Ten or fifteen years ago, Biker and I got called out of the audience at the Dixie Stampede in Branson. Our goal? Represent the “south” in a “horse race.” Like the real South, we lost.

Saturday we drove from D.C. to Gettysburg to see the real thing. No horse races, but a lot of walking and climbing. The weather was amazing, and the colors of the trees were gorgeous as we were at the tail end of the fall.

I’m not a huge history buff, but Biker is. He’s watched the (IMO, boring) movie Gettysburg dozens of times.
But the real thing is very impressive. The scale of the battlefield, the stories of bravery and loss, and the impact on the locals — all of these stories are woven together to create a memorable visit.
We were shocked at how large and how well preserved the battlefields are. And at how many monuments are placed around the battlefields. The more than 1,300 monuments to battalion
s, infantries and people represent one of the world’s largest collections of outdoor sculptures. Who knew

A few favorites:

• Favorite participant: Sallie Jarrett. This Pit Bull Terrier was the mascot of the 11th Penns
  ylvania Infantry. She stuck close to the troops until she was killed in action just shy of her 4th birthday and just two months before the war was over. She now has a place of honor as a statue at the base of the infantry’s monument. When we were there, people had placed milk bones on her statue. Awwww.
• Favorite location: Little Round Top. This important Union position held a prominent place in Col. Chamberlain’s fabled performance and it’s simply a beautiful spot to look out over the battlefields. Very inspiring.
• Favorite fact:  Carrying a regiment’s colors into battle was considered an honor and a privilege. It was also a very dangerous job and would likely get a man maimed or killed. Thus, it required a great deal of courage. The flag bearer was extremely visible and capturing an opponent’s flag was considered a great feat, therefore being the guy carrying the flag was quite dangerous.

On our way back in town, we stopped to pay tribute to Abe. His leadership and resolve during this war brought us to where we are today … a nation led by a free black man. And, as a writer, much respect to Mr. Lincoln for what is widely considered to be one of the greatest examples of mastery of the English language … his Gettysburg Address at the Soldier’s Cemetery. Just 2 1/2 minutes long, the speech was written by Lincoln himself. The word choice is exquisite. Just in case you’ve forgotten … here it is for your enjoyment:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”