fun and I enjoy the stories. We went on the original ghost tour owned by Mark Nesbit. He has written many books about ghosts in Gettysburg. I may not believe in ghosts ,but his research is real. He has interviewed hundreds of people. He has gone to "sightings". Point is, we chose him because he met people that believe they saw something they can't explain. I don't know about the other dozen ghost tour companies, they simply could have sat down one night and wrote a ghost story. Anyway our guide was a North Carolinian named Nick. He was funny and interesting.
Eisenhower Home- After Ike left office, he bought a farm outside Gettysburg Battlefield. You can now tour it. You need to take a park service bus from the VC. I didn't know much about Ike, I learned a lot. They were always travelling because of the military and they never had a home of their own until he retired. The farm was beautiful and there were a lot of birds.
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This is a paper little JFK wrote to Caroline
It is at the Gettysburg Museum
It is his earliest surviving signature |
Gettysburg Museum- This is a FREE museum. It is small, only about four rooms but it is packed with memorabilia. We were blown away by the contents of this place. Some of the many things include-
Meade's chair from his headquarters at Gettysburg
A paper with Christopher Columbus signiture
Lincoln's opera binoculars from Ford's Theater
A piece of a blood stained towel after Lincoln was shot and a piece of upholstery from the car JFK was in when shot
A piece of hair from Washington and Lincoln
A shirt Hitler wore
Kennedy signature on many
I could go on, the place is just incredible. It takes less than an hour and it is cramped but most of the stuff is worthy of the Smithsonian.
You can clearly see, we did not sit idle when we were in Gettysburg. There is so much to see and learn. We did everything we had hoped to do. If you love history, you will love Gettysburg.
