Gettysburg

From soybean fields to battlefields.

Today we took a short day so we could take a cultural detour. After a little over 8 miles of hiking, which included climbing over some boulders, getting stung by a yellow jacket (which I did not handle very gracefully, I must admit), temporarily losing the trail in the middle of a soybean field and wandering down railroad tracks to find it again, we finally walking into the town of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. The trail runs right through the center of town, which made for a very convenient pick up and lunch spot. After getting cleaned up, we headed to nearby Gettysburg. I am rather ashamed to say, as an American, that I have never been to Gettysburg. But then again, I've never been to the West Coast and I didn't make it to New York City until this year. Gettysburg is one of those things everyone should see in their lifetime, and since it was just down the street, it was an opportunity we couldn't miss. When we first got into town, it didn't look like much. It looked old, but that was about it. Then we got to the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Monuments Dotting the Battlefield

I was not prepared for the enormity that is the Gettysburg Battlefields. They encompass about 25 square miles. The audio tour of the park takes about 3 hours to complete, and it doesn't include the entire park. Hundreds of thousands of Civil War soldiers fought over three days on these fields, and for 50,000 of them, it was the last place they ever saw. The visual, historical and emotional power of the fields is completely and utterly overwhelming.

The Virginia Memorial at Gettysburg

After acquiring one of the self-guided audio car tours (the fields are far too big to explore on foot if you plan to see more than a tiny section of the park) and a couple of books on Civil War medicine (which mostly consisted of amputating whatever wasn't working properly), we only had a couple of hours to explore the battlefields before it got dark. We were able to have dinner at a 200 year old tavern (complete with a natural spring in the basement and a secret chamber for hiding runaway slaves), get some ice cream, and explore the town of Gettysburg a little more thoroughly on a guided "Ghost Tour." I'm not the superstitious type, but if any place in the country is likely to be haunted, it's probably the Gettysburg Battlefields. At any rate, the history and ghost stories from the guide were lots of fun to listen to.

Cannonball lodged inside one of the Gettysburg "haunted houses."

Even though it made for a long day, I was very glad we got to take this detour to Gettysburg. I only wish we had had more time there to really see what the park has to offer. I hope I get the chance to go back one day, finish that car tour, and properly say goodbye to the Rebel and Yankee ghosts I learned about.

Stone Soldier watching over the now peaceful fields.