We took a day trip to Gettysburg while Shawn was in meetings.
It was cold and rainy and we almost didn't go but I am so thankful that last minute we went ahead.
It was amazing! We started at the visitors center and museum, we also saw the movie and cyclorama, we almost didn't pay the extra, but I am glad we did.
Answering questions in the Jr. Ranger Books...
Lincoln enjoyed a treat to...
After the visitor center, we headed out to drive through the area of the battlefield and town...
The battle of Gettysburg last 3 days, the largest number of casulties at any given battle during the Civil War was here.
It was a humbling experience for the kids to realize that we walked upon
the grounds were men fell and died fighting for what they believed
in...
Over the years, I have read Lincoln's Gettysburg address. It has much deeper meaning to me now as I think of his words of sorrow, hope & healing for our nation.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
~Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet,
it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent
silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must
be performed; — grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your
sympathy.- Edward Everett- spoken before Lincoln at Gettysburg
May we never forget the rights we have to fight for what we believe in and those who have gone before us who have fought and many died for our freedoms...
