When first starting to dream and start planning this US tour, way back in December 2005, I was encouraged to include Gettysburg on my list of places to visit. This endorsement was from a retired Alabama firefighter who I regard as one of the greatest STers in the world; so I felt that I just had to go there. And with three whole spares days available before my next planned event I take the opportunity to ride 240 miles westwards from Queens NYC to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; scene of one of the greatest battles; with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and frequently cited as the war's turning point.
I decide to take a guided tour around the battlegrounds, which proved to be excellent value for the twenty-five dollar cost.
The two armies - Union and Confederate - began to collide on July the 1st 1863. Confederate corps assaulted from right here at this very place, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines.
General Lee (Confederate) launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged here at Little Round Top. This is the view that the defending Brigadier General Gouverneur Kemble Warren would have had, looking down from his vitally strategic position onto Plum Run Valley, the "Valley of Death" . 
The General, himself
The very informative tour ends in the old town of Gettysburg, so I take a look around the Visitors Centre.Uncle Phil must love it here ... look, all these guns!
Yep, he must really love it
Yes sir-ree - I bet he has a great time in this place .. ;o)
Between 46,000 and 51,000 Americans were casualties in the three-day battle
The Unknown - 411 Bodies ... 
.. just numbers on a stone
There are 914 separate monuments, markers, or commemorative stones. This figure does not include the 428 flank markers; thus ...
.. the current total is 1,342. There are commemoratives everywhere here
And here is one [of two] of my Americans heroes; a real 'conviction' politician - There's not too many of these around nowadays! The other is Benjamin Franklin.
These are the only two Americans whose biographies I have studied in any degree of depth
But the real heroes of this depressing war are these men - and young boys alike. It is easy for us to say that, 'Well, 1863 was a long time ago, wasn't it' - but for these guys it was real, and it was 'now'
