We just got home from a 2 day trip to Gettysburg.  We only live a few hours away, but we wanted to have enough time to really explore things and not rush through so we stayed overnight.  We found an off season special for a cottage where we could cook too so that made things fairly affordable.

It was a great trip.  Gettysburg is a fascinating place, which I had never visited before.  We spent about 4 months last summer studying the Civil War and I had wanted to visit since then and we were finally able to pull the trip together.  Wednesday afternoon we arrived and spent several hours in the new visitor's center looking at the new museum on the civil war.  It is quite impressive with lots of video and interactive exhibits. 

Thursday we got over to the battlefield by 9AM and first hired a licensed guide for a 2 hour trip through the battlefield.  These guides are well worth their money as they are experts on the whole Gettysburg battle.  Our guide drove our car and led through the 3 days of battle there in that town.  We got our a few times with him but most was in the car, so after we left him off we drove back to the places that interested us most, Devil's Den and Little Round Top and explored to our heart's content. 

At this point the children were saturated with information, but I wasn't.  I wanted to hear a few ranger's talks that afternoon that were free.  So my dh kindly agreed to take the kids back to the cottage for a rest and I went to hear about the National Cemetary and then more of the battle, with a walking tour related to Pickett's Charge.  Both talks were really well done.  I was impressed with the young rangers that work there and their command of the subject matter and of their abilities to present the information. 

Then today after breakfast we cleaned up and moved out of our cottage and then spent an hour wandering around the town of GEttysburg itself, poking in various shops and spending no money.  Then we went back to Seminary Ridge to eat our lunch by the statue of General Longstreet.  While there we met a living history actor who kindly accomodated my dh's request to show us his musket and how to load it.  With that send off we left town and headed home again just in time to escape the Memorial Day weekend rush.

I felt quite satisfied that we did as much as was reasonable for 2 days and that we now have a good feel for the battle of Gettysburg.  It is such a tragic place though, and I felt a sense that I should be weeping my way through the battlefield, for the thousands of young men whose lives were lost there and for the impact that had upon our nation.   The whole civil war is so complicated and in so many ways I wonder if it really had to happen.  But of course that is a mute question now.  

It was just enough time for me.  I think I could go again but not anytime soon.  I can't handle too much immersion in this tragedy.  Now I need to come up for air in a less intense setting (although when I really look at the state of things around me I wonder if my world is any less intense.)..

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Posted by EEEEMommy

I remember visiting Gettysburg in High School and having that same feeling of thinking I should be weeping. Such a grave time in our nation's history.

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