Our First Day in Gettysburg

We had a smooth two-day trip to Gettysburg and got settled into our campground on Sunday night. The next morning, we went to Gettysburg National Military Park to spend the day. We had a beautiful spring day and the park was not overly crowded. 

All around Gettysburg, the beautiful Redbud trees are blooming.

A couple people in our group have made trips to Gettysburg in the past, but all of us were looking forward to our time here with a new appreciation due to the extensive learning we’ve tried to do about the Civil War. Interestingly, one of the things that impressed us the most was the peacefulness of the pastoral fields that made up the battlefield of Gettysburg. It seems so strange to think that these beautiful fields were the site of the bloodiest of all the Civil War battles. There were almost 30,000 casualties in the 3-day war from July 1 - July 3, 1863. 


  

Here is our group sitting by the monument for the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment that fought at Gettysburg. 

The 1st Minnesota Infantry performed one of the most critical actions of the battle during Confederate General Longstreet’s Assault of July 2nd. Union General Hancock pointed to the advancing Confederates and ordered the Minnesota soldiers to “Take those colors!” Their sacrificial charge against the overwhelming Confederate advance bought desperately needed time for the Union line to reform. But their charge was at a huge cost - of the 262 soldiers in the regiment, only 47 survived. In fact, the Minnesota regiment suffered the highest percentage casualty rate (82%) of all the regiments in Gettysburg. 

After our first day exploring in Gettysburg, we stopped at a brewery recommended by someone at the National Park. We ended up eating dinner there, too, before heading back to our campground.