Gettysburg: Walking the Ground

     Day 1.    The Mayor has tried many times to visit this American Shrine; this icon of history; this hallowed place; this land of sorrows; this place of rest for thousands of young combatants who died 151 years ago in the fight to preserve the Union and to abolish slavery from this land.   Finally, this Memorial weekend, 2014,  we made it.  It was a side trip from one of our many visits to Washington, DC.  This time, we were in DC for a graduation(the Minister of Latin American Affairs received his Masters Degree last Friday from GW).   Adding a few days on to the week was easy and the weather was exceptionally nice- in the 70's.
       We picked up the rental and drove the  hour and a half, finishing on Highway 30 that goes through the center of town.   We arranged to meet an old Marine from Carlisle, PA, who offered to give us a quick tour as he has done for many over the last 10 years of his residency(he a Texan by birth).
      Having just reread the book,  THE KILLER ANGELS, by Michael Shaara, we had some background.   It's a novel, of course, and much of the narrative is conversation that makes the book and story flow easily as  real events unfold.  Immediately, an observer sees the space and distances across the fields.  The town and the surrounding area involved measured almost 50000 acres or about 80 square miles.  This is an area almost twice as big as the city of San Francisco.   The most prominent physical features are a few low hills: Little Round Top and Round Top(taller by a little); both on the southern side of town, at the south end of Cemetery Ridge.  Just north of the ridge is Culps Hill, lower than Round Top and just east of the cemetery on the ridge.
     Our guide, Jerry D. , drove with us on the easily followed route, monument after monument placed to mark the location of an army unit, usually a regiment( about 350 men then).   Never has a battlefield had so many sites prominently identified and marked.  Each proud participating unit wanted to be remembered for their efforts on those 3 days of July, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to be exact, of 1863.
      On the west side of the ground is Seminary Ridge, named for the Lutheran Seminary that occupied the ridge at the time.   The central building, a 3 -story brick structure, included a cupola on top that served the army of Robert E. Lee as an observation post on days 2 and 3.
more later