Gettysburg Battlefield - July 12, 2006

Wow what a day!! I decided against the normal bus tour or tape tour. Instead, I hired a personal battlefield guide who gave me the most outstanding 5 hour tour you can imagine. He has been studying the Civil War for over 30 years and has been a guide here at Gettysburg for over 6 years.

He showed me places of the battlefield that one seldom sees. He took me to where the first shot was fired in the battle, to the deep locations of the Confederate forces preparing for attack on Culp's Hill, and so many other interesting places.

I am hard pressed to determine how to provide information on such a day plus add pictures of the important locations. I took over 165 pictures and am sifting through them to determine which ones to add to the blog.

What I am going to do over the next day or so is to begin to describe my experiences and add a few new pictures each day. It may take several blogs to do this National Historical Site justice.

Tomorrow, I have decided to take the tape tour by myself. This means I have had three separate tours of the battlefield from 3 sources. Hopefully, it will finally sink in as to what transpired here. Over 51,000 casualities here in 3 days. Simply put, overwelming!!

Here are a few pictures to start.

Sign on west side of town where the battle begin.

One of hundreds of monuments.

Devil's Den in southwestern corner of battle.

Near Little Round Top. Fierce fighting ensued.

Monument on Confederate western flank (Seminary Ridge).

Near where Pickett's Charge began.

Will continue with more pictures tomorrow.....

Chuck