This weekend I'm headed to Gettysburg, PA (aka the Holy Land) for my first official drill with the 139th and 149th PA Bucktails. This will also be the first official time I will be wearing the Blue Wool (not counting the numerous times I've tried the gear on in my house just to see how it looks). I've been gathering my Civil War reenactor kit supplies and uniform and I'm ready to go!
Gettysburg remains a simple and small Pennsylvania town (just 7,500 officially live in the town) and without the convergence of federal and confederate troops in July of 1863...it would remain as such. Every year thousands of reenactors, historians, visitors and passers by flock to this small place to commemorate and honor those who blazed the trail in the forming of our country.
Each trip to Gettysburg allows for a bevy of activities to choose from...museums, history trails, monuments, etc...and of course...The Battlefield. For me, while I am deeply interested in the history of the Civil War and Gettysburg...I am drawn to The Battlefield. There's something about walking on the same grounds that those heroic men walked on nearly 150 years ago...looking out over the open fields...imagining what they saw and heard (and smelled) when they were there so long ago. I would much rather be alone in the fields of Gettysburg...than in the Visitors Center with the hundreds of cattle pouring through.
That being said, I'm looking forward to this weekend's trip to Gettysburg...the Holy Land.
