Guide Exploring Gettyburg, Pennsylvania | SolarTravels.com

<body> Destination Guides Search for a City Destination Guides > North America > USA > Mid-Atlantic > Pennsylvania > Central Pennsylvania > Gettysburg Gettysburg Travel Options Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars • Gettysburg · The Town · The Battleground • Information And Getting Around • Eating And Nightlife • Hotels in Gettysburg GETTYSBURG BE THERE NOW Hotels in Gettysburg • Wyndham Gettysburg Gettysburg from $107.00 USD • Super 8 Gettysburg Pa Gettysburg from $75.00 USD • Gettysburg Travelodge Gettysburg from $89.13 USD More Hotels in Gettysburg >> Vacation Rentals in Gettysburg • James Gettys Hotel B&B Gettysburg from $145.00 USD More Vacation Rentals in Gettysburg >> READ IT HERE The small town of GETTYSBURG , thirty miles south of Harrisburg near the Maryland border, gained tragic notoriety in July 1863 for the cataclysmic Civil War battle in which fifty thousand men died. There were more casualties during these three days than in any American battle before or since - a full third of those who fought were killed or wounded - and entire regiments were wiped out when the tide finally turned against the South. Four months later, on November 19, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery. His two-minute speech, in memory of all the soldiers who died, is acknowledged as one of the most powerful orations in American history. Lincoln himself was convinced that it was a "flat failure," and prefaced his remarks with the words "the world will little note nor long remember what we say here &"; you'll be muttering it in your sleep by the time you leave. Gettysburg, by far the most baldly commercialized of all the Civil War sites, is overwhelmingly geared toward tourism , relentlessly replaying the most minute details of the battle. Fortunately, it is perfectly feasible to avoid the crowds and commercial overkill and explore for yourself the rolling hills of the battlefield (now a national park) and the tidy town streets with their shuttered historic houses. The Town Pick just a couple of the numerous museums in town and follow the Travel Council's fourteen-block downtown walking tour for a sense of the history of the place. The National Civil War Wax Museum , 297 Steinwehr Ave (summer daily 9am-8.15pm;... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It takes most of a day to see the 3500-acre Gettysburg National Military Park , which surrounds the town (daily 6am-10pm; free). The visitor center on Taneytown Road (daily: summer 8am-6pm, rest of year 8am-5pm; tel 717/334-1124) doubles as the best museum , with guns, uniforms, surgical and musical instruments, tents and flags, as well as touching photos of the 1938 Joint Soldiers Reunion. A thirty-minute, painstakingly thorough electric map show ($3) plots the intricacies of the battle; at the visitor center, you can pick up details of a self-guided driving route , or a guide will join you in your car for a personalized two-hour tour ($35). The guides are available on a first come, first served basis, and the visitor center does not accept reservations, so it's best to arrive just before it opens at 8am to secure a guide for the same day. Directly opposite the visitor center, the Gettysburg National Cemetery contains thousands of graves arranged in a semicircle around the Soldiers' National Monument on the site where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. Most stirring of all are the hundreds of small marble gravestones marked only with numbers. A short walk away, the Cyclorama Center holds a 356ft circular painting of Pickett's Charge , the suicidal Confederate thrust across open wheatfields in broad daylight, and is accompanied by a recitation of the Gettysburg Address (daily 8am-5pm; $3). The earliest existing draft of the Address (not, as commonly believed, scrawled on the back of an envelope) sits in a hallowed cabinet in a dark room on the lower story. The battlegrounds themselves, golden fields reminiscent of an English country landscape, are peaceful now except for their names: Valley of Death, Bloody Run, Cemetery Hill . Uncanny statues of key figures stand at appropriate points and heavy stone monuments honor different regiments. </body>