Little Round Top and the position of the Twentieth Maine is one of my favorite locations (I am big Chamberlain fan).
Seminary Ridge is very interesting - see what the men of Pickett's charge were expected to do.
Posted on 04/14/2005 6:31:24 AM PDT by John Robertson
I don't care for Western (or nose-to-tail trail riding) but I sure could put up with it for a couple of hours in order to see the battlefield.
(We're those naughty folks who always hang back so they have to canter to catch up.)
It's just too far from Atlanta to trailer my own horse. Chickamauga is an easy day trip.
do not attack the center of the line if the round tops are still in yankee hands or if lee refuses to use the calvary to turn the yankee flank.
Last year I toured on horseback and it was great! I think they are changing the route of the trail to help control erosion that is occuring on the old one. The guides ask that you stay on the trail and not deviate off into the underbrush. That's probably a good idea anyway what with brambles, ticks and low branches.
You have to get the Boy Scouts out and stake logs across the trail at intervals, and use herringbone logs to drain any low spots.
Yeah, there were a couple of places that were in pretty bad shape where we had to go around. I'm not sure that the ACLU wouldn't try to sue the National Park Service if they employed the Boy Scouts...unless it was an entirely gay troop of Boy Scouts. Aside from a little trail decoration I don't think you would get a lick of work out of them.
I can tell you where NOT to eat. I had breakfast once at the Lincoln Diner just north of the center of town. The prices were exhorbent and the food sucked.
Ping
Little Round Top and the position of the Twentieth Maine is one of my favorite locations (I am big Chamberlain fan).
Seminary Ridge is very interesting - see what the men of Pickett's charge were expected to do.
Very nice place. At dinner reservations are absolutely essential, though.
The Battlefield is a must-see. We enjoyed the tape tour in our car because we could spend as much or as little time at each site as we wanted to spend. The 11-year-old will probably like the ghost walk at night, if it isn't too chilly.
http://www.farnsworthhouseinn.com/
The Farnsworth House
If you aren't a history buff I'd recommend watching the movie first, which would give you a good introduction to the battle. Visiting is a moving experience. The leaders, drama, sacrifices, tactical decisions, luck and results make Gettysburg a fascinating study, one of the defining moments in American history.
My son and I took the audio tour last year. Amazingly both our camera batteries died at exactly the same time -- at Little Round Top.
I've been there, but it was a very long time ago. Or so it seemed to me! When we were living on the East Coast(Maryland), we went to see it on vacation. The most I can remember of Gettysburg(I was 10 or 11 then, now I'm 49), I remember walking around a large statue, or memorial and seeing many graves around it in a large circle.
There may have been more, but I don't remember those. I don't even remember if they had all the displays/tours they have now. Besides that memorial part, I do remember the visitors center. Maybe it was an older one, because I believe they may have replaced it with a larger, more modern one.
I remember reading something, about a young woman being killed there, by the name of Jennie Wade, (I think!). She was engaged to a soldier fighting around there. Anyway, as the story went, she was apparently in this house, where there had been fighting going on around the house.
She was taking some bread out of/or putting it in, the oven in the kitchen, and a bullet sort of ricocheted(sp?)outside, and came into the window, and hit her, killing her. I remember thinking how so very sad it was! But these places we visited were all I remember, besides reading about that poor girl!
Anyway, being familiar with the battle before venturing to various parts of the battlefield is an absolute MUST. Otherwise, it'll just look like hundreds of randomly scattered monuments.
Just got back from our two-day weekend in Gettysburg, and it was wonderful--all the more so for all the help and guidance provided by the FR community. Thanks to all!
I wish I had seen this thread before I went for the first time this weekend. I just got back an hour or so ago. Absolutely fantastic place! Lots of adventures, and I ran into some reenactors on Cemetery Ridge and got some great photos.
Dude, you can turn to Freepers for anything!
Knowing our time there was precious, I turned to FR for tips and guidance. Got us the right breakfast in the right place. Then, bought the 2-CD auto tour (you play it in your CD player), and did that, all across the battlefields, and seeing everything from days 1, 2 and 3. Considering how short our time was, I feel we used it the best way possible. Can't wait to go back.
By the way, wasn't the village, around the square, one of the nicest little towns you've ever seen?
The last time I was at Gettysburg was in 1976...my mom and dad, my husband and myself, and our two small boys, all went back east from Chicago, to honor the BiCentennial...went to Jamestown, Yorktown, Monticello, Ash Lawn, Williamsburg, and of course Gettysburg...
Now we went in the month of May and we were camping in tents(we love camping, hate motels)...being that it was May, the full swing of summer tourists had not yet thronged in, and the campground had only a few campers, so it was really rather quiet...
During the nite, my hubby woke up and nature called, he went to the bathroom...I heard him stirring, and saw him leave...I fell back asleep...the next thing I know, my husband is screaming and telling me to wake up....he said he heard canons going off, and heard men screaming...well, I woke up and heard nothing...but my husband swears, after he came back from the bathroom, got back into his sleeping bag, and was dozing off, all of a sudden he heard all these sounds of battle...canons, gunfire, men screaming...he was really so very upset, and swore, he was awake, not asleep when he heard this...
The next morning my dad asked him to relate what he had heard...he told us, and he was just shaking...my dad just raised one eyebrow, and told my hubby, "You are not the first person to report such things, and you will not be the last"....
Now my hubby is retired military, and afraid of next to nothing....hes a solid down to earth guy, as is my dad, who went through WW11 carrying supplies and picking up the wounded in the Phillipines, Burma, and India...neither one of these men would make up such a thing...
Take this story for what it is worth...Beware the ghosts of Gettysburg....have fun, enjoy the experience, and happy touristing...
I have also encountered the ghosts at Gettysburg, but not in the same way your husband did. At certain places on the battlefield, I have actually smelled an overpowering scent of blood. The first time it happened, I almost fainted, it hit me so hard.
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