Gettysburg 2008 - Battle of Gettysburg - Civil War Talk - Civil War Interactive Discussion Board

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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 02:30 am

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Bama46
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ladies and Gentlemen,

I just returned last night from my annual battlefield trip....13.5 hours in an SUV from gettysburg to Central Il.

We spent the majority of our time visiting Culps hill, the East Calvary Field and the Devil's Kitchen... our guide, a retired plastic surgeon, said that we were 1 of about 1,000 visitors that want to see these sights and have them interpreted for us...he was a gem!... we also sought out and found without the help of a guide the rock that Gen Brooke carved an "X" on after being wounded.. it is on the edge of the wheat feild (well, off the edge in the woods)

At Antietam we were treated to a tornado... no damage to the park, but a sycamore was dropped onto the path leading to Burnside bridge...no not THAT sycamore.. what a storm.. we waited it out with plenty of Yengling beer at the bar/resturant in Sharpsburg..

We also went to harpers Ferry and Charles Town and had a wonderful tour of the courthouse by a bailiff, followed by a visit to the hanging site. We had been there before and the owner's son took us on a tour of the grounds this time as the owner is in Florida. The home is for sale ...home on the grounds of the hanging site . (John Brown)

good Cigars,Good Bourbon, Good friends ( we all met as college freshmen 44 years ago and consider ourselves a family)... see what you have in store RTD and DG... the very best is yet to come!..

Next year we will go to my hometown and thence to Shiloh and then Vicksburg!

What a trip

Ed

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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 04:39 am

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This has been going on for about 6 years or so and needs to be done..
One interesting thing that came out of our trip was a statement by our guide that LRT was not that important int he overall schemne of things... if the Confederates had been able to take it, they could not have held it given that about 6000 reserves were just north of LRT, and if they could have kept it, it would have been of little value to them.
When you go to LRT with that perspective, you see what he is talking about. There is no room for cannon to be trained northwards, ther is no way the Confederates could have hit Cemetery hill, and they could not have depressed fire enough to protect the hill from efforts to retake it from the norht. I now believe that perspective is correct and the reading of Adelman's book " The Myth of LRT" confirms it for me.. I now believe the imortance of LRT has been formulated ove the years for self serving reasons

Ed

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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 07:16 pm

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It was and is..
with Culps hill, the confederates could shut down the Baltimore Pike, the only evacuation route of the AoP. Meade said that the loss of Culps hill would mean an immediate federal withdrawal from the field

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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 11:09 pm

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Doc

Thanks for the "expert" take on my views...given to me by our guide. His first name is John, I did not understand his last name due to my hearing loss. He is a very nice fellow, slight of build with a gray beard. He is a retired plastic surgeon.

I think lots of folks have blown up the importance of LRT over the years and Adelman does a good job of setting the record straight in his book "The Myth of Little Round Top"

Ed

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Posted: Mon Jun 9th, 2008 08:27 pm

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Tom,

I believe you are right..the NC reference sort of rings a bell with me.. I am so dam*ed deaf that proper nouns are almost always beyond my comprehension unless I can see the name spelled out somewhere. He was quite knowledgable, yet quick to admit that his knowledge was somewhat rusty around the East Calvary Field as so few visitors request that as a stop. He went on to say that the vast majority of the visitors' knowledge of the battle comes from The Killer Angels, or Gettysburg...same thing... and anyone who has read the book will realize that it focuses almost exclusively on LRT and Picketts charge, but more on LRT. As a result, most guides will take visitors to the areas they are familiar with and skip the more obscure areas even tho they may have played a more important role in the battle..i.e. culps Hill.

At any rate, we had a wonderful time at Gettysburg and also at Antietam, altho I still can get powerful confused at Antietam....and in a big hurry too!

Gettysburg, Shiloh, and many of the other battlefields I have visited offer a "mind's eye view" that lets you get an overall picture of events taking place so that you can focus on smaller areas, then put the smaller areas together into a larger picture. Antietam does not do that, at least not for me yet. I don't know why, but I have to hold a troop position map in my hands almost the entire time I am on the field or i am completely twisted around.

Ed

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Posted: Tue Jun 10th, 2008 02:24 am

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JH
I think the operative phrase is "if you ask questions"
If you do, the guide will respond in kind...if you don't, he/she will give you the basic 2 dollah weddin. My group has been questioning everything and everyone since we were college freshmen 44 years ago. the group contained a retired psychologist/counselor; a trade group executive, a business owner, an attorney, a physician, an insurance executive and a retired VA executive. We ain't bashful!...and we had done some preparatory reading prior to making the trip..
I think if you are going to go to the expense of taking a long trip like that...we were gone a week and traveled 1750 miles, then you have to get the most out of it you can and that involves preperation and a willingness to listen to theories you don't already hold.. The last thing I expected to learn was that LRT was unimportant, yet, it is the truth of the matter.

Ed

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Posted: Tue Jun 10th, 2008 02:28 am

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A few thoughts on the visitors center..
The entry fowyer looks immense, yet on Monday there were eleventy seven gazillion kids there. I know cause I counted them and that is an accurate number! The foyer was almost too small!

I did not care for the placement of the exibits as once you get into the area where they are located, you are trapped! It is almost impossible to find your way out, especially with that many people going thru the various stages. The exibits I found confusing as many artifacts seemed grouped rather strangely. I guess I am an old fuddy duddy, but I like to see gun rooms, uniform rooms, etc, etc and lots of EXIT signs that actually take you to the exit.

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Posted: Tue Jun 10th, 2008 02:38 pm

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You use the running method whereyb kids with certain colored shirts are multiplied times the square of their loudness then multiplied again by the mph of their running. I thought all teachers knew that....

The tree removal is doing wonders for the vistas. There is nothing quite like seeing a battery of cannon trained on a dense woods 20 yds in front of it to get a real appreciation of the action.... unfortunately, that is the situation at Vicksburg and no one knows what to do about it

Ed

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Posted: Tue Jun 10th, 2008 03:11 pm

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Yes, it really was. It was one of the better ones we have taken, partly because we had two friends (brothers) who had been ill the past couple of years and could not go..they went even tho they tired quickly and needed to return to the motel for rest and had to leave mid week.

Ed

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