Hangin' with Abe

On Sunday morning, we drove down to Gettysburg. We turned off the freeway on Hanover Road and passed some activity in this field. We stopped to have a gander and discovered that a live re-enactment was to take place later in the day, so we said thank-you-very-much-we-will-be-back and carried on our way.

We drove to the Visitor Center, which was overrun with hordes of Boy Scouts, so we checked out the Park Ranger tour information and left, deciding that we would return the next day. We walked around the town a little bit and then went back to the re-enactment. 

Jeff and this Confederate wannabe had a great political conversation, complaining about Obama and his minions. And I got to hear the other side of the Civil War debate. Which reminded me that things are rarely simple and that there are often valid points on both sides of an argument.

The re-enactment of the skirmish was kind of lame.

Can I say that?

This was the site of a field hospital, so there were lots of very gory mannequins lying around, and piles of limbs and stuff.

And then they practised firing their muskets and everyone stood around and watched.

We decided to take the walking tour of the town.

We visited all 42 points of interest on the walking tour.

Yes, we did.

We said Hello to our friend, Mr. Lincoln.

And proceeded to walk.

And walk.

And walk.

Here are some photos of old houses, many of which stood during the battle of Gettysburg.

We learned about some of the individuals who lived in the town of Gettysburg at the time of the battle, such as Tillie Pierce, fifteen, who wrote an account of her experiences, and Jennie Wade, twenty years old, who was baking bread at her sister's house when she was hit by a bullet that penetrated two wooden doors before it killed her, making her the only confirmed civilian casualty of the battle.

Many of the houses and other buildings still bear the marks of battle.

Someone obviously has a sense of humour. 

Let's hope this sign at a closed gas station never becomes reality!

We stopped by the Gettysburg National Cemetery for a couple of ranger talks, because you know they are my favourite thing to do. The ranger gave an impassioned recital of the events leading up to Lincoln's speech at the cemetery, which was very enlightening for me, as I was fuzzy on the facts.

Imagine our surprise when the one soldier he told us about (to illustrate a typical soldier who died here) was an Osborne. No relation, that we know of. 

We went directly to a second talk across the parking lot, where we heard many more battle stories. We were even more surprised when one of the first people mentioned in the presentation was Thomas Osborne, Jeff's ancestor.

Cool.

I got very tired of battle stories and wandered around taking lots of photos, many of which illustrated the first post in this series, so I won't subject you to more.

We finished up the walking tour as it was getting dark, neatly avoiding solicitations to join a ghost tour. 

And I refused to talk about battlefields any more. 

Until tomorrow.