Sevenscore and Thirteen Years Ago

By Chase J. Merrill

On our third day in DC we went up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Here, sevenscore and thirteen years ago, the Union and Confederate armies collided in the Battle of Gettysburg from 1 - 3 July 1863, miraculously turning the tide of the war in favor of the Union.  Here, Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address.  I had finished reading The Lincoln Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard (a book I highly recommend) on the plane to DC, so it was awesome to actually see one of the places the book had discussed.

The bummer about our trip to Gettysburg was that we had no idea how long a tour of the battlefield would take, and we took a really long time at lunch (I can't remember what the place was called but I remember I had a burger that I was quite impressed with myself for finishing), and we had an appointment at the DC temple in the afternoon, so we weren't able to spend nearly as much time at Gettysburg as we would have liked.  We were able, however, to see the video presentation and cyclorama of the battle, drive through the site, and see the cemetery where Lincoln gave his speech.

I hope the video we saw at Gettysburg wasn't worth remembering, because I barely remember it at all.  The cyclorama, however, would be much more difficult to forget.  The cyclorama is a panoramic painting that goes in a circle along the walls all the way around the room, probably at least eight feet high and nearly a hundred feet in circumference.  It depicts the Battle of Gettysburg at various stages from the vantage point of a hill in the middle of the battle, and, with the help of a narrator and lighting and sound effects, tells the story of the battle.  It was fascinating to see the battle as if we were standing in the midst of it.

Afterwards we saw the memorial to Lincoln's Address, and actually read his Address next to his statue.  We also saw the actual place where Lincoln is believed to have stood when he gave the speech.  Walking back to the car, we passed by the graves of fallen soldiers from wars in our country's history since Gettysburg.  It is such a beautiful and green place, it is difficult to imagine that it was once a terrifying, bloody battlefield.

We didn't get many pictures from Gettysburg, but here comes our camera roll from our visit:

Avery reading the Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg.  The black rectangle also has the Address written on it.  Trey is hiding from the creepy giant Lincoln head.

Liberi with Lincoln's caput.  The bundle of poles tied around an ax was the symbol of Roman soldiers.  I'm not exactly sure what it's doing at Gettysburg; it might symbolize that Lincoln was a defender of the republic.

These were real cannons from the civil war.  Courtney had better hope this one isn't loaded.  (And like I said: GREEN)

Next to a cannon at the cemetery.  If no one else mentions it in the posts about this trip, I have to record how we took videos of ourselves lip syncing lines of Neil Diamond's song "America" throughout this trip, including here at Gettysburg.  Our plan was (and still is) to put them together in a music video narrative of our trip.  So if you heard of a family of maniac Jazz Singers tearing up the east coast this summer, that was probably us.