After breakfast, I headed to the visitor center to catch the first movie and Cyclorama show. And wow! Both are very well done and had me in tears. Afterwards I checked out the museum. The NPS says to allow 2 hours - I barely managed to get through until my 1 p.m. LBG tour appointment, and I was really rushing it at the end. I didn't even have time anymore for a quick dash into the museum book store. Had to do that after the tour.
Anyway, my tour. I thought I got Jim Miller, but instead John Krohn took the tour with me. We started in the visitor center with a brief overview, then headed out to Culp's Hill. He showed me from where the Confederate brigades attacked and which slopes they would eventually try to come up on. Because of the rich underbrush you could hardly appreciate the steepness of the hill, but standing at an edge and looking down into the forest let me get a glimpse of that.
Next we headed to the XI Corps' position on Day 1, including Barlow's Knoll. I could see why Barlow would have thought it to be a nice position, but also how terrible it really was.
We then drove over to McPherson's Ridge and Oak Ridge. When we came out of the Herbst Woods where he pointed out the Iron Brigade regiments' positions and then suddenly saw the Lutheran Seminary in a different position than I expected, I lost my sense of direction. I have an idea why but I'll have to check that part out again tomorrow in detail to get me realigned.
After that we headed down West Confederate Avenue on Seminary Ridge and talked about the Confederate position on Days 2 and 3, but with more focus on Pickett's Charge. We stopped at the Virginia monument where we had a look across the field toward Emmitsburg Road and that's where he about started his explanation on why Sickles moved out from Cemetery Ridge to the Peach Orchard. We therefore drove over to the Peach Orchard and circled it, before heading further down in the direction of Devil's Den and the Slaughter Pen.
Since about 3 and a half hours of my 4 hours tour were already up at that point, we skipped Devil's Den and instead swung around at Little Round Top. I had told him earlier that I had been up LTR this morning so we didn't stop and directly drove over to the Angle. On the way there he pointed out the terrain features that made Sickles decide to move forward to the Peach Orchard. He also pointed out the cannons that couldn't be seen from Seminary Ridge and which fired in the flank of Pickett's Charge.
We briefly stopped at the Angle but didn't get out, he showed me the Union side of Pickett's Charge from the car. After that we headed back to the visitor center and the tour was over.
After I parked my car, I went into the museum book store to check out the books, but I didn't get any. I then decided it was time for dinner and drove over to General Pickett's Buffet.
I didn't see Shad Bake on the menu,
@Zella , but they had fish, baked and fried. I tried a fried white fish and it was quite good.
After dinner I circled back onto West Confederate Avenue with the aim to drive the auto tour we skipped, but because the time was ticking on I cut it short again and headed over to the National Cemetery for a short 7 p.m. program "100 Nights of Taps" at the Soldiers' National Monument. After it was over, I headed back to Little Round Top, checked out the position of the 20th Maine and then settled in to wait for the sunset.
I had Warren for myself this morning, but this evening, LRT was still crawling with tourists. I nonetheless managed to get quite a few pics in. With the sun fully set, I drove over to the Angle on my way back to the hotel and got a few pics in too.
Cyclorama
Virginia monument
View toward the Angle from the Virginia monument
Taps bugler on Soldiers National Monument at National Cemetery
20th Maine monument
View from Ohio Light Artillery position toward the Slaughter Pen
Warren at sunset
The Angle, looking toward the Virginia monument on Seminary Ridge
General George Gordon Meade