Battlefield visit

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days wandering around the battlefield at Gettysburg. Starting at the new museum, which is a lot larger than the old one, I sat through their new film (not recommended for anyone with any basic knowledge of the war) then went off to the Lutheran Seminary, walking down to McPherson's ridge looking at the position of Buford's defense on the first day. Unfortunately we didn't get to go into the Adams County Historical Society which is based at the Seminary.We then followed the path of the collapsed Union line as it retreated through the town towards Evergreen Cemetery, and ending the day at Culp's Hill observation tower.

Day two started from the museum again, moving towards the Leister House (Meade's HQ), where I snapped some photos in order to reconstruct it for the wargames table.

This is the rear view of the barn. Wow. I bet you wish your holidays were as exciting as mine :)

Amazingly, the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
has architectural drawings of many of the most important historical buildings on the battlefield including the Leister house and barn (part of the Historic American Buildings Survey) so there's no excuse for inaccuracy.

We then went towards the Pennsylvania monument where some re-enactors were doing a demonstration. These well fed federals, seen doing rifle drills above, were accompanied by their Rebel counterparts stationed by the Longstreet monument. Strangely, someone was actually getting married on the site, with a Confederate honour guard! It is always good to talk to these enthusiasts, as they always have interesting tales to tell, even if one felt compelled to apologise for one of their 'pards' who had brought along an 'authentic' 1860s deckchair for the Reb camp...

Onwards to Little Round Top through the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield, back up to the Virginia Monument and across to the Angle in the footsteps of the Pickett Pettigrew charge. A lot of ground covered, and some very sore feet, but I could have done another month without covering the same ground twice. This all too brief trip has given me a taste for a longer holiday later in the year.

As well as the new Perry miniatures that need to be glued together, the Leister House will be a first terrain piece. I'll leave the Seminary until later - that's going to be a project in itself! I should probably then do the McPherson barn. So many plans. so little time...