Day 33-Gettysburg

A relaxing day for us, our goal for today was to revisit the Gettysburg National Military Park.  We’ve been here five or six times before, but I never get tired of it and with every visit I feel I understand the battle and the conflict between the North and the South a little better.

Our campsite at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park.  This park is located about 20 miles north of Gettysburg and on the midpoint of the Appalachian Trail.

The area immediately north of Gettysburg, between our campground and the town, is apple country.  There are fruit trees in every direction as far as the eye can see. It's hard to imagine how they can pick all these fruits; there must be a huge migrant farm population.

We started our day at the Gettysburg Baking Company, our favorite place for coffee, baked goods, and sandwiches.  Their pecan sticky buns, my favorite,  are wonderful, but you really need a knife and fork to eat them. Their morning rolls, Joni’s favorite, are also outstanding.  We also picked up some sweet rolls for tomorrow morning since we’ll be heading north and not passing through Gettysburg in the morning.

Blanche & Stella at the Gettysburg Baking Co.

This is the Wills House where Lincoln stayed the night before he delivered the Gettysburg Address.  He wrote most of his speech here that night.

The Gettysburg Hotel, located in Lincoln Square, the center of city and  across the street from  both the Wills House and the Gettysburg Baking Co.

While I worked on our blog, Joni took off for some shopping…more stocking stuffers for our children and grandchildren.  Shopping and blogging finished, we resumed our battlefield auto tour. When we were about half-way through the tour, we stopped in a shady spot for lunch. We felt it would be disrespectful to set up our chairs and table for a picnic, so we remained in our while we ate, and then resumed the auto tour.  

Prior to the Gettysburg battle the South was winning the war.  Public sentiment in the North was turning against the war, and many were ready for a peaceful settlement that would allow the South to keep slavery.  Robert E. Lee felt that if he took the battle into Pennsylvania he could force the North to give up, but the end result of this battle was that the Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had to retreat back into Maryland.

As this map shows, the Southern forces attacked from the north 

The battlefield park is filled with memorials to both the Northern and Southern armies.  One of the first statues enountered on the auto tour is that of John Reynolds, the highest ranking officer on either side who was killed.  Equestrian statues that display a horse with one foot off the ground indicate that the soldier was killed in battle.

The Virginia Memorial is located along Seminary Ridge where Lee's forces were camped. On the third day of the battle Pickett's Charge started from this point attacking the Union troops who were located at the far end of this field.

This is the view that the Union troops had as the waited for Pickett's men. The stone wall, that stretches across the middle of this photo, provided great protection for the Union troops.  

"At 1:00 pm on July 3, approximately 150 Confederate cannon opened fire on Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill. Federal artillery responded. This thunderous bombardment, a prelude to the Confederate assault known as Pickett's Charge, lasted nearly two hours and was heard miles away. At 3:00 pm, Confederate General Robert E. Lee watched his battle line, nearly 12,000 Confederate infantrymen, step out across these open fields toward Union troops on Cemetery Ridge. Federal artillery and musketry pelted the advancing Southerners with lead and iron, killing and mangling hundreds, but they pressed forward into the storm of battle. A few hundred Confederates reached Cemetery Ridge, clashing in hand-to-hand combat. Within an hour it was over. Nearly half of the 12,000 had fallen. Pickett's Charge had failed".

Little Round Top:   "Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain dashed headlong into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War. The regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat."

We always enjoy watching the many school groups that were probably visiting the park for the first time.  It's fun to observe what kids are interested in the park and what kids are just interested in their peers.

Around 3 PM, we returned to the Visitor Center and went through the museum until it’s 5 PM closing time.  Since it was a little early for dinner, we drove out to President Eisenhower’s farm which is to the west of the town.

 

For dinner we returned to Food 101.  

 

Seared ahi tuna, grilled ciabatta, caper relish, shallot, carrot, mixed greens, tomato vinaigrette.

Caesar Salad:  Romaine, tuscan kale, asiago crisps, garlic croutons.