Day 154 Gettysburg National Military Park

We visited Gettysburg National Military Park this afternoon after a nice drive along the Merritt Parkway, a beautiful scenic byway that goes well outside NYC, in Conneticutt and then into New Jersey, New York, and then through the majestic mountains in Pennsylvannia, and finally (400 miles later) onto Route 15 and a left into picturesque Gettysburg. It was a beautiful, sunny, hot Spring day and after a quick lunch at a rest area, we entered the Visitors Center, waited ten minutes to watch a good movie about the Civil War and the battle narrated by Morgan Freeman. Sophie seemed to enjoy already knowing so much about the war and battle.

After the movie (a nice stadium theater) we went up a long escalator--Lily remarked it was like a ride!--and into a very cool room that housed a Cyclorama of the Battle at Gettysburg. This is hard to describe--I'm going to have Sophie try to describe it in her blog--but you stand on a platform and there is a large circular room around you that is painted quite vividly of various scenes of the battle. The painting itself is impressive but the painting moves into a three-dimensional model of the battle, and the resulting effect is powerful when they add lights, sounds, and narration. It feels like the battle is happening all around you.

Here's a link to check it out: http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/13

Then we went through the museum, which was very good, with many chronological exhibits that tell the story of the Civil War and most particularly the battle at Gettysburg. Each exhibit had a short video production and many artifacts and stories. Lily ran around and climbed but in general behaved well. Sophie liked it and we spend about an hour going through the 12 exhibits and watching the movies.

I walked out of the museum thinking about--for the first time--about the towns, people, land, and mess--left behind after a battle like Gettysburg. Sophie and I talked about it when we left the museum. I had never considered how terrible it would be to return to your farm or home after a three day battle that took the lives of over 50,000 Americans and having to clean up the bodies of men and horses and repair the damage to the structures and fields of all those cannon and guns.
The Union Army and Grant left Gettysburg basically the morning after the battle and chased after a retreating Lee and Confederate Army. It was the town and people of Gettysburg that sacrificed their homes and land and then was left to recover, rebuild, and forget. There was one story about a family who just ended up walking away from their home because they could not get the stench of the battle out of the house and land.

So I suppose the museum did its job--it told me the story about the battle not only from the historic and military perspective, but also from the point of view of the town that was forever changed by the monumental battle.

Sophie's Blog:
Yesterday we went to the inside parts of Gettysburg. First we went to the so a 25 minute movie narrated by Morgan Freeman mostly about the Civil War but mostly about Gettysburg. It was a very good movie.

Then we went to a cylorama with a big picture on the wall and then on the floor, they continued the picture in 3D and it as very interesting.
    Then we went to a museum with real uniforms and cannon balls from the Civil War. The was great too. I can't wait for today.