Gettysburg National Park

The Battle of Gettysburg has caught my interest since I was in 5th grade (which feels like a million years ago). I remember learning about the Civil War which is a little odd for an 11 year old to be fascinated by and also how explicit teachers would tell the story then. I feel in a way it was the beginning of my love for history that continues with me today.

What continues to hold my interest of this site is wanting to see where the turning point in American Civil War was. Gettysburg was on the most critical battles of the war.

I would love to learn the mapping of the battle and possibly take a tour of how the battle was formed. Im sure modern things of token over parts of the path because at the time there was only ten streets in the small town of Gettysburg.

I want to learn through experience. Of course, I would never experience a war like that but I would like to experience what was used during that time, the area that they were in, and how Gettysburg became one of the more famous battles even though beforehand it didn’t possess any military significance. Was it an accident?

I want to feel the eerie-ness of the area. Over three days, over 50,000 soldiers lost their lives. The devastation toll of the small city and the limited residents. The overload of wounded, civilian and soldier, and the city was not prepared for ravage. How every farm field and garden was turned into a graveyard due to the abundance of casualties. Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in North America.

Honestly, I feel like I can always use all of the 5C’s of Historical Thinking but I will try to limit it for the sake of everyone.

I would pick “causality”. Finding the people or process that influenced the battle of Gettysburg. You can find the intersection of groups of people that were for the war, which side of the war they wanted to be on, and the build up. To identify the multiple layers of the subject, you would have to go back to Pre Civil War. Why was the war formed? How was life before there was a change? Why were some effected and why were others not? What were the actually fighting for? And most importantly, identifying the cause and effects of their actions. What did we gain? What did we lose?

To specify of primary just Gettysburg, we would have to focus on the questions of “was this battle intentional or just cornered?” “why Gettysburg?” and “Why did this battle stand out from all the others?”