Memorial Day Weekend in Gettysburg

This weekend my family and I went camping at Gettysburg, P.A. We've gone camping for Memorial Day weekend in the past but this year had a special significance since we were truly learning about the soldiers who gave their lives during the civil war to ensure the united country we have today. I had never been to the battlefield before but standing on the same ground that tens of thousands of men died upon just about 150 years ago can really blow you away. There is this "auto tour" CD that you can listen to and it brings you to all of the monuments and sites of battle during the 3 days of fighting at Gettysburg. We would learn about the next spot we were going to on the way to the next spot and then got out to walk around. I tried hard to envision what it must have felt like to be stepping into battle, knowing you probably won't come out alive.

Two parts of the Gettysburg battle stand out in my mind and the civil war can be awfully complicated (and I won't pretend to be a historian either) but I'll try to mention them quick. On the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, the confederate troops were approaching the town of Gettysburg, but the Union troops did not have all of their troops and artillery positioned yet to fight. The union troops knew that if they secured the high ground then they could better defend themselves. To try and stall the confederate troops from reaching this higher ground before the union troops were ready, one regiment of union troops waited to fight the approaching confederate troops before they could reach the town. The regiment was fairly small and they were basically sacrificing their lives to help the union army. They did their job and ended up stalling the confederates for a while. The second part that stands out to me is Pickett's Charge on the 3rd day. Robert E. Lee, the general of the confederate army, in a controversial decision to this day, ordered his troops to march across a 3/4 mile long field to the union troops, shooting off cannons and guns. Lee felt that they could pierce the union line here in the center and it would dismantle the defenses. However, this wasn't the case. The union soldiers just fired and fired and thousands and thousands of men from both sides died. A few hundred actually made it to the union line but they were quickly overwhelmed. But the thing that really amazes me is that when the confederate troops were marching towards the union line, they were in a long straight uniform line with several rows. When union soldiers shot the confederates down, other confederates filled the gaps in the line and they kept on marching. I can't even imagine the bravery and courage those men had in the war. Whether they were fighting for the north or the south, they sacrificed their lives just the same. After the battle of Gettysburg, the tides turned and even though the war continued 2 more years the confederates never had the momentum they had in Gettysburg. These decisions such as Pickett's Charge changed the war. What if these quick decisions hadn't been made? The war could have turned in a drastically different direction. It is hard to understand the battle unless you study it or actually go to the battlefield but it really changed my perspective on wars past and on the war today. If you ever have the chance to take a day and go to Gettysburg, I think it is well worth it.