Gettysburg Reflections, or A Break From the Usual

Sesquicentennial.  It's a word that had been thrown about by committees, townsfolk, the college, and everyone else in between.  It's a word that had been used quite often to describe the distance between ourselves and the Battle of Gettysburg.  The Gettysburg Sesquicentennial by name alone referred to the removal from the event itself.

However, though the word aptly described the period of years between the current year, 2013, and the year of the event, 1863, and gave us all a tidy way of referring to "150 years ago...", sesquicentennial sounds like a removed event.  In reality, the events of the Battle of Gettysburg very much is an important event in United States history, as many would agree.  It was during July 1-3, 2013, nonetheless, that Americans probably felt closest to the history surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg despite the fact that the event was one that occurred 150 years ago.

Thousands traveled to the small, south-central Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg to commemorate, to learn, and to merely stand in the place that great Americans stood, and to look over the fields where armies marched.  In speaking with visitors on July 3, just before the commemorative Pickett's Charge walk from West Confederate Avenue to the ridge-line on Cemetery Ridge, quite a few of them spoke of a "draw" that brought them there.  Many had been to Gettysburg before, some had not, but all alike, they felt the need and the want to come to this place.  Is it duty?  Interest?  I'm not quite sure myself.  All I knew was that I would not miss the events and goings-on in my college town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  More to come (and hello again, my friends).

116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment Monument along Cemetery Ridge.

To the rear-right of the Angle at Gettysburg National Military Park, the cannon remain as tangibles for visitors.