Gettysburg: Time Travel Back To the 1800's
Recently we decided we needed to go to Gettysburg, a brand new battlefield for me to visit.
I was very excited. I love history, especially Civil War era and it had been on my bucket list for a long time.
Nearly a million visitors a year come to Gettysburg National Military Park, where battlefields and memorials cover some 6,000 acres of rolling land just five miles north of the Mason-Dixon line. The site of one of the most consequential battles and most influential speeches in American history, Gettysburg shaped the country as we see it today.
Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1895 to commemorate an 1863 battle that turned the tides of the Civil War. Situated in rural southern Pennsylvania, this landscape was once a hub for settlers, travelers and traders before bearing witness to the war’s deadliest clash. Today, the park all but surrounds the town of Gettysburg and features 1,300 monuments, 400 cannons and nearly 150 historic buildings. The park also provides diverse habitats that support a range of plants and animals, including the highest density of red-headed woodpeckers of any monitored site in Pennsylvania.
We took the scenic route as they say, through the back roads of PA. It was a beautiful day but driving through the Allegheny Mountains is exhausting. It is not as bad as driving through West Virginia, but pretty close.
So we finally got to the Hampton Inn and it was in a nice location. But there didn’t seem to be a lot of restaurants around. There was a Sheetz, a Ruby Tuesday, and a few other restaurants. I was surprised by such a high tourist area, that it seemed more country than touristy.
The next thing I noticed was the number of crows. A surprising amount. In Ohio, we have a lot of hawks, at least where I live. But in Gettysburg, it’s all crows.
Crows sometimes appear as a method of divination and prophecy. In some mythologies, crows are seen as a sign of bad things to come, but in others, they are considered to be messengers from the gods. Crows often appear as trickster characters in folklore and legend.
I don’t like crows overall because they, to me, aren’t a good omen. And they are whip-smart.
So we check-in, then head over to the museum. They also offer a movie, exhibits, and a gift shop. We decided to check out the museum but not the movie.
So we checked out the museum which was interesting but not that exciting. Most people were NOT wearing masks, which was not surprising. I’ve been doing the same thing for 2 years, so it’s all the same to me.
On the way out, we visited the gift shop and got some cool fake Union money and a Union cap.
The sky was bright blue, it was almost 50 degrees and really we could not ask for a better day.
We headed out to the battlefield, first downloading their $9.99 audio tour that plays on your phone.
There are lots of ways to tour the battlefield, from Segway, to walking to driving to tour buses. Check out this website for everything Gettysburg and to plan your trip.
I tried to go into this situation on the battlefield without knowing too much. I had learned about the Civil War in school. And I had heard about how haunted it is, and how people who don’t even believe in ghosts see or hear things.
But I was trying to go into it with an open mind.
Here is our first stop:
Cars are allowed to park on the side of the road to get out to take photos or just look at the monuments up close.
The very first monument we stopped at, I walked up to it as a crow landed on top of it. I did not take that well. It flew away before I could snap a photo.
The battlefield itself is very quiet. For a place surrounded by civilization, it is a very quiet place. Not a lot of birds and animals, even though these are big open fields.
As we followed the audio tour, I was looking around, trying to take everything in. Then to my left, I spotted movement in the edge of the woods. I swear it looked like a person wearing gray/tan and moving through the trees.
When I looked back they were gone. It was not a human person, it was way off the road where no one was walking. Now, remember, this is during the day and I was not hoping for anything like that.
My husband asked if it was a deer, and I said, no that was not a deer. The next eerie place we visited was Devil’s Den.
This is roped off for now, under construction I guess. So we could not walk up to it, but it definitely had energy coming off it.
I have been to many other historical places like Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry, Williamsburg, etc. but this place had energy all its own.
After our tour, we got some snacks and went back to the hotel room. We decided to take a break before our ghost tour.
I have never been on a ghost tour and was definitely nervous. But where else would I go on one except the most haunted place in the country?
The downtown area is very cute, old, and charming. It is a town straight out of the 1800s. Filled with old brick buildings, it is like time traveling.
We got our tickets and got in line. The girl leading us on tour wore a big hoop skirt, very Civil War era. There were about 10 people on the tour.
The first 45 minutes were walking the back alleys and stopping while the guide told us stories. It was kind of boring, I had hoped for more tours of old homes. I was trying to be a good sport about it and my poor husband, who does not believe in supernatural at all, was trying to play along.
After the tour, we got some Friendly’s ice cream and dinner (takeout) at a burger/pub joint Appalachian Brewing Co.
Everywhere was packed, as it was a Saturday night. We ate take-out back at our hotel room and got to sleep early.
That night, I had the weirdest night’s sleep of my life. Odd, Technicolor dreams, I dreamed of someone chasing me and woke up in a freezing cold room. I slept well(ish) but when 8 am, the sun was bright and I had to get up.
The place was starting to get to me, I could tell.
It is a very subtle thing when you are in Gettysburg. It is not an obvious spooky place, there is just this unsettling undercurrent.
I would not want to be downtown at night or on the battlefield at night either.
Overall though, it is a really fun, amazing place to visit! Especially if you love history, it is a must-see.