Gettysburg Battlefield

There are many ways to see the battlefield:

By horse

By wagon

By self-guided auto tour

By bus

By foot

By Segway

We opted for walking, the self-guided auto tour and a bus tour that was offered by the FROG rally.  The battlefield is so large and interesting we visited it 3 times.  The 24-mile auto tour includes 16 stops and traces the 3-day battle chronologically.  It takes a minimum of 3 hours to complete.  There are 1,320 monuments, 410 cannons, and 148 historic buildings.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War.  It's some of the most hallowed ground in the United States.

One of the first stops on the tour is the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.  Seventy-five years after the battle Civil War veterans helped dedicate this memorial to "Peace Eternal in a Nation United."

Close-up of flame

Here are some of the monuments in the battlefield:

The grandest of all monuments is the Pennsylvania monument:

We parked at the foot of Big Round Top and climbed the trail to the summit.  Big Round Top was heavily wooded and was not an important military objective during the battle.

On the edge of a cliff, higher than the treetops below!

Little Round Top was the scene of heavy fighting on the second day of battle.

Union General Meade's engineer alerted officers to the Confederate threat.

View from top of Little Round Top with Devil's Den in the background

Close-up of Devil's Den

These large rocks offered cover for Union soldiers

The Wheatfield was the site of some of the most strenuous fighting that left over 4,000 dead and wounded.  It is said that there were so many dead soldiers and horses that you could walk across the wheatfield and never touch the ground.

Some of the artillery along Seminary Ridge:

There are several observation towers at key points offering panoramic views of the battlefield.

It was windy at the top!

Pennsylvania memorial to the right

President Eisenhower's farm

Town of Gettysburg in the distance

The dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery was the occasion of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.  It is the final resting place for Union soldiers killed in the battle.

Lincoln Monument

 Two of the larger monuments in the cemetery:

Union soldiers' grave markers

Sections were added later for veterans of later wars

The number of soldiers killed and wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg is almost unbelievable.  For 3 days 150,000 soldiers clashed in a series of Confederate assaults and Union defenses.  The battle took a horrible toll on both sides with 10,000 soldiers killed or mortally wounded, 30,000 injured, and 10,000 captured or missing.

I highly recommend a trip to Gettysburg even if you're not a history buff.

Now we're off to Watkins Glen, New York!