The lure of Gettysburg

          I’m not sure what it is that draws so many people to the Gettysburg National Military Park every year. The history of the place is enough for me, you understand, but there is probably more to it than that.

          Well, maybe.

          The National Parks Service does a tremendous job of keeping the place looking wonderful, so any visit is a treat for the eyes. The place is well mapped, so finding locations is reasonably easy. I have found that there is an easy camaraderie among park visitors, so you meet plenty of friendly people.

          The Visitors Center is a pleasurable experience in itself. For one thing, the air conditioning is very nice. The Rangers are friendly and knowledgeable, so they are helpful. The museum is terrific (there’s that history thing again) and the Cyclorama painting of the battle is unlike any painting you’ll ever see.

          You have to pay to see the Cyclorama, $12.50 I think. Worth the price.

          The town itself is very nice. A lot of the big name stores are there, so shopping is fairly easy. There are plenty of neat restaurants and there is an outlet mall. Mrs. Leeway and I like to eat at the Garry Owen Pub and at Hoss’s Steak and Sea House. Hoss’s is part of a large chain, Garry Owen is not.

We’ve always stayed at the same hotel when in Gettysburg so any reader here looking for a hotel might find a better deal than at the place we stay. You will need to plan far in advance if you want to stay in town during the early summer months, particularly in late June and early July.

Gettysburg College hosts summer sports camps, which helps load up the hotels, and the college hosts the Civil War Institute conference every year. Your loyal blogger is a regular at the CWI.

          All of the above being said, what is it that draws us to Gettysburg every year? Think about it: There are lots of nice towns and cities in southern Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, the state capitol, is a short distance away and Mechanicsburg, home of the legendary Williams Grove Speedway, is right up the road. When we go to Williams Grove, we stay in Gettysburg.

          So why Gettysburg? Why not visit someplace else in the area?

          Obviously, it’s the history.

          When I go to a battlefield, unless I am part of a CWI tour, I find the time to sit quietly and just listen. Nature is usually pretty loud at such places and, well, you can hear a lot of other stuff, too.

          Your loyal blogger was sitting on a rock at Little Round Top last week listening to the Park guys trimming whatever they were working on with their weed whackers a few hundred yards away, when a married couple came by. They were obviously looking for something. When they came by a second time, I asked what they were looking for. As best I can recall now, the conversation went something like this:

 

          Them: “Isn’t this Little Round Top?”

          YLB: “Yes it is.”

          Them: “Wasn’t Chamberlain here?”

          YLB: “Yes, but not right on this spot.”

(Blogger note: We were within a few yards of the statue of General Warren.)

Them: “I thought for sure there would be a monument for him and the 20^th Maine.”

YLB: “There is one.” (Gestures, gives directions to a sign on the other side of the roadway.)

Them: “Did you ever read ‘Killer Angels?’”

YLB: “Yes I did. I don’t normally read Civil War fiction, but I read that one.”

Them: “I read that book and now I have to see where Chamberlain was.”

 

You meet lots of people at Gettysburg and other Civil War battlefield parks, usually very nice people. You meet veterans of many, many visits and you meet first-timers.

We all come under the spell of the location and that goes back to the history. There is a feel you get along Cemetery Ridge and up on Culp’s Hill that is different from other places in the world.

If you ever get to Gettysburg, try walking from the Virginia Memorial to the spot where General Armistead was wounded. As you traverse that span of ground, look to your right and see Little Round Top in the distance. Turn left and look at the rooftops of the town. You’ll have a hard time spotting the Union line ahead of you until you get close, so look for the Copse of trees or the trees that mark the Bloody Angle.

If you don’t mind cheating, look for some of the taller monuments that dot the location of the Union line. Think about what those monuments mean.

Your loyal blogger once stood in the Sherfy Peach Orchard and asked out loud, “Exactly what the (heck) was Dan Sickles thinking?”

The battlefield at Gettysburg is a different place, for lots of reasons. Your loyal blogger highly recommends it.

Thanks for reading.