Hey all, I just took a trip to Gettysburg over the weekend. I had gone there when I was younger and had forgotten just how massive the grounds are. We took the Auto Tour and spent the most of the day driving around to the different monuments (could have spent days there if we stopped to read everything). Standing there, looking out at the fields one can only imagine the devastation that took place there. A lot of the town itself has grown up and become a bit of a tourist trap but the grounds outside of town have a certain respect and reverence to them. I just wanted to share a couple pics and encourage anyone who is a lover of history to visit if they get the chance!
I’d also like to encourage anyone who has modeled anything from Gettysburg or the Civil War in general to post pics here. Or if you have any of your own stories or pics from Gettysburg or any of the Civil War Memorials in the country.
First pic is from the top of Cemetery Hill.
Previous picture was looking down from Little Round Top
This is the Pennylvania Monument
I’m also interested in any good books on Gettysburg and the Civil War that anyone could recommend?
Well having spent quite a bit of time there(Living only 3 hours from there that is easy to do) Gettysburg is a place everyone should go atleast once. I go there for the history, the houses, thats mostly my wife, and I admit it I am a gohst hunter so the evening walks are really interesting to both my wife and I. As for books there are a lot of them. The best would probably be a book called They Met At Gettysburg. By Edward Stackpole. That was a easy read and covered the entire battle. Now if you want to go into great depth the best books are by Harry Pfanz. He has written 3 books. One covering the First Day, and 2 covering the 2nd day. One covering the south part of the Battle and the other on the North part. These Books cover the battle down to Regimental Level. Now there are other books but those are my favorites. Hope this helps.
His books are great. I read the first one when it first came out. The next time I went to Gettysburg I used it to trace the steps of some of the regiments I have read about.
thanks guys I’ll definitely check those books out. I like the sound of the books that take it day by day.
it does make it more personal when you can follow in their footprints feldgrau23. i wish I had known more about the battle before the visit but I know I’ll be going back.
I’m close to Shiloh. I’ve been there a few times; the last one was guided which I recommend. He gave a very chilling story of what the union troops encountered on the opening of the battle, as a small patrol sees the entire confederate force breaking out of a tree line on the other side of a rolling field after some small skirmishing. I’ve also been downriver to Fort Donelson which set the stage for Shiloh, and Corinth, MS where the aftermath of Shiloh played out.
I recommend "Company Aytch " by Sam Watkins who was a confederate private in the western theater.
My son’s boy scout troop goes to Gettysburg every three years. We’ve both been twice. Quite an experience. His Scout master is a Civil War buff so we don’t need a guide we have one built in
Hey that’s pretty awesome! I’ve been a couple of times and need to get back up there. Did you get a chance to go by President Eisenhower’s farm? And a bit over an hour’s drive north is Hersey which is well worth visiting- the whole friggin’ town smells like chocolate!
You might also want to check out the movies, ‘Gods and Generals’ and ‘Gettysburg’. I’ve had friends complain that they’re a little slow and dull in spots and there’s some grognards who complain about inaccurate points but I still picked both up on DVD.
And for a more bizarre treatment look up Harry Turtledove’s ‘The Guns of the South’. In the last days of the war with the Army of Northern Virginia backed up against the wall a group of mysterious strangers show up with crates of an amazing repeating rifle they claims to have brought in from Russia tehy call an ‘AK-47’. And even more useful is their uncanny knowledge of exactly what is going to happen, almost like they read it in a history book… Funny thing is despite being a SF/fantasy novel Turtledove does a lot of research into the time periods doing a knockout job getting the little stuff right so that like most good SF even with the crazy stuff it seems very much real.
Exit 49 on 81 in Carlisle Pa has a US Army Museum,I saw it from the road and wanted to stop,checked out online when I got home and that looks pretty cool also.
That does look interesting Tojo. I’ll have to check it out when I get down there again.
Gamera - We didn’t get a chance to visit Eisenhower’s farm. I saw it on one of the maps but it was around 100deg heat index and we had been outside all day, so everyone was wiped out by then. So instead we went and got some ice cream! They had a frozen lemonade drink there that was pretty good I must say lol.
This museum is worth the trip as well. Went there before they built it up to were its at now and was very impressed. Have drivin past a couple times since and while I haven’t stopped it looks like they have added quite a bit since I was there.
I started to read the turtledove book and was getting into it when life kicked in and had to set it aside for a while. How ever the premiss of the book can lead to a pretty good discussion thats for sure.
I’m thinking I’ve been to that museum, not sure though, I’ve visited so many by now they kinda blur together.
The Turtledove book is interesting, it really gets moving over a third in where Lee and company start putting together the pieces that their mysterious benefactors don’t have the best interest of the CSA at heart. Or the USA or pretty much anyone in that time period.
At the risk of veering off subject here I have those novels but haven’t gotten to reading them yet. I did read his series where these aliens invade Earth right in the middle of the Second World War. We end up with Germans and Soviets in Europe and Americans and Japanese in the Pacific having to work together to fight the aliens.
And then the sequel trilogy set in the '60s. Due to there never being a real ending to the war the Imperials still rule Japan and the Third Reich still rules most of Europe. And now the US, UK, USSR, Japan, and Germany are all armed with atomic weapons. Even worse the aliens were on a one-way trip with no way to get home so the peace treaty gave them large areas of Australia, South America, and Africa for homes where they rule over the native humans. Now some of the captive aliens warn of a second fleet full of alien colonists on it’s way.
I read some of the early Turtledove Novels,set in the Civil War,they were okay,Sonewall Jackson surviving,Britian and France backing the south.I think I read up to WWI where Germany was backing the north I think ?
They were making my head spin,getting way out there,that’s when I stopped.
I did enjoy the alternate Civil War books by Gingrich+Fortschen
Yeap, I think that’s the same series that IamRaider was refering to. I’ll read 'em someday, just that I went though all six of the Second World War with aliens series one after the other and yeah my head ended up spinning too and I had to take a break… [:S]
I’ve heard about those by Gingrich and Fortschen, I need to look them up. I did read one very scary one by them about an EMP burst knocking out pretty much everything in the US/Canada.
