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Day 6

We started this day at the visitor's center and signed up to have our own personal guide for the tour of the battlefields. Kurt (our guide) met us at 12:30 and the tour lasted 2.5 hours. He drove our car and talked the entire trip. It was will worth our money for this trip. On Friday, Linwood gave me the tour. On Sat and Sun we did the reenactments of the battles and today I think I finally understand where each side was and how the battles evolved. Kurt used my hand to show us how the Union line made a 'fish hook'. He said the South was so close to winning after the first day. He and Linwood felt if Stonewall Jackson had not be killed shortly before Gettysburg, things could have turned out differently. When Lee ordered the top of the hook to be cleared, Gen Ewell hestitated. Jackson would have completed the job and the war may not have gotten to day 2 or 3.

Kurt also made sure we saw the Alabama monument. He wanted us to understand how hard our men fought.

Words from Linwood:

I did something today I had always wanted to do. I walked across the field the Army of Northern Virginia marched across at 4:00 p.m. on July 3, 1863. The Union Army was waiting for them 0.9 miles over. Today the field had several paths cut through it, but off the path the grass was waist deep. The ground was not level like the movie "Gettysburg" said. As I walked across, I could picture all the shells hitting around our boys but they never stopped. It gave me a sense of pride that I am a Southerner, as well as an American. As I got to the Emmitsburg Road which our men had to cross, the field was on an incline. I don't believe any army could overcome the Union guns blazing down on them. At the top, the men had to climb over a rock wall. This was the hight water mark for the South. Margaret let me out at the Virginia Monument and drove around the National Park to the "corpse of trees" where I came up the hill. I am so glad I did this.

Tonight we are in Carlisle, PA. Tomorrow we plan to start our search for information on Linwood's dad's family.