Gettysburg

This last April, Don and I had the opportunity to visit Gettysburg.  We had been wanting to since we moved to the state of Pennsylvania.  There is so much history here, and it just seems there is never enough time for us to be able to get away, especially now that we have a kitty that has to have medication twice a day.  We have our challenges, but we make the best of what we can.  Anyway, we decided for a quick get away, especially before the gas got too expensive to drive around.   

We stayed the night at Gettysburg Seminary, which overlooks one of the battlefields.  We have the movie Gettysburg, and always in the beginning it shows Seminary Ridge where the seminary stands.  It was so exciting for me to see this.  I love history, especially the Civil War.  

That first day we visited the museum.  It was so impressive, it took most of all day to tour it.  We were pretty saturated with history by the time we finished our tour.   My main interest was to see where the 20th Maine fought their battle on Little Round Top. The reason for my interest is that my great-great-grandfather, Don Carlos Sinclair, fought in the Civil War.  Thank goodness not in Gettysburg.  He fought in Petersburg, in Virginia, another bloody battle that lasted almost a year.  He started out with the Maine 19th infantry before transferring to First Artillery while in Petersburg.  I was in awe walking some of the Civil War battlefields and seeing the ground the South had to cross.  The following are a collection of pictures, not all of them, just a smattering what there is.  All along both battlefields, North and South, are monuments put up by the regiments and states to honor the fallen. 

This farmhouse was used as a hospital.  There were so many thousands of men wounded, they had to find a place to treat them all, so the army took over many farmhouses and turned them into makeshift hospitals.  Gettysburg Seminary was also used as a hospital, that is until school started and they needed the seminary back to begin classes.