Upon being stationed at Fort Campbell back in 2004 I found out that I was close to many new things full of history and I was full of desire to explore them all. One of the places I swore to go to was Gettysburg, I never did. So while on this trip I had to make that one of my for sure stops.
My buddy Wagner and I went down there together and I wasn't to sure what to expect. I envisioned a big field with birds chirping amongst the trees and the silence.
I entered the visitor center and asked at the desk if we just walk around the park. The guy looked at me and said well the park is 27 miles around I wouldn't recommend it. I kinda was taken back and surprised. He informed us that there are driving tours you can buy in the gift shop and then follow it all with the audio in your car. You stop at the points of interest and you get a history lesson while you drive. It was a really cool way to explore the park honestly.
Before we hopped in the car there was a museum set up inside the visitor center building. We got to watch a neat video but the best thing we saw was this GIANT Cyclorama measuring 377 by 42 feet. Longer than a football field and higher then a 4 story building. It was an awesome painting depicting different battles fought over the course of the 3 days. The painting was displayed in a big room that you stood in the middle of and they dimmed the lights and played an audio show along that went along with different lighting effects on the painting. It really did a good job of bringing you close to the art work and feeling the experience of what was going on in the painting.
Driving around the park itself was amazing and I thought it was one the most interesting and captivating "museums" I had experienced. The location was huge and there were working towns all around the park. It was a monumental place still living within the active community around it. There were people jogging along some of the roads, it looked like something you would of seen in Wash Park in Denver.
I could go on and on about it all but I wont. I will explain the picture though. I found this to be one of the most intriguing lessons to be learned and explored in thought. The picture is of a "reunion," I know that just sounds crazy, where a Union and Confederate soldier are shaking hands over the wall that was once covered in the blood of their comrades during the Battle of Cemetery ridge.
Fort McHenry:
Two points of a little history lesson first....
1. On my first day in D.C. my friend took me to the Museum of American History along the Mall. The thing we really went there to see was the original flag that Francis Scott wrote our National Anthem to upon witnessing the British bombardment and seeing the flag the next morning bigger and bolder in all Her glory about.
2. My first deployment in Iraq I was stationed on a FOB (Forward Operating Base) called FOB McHenry. We took a picture of my battalion on this small little base with a flag that they flew out from the states that flew over Fort McHenry during the civil war. Our picture was said to be posted at this museum so I wanted to go and see it.
Once we arrived to Fort McHenry we found out that they had removed that picture of our battalion about 6 months prior. It stood hanging for a little over a year. Next we were taken into this room and watched a video about the bombardment and the writing of our National Anthem. In the room along one of the walls was a curtain that stretched across the entire wall. At the End of the film the volume increased and your senses were penetrated and full of a beautiful version of our National Anthem. As soon as the Anthem came on the curtain started to roll away and exposed a sign that said please stand. As it continued to roll back across the wall you discovered what it was hiding. It was an all glass wall exposing Fort McHenry and at the center of the Fort was the American Flag flying High and proud in the wind.
At that moment I was hit with a feeling that I had once held onto and was always excited about but had damn near forgotten about, lost, or hadn't experienced in such a long time,
Patriotism.
Being that proud and excited American. The feeling I had after Sept. 11th with everyone on the same page rolling around with American flags all over their cars, hanging on almost every house, big flags flying from the beds of pickup trucks! WOW! That feeling and love for America! Where has it gone?
That moment was short lived but ingrained into my mind. Seeing a recreation of what Francis Scott must of Seen himself and even felt! My mom would of been crying and I might of had a thing or two in my eyes.
So In just a matter of days I had seen or experienced an amazing part of American History full circle. From seeing the "Star Spangled Banner"(name of the flag flown above Fort McHenry) to visiting and seeing the Fort that was the battle grounds and the inspiration to a poet in Love with His country, where our Nations Anthem was created.
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