After we left Charles Town and our awesome visit with Frank Buckles, Bob and I made the only decision of the entire trip that I regret. We had thought that this trip might have a John Brown theme much as our Virginia trip had had somewhat of a Stonewall Jackson theme, so an obvious choice of locations to visit was Harpers Ferry – most noted for the federal arsenal raid by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. However since we were a little behind schedule after just one day’s worth of travel, we decided to skip it. Only later did we realize that we probably would have been okay on time.
We left Charles Town at 3:00pm on Saturday, June 13th and headed directly to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, for our first Presidential location of the trip. Here we visited Mercersburg Academy to see the relocated birthplace cabin and then to the James Buchanan State Park near the village of Cove Gap to see the memorial sitting in the spot where the cabin was once located. Between the two visits, we were severely skewed from our path trying to find the second destination. By plugging the address of the park that maintains the Buchanan State Park into our GPS, we traveled a good 20 miles in the wrong direction and then back again. These locations are covered in much greater detail here.
About 15 miles northwest of Mercersburg was the historic town of Chambersburg. We only visited one specific location here, the house in which John Brown, using the name Smith, boarded during the Summer of 1859. While here, he received firearms and ammunition, which he would use later that year during the Harpers Ferry raid.
We roamed around the center of town known as Memorial Square, where we browsed the various historic markers, the Memorial Fountain and Union Soldier Statue, which was dedicated in 1878 and honored the 5,000 local soldiers who served during the Civil War. The town was also historic for the trouncing it took during the Civil War. The city was set afire by Confederate troops on July 30, 1864, when it couldn’t raise the ransom to pay off the enemy army. It was a brutal example of destruction of civilian homes which had theretofore been off limits during previous Civil War battles.
Outside the John Brown house. We didn’t go in.
In Memorial Square in Chambersburg. They have lots of patriotism as you can see.
After our visit to Chambersburg, we stopped at CVS and I bought some baked cheese snack crackers. However, I saved them for later. Instead, we stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel, which is a tradition instituted by Bob. I enjoyed the grilled Reuben platter. Did I mention I saved the cheese crackers until later?
The first of two Cracker Barrels on the trip
Bob buys his traditional chocolate covered mothballs
In 1983, I took a trip with my grandparents to Virginia and we ate at Cracker Barrel along the way. There I picked up one of every flavor of candy sticks for 10 cents each. At this location, I first noticed that they were 10/$1.00 over 25 years later. For old times sake, I picked up 10. Over the course of the trip, I ate them all.
Our destination after dinner was Gettysburg. This was a location that was not originally on our itinerary but I really wanted to visit it to see a couple of the main attractions here. We arrived a little after 8:00 and checked into the Quality Inn. This wasn’t just any Quality Inn though. It was the General Lee’s Headquarters Quality Inn – meaning that on this location, General Lee took over a private home owned by a local widow and commanded the Confederate troops from it on July 1, 1863, the first day of the battle.
This battle was waged for three days and was the bloodiest of the Civil War, resulting in close to 8000 men killed and over 27,000 wounded. Abraham Lincoln would deliver his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on November 19, 1863.
Since it was late in the evening, we didn’t have much light left to explore the city but we did drive around a bit, noting some of the 1600-plus monuments and memorials within the historic district of the Gettysburg National Battlefield. One of the most significant ones was the Eternal Light Peace Memorial dedicated by Franklin Roosevelt on July 3, 1938, on the 75th Anniversary of the war. The next day in Harrisburg, Bob and I would see footage of this dedication, at which 65 men who had actually fought in the battle were present. The Memorial was also a spot that Dwight D. Eisenhower liked to take visiting guests during the time he lived in Gettysburg.
Picking a random statue on the battlefield with which to pose. This was a memorial to John Burns, a citizen of Gettysburg, who at over 70 years old, shouldered his musket and did his part in the Battle of Gettysburg
It was no surprise that I might find a cannon here
It was near this spot that the Battle of Gettysburg first opened
Atop the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. See the flame?
Speaking of Ike, one of the main purposes for my visit to Gettysburg was to see his compound, which was the main goal of the next day. We had made our way back to the room at about 9pm on Saturday and turned in for the night just a bit later – after I had eaten some of my cheese crackers of course. The next morning we got up bright and early and attempted to see the site of the Gettysburg Address (at which time the photo at the top of the posting was taken). Although we saw the sign outside the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the burial grounds were not yet open. So we went back to the hotel to have our continental breakfast at about 7am.
Exploring the Gettysburg Military Park by the dawn’s early light
Me and Bob with our continental breakfasts. I guess that means we ate it in North America.
We had another minor GPS issue when it took us to the Eisenhower National Historic Site after breakfast. Bob and I were a bit puzzled when we saw no signs or parking lot in the spot where it was supposed to be, but then realized that we had to purchase our tickets at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center.
There we were sidetracked once again when we discovered the giant Civil War Museum located here. I talked Bob into going through this museum which also included the Morgan Freeman narrated film A New Birth of Freedom, and a viewing of the massive Gettysburg Cyclorama, a panoramic 360-degree painting some 365 feet in circumference painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux. We had about 90 minutes to see all this before we caught our shuttle to the Eisenhower compound. Details of the Presidential location can be found here.
Outside the museum
With a portion of the beautiful Gettysburg Cyclorama
Civil War Vision 3eee-Deee!
We spent an hour at the Eisenhower site and then finally made it back to the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where we saw the Lincoln Address Memorial, located about 300 feet from the spot where the Gettysburg Address was given, and the Soldiers National Monument, which sits on the spot of the Address.
Outside the Gettysburg National Cemetery
The Lincoln Address Memorial
The giant Soldiers National Monument, the center of the cemetery and the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address
A cannon in the cemetery with the graves of our brave soldiers behind me
Hometown pride: a memorial erected by the State of Ohio
And for our last stop in Gettysburg, we took a free walk-thru of the General Lee’s Headquarters that was located on the property of our hotel. This had been converted into a small museum and contained a couple of items, including the desk, used by General Robert E. Lee during his one-day occupation of the property during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Outside Robert E. Lee’s Headquarters. I slept just a stone’s throw from here.
There were plenty of cannons in Gettysburg and I fully intended to utilize them for my own purposes – including this one outside the Lee Headquarters
This table was in the room on the day that General Lee used this house as his headquarters. Lee leers over me to be sure I didn’t steal anything
We had had a relatively full Sunday already by this point, but it was only about 12:30pm. Time to press on to more major sites in Pennsylvania.
To be continued…
Well, I guess the obvious question is: Which flavor of stick was your favorite?
Chris
July 16th, 2009