In 2005 I made a trip out to Gettysburg, Pa. The primary intention of my trip was to attend the Weimaraner Club of America national specialty. I went with my friend JoAnna to watch and pick out potential boyfriends for my champion ladies. It poured miserable cold rain almost the whole time and the dog show was outdoors.

After three days of sitting around in the cold, the sun came out, clouds parted and humidity reared its ugly head. The dog show was over and we were going to do some sightseeing. One day is not really enough to take in all of the sites of the Gettysburg battlefield area, but we made a good stab at it. There are nearly 5,000 monuments in the region. Some are quite monumental, some are less understandable. It does not take long to figure out people of the time following the war erected these monuments to grasp for some meaning to the obvious and horrible bloodshed.

The monuments and markers everywhere you turn serve one primary purpose. You can understand the battle from any perspective you would wish to hang your hat on. There are monuments for squrimishes, decisions and death. In contradiction to what took place there, the countryside is beautiful, green and extremely lush. Comparing photos from the time of the battle to today's version of Cemetery Hill, the Devil's Den and other important sites, it is glaringly obvious the city and the people of Gettysburg have done a lot to beautify their city and maintain the grounds in manicured order.

There are a few truly eerie places where you get the distinct feeling there are remnants of the battle somehow still hanging in the air. I would imagine every person gets a different feeling from each place they visit. The higher profile areas seem much more sanitized of these ethereal and ominous shivers. The 1st Vermont Cavalry monument sticks in my mind as one of those ghostly places, generally off the beaten path. My memory of how we found it was a little vague. There was another car parked along side the winding forest road and we slowed down enough to see the clearing.

Even though it turned out there were several people lurking around in the general area, it was quiet. You could hear bird wings flap and the air rustling through the trees. We hiked up a slight incline. There was moss, mushrooms and waterpools from deep divots made by some kind of construction vehicle. It was obvious someone had something planned for the area because there were several stumps where there used to be trees.

The inscription reads:

Standing next to the monument, taking a 360 panoramic snapshot in my mind, it was easy to see how troops found themselves in heavy brush and how unclear the enemy lines were in those types of situations. Even though it was only May, there was already a certain snap in the atmosphere; a mixture of late-afternoon light and humidity accompanied by stifling stillness. One can only imagine the same set of circumstances only 35 degrees warmer with the full boar of the sun beating down.

Though I studied the Civil War en route to a history degree, there were a few tidbits that never really occurred to me or were simply never pointed out. Having taken place in July, both sides were fighting in 100 degree heat, in their full military uniforms. Being able to see these uniforms first-hand at the Gettysburg museum provided a clear thought of just how miserable it must have been. Can't locate a statistic on how many of the men succumbed to heat stroke or dehydration during the battle, but it had to be a measurable percentage.

Civil War photos from the national archive
http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/

Next time on The Morbid Sightseer: The Ludlow Massacre Memorial