Gettysburg

Cannon at Gettysburg

National Cemetery at Gettysburg.

During our return trip from Georgia we stopped in Gettysburg to tour the battlegrounds on a bright sunny autumn day.  This was much more enjoyable than the only other time I had been to Gettysburg when the weather was wet and dreary in the middle of summer.  The only downside to this particular visit in comparison to the last was the size of the crowds.   As one would expect, a warm autumn weekend day with bright sun and fall colors brings a lot of visitors to the famous battlefield.  I like pictures from the vantage point of the artillery that

NY State Monument @ Gettysburg

implies something is being pointed at.  I chose this picture from the many I took because I like the fall colors still on the trees, the ground covered in downed leaves, and the fence along which the cannon is pointing.  The viewer is left with wondering just what might be along that fence line off the right side of the frame.

There are many cannons and monuments in Gettysburg and picking a shot to represent our brief 4 hour visit was not easy.  I've included several other shots here and have also posted these and a bunch more on flickr if you are interested.  One thing my friend, Fred, pointed out in a comment on last weeks' blog is that flickr provides a map view and because I've geotagged these pictures you can see exactly where they were taken when viewed through the map view on flickr.

Monument of General James Longstreet and his horse, Hero.

One monument shot that contended for top honors this week was this shot of the monument of General James Longstreet on his horse, Hero.  The shot was taken in tight to remove the distractions of modern day (cars, roads, etc.).  The detail in the statue and the bright colors of autumn make for an interesting shot and I had pretty much a coin toss between this and the lone cannon as my favorite from the visit.

Row of Cannons

Although we took a self guided tour of the historic site, there were several opportunities to eavesdrop on the talks and descriptions being given by the tour guides for those on guided tours.  The individuals giving these overviews, whether paid or volunteer, were excellent, knowledgable and quite entertaining.  We learned just how early in the battle the Patrick O'Rorke met his end and saw the monument erected in his honor at the place where he met his end.  If you turn around 180 degrees from the monument you see the wide view of the battlefield below.

View from Little Round Top where Patrick O'Rorke met his end.

The view we had from this vantage point on the day of our visit, I'm sure,  was more serene and beautiful than what Col. O'Rorke and his men saw on July 2, 1863.

Another part of the battlefield we wanted to make sure we saw before heading home was Little Round Top where Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine valiantly defended the high ground.  On our first visit on that rainy day in August of 2005 our then 11 year old son Doug picked up the book, "Heart of a Lion: A Biography of General Joshua L. Chamberlain", and was enthralled by it.

Monument for the 20th Maine.

Being a native of Maine, I am also intrigued by the story of this war hero and the brave men under his command.  We found the hill that they defended and the monuments scattered around including the one erected in honor of the 20th Maine.  What was interesting to me was the size of the region being defended by Chamberlain and his men.  It was a lot smaller than I had expected and the value of this relatively small plot of land during the battle must have been due to the views it provided of the battlefields below.

General Meade overlooks the field where Pickett's charge would come from.

Virginia Monument with Robert E. Lee atop Traveller