When I researched which campground would be best for us to visit Gettysburg, I found Artillery Ridge Campground.  It’s right down the road from the Visitors Center and Battlefield.  They honor Passport America and Good Sam discounts and will combine them (separate days) in one stay.  They also provide you with coupons for free admission to the Gettysburg Diorama and Ghost Lab, just down the road as you reach the town of Gettysburg.  It is also a campground where people can bring their horses with excellent facilities for horses and their owners.  The place is very clean and the office staff is friendly, helpful and professional.  For these reasons, this campground has made it to our list of favorites.  There is an auto tour CD to play in your car as you drive that can be purchased at the Visitors Center.  The campground has a different one for rent for $5.  It follows the same route and we liked it just fine.

As recommended, we went to the diorama first.  We felt it was pretty well done and it gave us a good overview of how everything was laid out and what happened here, before we took the auto tour.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted 3 days in and around the little town of Gettysburg.  It was the northernmost battle of the Civil War (which is often disputed because of a several skirmishes that were further north).

The auto tour takes you through the park by chronological events and you do get a feel for what transpired.  The CD is supposed to be timed with a 20 mph driving pace.  The park map has the auto tour route marked along with all the stopping points.  We did manage to get off track a little.  Coordinating where we were with the CD was at times challenging, but were able to get back on track just fine.

Metal detectors are not allowed.

There are monuments all through the park memorializing the people who gave their lives here.  Even though it was a war of brother against brother, it was a war of men fighting so that every human being in this country had the chance to live free and make a life for themselves.

Many of those young men fell on these fields.  In fact, the Civil War had more American casualties than any other war in America’s history.

The NPS is planting new trees as close to what was actually here at the time of the battle.  At that time, many of these fields were orchards.  The park service is working to restore the battlefield to how it looked in 1863 when the battle took place.

There were two colleges in the town of Gettysburg at the time of the battle, Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Seminary.  The auto tour takes you through the campus of the seminary, where the cupola (gazebo looking structure on top of the building) was used first by Union, and then by Confederate officers.  This dorm building was also used as a hospital for both sides.

The Visitor’s Center has a museum, a movie and a 360 degree cyclorama painting of the battle, as well as tickets for all kinds of tours.

Day 2 consisted of the fight for Little Round Top and Devil’s Den.  When you look at this terrain, you can just feel how hellish it all was. 

And then, on Day 3, the final day, a great dramatic crescendo… Union troops held this point on Cemetery Ridge. 

Confederate troops made a massive infantry and artillery assault on them with their goal being to reach this corpse of trees on the left.  This historic attack is known as Pickett’s Charge.

And this is the field that Pickett’s Charge crossed to reach that hill.  Although this battle is considered a draw, General Lee decided not to fight in the north again and tried stay on his home turf of the south.

From those who make a study of tactical warfare, to lovers of the strategy of the generals, to the legends of the Civil War era, to the ghosts who roam here, and the archaeology buried within the grounds, one thing that is hard to miss is that people are nuts about this park.

Soldier’s Cemetary