There is something otherworldly about Gettysburg National Military Park in the early morning - the mist creeping across grassy swales and over split rail fences, softening the harsh outlines of cannon and monuments to heroes and fallen. Morning doesn’t do justice to what happened there. You need to see the battlefield in full daylight to really appreciate what it must have been like those first three days of July 1863.

The best advice I got before I visited the park was to make the new Visitors Center my first stop and to purchase a ticket for three “must sees” - a movie that gives an overview of the battle, a cyclorama of a 377-foot painting of Pickett’s Charge, and the Museum of the American Civil War. The movie and cyclorama were excellent, but the museum was the biggest surprise. I’ve been to a number of national parks, but this outdid any exhibit I’ve seen by far. There are over 20,000 artifacts from the battle, giving a personal feel for what it was like to be a Union or Confederate soldier during one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, or of any war since.  I could have spent hours there, but was eager to place in perspective everything I’d just seen and heard. I was ready to walk onto the battlefield itself.

Second best advice I got – go with a guide. There are several options for exploring the battlefield, which covers several miles. You can take a bus tour, take a personal guide with you in your car, take a self-guided tour in your car using a CD purchased in the Visitors Center book store, wander at will along the paved pathways, or, take a free walking tour with a park ranger. I opted for the park ranger and really believe I got the best deal. Ranger Lizzie’s insight into the character and personality of each major player in the battle, including excerpts from letters written to loved ones before and after the battle, changed the way I think about Gettysburg. History books are accurate, but only up to a point. They can never capture the nuances and raw emotions, either held in check or loosed, that were responsible for the outcome of one of the most important and deciding battles of the Civil War.

Anyone have a historic or national park experience to share?