5/29/2015 0 Comments Gettysburg and Arrival in DC What a phenomenal day! It was a full day, but filled with lots of great memories already. We woke up in Gettysburg and started with the orientation film at the visitors center and seeing the Cyclorama. The Cyclorama is a 360 degree circular painting that depicts the 3rd day of the battle - Pickett's Charge. It was painted 131 years ago and was moved from its old location in Gettysburg to the new visitors center. It has been cleaned over the past 5 years and looks bright and nearly new. After a fast trip through the museum we headed out to the battlefield. The students wanted to see three specific sites on the battlefield - the cemetery, Little Round Top/ 20th Maine Monument, and Pickett's Charge. To help with the nearly 80 tour buses on the battlefield this morning, our battlefield guides decided to send the boys bus on one loop and the girls bus on the reverse loop of the sites.
At the cemetery, students saw the only memorial to a speech in the US - the Gettysburg Address, the current speaker's rostrum, as well as the graves of the unknown and known soldiers. Our guides also pointed out where historians believe Lincoln stood when he delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Along Seminary Ridge we followed the Confederate corps as they gathered in the woods to prepare for the charge across the one mile open field towards the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge on the third day of the battle. We circled through the Peach Orchard where General Sickles nearly caused the Union to loose the battle, and then up to Little Round Top. One of the groups made it over to the site of the 20th Maine monument where one of the few bayonet charges in the Civil War happened. All groups walked out to the edge of Little Round Top to look down on the Devil's Den boulders where many Confederate soldiers were killed on the 2nd day of the battle. It is a beautiful place to look out over the entire battlefield from the heights of the Round Tops. The students had wonderful things to say about Gettysburg, and said their favorite location was the Round Tops. We grabbed boxed lunches and headed to Washington DC. We hit the shopping first so students could get the most for their money for the souvenirs that they hopefully will be bringing to their friends and families. Then it was a brief walk down to Ford's Theater and the Peterson House. There is a Presidential Gala event at Ford's on Sunday, so we were unable to get into the theater itself and the museum, but we went through the Peterson House where President Lincoln was carried after he was shot. It was in the tiny backroom of Peterson House that President Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865. We walked through the front parlor where Mary Lincoln stayed through that long night, and the front bedroom where Secretary of War Edwin Stanton managed the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and began putting together the search for other conspirators. As we came down through the Education Center for Leadership and Legacy, we saw the special exhibit that was put together for the 150th anniversary of his assassination. Artifacts that were "witnesses" to his death were brought together from across the country for display. Today was the final day of the exhibit, and students told me that they loved it. The tiny Derringer pistol that Booth used, Lincoln's top hat, the contents of his pockets, his long dress coat, Mary's black velvet cloak, as well as the flag that draped over the bannister in front of the Presidential box were on display. Students were shocked when they looked at the flag since it was taken down and used to cradle Lincoln's head before they moved him from the theater. The blood stains from his wounds were still very visible today. We made an impromptu stop at the National Law Enforcement Memorial to pay our respects to all of the law enforcement personnel that have died in the line of duty in the United States. This was not a planned stop, but we decided it was a good place to add to the day. We finished our day with an excellent dinner at Ming's in Chinatown. One of the things that we encourage our students to do on the trip is to try new foods. Since there are not a wide variety of ethnic food options in Rensselaer, coming to Washington DC is a great chance for students to try something new to see if they like it or not. My table ended dinner by sharing all of our fortunes. While most of them were pretty standard fortunes, one of them topped all of the rest. I can't remember the exact wording, but it dealt with avoiding trolls, which was so out of character for a Chinese fortune that we all had to laugh. We have checked into our hotel tonight, and the students are enjoying some down time here before 10:00 p.m. curfew. We have an early morning tomorrow when we visit the White House. We have breakfast scheduled for 6:15 am and we head into town at 7:00. We will tour the White House at 8:30, then go to the Korea, Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. We will lay some carnations at the Wall tomorrow to honor those from Rensselaer whose names are on the Wall. We have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then a trip up to the National Cathedral. If we have time we might stop to see the pandas at the zoo, but we can't promise that stop since we can't get into and out of the zoo in under one hour. We have dinner at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant, and end our day with a trip up the Washington Monument and a visit to the World War II Memorial. It will be a full day, but hopefully one that the students will create memories to treasure in their future. Step Count 8,394 Total - 15,402
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