Day 5 ~ Gettysburg

~The Civil War; The war between brothers~
On Day 5 of our trip we stopped in Gettysburg, about 2 hours drive north west from DC. We stopped in at the Museum and Visitor center to have a look around:

From left to right Dad, Abe, My Little Sis (Just in case you were wondering....)

We took a driving audio tour of Gettysburg. We stayed in the car most of the time. air conditioning is a great blessing out here. We did go out into the heat to explore some of the memorials and the sights surrounding some of the heaviest fighting of the war. It wasn't hard for us to imagine gray and blue troops marching in columns, descending upon Gettysburg like locusts. To think that where we walked many brave men had fallen here over 150 years ago. According to our audio guide, in some places the carnage was so dense that those wounded on the battle field may not have gotten help for over 48 hours.To make matters worse during the chaos some pig pens were destroyed and the pigs were set free to wander and feed upon the wounded, dead or dying. Yuck! 

Although this war was primarily hand to hand and musket combat; Cannons were still a central part to the success or failure of the war. However, they did not always do the trick. In the battle of Pickett's Charge, General Lee of the Confederacy tried to use cannons to break the line of union troops giving Pickkett and his men the cover they needed to advance upon the enemy. Unfortunately, since Lee fired most of his cannons (he had over 200) and union guns also returned fire, a thick fog from the cannon fire settled in and they could not see to target Union forces. Lee continued their barrage. Union forces stopped and held their fire and held until they could see the confederates. When the fog cleared Union troops were advancing. The confederate cannon had missed their target. Lee saw his defeat and eventually retreated ending the battle at Gettysburg.

OK So I got a little carried away with the Cannon.

This is one of the buildings on Seminary Ridge were both sides the Union army and the Confederates brought their wounded and dying. According to the Audio guide their was so many extra limbs from amputations that one doctor exclaimed that they had enough to fill a whole Wagon and then some.

There was also a number of Confederate memorials honoring the sacrifices of the many brave men who fought for their country and died trying to invade the Union side.

The View from Little Round Top

The Pennsylvania memorial. the largest memorial in the park commemorating those Pennsylvanians who gave up their lives to defend their homeland.

Due to our Time Constraint we had to move on I wish we could have stayed a little longer to see the rest of the park. We had to get to Philadelphia where we would be spending the next 3 nights. Which is about another 2 hour drive north east of Gettysburg.

See you all when we get home,
Jeremy