This morning we had breakfast with Betty and Jessie Winslow. Mrs. Oliver (Linda's mom) was his sister. We enjoyed our time with them. He is a retired UPS driver and she worked in the Circuit Court where she recorded all wills and judgements.

We left Winchester around 10:45 and got to Gettsburg at noon. We could not check in until after 3:00, so we went on to the center of town. The square is similar to the one in Franklin, TN. We had lunch on the square and then toured the David Wills home. This is the place A. Lincoln stayed in the night before he gave his famous Address. The story we have always heard about him writing the address on the train to Gettysburg is false. He had already written the speech and just made a 'clean' copy that night in the Wills home.

This is a picture of the bed A. Lincoln slept in that night.

We then went to Robert E. Lee's headquarters. This was the original house. Lee ate his meals here and planned battles with his generals. We saw the table and chair that was in the house. His tent was across the street. There was a marker with a cannon pointing up. If the cannon was pointing down, it meant the general had died.

We were able to talk to one of the reenactors who was very informative. He shared so much with us. Then it was on to the battlefield. We drove around and saw all the state monuments. The first large one was for the Virginia regiments. That was the center point of the Southern line for the battle on July 3, 1863.(146 years ago today) We walked out into the battlefield a little way. It was very sobering.

We rode around to Little Round Top and walked out to where the Union soldiers were waiting for the Southerners to come up. Looking out we could see Devil's Den and the place called Slaughter's Pen. This is where most of the men from Alabama were killed.

We stood next to the 'clump of trees' that was where Lee had told Longstreet he wanted everything to converge to. This was what the Union considered the "high water mark" of the battle.

After we left the battlefield we went looking for gas for the car. Our GPS took us on a scenic ride through the farmlands. At one point there was a detour because a small bridge was closed. The GPS then took us around a different way to the same closed bridge. We finally got to our hotel and our room is very nice and large. There is an inside pool which we hope we can try out before we leave. We are tired tonight and looking forward to the first day of the reenactment tomorrow.