2012 Day 6-Gettysburg

Dear Troop 820 followers,
This is Luke and John giving the highlights of the day. It started with a flag ceremony at 8:00am followed by a trip to the Gettysburg Visitor Museum  and the cyclorama.  A Cyclorama is a 360 degree, 366 foot by 42 foot tall image of the battle of Gettysburg.  It was painted in 1868 by a French painter and it took a year for him to complete it.  It was originally housed in an original visitor center, but due to the lack of heating and cooling, a new visitor center was built and the painting restored in the 1960’s.  It Is currently housed in an even newer center that was opened in 2008.

Afterwards, we spent quite a while in the museum.  Some only watched the movies, but others looked at all the displays and relics.  We learned that Lee had a good chance of winning the war, and that Gettysburg was the turning point of the war.   It was also the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, with over 51,000 that were killed, wounded or captured.

After the museum, we came back to camp for a lunch of cold cuts.  We then headed back to the visitor center for a walking tour of the Gettysburg and the battlefield.  We learned at Cemetery Hill that Lincolns speech was not actually given from the stage that is currently in place, nor at the monument.  Recent finds of old photos reveal that the speech was actually given from a part of the cemetery that is now for the townspeople.  Behind where he spoke there is a “witness tree” that was alive during both the battle of Gettysburg and for the Gettysburg Address.  This tree has been struck twice by lightning in the last 6 years, surviving both times.  Supposedly there are 11 other “witness trees” in the area.  There are many unknown graves in the cemetery – over 3000 bodies were never identified by state or name.  The cemetery is also the oldest in the country.  Abraham Lincoln was actually NOT the featured speaker.  Another prominent man spoke for over 2 hours before Abe took the stage.  Abe's speech at two minutes long was so short that the photographers didn’t have time to capture it.  Yet the first speaker later wrote to Abe to basically say “you said in two minutes what took me two hours to say, and not as well”

We then hiked over part of the battlefield with the guide and learned about the significance of the monuments.  The shape of the bases tells you if it is a Confederate (square base) or Union (round base) monument.  There are also sometimes smaller markers showing the left and right sides of the Regiment.  Once the guide was ready to turn back to the Visitor Center, the Scouts set of on enough of a hike to get in 10 miles.

First we headed towards the Pennsylvania monument which we could climb to the top of.  While we were there, we filed our water bottles, then headed towards Little Round Top.   Most of the hiking was on the road, but in several spots we were on trials.  From the top of Little Round Top, the battlefield looked much like it did 149 years ago when the battle was fought on July 1-3, 1863.  Scouts who had seen the movie Gettysburg also thought it looked just like the movie.   From the top, we could also see “Devils Den” and the “Slaughter Pen” where many Confederates died. 

We then headed to Big Round Top, which was much more wooded so our view was limited, but it was still a nice hike.  At that point we were a little past 5 miles, so we headed down the hill and hiked down to ‘Devil Den” and ran around the rocks a while.  For some reason the rocks are really smooth and not jagged.  From the Den we headed back toward the visitor center, stopping on the way for water. 

We headed back to the camp in time for flag ceremony, and had leftover night of burritos, pork, chili dogs, rice and chips.  It was very hot tonight and we were all very tired and sweaty from our hike, but there are no showers in our camp!

Tomorrow we will break camp early and head for the Appalachian Trail!

Editors Notes:  If you still can’t see previous days pictures, please clear your browser cache then try again.  I am told that fixes it from a couple of our followers at home.
Open note to President Obama:  Hey, I know you’ve had a few minutes to keep up on our blog while the Supremes deal with that whole pesky Health Care thing.  I just want you to know that these State parks are really, really great.  However, there are at least 10 taxpayers that fully authorize you to upgrade our Park System from 1 ply toilet tissue to 2 ply.  Thanks a lot.

Enjoy the pics: