This afternoon (Oct. 20, 2007) we took a trip to Gettysburg. While there we did an auto tour of the battlefield, ate dinner, bought fudge, and went on a walking ghost tour.
The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 – July 3, 1863) was fought in, and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Union and Confederate armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing). Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate but generally agreeed upon totals are 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). There was one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade, 20 years old, was shot by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in town while she was making bread.
One thing I never thought about before was how this small town buried the dead soldiers and animals (including over 3,000 horses). Many bodies, after being left on the battle field for days, or stacked one on top of another outside of many makeshift hospitals, were buried in graves as shallow as 18" deep. Townspeople commented that in places you could walk around and the ground beneath your feet would be squishy. The dead animals did not fare any better as most were burned. The stench was so bad that people would douse hankerchiefs with peppermint and lilac to hold to their faces when they walked outside.
While in Gettysburg we didn't see any ghosts, but we did have a strange experience. See the picture on the left (Reynolds Last Stand)? That's from my camera but I could not get it exposed correctly. However, if I stayed in the same position but focused the camera away from the statue, I would get a perfectly exposed image. Point it back at the statue - almost all black. The girls were able to take clear pictures of the statue with their cameras but I couldn't with mine. Spooky or not?
Erin was convinced she saw a ghost or two and I would put it past her that she did. I think that kids has some powers or something. One of her so-called ghosts was a woman dressed in period clothing - or was it? Hmm...
On another note, since it was such a beautiful day, I wasn't too surprised to see so many people biking and running, although the girls were. Then I started think about how the battlefield is the last place I'd want to do either of those activities given how many people are driving and looking at anything other than the road. Since you have to share the road with the cars, the whole thing would make me very nervous. However, if traffic were light, it would be a very nice place to run.
But despite all of the grim history, we had a very good day and learned a lot. We were pretty beat when we got home around 11:30p but not too tired for me to go out on a 11-mile run Sunday morning around 8:00a, wash Lynn's car, visit my mother and be home by 1:00p for the Redskins game (hope they win - edit: they did, barely) and the Grand Prix of Brazil. Overall I'd give the weekend 9 out of 10 thumbs up.
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