Visiting Gettysburg

If you read my Harrisburg page, you’ll know that this trip was one of the first domestic trips I took after creating my website. Gettysburg is one of the most important historic sites in the United States, so this is definitely a place I need to return to for a more thorough visit—and some better photography! The Battle of Gettysburg took place from July 1–3, 1863, after Confederate General Robert E. Lee brought his army north into Pennsylvania. What followed was three days of intense fighting between Union and Confederate forces and one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, with roughly 50,000 total casualties. Today the enormous battlefield is preserved with more than a thousand monuments and memorials dedicated to the soldiers and military units that fought here. The monument above is one of the many impressive memorials I came across while exploring Gettysburg.

The battlefield itself is covered with historical markers, monuments, artillery pieces, and other reminders of the fighting that took place here. The cannon photographed above is one of the many artillery pieces displayed around Gettysburg. With such a massive battlefield and so many individual sites associated with the battle, you could easily spend an entire day driving and walking around the park. On this visit, however, I ended up taking most of my photos inside the Gettysburg museum, where the exhibits provide much more context about the battle and the Civil War.

One of the most incredible parts of the museum for me was seeing photographs taken during the Civil War. Photography was still relatively new in the 1860s, which makes it remarkable that actual photographic records of the war survive. The long exposure times required by cameras of the period made photographing fast-moving battles impractical, so photographers generally captured soldiers posing in camps, military fortifications, landscapes, and the aftermath of battles. The photograph above shows soldiers during the war and gives a much more personal glimpse into the people who actually lived through the conflict.

The photograph above is one of the most famous images associated with Gettysburg and the Civil War. Known as A Harvest of Death, it shows soldiers killed during the Gettysburg campaign and captures the reality of the war in a way that monuments and written descriptions simply can’t. Images like this were among the first times in history that photography brought the aftermath of warfare directly to the public. Seeing these photographs in a museum located beside the battlefield where they were taken made the history of Gettysburg feel much more immediate.

Gettysburg was a major turning point in the Civil War, but there’s far more here than I was able to experience during this early trip. Between the battlefield, monuments, cemetery, museum, historic buildings, and the town itself, I could easily return and spend several days exploring. Considering how close Gettysburg is to home compared with most of the places I’ve traveled, I definitely need to come back someday and give one of America’s most important historic sites the time it deserves.