Harley Factory Then on to Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield

We started our Thursday with a nice bike ride along some zig-zaggy country roads to visit the Harley-Davidson York assembly plant.  This plant builds the Softail, Touring, Trike and CVO models.  The plant offers two Legends In The Making tours.  The Steel Toe Tour goes behind-the-scenes through areas previously unseen by the public.  The cost is $30-$32 and reservations are required.  The free tour also takes you through the entire factory except for the extra areas offered in the other tour.  This tour is conducted at regular intervals between 9am and 2pm.  Tickets are distributed on a first come-first served basis.  The tours start and end in the gift shop.  Who'd of thought?

Of course no photos were allowed except in the little assembly display.  This area also featured a few of the new bikes.  Visitors are encouraged to sit on the bikes, have their pix taken, etc.  Good marketing technique!  

Our next stop was lunch, then the Battlefield HD store in Gettysburg. Duane bought one of their Tshirts.  We always try to stop at each HD store we pass.  This is the first one that didn't have the name on the building.

Close by was our last destination.  From this map we learned that the Union army was arrayed in a rough fishhook east of the town of Gettysburg with the shank running north to south on Cemetery Ridge and Culps Hill and the hook part at Round Tops.  The Confederate troops formed another fishhook running south to north on the high ground of Seminary Ridge with the hook park through town and north of Cemetery Ridge and Culps Hill.

This visitors' center is relatively new.  It houses a bookstore, cafe, ranger station to get your National Parks Passport stamps, a museum, theater and a large circular mural.  There is a charge for the last three.  We opted for the free driving tour.  There is also a cd available for your auto tour

This is McPherson barn.  The Battle of Gettysburg began west of here (on this ridge) about  8 am on July 1, 1863.  Union cavalry confronted Confederate infantry advancing east along Chambersburg Pike.  Heavy fighting spread north and south along this ridgeline as more forces from both sides arrived.

     

This area was the site of fighting around 1 pm the first day.  This battlefield was similar to the one at Vicksburg in that the different sites are marked by monuments dedicated to each regiment in both armies.

I took this pic because it was a pretty site, but found it very interesting to note that we circled closer and closer to it as our tour progressed.  The Union lines were distributed just beyond it.  At the end of the tour we were looking back at where we were at this point!

This large open field is where the last Confederate assault of the battle, known as "Pickett's Charge", took place on July 3.

About 7 pm on July 2 Confederates attacked the right flank of the Union army and occupied the lower slopes of Culps Hill (below).  The next morning the Confederates were driven off after 7 hours of fighting.

This was taken at the foot of Culps Hill (to the right) with Cemetery Hill to the left.  Confederate soldiers also tried to take this hill but were repelled.  By day's end, both hills were still in Union hands.  In the distance in the middle of the pic you can see the eastern edge of Gettysburg.

One of the regimental monuments.

Pennsylvania monument

On July 4 late in the afternoon, some 7000 Union soldiers repulsed the bulk of the 12000 man Picketts Charge against the Federal Center.  This was the climactic moment of the battle.  On July 4, Lee's army began retreating.  Total casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) for the three days of fighting were 23000 for the Union army and as many as 28000 for the Confederate army.

With our minds reeling from all the history we learned on our tour, we headed home through the newer part of Gettysburg.  We decided that it would have been really bad for the residents in and around Gettysburg.  They had to have spent their days hunkered down in their homes as they had no place to go!

Next up we crap out.  Stayed tuned!

Louise and Duane