Gettysburg

We decided not to go back to the BG Festival for the second day. Mark had gotten pretty wet the evening before when he went back to the festival after dinner. He enjoyed hearing a couple of bands, but decided he didn’t want to sit in the wet and rain all day today. So, we ended up checking out of our hotel a day early and doing some touring of the Gettysburg battle field.

First we checked out General Lee’s Headquarters Museum.

Then we went to the Visitor’s Center and bought a tour guide to come in our van with us and give us a 2 hour 15 minute private tour of the battle field. (Dad, you would LOVE this!)

Here is our guide, Mr. John on top of Oak Hill at our first stop, right before it started raining. He was setting up the first day of the battle for us.

At our next stop, we checked out the 20 pound Parrot rifling cannons.

Here is Marty feeling the rifling inside the cannon. The rifling is grooves that causes the shot to spin and gets better distance and accuracy.

Here Marty and I were halfway up the tower when he decided he didn’t want to go any farther. Eddie, Mark, Charlie & Mr. John turned around at the next landing. It was high!

Instead of being interested in the men from Alabama, who had gotten up at 3 am and marched 17 miles by 11 am and then marched 3 more to get in battle position, Charlie was interested in this old stump.

Here is Mr. John with the kids (Eddie is in front of Mr. John) showing them where the Alabama men came up towards Little Round Top, where we are standing.

Here is Eddie telling Mr. John about the last time he was at Gettysburg.

Again, the rock wins out for Charlie’s attention when pitted against Pickett’s Charge.

Our last stop was the scene of Pickett’s Charge. I would recommend this tour to anyone! It was so interesting and personal. The big kids really ate it up. Mark & I liked it too. Charlie, well, not so much.