How To Take an Easy Fun Car Tour of Gettysburg

July 4, 1863 Telegraph from President Lincoln:

“The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3rd. is such as to cover that Army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen. And that for this, he especially desires that on this day, He whose will, not ours, should ever be done, be everywhere remembered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude.”

President Abraham Lincoln, July 4, 1863

Day Trip to the Gettysburg Battlefield

One of my favorite things to do is to drag my entire family out on day trips. Gettysburg was just such a trip. It’s close to our house, and it is all outdoors.

Gettysburg is such a humongous historical battlefield that it is actually a driving tour. It was a good thing too because we went in freezing weather. The wind was howlin’! But you know I’ve never been one to let a little hostile weather lock me in. It was my birthday, and we made the most of it.

Four Key Facts to Know About the Battle of Gettysburg:

#1. This national park protects the very land of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, from the American Civil War.

#2. The Union Army won this battle, and it is considered the turning point of the Civil War.

#3. Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. It effectively ended Confederate General Lee’s invasion of the North.

There were over 51,000 casualties.

#4. It is the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, which he made at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery dedication.

A lot of that you may have already known.

But did you know that Lincoln was deeply disappointed in the end game performance of General Meade at this battle?

You see, Meade allowed the Confederate troops to flee the battlefield free of pursuit. President Lincoln thought if only Meade’s forces had given them chase, they could have finished off the war altogether. At this point, the Civil War had already dragged on for two years, and naturally the President was anxious to see it end.

Lincoln actually wrote a letter of reproach to General Meade but then did not send it to him.

Tips for Touring:

#1. There is a museum with gift shop.

Visit the museum first instead of last! We goofed on that by waiting until the end of our tour. The gift shop and the museum all closed up shop just five minutes before we finished up our tour and were ready to enter. Sad.

#2. Use a self- guided tour app!

They have bus tours you can sign up for, and horse tours, and all sorts of things. We just downloaded the app on our phone and toured in the comfort of the minivan. There are actually several apps to choose from. The apps work with your GPS. They know where you are and will give you the history as you drive.

I think we used this app.

Unfortunately, we were still figuring it out at the beginning and completely missed the cemetery area. This was disappointing because the cemetery is where the Lincoln statue and information are. Don’t skip the cemetery! See, you really do learn more from your mistakes…

Otherwise, the app was awesome. It told us history about each place we visited and explained many of the monuments. We used Bluetooth on my phone to play it through the van speakers, so everyone in the car could hear well.

#3. Plan for this whole tour to take a few hours.

You will stop and get out a lot. There are even tall look-out pavilions to climb and get views.

#4. Devil’s Den has lot of rocks that children like to climb on.

My kids passed on the climbing when we went though. It was too windy and FREEZING.

#5. If you have access to ancestry.com or family history, look up what grandfather you may have had that fought in this battle.

I was surprised to discover I had many grandfathers who fought in this battle, and so did my husband. Try to find which unit they fought with and if they lived to tell the tale.

The Gettysburg Address

“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 battle-field 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.“

Alan says my brooch looks like a sheriff’s badge. Ha!! I still think it’s pretty. Long live the brooch.

“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 resolved 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.“

President Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

For more information, check out the Gettysburg website.

I hope you get to go. It was fascinating. I have one last group of photos I MUST share with you. This isw my favorite picture and sighting from the trip. How cool is this?

This barn was there before the battle, and it still stands. It STILL bears the cannon hole from the Battle of Gettysburg!

Closing Thoughts from Lincoln

If you are a history lover like me, there is nothing better than reading commentary from the people who lived it and lead it.

Lincoln noted in his second inaugural address that he believed the war dragged on so long so that our country might pay for every drop of enslaved blood that had been shed. Here is his exact quote:

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’

~Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address