About Gettysburg

When you hear the word "Gettysburg", what images come to mind? Well, if you remember your history lessons, you will no doubt remember one or two things; the Gettysburg Address and the 3 day battle that took place in July, 1863. Indeed these are important historical facts and you can add other visuals like cannons, and monuments, re-enactments, which are all part of the Gettysburg experience.  When I first visited Gettysburg, I drove around in my car and tried to visualize what it must have been like back in 1863. I read the brochures, listened to the tapes and I thought I had learned all there was to learn, but as I made subsequent visits and read books and watched videos, and took tours, I found that Gettysburg wasn't just  the scene of a great battle, and the place where a President came to honor the dead , but also, it was a small farming community that was devastated  and paid a price just for being in the path of war.

Today, Gettysburg survives and thrives. As a travel destination, it's a must for Civil War buffs. It's also a good place to live, work and play. It has it's ups and downs as much as any small town in America. It's not unlike your  home town, except we see a million visitors a year on our streets and avenues. It's the people who founded this town and the people who survived the horror of war and the people who have kept it alive for over 145 years that should also be studied here because their hard work and determination is what makes Gettysburg what it is today.

Of course the best way to experience Gettysburg is to visit in person, but if that's not possible, I've listed some of the Gettysburg books I've read and the Gettysburg movies I've seen that allowed me to visualize the Gettysburg the past, and the Gettysburg of today.