Two days ago, I visited Antietam, site of General Lee's first invasion of the north and the bloodiest single day battle in U.S. history. Now I am at Gettysburg site of Lee's second northern incursion and a three-day battle, each day almost as bloody as Antietam.

The battle itself was an accident. Lee had split his army to forage on the farms in the north, expected the union army would pursue him. By threatening Washington, he hoped he could draw the union army into battle on ground of his choosing and defeat them. Upon hearing that the northern army was indeed heading his way, he sent orders for all corps to converge upon Gettysburg simply as a gathering point. He did not intend to fight there.

Unknown to him though, was that Union General John Buford's cavalry had arrived in Gettysburg first and spotted the initial Confederate troops heading to town. His dismounted Calvary engaged these troops on July 1st 1863. Though his single cavalry brigade could not hold off the Confederate army, it delayed their advance enough for the lead elements of the union army to occupy the high grounds south of Gettysburg. Whether Lee wanted to fight here or not, the battle had begun.

The movie Gettysburg does a fairly accurate job portraying the battle and I do recommend it for those interested. I enjoyed actually seeing in person the spots featured in the movie. I was struck by the term "ridge" as in Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge, the two primary ridges occupied by the Confederates and union, respectively. I picture a Ridge as a fairly high, long mountain range. These ridges at Gettysburg are anything but that, some only rising 20 or 30 feet above the surrounding land. Nonetheless they played an important part in the battle itself as much fighting occurred between them.

One thing I did want us to see on the battlefield was the monument for the New York 147th regiment. One member for the regiment, Cyrus Brown, was thought to be an ancestor who had been wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. However, after returning home and doing some additional research, it turns out there were several Cyrus Browns at the battle and it's looking like one of the others was actually my ancestor.

I spent about a day and half at Gettysburg. On the first day most of the morning was spent at the visitor center seeing the movie and visiting the exhibits. I also sat in on one ranger presentation, which was an overview of the battle. I finally set out in the afternoon to visit the battlefield only to have a monsoon-like rain start falling. After a few stops, with the rain still falling, I decided to come back the following morning when the weather was supposed to be nicer. Indeed, the next day was beautiful. I arrived very early and drove the entire battlefield tour. My final stop was the National Cemetery before I heading to my next park.