{The Battleground}

If you ever get to go see Gettysburg, I would recommend buying the audio vehicle tour to tour the battlefield.  It is dramatized and I thought a good rendition of what those three days at Gettysburg were like.  After we spent some time at the Spangler farm we headed out to drive around the battlefield.  The tape originally said it would take us 90 minutes to do the whole tour.  Well double that and it was pretty accurate.  There are over 1300 monuments on the battlefield itself.  No I didn't take pictures of each and everyone but we stopped at a good many of them.  I did get a few pictures of the battlefield areas, some of the more important parts such as Devil's Cave, Little Roundtop, the Peach Orchard, ect.  There were over 100,000 soldiers fighting at Gettysburg between the North and the South.  After the three day battle there were 57,225 that were casualties.  So imagine as you look out over the fields the chaos and death that would have been witnessed there.  I am always amazed at the feelings I have as I walk around these places.  I am so thankful that my children get the chance to learn about sacrifice for freedom and to learn to respect those that serve today.  It is always a sacred experience for me.

We stopped at the Gettysburg National Military Cemetery on Memorial Day.  Seemed fitting.  As we walked through the gates a feeling seemed to wash over us and we became quieter, more reverent.  Just like when we visited Arlington, those feelings of gratitude to those that gave all for our freedom was present.  As we neared the end of the loop that you walk through the cemetery, Ryan said he was done. I think it hits a little close to home for him, being a soldier.  I know I am grateful for him and his willingness to serve our country.
It was a wonderful weekend and we talk about going back to see more.  It is definitely a must see if you are ever on the East coast.

{Spangler Farm}

We got the unique opportunity to visit the Spangler Farm while we were in Gettysburg.  Memorial Day weekend was the first time this farm was open to the public.  This particular farm is historically important because it was turned into a field hospital for mostly Union and a few Confederate soldiers.  It is also believed to be where Confederate General Lewis A. Armistead died from the injuries he received on the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The little building in the foreground (the rock one) is the summer kitchen where the General was taken and where he died.  We got to see inside the barn (below) which was turned into the actual hospital and we tried to imagine the conditions for those poor men.  There were hundreds of men treated inside the building at a time.  Those that were waiting to be treated or had been seen but were waiting to go to the actual hospital, waited outside under the eaves if there was room.  If not they waited outside in the heat and the elements.

These fields were most certainly filled with injured and dying men.  The history books say that at least 1800 Union and 100 Confederate soldiers were treated at the Spangler farm during the three day battle and even after it was over.  There were only 7 surgeons stationed at the farm to take care of that many men.  The fighting was happening not a mile away, on the other side of that tree line.

One of the Spangler boys wrote his name on the rail of this wall in the barn well after the war.

  

My little history buff was asking questions left and right.  He loves himself some history!!

This is the smoke house that was there in 1863.  Everything but the tin roof is original.

 This is the field that they buried the men in that died at the field hospital.  Most of the Union soldiers that were buried there were later retrieved and reburied after family came to claim their bodies.  The soldiers that are still buried there today are Confederate.  Their families didn't have the means to travel and retrieve their bodies.  So they remain there to this day.  The goal of the Gettysburg Foundation is to put a name and a face to all those still buried here.

The kids got a real in depth lesson on battlefield medicine circa 1863.  This gentlemen had them standing in rapt attention as he went through each and every step that would be taken in the event of an amputation or a bullet wound.  He gave us survival rates depending on injuries.  It made me so happy to be living today.

It was such a neat opportunity to see the battlefield in an up close/personal way.  After leaving the Spangler farm we headed out to do a audio driving tour of the battlefields.  It took us through all three days of the battle and all over the country side.  Be prepared for a "few" pictures!!

{Gettysburg}

We marked another thing off our bucket list, Gettysburg!!  We made plans with another family to spend Memorial Day weekend in Gettysburg, camping and soaking up history.  We made our reservations clear back in early March and it seemed like the holiday would never get here.  But alas it did and we were so excited.  We hadn't gone camping as a family for quiet sometime.  The boys have gone often with scouts and the Father and Son camp out, so us girls were feeling a bit left out.  We found a really great campground, fittingly named, Gettysburg Campground.  We got a couple of sites on the culdesac of the tent loop, and right up next to the creek.  It really was a beautiful spot to camp.  We also had perfect weather.  Cooler in the mornings/nights but nice and mild during the day.  Plus no rain, can't beat that!!

Ryan and the three younger kids went up earlier on Friday night and got camp all set up.  Ayden and I came up later once he returned from his Band trip to Busch Gardens.  As soon as we got to camp, Ayden hit his sleeping bag, he was one tired kid.  The next morning we started out by having our handy, dandy Boy Scout start us a fire.  In fact he pretty much made us every fire we had.  He is an expert now.  After breakfast and a little game of catch and learning to jump rope (not very successfully, I might add), we were off to check out the Gettysburg Visitor's center.

Once there, the kids got their Junior Ranger packets and we were off to explore and learn.  Part of the Junior Ranger program was the kids watching a video, getting to see the Cyclorama (pictures below) and going through the museum.  The museum chronicled the battle wonderfully and the kids really learned a lot.  Three hours later we left the Visitor's center much more knowledgeable about the Battle of Gettysburg.

After the Visitor's center we ventured out to walk around downtown Gettysburg.  We stopped for some ice cream and then found a neat little re-enactment camp and checked out a few things.  Once we were tired from walking around we headed back to camp to get started on dinner.  It was Ryan's birthday so we celebrated with a dessert of dutch oven Caramel Apple Crisp.  It was heaven!!  That night the campground put on a flashlight lollipop hunt, which the kids thought was really fun!!  On the agenda for tomorrow...the battle fields!!