Monday Sep 10, 2018

Map and road video – Gettysburg to Harrisburg, PA

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over four days in July 1863, played a pivotal role in the American Civil War and was the reason I visited the town. There are many well preserved civil war sites in the U.S. but visiting them has often left me with only vague ideas of what and how events unfolded. The battle at Gettysburg was fought over a large area with many military operations and I knew that just driving the Gettysburg National Military Park and reading a guide could not make the gruesome events of those days come to life for me.

The big difference between Gettysburg and other civil war sites is that there are a number of expert, licensed guides available to drive tourists through the battlefield and town pointing out the details that would otherwise be missed, describing the actions and personalities involved and answering questions. My guide, Bob, met me at the visitor center and then educated me as we took a two hour tour of the site.  He pointed out the bullet holes in local houses, a couple of artillery shells still embedded in buildings, monuments hidden in forested areas and described the military tactics employed and the features on the ground that helped or hindered them. Needless to say, I was able to gain a far clearer mental picture of what a civil war battle entailed than anywhere else I have visited.

After leaving Gettysburg I made the short drive to Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, where my second stop was The National Civil War Museum. This museum told the story of the civil war from both sides and provided the broader backdrop to the events I had learned about earlier but could not provide the same level of texture. In addition to the story of the war there were interesting exhibits on technologies first used in the war, e.g. using balloons for intelligence gathering and the first use of a submarine to sink a ship, the development of war photography and methods of transportation and other resources available to each side.

A general view of part of the Gettysburg battlefield. Without the expertise of Bob I would have had little conception of what actually occurred here.There are about 1700 monuments and memorials at historically significant locations on the battlefield. In the last 50 years many Confederate monuments have been added but the Park Service now has a moratorium on new monuments.  Shown below are North Carolina and Alabama.The largest monument recognizes all participants in the battle from Pennsylvania.There was no flash photography allowed at the National Civil War Museum so opportunities were limited. Many dioramas offered a vision of life at the time but this mural was the only display bright enough to be captured.