We started our tour walking through the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Here, many Civil war and subsequent war soldiers are buried. Many of the graves are marked "unknown." These graves, from the civil war, hold unknown remains. The names of the soldiers who fought in the civil war are, for the most part, known, but many of the bodies were unidentified. The civil war was fought before the use of dog tags. So, unless the soldier had something on his person that would identify him, he might go unidentified if he was killed in battle. This cemetery was also where President Abraham Lincoln made the Gettysburg Address on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated the Confederates at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg.
We then began our auto tour of the park. It took several hours and we saw the scenes of the major battles and heard detailed descriptions of these battles. We also saw memorials to soldiers and officers. Each state of the union and confederacy had a memorial to its soldiers and many individuals also had memorials. One of the most impressive memorials was the Robert E. Lee memorial.
Ann made meatloaf for dinner and we watched Dancing with the Stars. Tomorrow we head south. I think we're going to take a couple of days off from sight seeing and just drive about 150 miles each day, park, and relax. On Thursday we'll arrive at the Statesville, NC, KOA where we'll stay for the weekend.
These pictures depict a barn that is on one of the battlefields. The hole in the front facade of the barn is a cannonball hole. Left-Click on a picture to open a large version of the picture in your browser.
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