Gettysburg
There was just so much information and I took about 500 photos at the battlefield this afternoon! Here are just a few:
(I feel really bad that I am the picture person…and can’t figure out how to rotate the sideways pictures! Mostly just being lazy…but you get what I am showing you - just tilt your head to the right and there you go!)
This is the main memorial on the North side of Gettysburg with the eternal flame, limestone from Alabama, the base from Maine and the ladies on front symoblize friendship.
This is our tour guide Michael showing us the fuse used to ignite the cannons used during this battle.
Again - tilt head to the right. Steve takes in the sights of the Valley of Death.
Tilt one more time…this is General Robert E Lee’s memorial from the state of Alabama.
These are renactors from Texas. They started marching from the memorial for the state of Texas and were trying to remarch the same path the members from the Texas regiment would have marched into battle. Our tour guide Mike said that renactors show up every day to trace the steps of the soldiers and since it is a federal park - you can march anywhere - much like they are.
This is a barn that stood during the battle. There is a house next door that the park rangers can stay in. The neat thing about this barn is the cannon hole in the top. You can see the whole on the front side in this photo. The cannon ball went clean through and at just the right angle you can see the light shine through the hole on the other side. I was not quick enough to catch this. There was another home in town that we went by that had holes in the bricks where shots hit it during battle.
Another interesting fact I did not know is that there was only one civilian causualty form the town of Gettysburg. Jeanne Wade was cooking busicuts for the troops in her kitchen when a stray bullet traveled through her door and into her back - killing her in her kitchen. She was only 20 years old and was to marry a military man who was killed in battle just a few months after her death - although he did not know of Jeanne’s fate.
There are too many interesting facts to write them all - but I will leave you with a few more pictures. This is Steve trying to capture a decent picture of his sons:
And I must be allergic to a weed here because this is a picture of my blotchy/itchy/swelled foot. I started to itch all over by the time we were finished with the tour. I did shower tonight which helped with the itching and took some benedryl as well. Feeling much better already.
We’ll have to just wait and see how I feel in the morning to be sure to report a clean bill of health! Thought for a moment there it could be poisony ivy or oak. That would have been awful!
Talk to you all again tomorrow as we head to Plymouth Rock - you know where that big rodeo happened with the Indians and the Cowboys! (What? is that not what happened? I am discovering my history knowledge is not the best - sorry Mr. Roland - high school history teacher).