150th Anniversary of Gettysburg

Tom and I hit the road by 6 AM Friday morning to spend his birthday at the 150th anniversary of the Civil War Reenactment of the Battles of Gettysburg.

Once there, we parked at the community college and hopped a bus that took us up to the field.

 Climbed the hill to the festivities.....

All kinds of "shops" for authentic clothes, toys, supplies, etc.

 There were 2 big activity tents with speakers but we never were able to get in and get a seat!

 It was plenty interesting to hear the history from just individuals.....

 The re-enactors are supposed to live authentically while they are there so they do their cooking, washing up, and everything else.....(well there WERE port-potties and we did see one woman on a cell phone)

 It was in the 90's with 50% humidity.....big open fields with plenty of sun....finally bought a big floppy hat.  Yes, mom....I should have just kept the ones you bought for my wedding.

The first battle was at 11 AM but all the grandstand seating was sold out so we just stood along the field to watch.

Custer

 The battle itself was out in the middle of the field so it was pretty hard to see anything.  There was no falling off of horses (well, except the one guy who got thrown by his horse who clearly didn't like the cannons or gun fire) or playing dead.  It was kind of hard to really get what was going on. This story includes a video that gives a perspective.  An actor portraying Lincoln performed the Gettysburg Address over the loud speaker and then after the battle they all did a loop around so we could see them close up.

 We left the battle area and walked to the camps where the soldiers were just returning from battle.  Can't imagine how hot they were in those uniforms.

 Tom chatted with this young private who was guarding headquarters.

 We liked this campground because of the shade!  Met some interesting folks there.  An engineering troop was camping and a few of them chatted with us about their responsibilities....building bridges, cutting down trees, etc.  We met a woman who was there cooking for the troop and she said that during the war each of the men would pay 50 cents a month to a cook who would make 4 meals a day.  That meant she would make more money than most of those men. She had venison stew over the fire with slabs of bread.

 Some tents were nicer than others.....this one clearly had been laid out by a woman!

 This little group was playing as we came up.  They sounded great.

 We ran into this couple who were on their way to a wedding ceremony in one of the tents.  They opened it up to anyone who wanted to renew their vows as well.

We finally found a covered tent to just catch some shade with a drink and two couples recommended some books by an author who had spoken earlier and was there signing books.  Jeff Shaara was his name (I guess if you're a fan of historical novels you would know him or his father, Michael) so we headed to the authors tent to check out the books.  While there, General Custer himself showed up!

 They had postcards and banners they were sending overseas to the troops for us to sign......

After 7 hours in the sun, we opted against staying for the second battle which wasn't going to start for a couple of more hours.  We headed back through town and towards home...

 This guy had a miniature diorama of the battlefield on his head.  Wish I had gotten a better shot but I was in the car.

Always has to be a protest!

 After we saw how long it took us to get out of town because of traffic we were really glad we didn't wait to leave with the thousands of others!  Would like to go back in cooler weather when it's not so crowded.  A happy day for the birthday boy though........