Yahoo, Brandon is here for the first day of his trip!! And our KOA is lovely. It has a beautiful private, protected parking area with a wooden swing at our site. The bathrooms are clean and they play music in them constantly. I think it’s the best one yet. Also it’s going to be 85 today . . . hot again!!
Today we are going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War. It is now a National Park. It has a huge visitor center with a very well done movie (narrated by Morgan Freeman – I love him as an actor), a cyclorama, an incredible museum, and wonderful gift shop.
We first watched the movie and .after it was over, we walked upstairs to the cyclorama which is a circular painting depicting the events that took place at Gettysburg. We waited a few minutes and then the lights went off, as the cyclorama lit up with a recording of each of the battles that took place during the 3 days. It was an incredible presentation. The cyclorama is 358 feet around, and 42 feet high. It was painted in 1884 and is the largest painting in North America. It was unbelievably painted in less than a year. It was first in Boston, and then brought to this Gettysburg site on the 100th anniversary of Gettysburg.
Before July 1-3, 1863, Gettysburg was a quiet, quaint little town, But on July 1st General Lee marched his troops into town, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, and was a 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 war's bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's infamous "Gettysburg Address".
The park is set up as a driving tour and we rented the tape to listen in our car as we stopped at each site. It was awesome to listen to the battle in detail of each of the three days. Along the way, each stop has some kind of memorial statues or more of all the fighting that took place between both sides.
Day one, July 1st, the Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south . Soon they were reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.
On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy attack on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard - we drove to each of these sights.
On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle.
We did the Junior Ranger program on the happenings of the third day.
General Lees statue representing all the types of men who fought in the Confederate Army - farmers, business men, lawyers, boys, blacksmiths, etc.
Gettysburg was incredible and wonderfully done. All of the deaths during this battle were not in vain as they fought for our freedom. As Morgan Freeman put it in the movie, America was very concerned about "Liberty but not about human bondage. " The men of the Civil War were fighting for what they believed in. It's sad that there is sin and evil in the world and such drastic measures have to be taken to resolve an difficult issue. But Jesus also had to take the drastic measure of dying on the cross to give us freedom & life in Christ (John 3:16) because of sin in the world. And someday when Jesus returns He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain and destruction, because He is making all things new - Rev. 21:4-5 Hallaluja - Praise the Lord!!
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