When in Gettysburg....
... you see some awesome barns. This one was used to hold those who died in the main house. The main house was built in 1812. During July 1-12 1863 the main house was pressed into service. It was a field hospital. The Union dead were stacked up in the upper level. The Confederate troops were stacked up in the lower level. The lower level was filled like cord wood by the twelfth day.
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A lot of Americans died in Gettysburg. It is sobering.
A visit to the National Park Visitors Center is worth while I think. We got the deluxe plan; the museum, Cyclorama, and a guided bus tour. It was all super cool. Humbling. I felt humbled a lot.
So if you did not read the link to the Cyclorama, please read about it.
The Cyclorama is wicked cool. Probably the highlight of the packaged deal.
The painting is actually incredibly well done.
That is the Hayfields. The Hayfields was significant.
Lincoln was hanging out at the museum. He allowed an image to be taken with the girls.
We took the tour bus with Rodger. He has been giving the tour since 1968. Rodger dramatized in living stereo. He was actually pretty darn good. I tipped him a $20.
So, the battle of Gettysburg. It started right there in front of you. It was actually a mistake when it started. A Congressman, turned Union General was in the wrong place. When some Confederate scouts were seen, they engaged. They were not supposed to do that. Had the scouts not been engaged, Lee would have had a very large volume of soldiers in position and the resulting battle of Gettysburg might had been a very different out come.
On the third day, Confederates came from that direction. It was called the Devils Den. The Devils Den was a great hiding spot for the Confederate snipers. They did a lot of sniping from there. Not enough.
The Union troops on top of Little Round Top did not have wooden cannons painted to look like iron ones. They were very effective. Two miles was the range.
In the center of this photo is the area known as the Hayfields. From this vantage point, on July 3 1863, you would be seeing the bodies of 20, 000 men below you. Many more would die. Almost as many beasts of burden would be laying with the bodies of the men from the South and the North. Many were stacked like cord wood at makeshift field hospitals, pressed into service.
It was not all serious in Gettysburg. Don, Donal, and I played Adventure Golf at Granite Hill Campground. We stayed there too.
We were actually there for the Bluegrass Festival. We saw some super acts.
We saw some old guys.
We saw some young guys.
First music festival I have ever attended where I did not once see or smell some dern weed.
We saw some girl bands.
The crowd was beyond civilized. I felt guilty tapping my foot and bobbing my head to the music. A mandolin does that to me.
Praise God, the catfish was good. The jerk chicken was too.
Lots of fair food...
... and there were fair beverages. The price was kind of unfair for the fair beverages. I stuck to the cooler of beer we carried up from the trailer. Natty Boh goes well with Bluegrass.
The meat was a loaf. Not sure what the story was. While traveling in Mexico I have eaten a lot of street food. My rule is if it swimming in grease, I pass. I passed here.
That cow has a Gene Simmons tongue.
I commented "40 flavors?" Response: "That is false, we have 80 now." In my head: "Why are there only 18 on the posted list?"
Does that look good to you? I will stick to the cooler of Natty Boh I carried up from the trailer.
I am always on the hunt. I found 40, 40+ year old trailers.
We like to play at night
The kids played.
I am hypnotized...
SHAZAM...
Smile dude, I had a great time in Gettysburg.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow, this ground—The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, to stand here, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
