Gettysburg

My dad was able to spend a few extra days with us after the marathon so we decided to take him to Gettyburg. We all enjoyed walking and driving around the different historical sites. It was a beautiful area, much like the Antietam Battlefield in a lot of ways. It was also very sobering to think about what had occurred on these grounds almost 150 years ago. I thought that I would include an excerpt from the Gettyburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln about 4 months after the Battle of Gettysburg concluded...

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The Eternal Light Peace Memorial dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 during the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The beautiful grounds of the battlefield.

A replica of a Civil War cannon.

My dad trying to soak everything in. We could have been there for several days and still not seen everything.

The Gettyburg National Cemetery where almost 4,000 Union soldiers were buried and many more men and women who have served in an American War. This was also the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

One of the things I love most about living in Maryland is being so close to so much history. We love it when people come to visit because it gives us a good reason to visit all of these historical places nearby. So all of those who haven't visited us yet (and that would be most of you!!), be sure to visit us soon!