Tuesday, Oct. 20, we left the campground and arrived at Gettysburg Artillary Ridge Campground that afternoon and got settled in.
Wednesday, Oct. 21, we left about 9:00 to go to the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center and Museum. We watched the film, A New Birth of Freedom, narrated by Morgan Freeman and sponsered by The History Channel. It lasted about an hour and was very interesting. We then viewed the Cyclorama, an oil painting measuring 42 feet tall by 377 feet in circumference. It was completed by Paul Philippoteau, a french painter, in 1884. He spent months researching the battlefield with veterans, a battlefield guide, and a photographer. It took more than a year to complete the painting. It is set up complete with sounds and light action to look and sound like you are in the battle.
We then visited the Museum. This is an amazing Museum and we could have spent all afternoon in it. As it was, we spent about 3 hours viewing the artifacts, history, and the full timeline of the battle from both sides.
No. 7 is Little Round Top, the part of the battle my
great grandfather, James Harvey Long fought in.
My great grandfather was a member of the 15th Alabama Infantry.
It is marked in red on the right side of the below map.
We finally left the Museum and drove through the battlefield. We started at West Confederate Avenue and around to South Confederate Avenue and Big Round Top, then up to Little Round Top.
On Little Round Top looking down.
It was a terrible war and took so many lives. A total of 69,000 were killed in battle from both sides. Another 220,000 died from disease, accidents and other causes. Statistics can be misleading as there were 197,000 wounded, but tens of thousands of these returned to battle to be wounded again, or killed in battle, or they died of disease. I know my great grandfather was wounded at three different battles and went back to fight again each time.
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