Gettysburg Part II

Eisenhower Tower:

At this point of the tour I was starting to wonder how much of Gettysburg I really remembered because a lot of stuff was unfamiliar. However, as soon as I caught sight of the Eisenhower Tower all my memories started flooding back. In August of 2001 the five of us Burns’ were in our conversion van listening to the auto tour on cassette. The Eisenhower Tower is right around the point where side 1 ends and we spent a good 10 minutes at the tower trying to find our way because no matter how many times we flipped the tape or rewound and fast forwarded every time we pressed play we heard “you are now approaching the Eisenhower Tower”. Us kids thought this was the funniest thing ever while my Dad got increasingly pissed off. I don’t know how we finally fixed it but it’s one of those childhood vacation memories I will always cherish.

Alabama Memorial:

It represents the Sprit of Alabama pointing the way forward, while the wounded soldier passing the cartridge box to his comrade represents determination to continue the struggle.

Little Round Top:

I really liked this spot because it had a good view of the battlefield. There were a couple statues and monuments and even a little tower you could climb up into. In the tower, we had managed to escape the bus loads of school children so I was trying to take a picture with both of us in it when Jess pulled this maneuver

I think the Union hat was getting to her at this point.

Trostle Farm:The striking feature about this was the barn that still bore its war wounds. Major General Sickles sat mounted on his horse near the Trostle Barn. As the battle raged, a 12 pound cannon ball screamed through the air and shattered the General's right leg, nearly tearing it completely off. Federal surgeons amputated the General's right leg just above the knee. His amputated leg, which the General insisted be saved, is now on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Years after the war, in December of 1894, then United States Congressman Daniel Sickles sponsored bill H.R. 8096. The signing of this bill into law a few months later in February of 1895 by President Grover Cleveland established the battle grounds as the Gettysburg National Park. So thank you Sickles for preserving Gettysburg!

Pennsylvania Memorial:

Since Gettysburg is in PA it makes sense that they have the biggest monument. More than 23,000 Pennsylvanians were at Gettysburg, over a fourth of the Army of the Potomac. Bronze statues of Pennsylvania generals George Meade, John Reynolds, Winfield Scott Hancock, David Birney, Alfred Pleasonton and David Gregg, Governor Andrew Curtin, and President Lincoln flank each of the arches. You can climb up in the memorial and get another view of the battlefield.

Our final stop of the day was at the National Cemetery. It was here that Abraham Lincoln delivered his most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address. In the cemetery the Soldiers National Monument was placed at the center, promoting the Union victory and the valor of the fallen soldiers; second, the graves were arranged in a series of semicircles around the monument, emphasizing the fundamental egalitarian nature of U.S. society, with all the graves considered equal. The original plan was to arrange the plots in essentially random order, but resistance from the states caused this to be modified and the graves are grouped by state, with two sections for unknowns and one section for the regular army.