A little historical journey was our task for today. We left our camping spot at Gettysburg Farm Thousand Trails, which is actually in East Berlin that is nowhere near the town of Gettysburg, and headed southwest to the real Gettysburg. Gettysburg is a gorgeous community with loads of old historical buildings. New buildings around here would be those built after 1900.
But back in July, 1863, a month after Robert E. Lee had a dramatic victory at Chancellorsville, he had marched his Army of Northern Virginia through the Blue Ridge and then northward across Maryland and Pennsylvania, coming to rest near Gettysburg. The Union Army was in hot pursuit and on July 2, the two massive armies engaged at Gettysburg. The battlefield was massive – part of the town of Gettysburg was within the Confederate stronghold. More troops from both sides poured into the area while the fighting was going on. The Confederate Army took up positions on Seminary Ridge and the Union Army on Cemetery Ridge, about a mile away.
On July 3, the day started with both sides opening up with a two-hour bombardment of the other’s positions but nobody yielded. Then 12,000 Confederate soldiers advanced across flat, open ground in the attack known as “Pickett’s Charge” and Lee’s army lost 5,000 men in one hour. There were other skirmishes at Little Round Top, The Angle, The Peach Orchard, Warfield Ridge, The Wheatfield and Plum Run that resulted in a total of 55,000 casualties. More men fell at Gettysburg during the battle than any other battle on American soil either before or since.
The battle occurred on absolutely beautiful Pennsylvania farmland and, now that the blood and body parts are gone, the area is again gorgeous. There are many monuments within the park with some terrific statues of fighting men and dignified looking gentlemen although I imagine they did not look so spiffy back in July 1863. There is a great auto tour through Gettysburg National Military Park which we drove with signs marking the locations of units, furthest lines of advance, places of horrible, lingering deaths for the wounded and little signs to keep you on the right roads. It was very warm today and I imagine the weather was not too different back in 1863. Just keeping water flowing to the fighters must have been a nightmare because, in this gently rolling land, there is no place to hide from sharpshooters. Except on the ridges, there is little shade.
There must have been some kind of biker event in the town because there were thousands of Harley riders here today. Harleys are made in York, about an hour away. Surprisingly, almost all of the bikers, including those with chubby women on the back, were quite rotund and back tires got a workout.
There’s some pix. Click the asterisk at the end of this sentence to see them *