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GettysbergConsidered one of the World's best military site to have been preserved and recorded. Gettysberg, PA offers more monuments, statues and markers than there are grains of sand at the beach.
Backdrop Fed up with North Virginia being the ongoing battleground of the Civil War, Robert Lee decides to move his army up north and invade the Union state of Pennsylvania. Spread out from Harrisburg to York, he is desirous of drawing the Union's Army of the Potomac out of Virginia. They do so positioning themselves in order to prevent the Confederates from marching on Washington, DC or Baltimore Maryland.
Prelude Despite having orders not to engage each other, on January 1st 1863 fighting breaks out while each side tries to jockey for position on the high ground. This started, initially on the north side of town at a place called McPherson's Ridge.
Day 2 Having been chased off the north side, the Union takes up positions on the south side of town while more troops from each side race onto the scene. Getting pushed around the Union manages to hold a rocky outcropping known as Little Round Top, with a bayonet charge.
Day 3 Lee, desires a victory and commits troops to take the Union held positions along cemetery ridge in an action later called Picketts charge. This proved disastrous for the Confederacy as the Union had laid in wait with their cannons and used these with devastating effect on the advancing Confederates.
On July 4th Lee's army begins to withdrawn from Gettysberg and retreats back to Virginia, breaking the myth of his invulnerability and no longer able to invade the northern states.
The bloodiest battle of any American engagement and trying to paraphrase it into a few short paragraphs an insult to the one and many encounters that comprise what should be called the battles of Gettysburg. There is a National Military Park with visitor's center, cafe, and tickets for movies, an Eisenhower dedicated area also requiring purchase to access as well as a self guided road tour around the town of Gettysburg featuring interpretive narration along the monument studded fields and roadways (many of them honoring the many men who came down from New York)
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