Imagine living in a small, quiet country town with a view of colorful farmland and sky-piercing mountains, cattle grazing on the hillside, singing from the nearby seminary, and the smell of freshly baked bread. It's June 30th, and yet another hot summer day is coming to a close. As you prepare the house for sleep, you hear a knock at the door, and as you open it, you come face-to-face with a Union soldier. Although you know the war has been going on for two years now, it has mostly remained in the south, destroying your Virginia neighbors. The soldier comes bearing a message from his superior asking you to prepare your home for a hospital; a battle will occur the following day forever altering your view of those fields and mountains.
After tossing and turning, you awake the next morning to find that your small country town is now inhabited by about 94,000 Union soldiers and 72,000 Confederate soldiers fighting for their lives and especially their beliefs. Doors in your home are ripped off their hinges and used as operating tables while curtains are torn to shreds for bandages. Not only has your town been invaded, but also your home. For three days, you see and hear death in the largest bloodbath the war has seen and will ever see, and even after the battle and after the armies depart, your home is overturned with dead and injured men, only a portion of the total 51,000 that are dead, wounded, and missing.
The digging begins where man upon man are shallowly placed in the ground. Four months pass by before a permanent burial ground is bought by a local attorney. On November 19, President Abraham Lincoln visits your town, and you attend the cemetery dedication listening to his most and history's most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address. Lincoln reminds you of your nation's foundation which these men are fighting for, and he instills hope in you that this war will end in a way that these men's lives will not be useless. Even though the war is not over and you will still have nightmares for the rest of your life, you find closure in your own experiences and contributions to the Civil War.
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| The Gettysburg Address (picture taken in the Lincoln Memorial) |
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| Good old Abe. |
Yesterday, my cousins and I visited Gettysburg where we took a step back in time and learned about the gravest battle and turning point in the Civil War. We arrived at the visitor's center, where a Gettysburg geek (as he called himself) climbed into the driver's seat and guided us around the battlefield and town. He showed us hilltops where generals could view the battle for miles and miles away. He took us past homes and barns that still had bullet markings and cannon holes. We saw the progression of cannons over the course of the war and the many memorials located throughout the battle grounds. Our brains were filled with war tactics from both sides, actual battle fields where combat took place, and sadness for the death of so many soldiers. This was a trip I would recommend to any Civil War addict.
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| A soldier.... |
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| Loud noises! |
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| The view from Little Round Top, a Union-controlled location. |
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| Indiana Memorial |
