See It Before You Die: Gettysburg National Military Park, PA
The fate of the young country centered around a small town in Southern Pennsylvania for three days in July 1863 - what you can expect to experience and carry forward from this hallowed ground
I am a former military officer, so naturally, I am drawn to ancient fields that have decided the future of mankind. No place altered the trajectory of the American Civil War more than Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which bore witness to the carnage of July 1-3, 1863, a Union victory that ultimately ruined the Confederacy’s chances to win what was already an uphill effort.
My Dad took me to visit Gettysburg in Summer 2003, when I was 18 years old and about to embark upon my college years at Ole Miss. We tied the trip into ballpark visits in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, one of our favorite hobbies, and I’ve since been back to Gettysburg many times over the years.
Before you die, make sure to see:
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
Getting There
If you’re far from the East Coast, you’ll want to fly into Baltimore or Washington, D.C. Both are within two hours of Gettysburg, which is centrally located in Adams County along Pennsylvania’s border with Maryland. If you’re smart and you’ve avoided peak season without going at a time in the year in which you’ll freeze to death, you’ll find Gettysburg is easy to get around with a population just over 7,000.
My Experience(s)
Gettysburg was a “who’s who” of famous generals, including one who would make his legend there – Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Maine, who was the Colonel commanding the 20thRegiment of Maine Volunteer Infantry. You can read about his story on Little Round Top here, and how he practically saved the Union forces, commanded by General George G. Meade, on the second day of the battle. The battlefield sprawls throughout Gettysburg, in and out of crowded spaces and open fields.
Every nook of the battlefield echoes the violence of those three days in which an estimated 51,112 casualties were sustained, which disparately impacted the Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, who sought a victory on Union turf he hoped might bring about a negotiated end to the war. Lead is strewn throughout the place and continues to be unearthed more than a century and a half after the battle. I was too young to fully understand the gravity of Gettysburg when Dad took me there 21 years ago, but as I have come to appreciate history and understand military tactics, I’ve seen it in a different light each time. Why did the normally aggressive Lee, who believed God would grant victory to the Confederacy’s cause, neglect to take the high ground on the first day of the battle when even his normally defensive-minded second-in-command, General James Longstreet, insisted on it? What if Chamberlain didn’t seize that same opportunity to take the high ground that repelled the Rebel advance?
Those are the questions that cross my mind as a veteran, just like the bigger ones like, “what if the South won the war?”
I am critical of government, but one thing America’s does well is maintain the parks system. Gettysburg National Military Park is a marvel; its memorials are classy and tasteful, and the field otherwise looks almost exactly as it must have all those years ago, save for a bit of modern infrastructure used to facilitate visits.
In my many trips to Gettysburg, I’ve seen it all, including where General Reynolds was killed on July 1, where the heaviest, most gruesome fighting was in the Devil’s Den (pictured below), and the wide-open field where Pickett’s charge was doomed to fail, and did, on the final day of the battle.
Three Reasons You Must See It Before You Die