July 14 - Gettysburg
Well we had a fun time on the Beltway leaving DC...You can see the SPOT dots...These are 10 minutes apart.....and cover about a mile each...Oh yeah...It started drizzling. We didnt put our rain gear on as it was only a light drizzle, and not cold. We hadn't counted on being in first gear for a hour. Wet again ...oh well.
But once we got to 270 and headed north to Gettysburg the rain stopped, and we eventually started to dry out.
At Gettysburg we decided to take a bus tour, something we normally don't do, but in this case I think for a first timer, it is the only way to get oriented. The actual battlefield covers more than 20 square miles.This is the only monument to both sides in the battle in the whole area. It has an eternal flame at the top.
The stone for the Base came from Maine and the spire from Alabama (unless I got it backwards)
Each of the states whose soldiers fought in the battle, have a State Monument...This is Virginia, with Robert E. Lee mounted on his horse.
This is taken from a Union position atop Little Round TopThe Confederate Lines are in the upper tree line behind the thin upper open area...nearly a mile away.
In the Foreground is a valley called the Valley of Death due to all the casualties here on both sides as the Confederate soldiers tried to take the hill.
What looks like a rock fence across hill in the forground is rock battlements quickly piled up by the union defenders, which are still there almost 150 years later.
The rocky are in the background is called the Devil's Den.
What looks like a rock fence across hill in the forground is rock battlements quickly piled up by the union defenders, which are still there almost 150 years later.
The rocky are in the background is called the Devil's Den.
This barn was in place during the battle...hence the cannon ball hole below the air vents
The pic above and below show the view of the union defenders as Pickett's charge of 15,000confederate soldiers marched toward them..across the open fields.
The line was over 1.5 miles long
150 actually made it over this rock wall to engage the defenders hand to hand
There are about 150 buildings with these plaques, certifing that they exhisted in essentially their present condition during the battle.
Doris walked around and took some more pictures of monuments
The above 2 and the one below are from Little Round Top
150 actually made it over this rock wall to engage the defenders hand to handThere were almost 80,000 Confederate troops and over 95,000 Union Troops...
175,000 total, with 51,000 casualties, (Killed, Wounded or Captured)
There are about 150 buildings with these plaques, certifing that they exhisted in essentially their present condition during the battle.
Doris walked around and took some more pictures of monuments
The above 2 and the one below are from Little Round Top
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