Gettysburg Battlefield - Then and Now

[Atilla60]

Found this amazing collage and thought it was worth sharing

[Grim.Reaper]

Nice...and timely...will be heading to the battlefield in a few weeks....been a long time since I have been there, so looking forward to it.

[Hancock]

Say hi to my great grandfather, Joseph Giles, whose picture is on the wall of fame in the visitor center.  Fought with the 5th NJ infantry until early summer 1862, honorably discharged and reenlisted in 2nd US Cavalry for balance of war.  Post war went west with reorganized cavalry and ended up with one of the surviving units at Little Big Horn.  Great stories and memorabilia handed down.

[Sir Slash]

That brought back some fond memories of tromping around the battlefield for the better part of 3 days back in 2004 with my brother. And climbing that damned tower. Great find Attila.

[Grim.Reaper]

Ended up stopping at Gettysburg during my final couple days of vacation....didn't get to do a ton since I had the wife and kids, not real big fans of battlefields:)  But I can't complain since I still was able to get some sightseeing in...spent about a half of day driving around the battlefield and then the rest of the time we stayed in downtown Gettysburg where there were great little shops.  Unfortunately, we ended up picking the same days as when biker week was happening there so was very crowded and tough to get around.

I was at Gettysburg a long time ago when I was around 5 or so, but this was the first time I could really understand things.  I am no military expert, but the terrain around Gettysburg is pretty awful if you didn't grab the high ground right away.  Its hard to imagine why Lee stayed to fight there since his army had to fight through all the rough terrain and superior numbers.  I know Lee probably thought he was invincible and was determined to beat the Union army wherever they were, but just seems like he really faced a lot of odds that would be hard to overcome.  Just wonder what the outcome might have been if he didn't enter into full engagement in that area and maneuvered elsewhere.  I know both sides did not really intend to fight there or wanted a major engagement, just would have thought maybe a way to withdraw and fight another day.