Great American Vacations: Travel to Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield

Gettysburg is a terrific place to take your family on vacation because it offers such a wide range of things to do.

The most obvious thing to do in Gettysburg is to tour the battlefield to learn a great deal about one of the more important moments in America's history. The Gettysburg battlefield is very hands-on; you can walk the famous places and touch the cannon and monuments. You'll find a variety of options for tour guides to help you on your vacation, from free podcasts to a CD-based guided tour - you can even hire your own tour guide to go around the battlefield and provide amazing insight into what took place. The battlefield also provides a great opportunity for getting outdoors with the family and enjoying walking tours, hiking, horseback riding or many other activities. Are you a photographer? You will find that Gettysburg battlefield provides endless opportunities to take pictures that will become the pride of your travel photography portfolio.

The town of Gettysburg is a lot of fun too. It's full of places to shop for souvenirs, antiques and civil war relics. Ghost hunters will delight in the ghost tours through the town, where you wander the streets of Gettysburg and hear spooky tales from story tellers clad in period clothing.

The area surrounding Gettysburg offers many other activities to make your vacation special, from skiing and camping to a tour of the famous Boyd's Bears Factory.

From a cost perspective, Gettysburg is extremely affordable compared to other travel destinations as well. You can find lodging for around $100 per night, or spend a bit more to stay at one of the many bed and breakfast properties in the area. You can make an entire vacation to Gettysburg, or make a day trip there as part of a longer trip to Washington DC or Baltimore.

Until 1863, Gettysburg was just one more farming community in rural Pennsylvania. All that changed on July 1-3, 1863, when the Union's Army of the Potomac and the Confederate's Army of Northern Virginia converged on Gettysburg to clash in an epic battle that turned the Confederate tide and set the course for the remainder of the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg resulted the largest number of casualties of any single battle in the American Civil War and is often considered the war's turning point. Fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, it saw 165,000 Union and Confederate soldiers clash in a three day battle that resulted in more than 53,000 casualties - almost one in every three soldier at Gettysburg ended up killed, wounded, captured or missing in action.

Fighting began to the north and west of Gettysburg on July 1 when a Union cavalry and infantry divisions confronted Confederate forces many times their size. The Union troops were pushed through the town and to the high grounds on Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge and Culps Hill south of Gettysburg, but their efforts delayed the Confederate advance long enough for the Army of the Potomac to arrive en masse.

On July 2, the two great armys clashed as the South attacked the Union lines northern and southern points. Rebels fought their way to successfully take Devil's Den, the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard, but were repelled from Little Round Top and Culp's Hill. This kept the Confederates from sweeping around the Union's rear and attacking from both sides, their ultimate objective for the day.

On July 3, the third day of the battle, General Robert E. Lee chose to attack the center of the North's line rather than the ends. Five divisions, 12,500 Confederate soldiers in all, formed up to attack a point on Cemetery Ridge marked by a small copse of trees and an L-shaped stone wall (called The Angle). This attack became known as Pickett's Charge after General Pickett, who ordered the charge forward.

The Confederates had no chance, marching over a mile across open fields under the constant barrage of cannon and musket fire from thousands of Union soldiers. Union forces devastated the Confederates, who suffered more than 50% casualties in less than an hour. This epic battle represented the farthest point north that Robert E. Lee's forces reached during battle during the Civil War. For this reason the copse of trees is often referred to as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy.

Pickett's Charge was a disaster for the Confederate forces and ended Robert E. Lee's plan to move his army north to Harrisburg and on to Washington DC. While the Civil War continued for two more years, Gettysburg changed the dynamics of the war and General Lee was never truly on the offensive again.

Few can imagine the devastation left by this battle. The wagon train of wounded Confederates leaving Gettysburg stretched 17 miles, and those were just the troops well enough to evacuate. Thousands of badly wounded or dead Rebels were abandoned on the field, left to the mercies of Union soldiers who were overwhelmed by the thousands of their own casualties. The small community of 2,400 citizens was left with tens of thousands of dead and wounded soldiers and horses, unexploded ordinance and hundreds of pieces of cannon or wagon wreckage covering their landscape. Many Rebels were buried without markers in mass graves on the field; some estimate that even today there are as many as 1,000 soldiers buried on the battlefield in unknown, unmarked graves.

In the ensuing months, Pennsylvania and the federal government created the first national cemetery at Gettysburg. Thousands of soldiers from the battle were buried there. The soldiers in the mass graves were disinterred and returned to Virginia or buried in Gettysburg's cemetery. Many were interred as unknowns because they carried no identification or dog tags.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg to help dedicate the new National Cemetery. During this ceremony he delivered a two- to three-minute speech that is now universally considered one of America's greatest orations - The Gettysburg Address.

If you go to the Hoover Dam or Empire State Building, it doesn't take much effort to be impressed. You don't have to know anything about these structures to look at them and say "That's a big dam to build!" or "That's a big damn building!" (respectively).

Civil War battlefields aren't as easy. The soldiers are long gone, the flags are showcased in museums, and the cannon have been silent for almost 150 years. There are no super structures or fireworks or acrobatic demonstrations.

All you'll see are hills and fields, farm houses and small buildings, memorials and plaques. All you hear is quiet.

A civil war battlefield isn't a tangible place of great creation and invention, but an intangible place of great accomplishment and valor. You aren't there to witness the show but to view the empty stage and honor what took place there.

"A battlefield isn't a tangible place of great creation and invention, but an intangible place of great accomplishment and valor. You aren't there to witness the show but to view the empty stage and honor what took place there."To appreciate a civil war battlefield you need two things. First, you need a fundamental understanding of what happened at that location. Without that knowledge, Little Round Top is just an ugly hill and The Angle is an inconsequential little wall.

That's why research is so important. The battlefields have real human and historical significance; if you don't understand that significance, the places appear mundane and random.

The second thing you need is imagination. With imagination you can look out in awe from The Angle to see 12,000 Confederate soldiers, marching inexorably towards you through the merciless canister explosions and musket fire. You can walk through the Wheatfield in Gettysburg and experience the horror and desperation of the chaotic battle, watching the armies rage back and forth to leave thousands of dead and wounded to blanket that field.

You visit a civil war battlefield to see the stage. You research a civil war battlefield to understand what took place. But with imagination, you experience the emotions, sights and sounds of the battles themselves. You FEEL it.

On our second trip to Gettysburg I walked the route of Pickett's Charge. You can see the view of the Angle from Pickett's Charge in the photo to the right. In actuality, what I saw was a lot of grass, trees and weeds, a couple old fences and a bird that got angry with me because I was too close to its nest. But I experienced much more than that. Out there in the quiet field, I could see and feel what it must have been like as the rebels attacked the copse of trees. When I crossed Emmitsburg Road, I looked up at the Angle and could see hundreds of Union soldiers blasting thousands of minnie balls at me. (They missed, fortunately.) I literally felt the anxiety of approaching that low wall and wanted to run up there rather than walk. In my mind's eye I could see and hear it happen before me. I didn't just see The Angle - I experienced it.

You take as much from a visit to a battlefield as you're willing to bring with you. Don't be ashamed to try. Learn about what took place before you go. When you get to the battlefield, stand at a famous spot, close your eyes, and think about what took place there. Then open your eyes and see it play out before you. Listen for the sounds of cannon and rifle and men, imagine the smell of the smoke and gunfire. You will see AND feel that place, and the memories you take with you will be far more rich and powerful than you can imagine.

As we exited the battlefield via Hancock Avenue, we saw General Pickett's Buffet directly across the street (right next door to KFC). We wanted to find a quick bite to eat and figured a buffet is usually pretty fast, so we pulled in.

The buffet includes your usual salad fare, a selection of main course and veggie choices and desserts. The main courses included meat loaf, Salisbury steak, meatloaf, Veal parmigiana, Baked or BBQ chicken, deep-fried chicken nuggets, potatoes, pastas and casseroles with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans to go along with them. The Salisbury steak was really good, as was the corn and potatoes. My wife had the meat loaf - she said it was good, but tasted like Salisbury steak. LOL

The prices were good for a tourist town restaurant - $7.95 for lunch buffet or $10.95 for dinner. As we were getting set to leave General Pickett's Buffet, I told my wife that we should use the credit card to pay for lunch. She (foolishly) asked why. I said, "Because that would be a Pickett's Charge." Yeah, she wasn't amused either.

It's not gourmet fare but it's a buffet, what do you expect? The food was good for a buffet and the prices were very reasonable. I'd put this one on your short list, particularly if you want a fast meal without having to settle for fast food.

General Pickett's Buffet - 571 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg PA

One of the best websites for Civil War enthusiasts is CivilWarTraveler.com. They have a tremendous amount of historic information on virtually all aspects of the war in a website that is well designed and easy to use. My favorite part of the website is their section of podcasts.

For those of you still living in 1994, a podcast is a recording (usually just audio) that can be played on an Ipod or any other portable music player. The podcasts on CivilWarTraveler.com are perfect for someone going to Gettysburg on vacation. Each podcast focuses on one spot on the battlefield. A park ranger describes what took place at that particular location. You'll start in one place, listen to the ranger speak for a bit, then pause the recording and move to another vantage point and start up the recording again. The podcasts are walking tours that escort you around the location, offer a fantastic explanation of what happened from various positions. The paths from one stop to the next are easy to follow, usually marked with sign posts, and you can print out a map that shows the route and keep that with you. The routes are typically 1/2 to 1 1/2 miles so the walks are easily manageable as well.

Did I mention that these podcasts are FREE? Yep - they're well produced, extremely informational and entertaining, superbly narrated, and they're yours to download.

As you learn more about the battle at Gettysburg, you'll discover that the fighting was extremely chaotic. It's difficult to understand exactly what happened at each place and why the different locations were so important. The podcasts break it all down and make each location easier to understand.

Can you tell I'm a big fan of these podcasts? Before our trip I downloaded the podcasts and listened to each one several times, following along on the provided maps. When we got to Gettysburg, I picked one of the podcasts - the Wheatfield - and walked the route while listening again. My wife and I both did the walk, so we used Ipod speakers on our Ipod. After that, we played other podcasts in our car as we drove around the park. It was like hiring a private tour guide to accompany us in the park.

CivilWarTraveler.com has podcasts for many battlefields. For Gettysburg, they have podcasts for Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and Pickett's Charge. They're all great. Here is a link to the CivilWarTraveler.com - Audio Battlefield Guides.

Home Front is a cool store to visit. They have all kinds of uniforms, firearms and swords and assorted militaria to look through. They also have a good selection of fun gift items and souvenirs. I took our boys here on our first trip and they picked out their kepis (hats). The young man working the store was extremely helpful, and explained the various hat brass and other items available to put on the kepis. He also let the boys check out some of the weapons and answered a lot of questions for them - extremely friendly and helpful. He was so good I ended up returning later and picking up a hat on my own! Check out Home Front General Store's website.

Home Front General Store - 312 Baltimore St. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

We stayed one at the Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters. We found the Quality Inn through their website. Make note of this - all the online travel websites said this hotel was booked. I called and they had several rooms available. Do NOT trust the online travel websites when it comes to room availability!

During the battle of Gettysburg, General Lee appropriated the house of Mary "Widow" Thompson to use as his headquarters. Now, it must be said that as you travel through Civil War sites, you'll discover that half the buildings on the east coast were somebody's headquarters or sleeping place at one time or another. In this case, however, the claim is authentic and completely legitimate. Virtually any picture book on Gettysburg features 1863 photos of the Thompson House and it is widely recognized as one of Lee's best-known headquarters locations.

Today, you will find a Quality Inn hotel built around the original house. Behind the Thompson house was a barn that was used as a field hospital in 1863. This barn has been converted into a couple suites for the hotel.

We stayed in the upstairs suite in this former barn. This is one of the nicer suites I've stayed in. We enjoyed the king-size bed and the boys made do with the fold-out sofa bed. LOL The suite is very spacious and nicely decorated, and includes a microwave and refrigerator.

The hotel offers wireless Internet access but I couldn't get it to work that night and the desk clerk was completely clueless about it. They had an 800 number to call for tech support, but by that time I was frustrated with fighting the system and gave up. If you stay there, you can hope that wireless Internet access works but don't rely on it.

Regular rooms for the Quality Inn were about $105 with AAA discount. The suite was somewhere around $149. We could have used a regular room with two queen beds, but went with the suite because it was in an original building (coolness factor) and it was a nicer room. I think the suite is worth the extra money if you can afford it.

You will find that $100 or more per night is the going rate for hotels around Gettysburg, and many (if not most) places require a two-night stay on weekends. This is particularly true of B&Bs, we found. The Quality Inn does not require a two-night stay, which is a big plus.

It also should be mentioned that the Quality Inn's rate is extremely competitive with other hotels in the area, even though its location is just about as good as you can get. You are literally right across the street from the battlefield (McPherson Ridge area) and kitty-corner from the Lutheran Theological Seminary area.

The Quality Inn has several reports of ghost sightings; that's another reason we went with the suite in the original building. Our boys figured they would appease any ghosts that happened by . . . they had two kepis (hats), one confederate and one union, and they hanged their kepis on our bed posts. This must have worked - we had no ghostly experiences. (Not here anyway.)

A big thumbs up for the Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters. Competitive price, nice facilities, terrific location all make this a great choice.

Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters - 401 Buford Avenue, Gettysburg PA 17325, (717) 334-3141 thegettysburgaddress.com

If you have young kids or you just want a break from the battlefield, visit the Boyd's Bears Factory when you travel to Gettysburg.

The Boyd's Bears Factory is a huge red barn with a silo in front. The bear theme assails you before you even get inside; there are bears in the landscaping, on the patio, climbing up the silo, spinning on the weather vanes. . . you get the idea that your immediate future is going to be heavily devoted to bear-ism. The inside of the barn is a veritable explosion of bears. Three stories of stuffed bears, cold cast porcelain bears, bear pictures and clothing, etc. The top floor is a factory where you can build your own bear - we watched kids on this floor and they were having a ball. In the basement you'll even find a food court.

If you really want a cute souvenir that ties in to the Civil War theme, pick up their Union and Confederate bears named - appropriately - Mason and Dixon.

Okay, there is enough sweetness inside to throw a diabetic into a coma. But it's beautifully designed and finished, inside and out, and we really had a good time walking through it. If you're taking kids or you just like teddy bears, make sure you visit the Boyd's Bear Factory