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The  Gettysburg Military National Park presents the history in outstanding fashion.It offers a short film, a beautifully curated museum, and Cyclorama unlike anything I have ever seen.  The Cyclorama would have served as the movie theatre of its time.  it was an enormous, circular painting of the Battle of Gettysburg, with narration and special effects (which were obviously modern). It described and illustrated the military maneuvers  in such a way that it brought the battle to life.  For both the film and the Cyclorama I was the only tourist, and the two NPS guides were happy to spend several minutes talking to me about what I had just seen.

There was a very familiar thread running through the narrative: both sides were convinced their way was the only way, that the other side was wrong, that the opposition between the two sides prior to the war led to fights in Congress and on the street. There was rancor and hateful behavior on both sides, and neither side would budge.  I was reminded of the quote, “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.” I hope our country isn’t headed for a second Civil War, but the polarization is so severe, and our leadership is so blind to everything but their own desires (unlike Lincoln), that some kind of clash seems inevitable. A line from the film jumped out at me, and I jotted it in my phone: “Freedom, like power, will long be contested.”

I bought the auto tour, to visit the major sites of the battle, which covered 25 miles. There was a CD for narration, and I used GPS to find my way to each stop. The descriptions of the battle, the loss of life and limb, and the destruction of farmland and forest was horrific.  At one stop, I was so overwhelmed by the horror of it all I decided to abandon the rest of the tour.  The experience was powerful, and much heavier than I expected. The pain was so palpable, the sadness so heavy, that the experience was nearly unbearable.

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I hope to return on the way home to finish the tour, since I am moving on today. I don’t want to leave this unfinished, but I can’t bring myself to follow the remainder of the tour right now.  This experience has shaken me to the core.

My next stop is Maryland.  I hope to tour more Civil War and other historic sites, as well as visit two friends who live there. It is rainy and overcast, a good day to drive.