the education of henry

Day 17: Gettysburg and Antietam

2023-09-30

Today we got up and checked out of our Philly hotel and drove to Gettysburg. The drive was nice - almost no traffic on a Saturday morning. We also saw the sun for the first time in days, which was great.

Here's the sign.

Gettysburg was very different than I expected. The visitor center was nice, but it was odd to have to buy a ticket for the movie, and then for the cyclorama, and then for the museum. The movie was well done, but nothing yet compares to the Minuteman video. The cyclorama was confusing - it was hard to tell what was going on with all the sound effects and the dim lighting.

Dad snuck this picture. The painting is 42 feet high and 377 feet long. It's impressive. There is also a diorama around the base of the viewing stand that is very detailed.

A museum exhibit about the uniforms - Billy Yank.

Johnny Reb.

The best looking cannon we've seen the whole trip.

This was my favorite exhibit - an interactive map that will tell you where every unit was any time during the three-day battle, and give you the numbers for dead, wounded, missing, and captured. Very useful.

Not easy to see, but the museum has some examples of Lincoln's handwriting.

The first of many statues today.

We then left to tour the battlefields. Gettysburg is BIG. We could not see everything, it was too overwhelming. We decided to look for things relating to the 1st Minnesota, who were the first volunteer troops for the Union.

We went to the cemetery first and found where they are buried.

We found where the 1st Minnesota men were buried. They suffered heavy casualties at Gettysburg, and helped repel Longstreet and Anderson from Cemetery Ridge.

A monument for the 1st Minnesota placed by survivors of the battle.

The memorial for Lincoln's speech, which is oddy not where he gave it.

The landscape of Gettysburg.

Here's the big monument.

Pennsylvania has the biggest monument.

We even climbed up the monument to get a better look.

The view.

Then off to Maryland! And we stumbled on Catoctin Mountain Park, which was beautiful. We weren't able to stop because all the lots were full, but we did drive through.

Another state!

In the park.

After a short drive we arrived at Antietam.

The visitiors center is brand new and very nice.

The Dunker Church.

The Observation Tower.

A view from the tower.

Asking questions.

The tower overlooks Sunken Road (between the fences), which later becomes Bloody Lane. Antietam was one of the deadliest battles in American history.

Me with the monument to the Irish Brigade, who were the ones to break the Confederate lines on Sunken Road.

Sure is pretty around here.

Burnside's Bridge.

These plaques were all over the place. We learned that each one is based on eyewitness testimony from a soldier who was at the battle.

The bridge with a giant sycamore tree that was there before the Civil War was fought.

From that beautiful spot, things took a turn for the worse. Dad took a wrong turn and we made a big loop through some narrow hilly roads to get back to where we had started after a half hour of driving. When we got to the hotel, they put us in a room we couldn't use, so we had to get them to switch it. The hotel had a restaurant, but they were full with a party, so that was not a possibility for supper. We ended up with a light supper in the room and then we walked to the neighboring ice cream place...and it was empty. The guy on duty was gone for a good ten minutes. Then he had trouble running his register...it was all pretty laughable once the frustration wore off. Our room is okay, not the worst we've stayed in, but close. It does have the nicest TV, though.

We made it through our little bit of adversity and rested up to continue the American History Tour tomorrow! Take care!