It was a long day today. After breakfast we set out to travel the 24-mile self-guided auto tour of the battlefield. Here is where we travelled and the history of the battle:
Battle of Gettysburg - Wikipedia
There are 14 identified stops along the route. We also had a National Park Service cell phone app that has a video and audio description for each stop. Here is a sample, very well done (Stop #8 Little Round Top – 8 minutes).
Video
(U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
The battlefield is designated as a national battlefield
instead of as national park because it is not all confined within defined boundaries
of land controlled by the federal government.
The battlefield is interspersed here-and-there with private property and
sections of the town of Gettysburg.
Compared to many other civil war battlefields we have visited a
remarkable amount of the land has been preserved. There are also active community, state, federal
and trust organizations interested in acquiring adjacent land and protecting the battlefield and preventing future
encroachment and commercialization. This is especially true on boundary properties that could
be added to the battlefield it the future if found to be historically
significant and relevant.
The battlefield is also noted for the large number of monuments,
statues and markers placed at more-or-less exact locations of a particular
action or event. Most have been placed by
states and or state veteran organizations either shortly after the war and into
the early years of the 20th Century until around the start of WW
I. They are essentially memorials
recognizing the sacrifices of the men who fought there – on both sides of the
conflict. There are over 1000 such monuments
etc. throughout the battlefield.
Historically, it is hard to underestimate the impact the
Battle of Gettysburg had on the country, both during the war and afterwards.
When the war was over and the smoke cleared, over time there was a common national
effort in both the north and south to recognize the enormity of the loss of
life and to memorialize the contributions of the soldiers who fought here. Thus,
the large number of markers and the timeliness of siting them has resulted in
perhaps the most accurately marked Civil War battlefield in the country.
We finished up our tour with a brief visit to the adjoining Gettysburg
National Cemetery where president Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address when the cemetery
was dedicated in November 1863. If you
haven’t read the Gettysburg Address lately, it is worth reading again. I am not
sure it is being taught in our schools anymore, but it should be. Here it is:
The
Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
We wanted to spend more time there but our energy low level
light was flashing. We picked up some Chinese take-out at a local supermarket
and headed back to the RV for dinner, arriving just before the rain that was
forecast started.
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