Last Friday the grandsons and I made another visit to Gettysburg National Military Park. We have been to Gettysburg several times in the past, but this is the first time since the new Visitor's Center opened in 2008. The new center is south of the National cemetery with access from both Taneytown Rd (Rt 134) and Baltimore Pike (Rt 97). The center includes visitor information, the museum, the cyclorama, bookstore, food services and is the starting point for guided tours of the park. The new building is more attractive and roomy than the old Visitor's Center. There is also a lot more parking than before. The National Park Service web site for Gettysburg contains a wealth of information. 
Abe Lincoln and his hat are prominently featured through out the building. Here Chris gets his picture taken with him. The Visitor Center, Cemetery and battlefield are free. Access to the museum and cyclorama are about $10. The fee includes a 22-minute movie about the Battle of Gettysburg. Guided bus tours cost more.
After the movie we ascended the stairs to the platform in center of the Cyclorama. Cycloramas were 360-degree paintings where the viewer stood in the center. They were popular in the 1800's though few remain today. 
The "Battle of Gettysburg" depicts the charge toward Union lines by Pickett's infantry on July 3, 1863. The Union victory on that day was the turning point, but not the end, of the US Civil War. Lee's army retreated and more battles were fought. Sherman's army stormed across the south. The war ended at Appomattox, VA in April, 1865. Paul Philippoteaux and his staff of 20 artists painted the cyclorama in 1883 - 1884. It is 377 feet around and 42 feet high. It was first on display in other US cities and later permanently displayed in Gettysburg. In 2003 a conservation effort began in preparation for moving the painting to the new Visitor Center. The new display includes light and sound effects. Along with the narration of the events of the battle, sounds of the guns are heard and portions of the painting are lighted. (Note: non-flash photography is allowed).
At the entrance to the museum are displays of confederate and union uniforms. There also were 3 people in 1860's period dress roaming the Visitor Center. The museum displays weapons, artifacts, documents and events of the period. There are also several video displays providing information. One section has typical camp settings for soldiers of that time period.
The US Civil War was the first to be photographed. Historical photographs are included in many of the displays. The photographs of the battlefields and wounded that were published in papers back home gave everyone a sense of the horrors of war. The National Archives and the Center for Civil War Photography are two online resources for Civil War images.
Note: This post is one in a series of posts I am doing this week on Gettysburg. "Extra" editions of "My World" will appear with Gettysburg images, as well as on my other memes.
Last Friday my grandsons and I again visited Gettysburg. We started at the new Visitor's Center and Museum and then went to the Soldiers National Cemetery and joined a Park Ranger's walking tour. He described how this spot came to be our nations first military cemetery. Evergreen Cemetery, established in 1854, was on a hill just south of the town of Gettysburg. Cemetery Hill and the ridge that ran south to Little Round Top had a commanding view of the land to the west. As Lee marched his Army into Pennsylvania in June of 1863, Union forces first engaged Lee's Army to the northwest of Gettysburg and were pushed back. The Union forces established a defensive position on Cemetery Hill and were soon reinforced by General Meade's Army of the Potomac. Lee's Army took up positions along Seminary Ridge across the fields and the ensuing July 3 - 5 battle resulted in 10,000 dead, 30,000 wounded and 10,000 captured.
The land now holding the dead was the site of many cannons during the battle. Recognize the maker of this one? The cannons used at Gettysburg inflicted much of the carnage by both armies. When the armies left the battlefield on July 5, many wounded and the dead remained. Bodies were buried in shallow graves and the wounded were cared for in homes and other buildings in the town. Some of the bodies were recovered by family and carried home for burial. The people in Gettysburg felt that the dead soldiers deserved a proper burial. A committee of representatives of Union states was formed to plan for the new cemetery. David Wills, a lawyer in Gettysburg chaired the committee. William Saunders, a well-known landscape architect, was hired to design the cemetery.
The design included a monument to the Union soldiers with semi-circle rows of graves organized by state. In October, the reburial began and took five months to complete. The confederate dead were left buried on the battlefield and were re-interred in southern cemeteries in the early 1870's. On November 19, 1863, the cemetery was dedicated with President Lincoln making his best-known speech near the end of a four hour ceremony. Thus Soldier's National Cemetery as it was first called, became the nations first national cemetery, over a year before Arlington National cemetery was dedicated.
The graves were grouped by state if the name and state of the remains could be identified. (Weather had obliterated many of the hastily prepared original markers.) The unknown graves were marked with numbered headstones. Post war burials continued within the semi-circle of graves. Most were veterans from the town of Gettysburg and Adams County, Pennsylvania. In the 1880's additional areas were opened for burial with veterans of Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II interred at Gettysburg.
Note: The Ranger Chuck Teague and the National Park Service web site, especially the Virtual Tour the Aftermath were the source for most of this post.
