One Day In Gettysburg

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author, and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to discover this in our hotel backyard. Yes, we had been sleeping in a graveyard. It's a good thing we had arrived too late the night before to notice this, or some of us may not have slept very peacefully. When I questioned the guy at the hotel desk, he said, "Yeah, there isn't a whole lot of available land here in Gettysburg so they had to build the hotel where they could." I thought to myself, "Is Gettysburg just one big cemetery?" 

How does one truly take in such a massive national monument in one day? Well, you don't. We learned that. But we at least tried to do so this day. First stop, the visitors center. I had read a book about Gettysburg during our flight and had tried to get Neil up to snuff on all of the important generals and details of the battle but the visitors center solidified everything. Sabrina is obsessed with the battle of Gettysburg thanks to an amazing CE History teacher so she already knew all the ins and outs of the Gettysburg Hook and already had all of her favorite generals, so she was stoked. The kids attempted to spend all of their souvenir money at this one stop. That hat Sabrina is wearing was not cheap, but she is a hat girl and was determined to buy a high quality Union soldier hat. And we had to get a photo with Mr. Lincoln. He is, after all, our favorite president.

I photographed an alarming number of cannons. They were everywhere. There was something about that simple piece of machinery juxtaposed against such gorgeous countryside that I found beautiful and poignant.

We went ahead and bought the CDs necessary for the auto tour. I was hesitant that this might be a waste of money, but the narration was so well done. Worth every penny.

"If it is the whole federal force, we must fight a battle here." 

-Robert E. Lee

Neither Lee nor Meade had any interest in Gettysburg. A series of events just brought the two armies together in this area. 

"...this fight was not waged for possession of a town...it was actually fought for possession of control over the future of America." -Bruce Catton

A sad irony lingered in my mind the whole time I was here. How could so much carnage have taken place in such a pristine peaceful place? I tried to imagine this countryside covered in bodies and smothered in gun smoke. I couldn't picture it. My mind could not fathom it.

All heroes are memorialized at Gettysburg. Sallie was given as a puppy to the 11th Pennsylvania. She would take position at the end of the firing line and bark furiously at the enemy. The men returned to the scene of the first day's fighting and found Sallie, weak but alive, maintaining vigil over the dead and dying. Someone had left some doggie treats next to her monument. 

This Lutheran seminary acted as a lookout the first day of battle.

Did I mention that Sabrina is fascinated by Gettysburg? She is also in love with sculpture. With its over 1500 statues, the girl was in heaven. Once again, the monuments of stone, bronze, and iron set against these rolling hills was breathtakingly beautiful. You can't go to this place without coming away changed.

This little Union soldier was only functioning because of the Mucinex and Tylenol we were pumping him with. He forgot how sick he was after buying his toy gun. He spent the rest of the day in stealth mode fighting the invisible enemy.

"In a way the story of Gettysburg is the story of the country roads that come to the place...The nation gained unity and an immortal legend because the soldiers followed these roads..." -Bruce Catton

We were running out of time but Sabrina insisted that we see Little Round Top and the Devil's Den. The Confederate troops came dangerously close to taking this high ground at Little Round Top. If it were not for Chamberlain and Warren taking and defending this hill, the outcome of this battle, and thus the war, may have been different. 

Again, impossible to imagine what it would have been like to look down from this hill to see armies upon armies at battle.

Devil's Den. A place that had harbored dozens of fallen soldiers, but this warm afternoon, my children scampered about the rocks. That so many men gave their lives that my children may enjoy such a privileged and carefree life is sobering.

As the sun crept beneath the horizon, we found ourselves at the very cemetery our hotel sat at the base of. A man stood in the distance playing Amazing Grace on his recorder. It's an experience every person should have.

This union soldier boy's medicine had worn off. We had dragged him from monument, to hilltop, to grassy meadow, and now he was officially done. He lay here dying among the already dead. "Just leave me here, Mom. This is a nice quiet spot. I'll go not one step further."

As we drove to our home in DC, we sat in sober silence and finished listening to the narration. The words that Lincoln uttered in this very spot came to mind:

"that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."-Abraham Lincoln June 1, 1865