Jessica: Harper's Ferry & Gettysburg

The great thing about being in Virginia, or anywhere back East for that matter, is that there is history wherever you go. The whole state of Virginia is just covered with Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields. There were 8 presidents born in Virginia, and even the houses and churches and cemeteries are all historical. Brittany and I loved visiting all these places. We were able to go on a day trip to Harper's Ferry and then to Gettysburg.

If you look at a map you can see a spot where Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia meet. That's where the town of Harper's Ferry is at. I had heard of it before and knew a little about it, but not a lot. So here's a bit of history. Harper's Ferry is the site of John Brown's raid on slavery. John Brown was an abolitionist and picked Harper's Ferry as his place to start raids and protests against slavery. He and 20 men invaded the town and captured their arsenal. But after most of those men were killed or wounded, John Brown was captured, convicted of treason and hanged. The raid made the country pay more attention to how awful slavery was, which eventually started the civil war.

Because of the location of Harper's Ferry, it was caught right in the middle of the Civil War. The town is right where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet, and also had key rail lines running through it. Throughout the course of the war, Harper's Ferry went back and forth 8 times being controlled by Union and then Confederate troops.

So now that we've had a history lesson.... here's some pictures.

There's lots of cute shops along the streets in the old buildings.

The leaves were amazing!

After Harper's Ferry we headed on up to Gettysburg. We saw a cute little apple stand and just had to stop. We bought some delicious apples and asked the guy where the battlefield was. He said, "You're standing on it." Holy moly, did I get the chills! Gettysburg was definitely one of the places I was most excited to go. I really like Civil War history and this was one of the biggest/most important battles. We got a map and drove around for a little while. When I think of a battlefield, I usually think of a literal field. Like one of the fields at my grandpa's farm. Some battlefields are small like that, but Gettysburg is so big! The fighting was really spread out. I also imagine the battles in an open area which wasn't really the case at Gettysburg either. There's so many trees and only a few open areas. We found a lookout tower, so we climbs the steps-it was probably about 10 stories high-and just looked out over the whole area. I felt a mixture of emotions.... It was so peaceful to look out over the scenery, but imagining what happened there was a little unsettling. I couldn't even imagine being a soldier in those hot uniforms in July. 8,000 soldiers were killed, 50,000 were wounded, and about 5,000 were missing (in case you were wondering). The battle was in the middle of a town. People lived there and this was happening in their back yards. It's pretty crazy to think about. We saw the Gettysburg cemetery and the site where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address.