Gettysburg and Appomattox

I've been wanting to go to Gettysburg for years, and finally had my chance. Paul said he'd take the day off to go with me and, when we promised not to leave at "O-dark-thirty", Lee allowed as how she might enjoy such a day trip as well.

And, right off the bat, she makes friends with this guy named Abe outside the park's visitor center. She would have missed that if she hadn't come along.

Traveling alone most of the time and typically behind the camera, I don't show up in many of these posts. Here I am with my "little brother", Paul. Lee does pretty well behind the camera but like any of us, she has to work with the material at hand.

I like this threatening shot. Can you imagine owning that house at the left edge of the picture and living "Under the gun" day in and day out? There are crazy people out there, and I'm sure at least one of them has a cannon ball.

I'm pleased both Paul and Lee decided they'd come with me to Gettysburg. Not only that, but Paul drove and we went in Lee's car. And, we stopped for fresh peaches on the way home.

I'm not exactly sure why, but Lee wanted a shot of these acorns. That's alright; acorns are cool. I can't remember when I last noticed acorns. Maybe I'll pay closer attention in the future.

These boys are Tarheels, from the North Carolina monument. The group was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum - yeah, the guy who did Mt Rushmore. A nearby stone informs the visitors that Thirty two North Carolina regiments were in action at Gettysburg July 1,2,3, 1863. One Confederate soldier in every four who fell here was a North Carolinian.

This is the Virginia monument-where else would you expect to find Robert E Lee. There are a lot of monuments spread across the Gettysburg landscape, and many of them make use of sculpture. I'm impressed first of all that, as soon as you can recognize that there's a horse and rider atop this one, you can recognize that the rider is General Lee. But, of all the sculpture we saw this day, I liked the group at the base of the monument the best. The inscription is: Virginia to her Sons at Gettysburg.

This is the view west of the battlefield, looking towards Hagerstown from General James Longstreet's position.

New York's Tammany Regiment (the 42nd NY Inf) must have some connection to the state's indigenous population, which is fine with me, but it seemed incongruous. And I understand the sculpture needs to fit on the base, but my initial reaction to the figure of the Indian and that particular teepee was, "Why have they got an Indian standing in front of a phone booth?" Other than that, I like the sculpture.

On my way from Paul's to North Carolina, I stopped briefly at Appomattox. That's the McLean house, where the surrender was signed. I remember how impressed I was on my first visit here years ago, but the courthouse (not shown) is the only thing that looks as I remembered it. I assume I misremembered the location of the various houses relative to the courthouse, but I don't remember any of the outbuildings shown here next to the McLean house. The NPS may be renovating the main houses (they're working on the tavern now) so perhaps they're adding replicas of the outbuildings as well.