Gettysburg Day 3

Well, so much for wishing for sunshine this week.  It seems that as the weeks progressed while studying Gettysburg, the weather got worse and worse.   I woke up this morning to rain beating against my window, and knew that it was going to be a long, wet day.  We soon found out that the day was started an hour longer than planned; through a mix up on our schedules, all of us students were ready and waiting on the bus, when we called the Civil War Era Studies office and found out that the tour was supposed to begin at 9; our grumblings were soon quieted when Cathy, our resident mom in the office, took us out to McDonalds to make up for the hour of lost sleep!  When we returned, Dr. Guelzo was waiting for us at the house, and our tour began.

Our guide for the morning was John Heiser, ranger from the library at the Gettysburg National Military Park.  He introduced himself, and then told us that we would begin our tour by walking through the borough of Gettysburg.  The Appleford is situated on the northern part of town, but is in easy walking distance to some major points of interest in town; our first stop was about 2 blocks away at the Railroad Station.  We talked under an awning there for a few minutes, and then really headed out into the rain to look at other interesting places and buildings in town, like Racehorse Alley, the Fahnestock Building, and the many churches that sit on almost every corner in town.  Our tour with John was completed with a trip to a few of the many farms and barns on the battlefield; we saw the battle damage at the Sherfy farm, walked through the Bushman Barn, and visited the Trostle farm.  Even though it was pouring rain, I really enjoyed learning about what the town looked like in 1863, and how it was impacted after the battle.
After a brief respite from the weather at lunch, John left us, and we went to the Cyclorama Center to meet our guide for the afternoon portion of the tour.  Scott Hartwig, also a ranger at the GNMP, generously gave us a good overview of Pickett's Charge inside the building; however, we all knew it was inevitable that we would have to face the rain again this afternoon, and this time we were going to get WET.  Finally our color bearers left to get our flags, I put on a hideous poncho that I was sure was going to keep me dry, and we faced the elements.  Traipsing through knee high grass and weeds is not too much fun when it's sunny, but in the rain, it was a whole other experience.  Pickett's Charge (which was technically a Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge), covered about three quarters of a mile of open ground; a couple of bullets did not stop them from making the dash, so we knew that a little bit of rain would not stop us!
With our flags unfurled, and our clothes soaked from head to toe (even my poncho did not save me from being drenched), we started our march.  Surprisingly, we were pretty good at keeping in line, even as we crossed fences- until Jerrica accidentally sat on a rail and it split!  The complete surprise on her face was priceless, and I almost didn't make it over the fence cause I was laughing so hard.  But back to seriousness, we completed the bigger portion of the march, and prepared for the hardest part- marching double quick in line with Mike barking orders to stay together, and finally a full out charge and Rebel Yell.  We were magnificent.  Even Scott mentioned that no group had ever done the charge so well.  The miserable rain and soaking clothes (at this point I'm pretty sure I had a pond in both shoes) were minor compared to how much fun I had making Pickett's Charge.  The good news is that now we have a week off to recuperate for our big journey to Richmond!