Pam at Gettysburg

On October 24, after spending a lovely two days in Lancaster, Pa., Pam and I drove to Washington, DC. Our journey took us through Gettysburg. So, of course, we had to stop.

The Civil War has commanded my interested since third grade, when I read my first war-related book: “Heroes in Blue and Gray.” It was a book written for kids–shiny cover, big text–at third grade level. And it was a new book at the time, published in 1965, the year I was in third grade.

Each chapter looked at a major battle of the Civil War, and those names carved a place in my mind: Antietam, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Bull Run…and, of course, Gettysburg.

Battle maps showed how the forces were arrayed, with a general’s name inside a rectangle; the larger the rectangle, the larger the force.

I studied those maps closely, fascinated by the clash of armies. And the names of those boxed generals, like the names of the battles, were burned into me–Longstreet, Jackson, Burnside, Ewell, Meade, McClellen, Hancock, Reynolds, Sherman, Hood, Thomas, Bragg, Early, Hill….

I’ve visited Gettysburg five or six times now. I attended grades 4-7 in Harrisburg, Pa., and in fifth grade (I think it was), we took a field trip to Gettysburg. Back then, we could crawl through the stone tunnels of Devil’s Den (and I apparently didn’t have claustrophobia), and we scampered over the big rocks on Little Round Top.

I went another time with my family, and I remember taking my grandparents another time. There may have been another visit or two during those years. Somewhere along the line, I bought a little metal souvenir cannon.

As an adult, I visited Gettysburg some years ago with Pam. Then, on October 24, Pam and I visited again.

A new visitor center had been built since my last visit, and it’s very nice, and very big. The tour begins with a short movie about the battle, and continues with the Cyclorama. The Cyclorama is simply spectacular–a huge, wrap-around mural of the battle. I remember seeing it in the previous visitor center, but it had been restored and enlarged, and displayed with excellence. I could have studied it for hours.

The museum itself seems to wander forever. I remembered a few items from my childhood years, like the two bullets that met in mid-air and fused together. And the stories of relatives who fought on opposite sides of the battle.

Soon after the battle, long before the war ended, efforts began to preserve the Gettysburg battlefield and make it a place people could visit. I’m sure it was all commercially driven, but that’s okay. Other battlefields, I imagine, are now covered by homes and factories and shopping centers. But at Gettysburg, you can walk the entire battlefield. You can roam around Little Round Top, walk the path of Pickett’s Charge, and still see canons positioned. It’s a great place, a national treasure. Truly, as Lincoln said, a place consecrated by the brave men, living and dead, who struggled there.