Cannonball

Confederate reenactors assemble in a field off today’s West Confederate Avenue at Gettysburg National Military Park. These infantry demonstrations are popular with tourists, and offer a suggestion of what a Civil War unit might have looked like on the battlefield.

Here are a few more photos taken in mid-August, 2012, at GNMP.

The Mississippi state memorial has long been a favorite of my two oldest grandchildren, with its flair for the dramatic…

…and its solar-powered audio box which tells the story of the attack on July 2, 1863, by Mississippians under the command of charismatic Brig. Gen. William Barksdale, a former multi-term U.S. congressman (as was his brother).

Hundreds of cannon dot the military park, with a large concentration along West Confederate Avenue to symbolize the approximate locations where the state and national artillery batteries deployed during the fighting at Gettysburg. In many cases the gun tubes are original, although only a handful of these were actually in the battle.

Volunteers have been busy the past few years erecting fencing in the approximate locations of war-time fences. They help suggest the tactical situations and linear obstacles faced by the soldiers at Gettysburg.