The Gettysburg Heritage Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Eric and I brought our children, Adam and Diane to Gettysburg about 20 years ago.  We rode bikes and went to Ranger led programs at the Gettysburg Battlefield, but we never got into town.

This visit will be different....






Our fist stop is the
Gettysburg Heritage
Center.

The Gettysburg Heritage

Center provides visitors

with 3D Glasses.

Some of the displays were

made to be viewed with

3D Glasses.

Looking through just the blue

lens, the image on the display

becomes a lot clearer.

Enough 3D Glasses stuff....

Why did Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia march north into Pennsylvania?  Lee and his Army won the battles at Fredericksburg in December, 1862 and Chancellorsville in early May, 1863.  One could say that Lee was "on a roll" and was confident about a decisive win in Pennsylvania.

Virginia needed a rest.  Many of the battles of the Civil War took place in Virginia.  The Confederate and Union Armies foraged across the state, taking crops, farm animals.  The farmers of Virginia needed time to plant and harvest a crop, or two, before the war returned to that ravaged Confederate State.

General Lee needed to equip his Army.  His men needed everything from salt to horses, mules and clothing.  Untouched by war, Maryland and Pennsylvania were rich with everything Lee needed to re-provision his Army.

So, why was the battle

fought at Gettysburg?

Ten roads led into Gettysburg, the seat of Adams County, facilitating the movement of troops. Armies would be traveling along these well traveled routes.

General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia left Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, using the Shenandoah Mountains to shield their movement from Union troops. The Southern Army's movement was detected and General George G. Meade, newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, rushed troops northward to meet the Confederates.  Among his orders from President Lincoln were to defeat Lee and his Army.  

General Lee finds out that Union troops are marching north to meet him and his Army.  He decides to gather the men at Gettysburg.

Union Major General Buford and 3,000 Cavalrymen rode into Gettysburg on June 30, 1863, looking for the enemy.  While scouts were moving through the area, looking for Lee's Army, Buford surveyed the ground and decided to place troops in an arc west of the town.  The battle started on July 1, when Lee's approaching Army met men General Buford's men.

Sixty-nine year old Gettysburg

resident, John L. Burns, hears 

the fighting on July 1.

He grabs a musket & joins the 

fighting west of town.

Burns volunteers with the 

155th Pennsylvania

Wounded, Burns was captured by Confederate soldiers and then released.

As Generals Meade and Lee rush troops to Gettysburg, the Confederates have Union troops on the run through the streets of Gettysburg.  Houses are riddled with bullets and cannon balls.  Union soldiers were wounded, killed and captured as they tried to find their way south through town.

Union troops rally at Culp's Hill, south of Gettysburg and would extend their battle line for three miles as more Union  troops arrived.

The North's troops numbers grew to 93,921.  Combined Confederate troops numbered 71,699.

Encampments sprang up

around Gettysburg.

A short, informational film

is set up in a mock up of an

encampment tent.

The Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia will battle for two more days.

Jennie Wade is killed by a

stray bullet while baking

bread at her sister's

house on July 3.

She is the only civilian of

Gettysburg killed outright

during the battle.

During the three day battle, local farms were turned into killing fields.  Houses and barns were shot up; crops trampled; fences dismantled and carried away for firewood; farm animals ran off or were taken by soldiers for food.

Heavy fighting around the

Trostle Farm on July 2 ended

with dead & wounded soldiers,

horses & mules.

The scene was so horrendous that photographer, Alexander Gardner & his crew photographed the scene.

More than 44,000 Union and Confederate soldiers have been wounded, were missing or have been captured.  When the battle ended, General Lee's Army took as many wounded with them as they could and began their retreat south to Virginia.

The wounded were moved off the battlefield as quickly as possible.

They were tended to in

every home, church &

public building in

Gettysburg.

Surgical conditions and procedures were crude.  Many of the wounded lost limbs.  Doctors and those tending to the soldiers didn't wash their hands or the medical tools they used between patients, spreading infections that some soldiers would die from.

Over seven thousand soldiers died at Gettysburg.  Concerns about the spread disease led to quick burials in shallow graves.  Some of the graves were marked with pieces of wood, written on in pencil.

Gettysburg was bullet riddled and torn up from the battle.  Insects swarmed the bloated animal carcasses.  The acrid smoke of burning animals hung in the air.

The soldiers who fought and died at Gettysburg deserved better than anonymous graves scattered around a town that was unknown to them.

The Gettysburg National Cemetery

 was established to provide a 

dignified final resting place

 for Union soldiers who had

 died in the battle.

Shallow graves were opened and very attempt was made to identify each body before reburial on land adjacent to Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery.  

Fifteen thousand people came to Gettysburg for the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863.  Former Secretary of State, Edward Everett, spoke for two hours, recounting, from memory, the many details of the three day battle.  

President Abraham Lincoln rose to address the crowd.  He spoke for two minutes.  The President's speech on this solemn occasion numbered 272 words.  Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation....  He spoke of the ideals that are at the heart of the founding of America.  The sacrifices made on the battlefield in and around Gettysburg had consecrated this land.  Lastly, Lincoln shared his vision of a new nation, one united in the belief and practice that all men are created equal.

Confederate dead wearing grey or butternut colored clothing were left where they were found.  In 1871, efforts were made to disinter these men and have their bodies shipped south for reburial.