Gettysburg

Our tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield provided a perspective of a Civil War that all of our study of history couldn't provide.  So many soldiers--both Federalist and Confederate --were killed.  In the three-day battle there were over 20,000 casualties.  

President Lincoln is, of course, known for his short but eloquent speech, the Gettysburg address.  The monument pictures provides the complete text of his address when he dedicated the National Soldiers' Cemetery.

The area of the battle includes markers denoting the soldiers killed from the various states.  Many of the grave markers are entitled "unknown."  

There are cemeteries everywhere.  There are also many cannons.  

There were about 75,000 Confederate soldiers under General Lee in the battle.  The Federalists were outnumbered.  However, the auto tour does an excellent job of pointing out the impact of occupying strategic locations.  The Federalists in most cases occupied the high ground and that fact may have made the different in the outcome of the battle.    

The area is not large--approximately 10 square miles--but the detailed descriptions of troop movements and the impact of command and control (or the lack of it in some cases) were outlined.  While the auto tour is advertised as taking 1 1/2 to 2 hours, we spent over six hours following the battles.

This is definitely a worthwhile walk through history.   Note:  The soldiers buried at Gettysburg are not all veterans of the Civil War.