To walk the fields of Gettysburg...

...was an amazing, sobering experience. It is so beautiful yet for three days in1863 it was the sight of unbelievable violence. I spent about seven hours Tuesday on a driving tour of the battlefield. It was supposed to take 2 hours but I spent quite a bit of time out of the truck and walking around. Several things struck me throughout the day as just amazing. The first was how close the two sides lines were as they fought. At times literally just a couple of hundred yards apart yet still with cannon facing each other and blasting away. The other was how with even almost 150 years of growth on the trees and woodlines since the battle, the area is for the most part very open. The part of the day that impacted me the most was the site of Picketts charge. It is an open field barely one mile wide or long, across which 11 to 13 thousand Confederate soldiers attacked into a Union position on a ridgeline. 6 to 8 thousand of those soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in the space of a few hours leading Gen. Lee to retreat back to Virginia. Along the route of the tour you come to the Confederate positions from which they began the advance as well as later seeing it from the Union positions. On the southern side there is a walkway out into the field and walking along it and then standing out in the field you really get a sense of what courage it took to form up and march out into hell. There are monuments(over 1,000) all over the area which were erected by survivors who returned after the war, the different states etc. to commemerate the different units. They are standing as close as possible to the actual sites where the units were stationed. It gives an amazing perspective of how the lines were positioned and how the units moved against each other. The one picture I put up here shows a marker which says North Carolina on it and is standing about 10 yards in front of a stone wall with cannons facing it. This is the position that unit made it to crossing the field during Picketts charge. Those are Union cannons and still the men kept pushing forward till they reached that spot and the gunners literally blew them back. To be able to see things put in place like it is here really brings the history to life. After reading about Gettysburg to be here and stand on the ground it took place on was absolutely something I will remember the rest of my life. There are also still buildings standing at different places throughout the battlefield some of which still have battle damage. Check out the cannonball hole in the barn for example. The monuments to the northern units far outweigh the southern but there were a few to some of the southern states as well as one for Gen. Lee. I spent Wednesday going about two miles out of town to a site where the two armies cavalry units fought a battle on the third day of the engagement. It was a small area compared to the rest of the battlefield but no less impressive when you pictured 6,500 southern horsemen charging across a field at the Union troopers who countercharged and met them in the center of the field. All while both sides artillery was firing into the mix. Neither side won but it was first time in the war that the Confederate cavalry had not swept the field of the Union cavalry. After my trip out to that site I went back to the National Cemetery for another walk around and actually found two markers for soldiers killed with my last name. No idea if they are kin but it was still a neat (if thats the right word) thing to find. I am so glad I was able to come here and spend a few days and really explore the site. I have a new mental picture to go with such a historical event. ...I also got my bike back from the shop with a new rear wheel, new cranks and a new sprocket. Went riding when I got back to the campground then went swimming and layed in the sun for a while so it was a nice relaxing afternoon. I am leaving here Thursday morning, maybe afternoon, and heading north and east. No real destination for a few days just gonna wander a bit. Hope I conveyed some of how amazing Gettysburg is and how much I enjoyed it here. Thanks for everyone who's been following along on my trip and for the feedback in the comments. I love it. Till I get wherever it is I'm going take care, Jim... ...PS-If you click on the pictures they pop up full screen. Just figured this out myself the other day. Enjoy. Hey Scotty get back to work.