Gettysburg Field Trip

Led by history teacher Ms. Tammy Chincheck, psychology teacher Mr. Terry Marselle, and two enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable Gettysburg tour guides, the students (who are all currently studying the American Civil War) spent much of the day driving and walking through the expansive battlefield, where General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and General Meade’s Army of the Potomac clashed in the first days of July, 1863.  The Union victory was arguably one of the most pivotal struggles in determining the outcome of the entire war.

Although all the students had read about Gettysburg (and watched portions of the film version), few could compare their previous studies to the actual experience of being right in the middle of the battlefield, which has been maintained to closely resemble its 1863 appearance. 

Juniors (left to right) Jason Benn, Will Stewart, Alicia Hartstack, and Kit Thackrey visit the Virginia Memorial on the Gettysburg battlefield. Confederate General Robert E. Lee is mounted atop his horse Traveller on the top of the monument. (Photo by Margaret Lipman)

With their tour guides offering explanations, anecdotes, and stories aplenty, the students traced the major points of the battle from its start on July 1 until Lee’s retreat back to the South on July 4.  They learned firsthand the distance that advanced Civil War weaponry could shoot and the devastation these weapons could cause.  They marched up the famous Little Round Top, where a Maine regiment valiantly defended the Union line from a Confederate advance.  They stood at the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge which Confederate soldiers bravely marched a mile over open field to reach in “Pickett’s Charge,” the high watermark of the Confederacy.  They saw many of the 1,000 monuments and cannons dedicated to the soldiers of every state in the conflict, particularly the monument to Lee and the Virginia troops.  And most came to appreciate Gettysburg as something more important than an excuse to miss a day of school. 

Students walk past a row of cannons after surverying the battlefield from atop an observation post. (Photo by Margaret Lipman)