After driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania we ended up camping in Maryland for several days so that we could visit several historic sites. One of the places that I hadn't been to in years was Gettysburg. We woke up early one morning and headed to the park. We ended up getting a tour so that we would hear more about the battle as we drove.
The Gettysburg Story is the tour that we purchased, however we opted not to listen to the CD. At the time the tour was also available through the
Detour app which delivered an amazing experience. Sadly the tour is no longer available, but the experience made me eager to try other offerings in the app. It was a great experience to listen to the audio stops and have the app pause and wait to play the next segment until you'd arrived at the right location.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the Civil War's bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal "Gettysburg Address".
--from
Gettysburg NMP website
It had rained the night before so everything was wet when we arrived at the visitor center, but that also meant that vegetation was lush and green.
It had been so long since my last visit that I didn't really remember anything about the park. But looking up the history I did find out that the current visitor had been built since I'd last visited in the 90s.
The girls liked seeing the stature of Abraham Lincoln.
Inside we found quite a bit of information. We decided not to buy tickets for anything
had a cost such as the museum, film, live tours, presentations, or a trip to
Eisenhower National Historic Site.
We did wander through the gift shop for a while and as I mentioned above we ended picking up a tour of the park. I enjoy touring large parks with a tour, and I figure if we buy them once we'll be able to reuse them on any future visits to the park.
There were a wide range of products, including many interesting ones to be found.
Once we started driving it wasn't long before we saw our first of many, many, many, many cannons.
Additionally according to the signs that we saw at our first stop the battlefield is sprinkled, no I think covered is a better word, with over "1,300 monuments, memorials, and markers..."
The McPherson Barn was in the middle of the opening phase of the battle.
Before too long we came to the first observation tower. It was fun to climb up to the top to get a birds eye view of the battlefield. I took a 360º photo from on top of the tower,
click here to view it. It isn't perfect, but it is a fun way to show what we saw.
This monument was dedicated to the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry and has the statue of a dog at the base on the other side.
The North Carolina Memorial was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum (who is best known for his work on
Mount Rushmore).
The Virginia Memorial features Robert E. Lee mounted on Traveller on the very top.
The Longstreet Tower offered a view of President Eisenhower's Gettysburg farm.
The next time we come back to the area I definitely want to take the bus drive over to Eisenhower's farm. But this time I had to be content with the birds eye view.
After a while the tour road headed into the woods and towards Little Round Top. We ended up spotting a memorial related to the Twentieth Maine (its commander Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a prominent figure in the movie
Gettysburg).
A tower that doubles as a memorial to the 44th New York Infantry makes for a great observation post.
When you enter you'll find a steep set of stairs off the central area.
Once at the top you have a commanding view of the area from atop Little Round Top. From here you can see to the Devil's Den and the Peach Orchard. I also took
another 360º photo from atop this tower.
A bit further along the ridge I took
another 360º photo and I think think with that I'll end this post and pick up the journey next time.
~Matt
After driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania we ended up camping in Maryland for several days so that we could visit several historic sites. One of the places that I hadn't been to in years was Gettysburg. We woke up early one morning and headed to the park. We ended up getting a tour so that we would hear more about the battle as we drove. The Gettysburg Story is the tour that we purchased, however we opted not to listen to the CD. At the time the tour was also available through the Detour app which delivered an amazing experience. Sadly the tour is no longer available, but the experience made me eager to try other offerings in the app. It was a great experience to listen to the audio stops and have the app pause and wait to play the next segment until you'd arrived at the right location.
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