I'm totally exhausted right now, so this won't do the day justice. We got to Gettysburg around 9 am and left at 6 pm without taking a break from the site-seeing. It was hot and sunny, and we were outside for much of the 9 hours. By the end of it we were totally out of energy, but it was well worth the exhaustion. Gettysburg is a wonderful battlefield that exceeded my expectations for the day.
The movie is very good (thanks to Morgan Freeman, I now know that Heth is pronounced Heath), but the Cyclorama is wonderful. It is a massive painting that tells the story of the battle (a bit inaccurately, but nothing egregious). The day was off to a great start and we weren't an hour into it.
Ryan and I debated paying $55 for a guide in our car, but decided to do the park at our own pace. In retrospect, it would have been weird to spend roughly 7-8 hours with a guide. There is so much at Gettysburg that it is a fine investment to make, but I'm glad we saved our money.
After checking out Heth's advance on Buford, we worked our way toward the middle of the battlefield where Pickett's Charge took place. Naturally, I charged the Copse of Trees. It took the Rebels 26 minutes; it took me 17. And I filmed it on my iPhone. So if Robert E. Lee had 13,000 of me, the battle might have gone differently. Just sayin'.
The museum at Gettysburg is terrific as it not only covers the battle, but also other battles, the build-up to the war, soldier life, etc. I picked up 10-15 details to add to my lectures beyond the Gettysburg stuff. I also picked up some bullets and little replicas of Civil War weapons which will hopefully help my lousy Civil War weapons class. If not, it might help classroom discipline to have bullets in my possession.
The highlight of the battlefield for me was Little Round Top and then Devil's Den. They are both work seeing just for the topography. The boulders are huge and beautiful. It is kind of like Stonehenge if Stonehenge was in the middle of the Battle of Hastings. There were some miserable kids around the park being dragged along by parents to see some history, but the kids definitely perked up at Devil's Den when they got to climb the rocks and freak out their terrified parents.
We finished the day with samplings from a Gettysburg brewery and a soak in the Holiday Inn hot tub. It was kind of like a wild, hot tub party except there were no girls and two tired guys who'd just spent the entire day at a Civil War battlefield.
I don't know how I'm still awake. Tomorrow we have a super-easy day of Antietam, Harper's Ferry and the Braves/Nationals game.
To bed,
CC
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