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Am going to move my comments from my Feb 2009 vacation, here... Stay-tuned!

Well, we arrived home safe and sound late last night (Saturday), around 11:00 PM. It was nice to get home and sleep in our own bed. Ahhh! Still on vacation. Have two more days (Sunday and Monday), to relax, recuperate and take advantage of some peace and quiet. We ABHOR coming straight home from a vacation and immediately going back to work. Yuk!

Well the vacation report shall ensue, and will be completed in segments, not necessarily in any particular order.

Well the last thing we did, was arrive at Gettysburg, early eve on Friday. Too late to see anything, but we stayed right in town. Quaint and homey. So much history calling out. We got situated in our hotel, and then walked right next door to an Irish Pub. Nice place. Been there a long time. Enjoyed a few beers.

Picked up a bunch of brochures at our hotel and layed around deciding what we would do in the morning. I saw they had AUTO tours of the battlefield, and Lee said, YA, THAT's IT! When we arrived, it was pretty darned cold, so taking an auto-tour sounded like the perfect venue. IT WAS!

To tell you the truth, I think it was one of the most rewarding pursuits we've ever done on vacation. It will always stand out in my mind. We highly, highly recommend it. There is NO better way to feel history; to relive it. Unsurpassed!

We left the hotel around 8:00 AM, and headed over. Spent about an hour in the museum. Nicely done. Bought a few things, but were excited about getting out on the road.

http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/visit/center.htm

Here's the auto-tour battlefield map. The tour took us about three hours. We got out of the car several times (brrr, it wasn't July as the boys experienced it), and took photos (using our REAL camera (35 mm Canon AE-1). Can't wait to see them and share them with you.

It's great because you pop the CD in, and then begin. We got the deluxe version (there are several). We went with the History Channel's Gettysburg Expedition Guide (audio tour - guidebook - computer CD-ROM). Sometimes it would tell you to stop the CD and drive to the next area. Other times the historian (guide), would fill you in on background info, as your car moved to its next destination. Well worth the $29.95. I am going to try the computer CD-ROM in a few minutes.

More in a bit...gotta grab some lunch. Starving!!!

Just installed the CD-ROM onto my laptop. It's great to be able to see animated battlefield action. You can get a generalized overview of the three-day battle, and you can also click on individual battles, such as Little Round Top. Have a lot to look though yet, but like it so far. You can also place the auto-drive map over the battlefield. Lee was just saying how wonderful it was, because now we can truly picture the whole thing before our eyes.

Even if you've seen it on TV, etc., you cannot get the true scope of let's say, Pickett's Charge, until you are standing in the Union positions, on the top of the hill near the Copse of Trees and the Angle. Incredible, breathtaking! You actually get goose-bumps standing there, staring down and imagining divisions of men running across the VAST open expanses of land and making their way towards the high-ground. Trying to hear the hundreds of canon (smooth and rifled) going off for hours at a time, and the smoke and carnage. Hold! Hold!

The movie Gettysburg gives a very good representation of what happened at Picketts charge. You might enjoy seeing it now that you have been there. Several years ago I walked Picketts charge. Looking across the field you dont understand how undulating the field is, until you walk it. Then when you get to the roadway, there were the fences to deal with. It made the Confederates easy targets.

Little Roundtop is one of my favorite places to go and contemplate. There is nothing like sitting there mid week when there are few visitors.

My only dislikes of the new visitors center is the fact that the handicapped parking is a quarter mile away, at the bottom of a hill, and that you can't split up the tickets and say go to just the museum and not the museum, film and cyclorama. When you've seen the cyclorama 4 or 5 times, you might like to skip it and just go to the museum.

Glad that you had a good time in my "other" hometown.

The nice thing about going in late February, and at 9:00 in the morning? There was hardly a soul there. Many times we were the only two at the locations. It was so quiet, peaceful and thought provoking.

We are definitely going to go again. Wish I could go back tomorrow...

I love the photo of the statue you posted. Longing for his master. There are HUNDREDS of those there, so many to see. We did not see that one.

The Irish Brigade Monument. The unit was made up primarily of Irish Immigrants from the State of New York. The dog is a representation of a breed of Irish Wolfhound that is extinct. They were bigger (?!!) than the Irish Wolfhounds that we have today. The sculptor Rudolph O'Donavan was a former Confederate Soldier who when asked to take the commission said "For my Irish Boys I will"

Usually when you go there and the monument to Sally (the other dog monument) you will find milkbones left on the monument.

Visiting Gettysburg is one of the items on my Things-To-Do-Before-I-Stop-Breathing List. I`ve drivin by Gettysburg & many other battlefields several times but never had a chance to stop. Traveling down Rte 15 & seeing RoundTop to the west, i always get a haunting feeling of what happened there.

Attached is the actual After Action Report by Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine at Gettysburg:

chamberlain.pdf

I'm a big Chamberlain fan. He went on to lead an amazing after the war. I would love to hear Capt O's take on the report. I have a feeling that the style used now is a little less prosaic....

Read a story of a huge Irish Officer who led his men in a charge while carrying the flag wrapped around his massive body, after sharpshooters had killed those before him who had carried it.

After the battle there was no more fighting..... so he and his men invaded Canada..?

Anyone have any idea who 'Murphy O'Moose' was...???