This Saturday...

Saturday we loaded up and headed out to Gettysburg to enjoy the afternoon walking around. I really enjoyed this little trip. It truly puts the battle into scope. There's a little loop you can drive on and get all the major point and be able to see exactly what each side would have seen with each day of the battle. Just imaging a line of guys a mile long charging the hill we were on was very amazing and connected everything I learned in history class.

You have to imagine it... this is a TINY TINY town now, back then it was even smaller. And coming from each side we have 90,000 Union troops and 70,000 Confederate troops. After three days of fighting there were 7,000 dead, nearly 30,000 wounded and close to 12,000 missing. We were told by the tour guide that after the battle all the dead troops and horses (roughly 6,000 dead horses) were left scattered all about the town and surrounding hills, leaving the clean up to the 2,000 residents.

This battle serves as a very important turning point in the war.. the Union Army chases the Confederate Army to the south. Lincoln will later give his famous Emancipation Proclamation from here. In all honesty we owe who we are now to this little town.