Thoughts on Gettysburg (the town, not the battle)

My husband and I recently went on a short trip to Gettysburg, PA, and it was an overall interesting but strange experience. First of all, the people who go to Gettysburg tend to be in one of three groups:

• School groups
• Families with young (sometimes VERY young) kids
• Retirees who are REALLY INTO the Civil War

There were apparently more than a million of these visitors to the park in 2010, says the Park Service. It is also a college/seminary town, so there’s that aspect too, but we weren’t there at a point where that came up much (like Homecoming or Parents’ Weekend, that sort of thing). But the point is, couples in their early 30s without kids, as my husband and I were, were pretty much not to be seen. We felt special (and extremely nerdy, but we knew that already).

Gettysburg is a town frozen by death. In 1863, the year of the battle, it was pop. 2400; now it is pop. 7622, an increase of just 3x in 150 years. According to the owner of the B&B we stayed at,  had the battle not occurred, most of the farmland and orchards that had surrounded the town would’ve eventually been absorbed by town growth, with railroads and industry and it would’ve have become much like many towns/small cities in Pennsylvania. Instead, after the battle, bits and pieces of the farms and orchards were bought by veterans’ groups for monuments and cemeteries to the point that the farmers, sick of their Swiss cheese farmland, eventually made a deal with the War Dept to buy it all up from them in the early 20thc. The National Park Service, when it was born in the 1930s, eventually took it over and created the park it is today. It is a town surrounded by and constantly faced with the battle that took place there and killed thousands of people. There is an auto tour that goes through the town and I imagine has a fairly steady stream of cars following along it every single day except federal holidays, and stores devoted to supplying the reenactor with period-appropriate gear. It is a strange place.

However! There was one aspect of the past-still-living that we really appreciated – the wet plate photography experience at Victorian Photography Studio. We learned much about both the costume history and the art of wet plate photography itself, an old art rarely practiced, from the interestingly accented (Pennsylvania Dutch!) lady proprietor of the studio. Our picture looks crazy authentic, all the way down to our uncomfortable expressions (because holding those positions IS uncomfortable! Plus my husband was trying to keep his really big costume boot on, ha). That was our best souvenir.

Other experiences:

• The museum in the park Visitors’ Center is one of those kinda-museums where they don’t tell you what the artifact you’re looking at is made of or if it’s original or anything really, except sometimes photo credits for pictures from historical societies or other museums. Interestingly laid out, but the lack of full references was irritating and proved how snotty I’ve become about such things.
• The Cyclorama – wow. A massive massive painting that was meant to be viewed in the round, as it was an old-timey thing people used to do for fun before movies. 377 ft long, 42 ft high, painted and set up in a way that makes you feel as if you are looking at the battle as it happens, with a light show. The perspective made my stomach feel weird, which was fun.
• Eisenhower National Historic Site – When Ike was first in the military in WWI, he was stationed in Gettysburg doing soldier training. He and Mamie bought a little working farm there after WWII to retire in, the only home they ever owned, but then he ran for President. Other than this house, the White House was the place they stayed the longest, says Mamie. The Gettysburg house served as their vacation spot during the Presidency, and once as an emergency WH after Ike had a heart attack. Then they retired here after his second term, and left it to the NPS after they both died. Ike liked showing his Black Angus and they won a lot of ribbons. Nice to visit a spot that wasn’t about the Civil War, plus it reminded me of my grandparents’ old house.
• Pages of the Past – I like to patronize independent bookstores wherever I venture, a nice way to honor my own alma mater, watchung booksellers. And Pages of the Past was GREAT – a ready supply of Gettysburg and Civil War books, of course, but also a lot of space dedicated to the history of other countries and eras, plus some nice fiction. Really nice owners too.

Having learned what I have learned about the Battle of Gettysburg, I would be interested to see the reenactments that are due to occur in July, to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle. I’ve read and heard a lot about troop movements, and it’d be useful to actually see in person what the historians describe. But there’s something sad about the idea, too. I wonder what the ghosts of the soldiers would say about the whole thing – would they admire it or find it bewildering? I suppose, if you’re interested, you can go on a Gettysburg ghost tour and ask them…