Hallowed Ground

View from Little Roundtop

History.  I rolled my eyes and fell asleep while it was being taught during my  middle and high school days.  Oh how a teacher can bring a subject to life or cloak it in lifeless narrative.  Perhaps it's unfair to blame my history teachers, but it wasn't until much later in life that I started to take interest in the events that led up to where the world, and particularly our country, is today.  I'm no civil war expert, but I will try to put these photos in perspective for you as I share a couple of days of battlefield touring with you.

Little Roundtop (hill on left) and Big Roundtop (hill on Right)

The first photo is the Union view down the barrel of a cannon from Little Roundtop.  The second photo is the Confederate view of Little Roundtop.  All that space in between is battlefield.  I'm not knowledgeable enough about the battle to narrate troop movement and strategy, so go to the map at this link to get a perspective of locations shown in these photos.  It took several rides and a bus tour of the roads and battlefields to get the lay of the land and begin to understand what happened on 1-3 July 1863.

One of numerous unit memorials scattered around battle field

One of the interesting facts our tour guide gave us was  that the majority of the dozens of monuments and memorials commemorating the different units that participated in the battle of Gettysburg were actually financed and placed by the units they represent.  Everywhere you look, there is some type of stone structure marking the location of a unit and commemorating those who died during the battle.

Site of the 20th Maine during the battle at Little Roundtop

During an advanced officer course I attended when I first arrived at Fort Sam Houston, we watched several clips from the movie Gettysburg as examples of good and bad leadership.  If you have not seen the movie based on the book The Killer Angels, it is a great movie filmed on the actual battle sites in Gettysburg.  One of the more poignant speeches relayed in the film is the one given by Union LTC Joshua Chamberlain during the Battle of Little Roundtop to his men.  LTC Chamberlain and his 20th Maine Regiment were posted on the south flank of Little Round Top and commanded to hold it at all costs.  If they failed, the Confederates would flank and surround the Union armies on the hill.  After defending against numerous charges, LTC Chamberlain's men were out of ammunition and exhausted.  Through his leadership, he rallied his men to fix bayonets and held their position.

Gettysburg vulture atop Little Roundtop

There's hardly a piece of land on which to walk in this town that does not have a story or hold you captive to the scene that played out in those bloody 3 days of American history.  It's hard to reconcile the beauty and peacefulness of this place today with the violence and carnage that occurred 150 years ago.  Everyday, we rolled down a road at the edge of the battlefields to get from our hotel to downtown Gettysburg.  Red barns, manicured lawns, lush pastures flanked by wooden fences similar to those during the battle and canons make for a surreal scene.

We stopped along the road to admire some of the canons and discovered a bird nest and an egg in one of them.  A reminder of the fragility of life and the passing of time and life cycles.  Another siting that connected the past to the present is the ever present vultures.  It's a little unsettling how these birds are constantly circling above the now serene battlefield and cemetery.  As our tour guide was talking us through the battle timeline atop Little Roundtop, two vultures circled overhead and I captured this photo.

Bird nest and egg in canon.

It's been a great trip to Gettysburg seeing the sights, learning about American history and hanging out with over 1200 bikers, but it is now time for us to start moving west.  In typical fashion, I have no set itinerary and the two folks travelling with me don't seem to mind, so we will meander our way back to Texas and see what interesting adventures and sties await.   

Sunshine, Kickstand, Sassy, McGyver, L.F. and Big Bird