Gettysburg National Military Park

Fourth of July is America's Independence Day. It was on this date in 1776, that the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, effectively cutting the colonies’ ties to Great Britain. Last year, we visited Valley Forge National Park which is well-known as the place where George Washington and his army struggled through the bitterly cold winter in 1777-1778 during the America Revolution. This year, we decided to go to Gettysburg National Military Park which is an important landmark for the American Civil War. It is about two hours drive from our place.
I'm sure those of you who know mommy well must know that it was definitely not mommy's idea to visit the park. Yes, it was Daddy who has always wanted to visit the park. Mommy finally acceded to his request yesterday since we decided to do something that is of significance to fourth of July. Anyway, it turned to be very educational trip for mommy and Sheri. In order not to miss out the details, I shall leave to my guest contributor (daddy) who is very well-versed in American history to illustrate the significance of some of the pictures that we took at the park.

The battle of Gettysburg occured from July 1st to July 3rd 1863. Although unplanned, it marked the beginning of the end for the Southern cause. The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E Lee suffered irreplaceable losses and he had to give up his invasion of the North and retreat back to Virginia. From then on, the South was on the defensive and teethered towards inevitable defeat.

First, we visited the museum in the visitor centre.


Sheri was enchanted to the flowers that we saw along the pavement when we walked out of the visitor centre.


The park is huge. We had to drive along the designated the path to visit the various places of interest. Even though it was a very cloudy day and there were occasional thunderstorms, we still went ahead to visit the important landmarks in the park.

Little Roundtop was the place where we saw the location of the towers that were built in the battles.

Spectacular view of the battlefield from the Little Roundtop.

Sheri: I salute those who sacrificed their lives in the civil war.

Monument to the 20th Maine at Little Round Top. It is here, the 20th Maine under Col Joshua L Chamberlain held the line under repeated Southern attacks, with the climax being a bayonet counter charge at the end. Considering that Chamberlain was a professor of rheotoric at Boudoin College, Maine before the war started, he is the embodiment of the citizen soldier indeed. As a result of the failure to take Little Round Top, General Lee ordered Pickett's charge, which ended in carnage for his troops. Thus it is probably not an understatement that Chamberlain's heroic defense of Little Round Top won the Battle of Gettysburg and maybe even the war.

Sheri loves to sit on the cannon. There were lots of cannon in the park and she never failed to attempt to sit on every one of them.

These were some of the exhibits that we saw at the park.

We were at Cemetry Ridge, near the high water mark of the South. Behind Sheri is the Southern lines where General Pickett's 15,000 men made the charge from.

This was where the North held the line during Pickett's charge. Daddy was pretty amazed to find the exact spot where General Lou Armistead fell (left picture). It was recorded that he skewered his hat to his sword to urge his men on. Such is the heroism and folly of war. The center picture shows the Pennsylvania monument, which is the largest memorial at the park. The last picture was the statue of General Meade. Given the popularity of General Lee, his contributions at Gettysburg were probably underrated.

Fireworks has always been the traditional way of celebrating fourth of July. Happy Fourth of July!