Visiting Gettysburg

If you read my Harrisburg page, you’ll know that this trip here was perhaps my first ever domestic trip I took after I created my website. Gettysburg is perhaps one of the most important sites in American history, so I certainly need to return for a proper visit, or at least for some proper photography. The battle of Gettysburg took place from July 1st to July 3rd in 1863. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had just won a major victory against the Union, and decided to invade further north. The bloody battle that followed left more causalities than any other battle in American history. In just three days, both the southern and northern armies suffered over 50,000 casualties. The site of Gettysburg today is filled with literally over a 1,000 monuments, with this one above being one of the most prominent.

Although the battlefield is covered with historical markers, cannons, and graves, I took the most photos inside Gettysburg’s museum. A photo above shows one of the civil war cannons that was used during the war.

Maybe the most incredible part of the museum are these civil war photographs. At a time when photography was new to the world, it’s incredible to see real footage from the 1800’s. Because cameras back then could not take shots of moving objects, most of the photos were of soldiers posing, fortifications or the aftermath of the battle. The photo above shows soldiers in camp, and the photo below is probably the most famous one taken of the entire war. The field of dead Union Soldiers after the battle of Gettysburg was titled “The Harvest of Death”.