Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-09-22 01:41:39 - Graham Ellis
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Famous in my mind from the phrase "The Gettysburg Address", but not somewhere I had stopped / visited in the past. But yesterday we had an hour or two to stop in the town, to have a look around.
It was at Gettysburg, as recently as early July 1863, that a bloody battle in the American Civil War was fought. And around - ALL around - are monuments and interpretation signs telling us of the battles in that area, of bravery - perhaps of foolhardiness - and of the death of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of men in this or that skirmish.
What a sad, thought provoking place. The weather yesterday was hot, the sun was shining, the tourists were brightly dressed and the tour buses were rolling. And the monuments are exquisite, beautifully made, well maintained but - what a sad place.
Abraham Lincoln arrived in town, by train, in November 1863 (just a few months after the battle) and made his speech - his address - too. The full text is on a big banner that runs all around the horseshoe of the Travel Lodge - we noticed it there as we drove out of town - and we wondered at how history has been almost trivialised by the tourism, the shops selling memorabilia, and where you can lunch on "confederate fries"
I know more that I did - but still I feel I know very little. I'm left wondering at the futility of war, especially civil war where brother fights brother. Of the enormous loss of life and ... for what? I really know not.
Further pictures, including some away from the battlefield, are here. And from later in the day, I also offer you some Potomac Crossing Pictures where we crossed from Maryland into Virginia.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Famous in my mind from the phrase "The Gettysburg Address", but not somewhere I had stopped / visited in the past. But yesterday we had an hour or two to stop in the town, to have a look around.
It was at Gettysburg, as recently as early July 1863, that a bloody battle in the American Civil War was fought. And around - ALL around - are monuments and interpretation signs telling us of the battles in that area, of bravery - perhaps of foolhardiness - and of the death of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of men in this or that skirmish.
Further pictures, including some away from the battlefield, are here. And from later in the day, I also offer you some Potomac Crossing Pictures where we crossed from Maryland into Virginia.