Cyclorama 09/19/19

Caledonia State Park, Fayetteville, Pennsylvania

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. ~ Proverbs 14:30

Good morning, Fayetteville!
It’s very woody and hilly here, but checking it out will have to wait.
And yes. I know I’m a day behind with this picture . . .

It’s simply not possible to do justice to Gettysburg in just one day. In fact, we ended up with three. Well, technically closer to 2 ½, but even that wasn’t quite enough. And our brains were ready to explode after today.

A lot of people drive to Gettysburg. We saw license plates from a minimum of 30 states, including Alaska! And that’s just in the parking lot we were in the past two days. There are at least two other lots, plus those who just drive around.

Today’s task – – visit the “Cyclorama”, the Museum and drive their “Auto Tour” – which they tell you will take about 3 hours to go 24 miles.

You have to buy tickets for the cyclorama and the museum because the non-profit Gettysburg Foundation is responsible for the operation of the two museums, the bookstore and concessions. Speaking of the bookstore, we went in there to browse for a minute. There must be a couple hundred (or more!) different books on the Civil War in there!

When we purchased our museum tickets, were weren’t given a choice on the time for the cyclorama. In fact, we didn’t even realize there were specific times. Silly us just thought you walk in and look around. So imagine our surprise when we were told, “The show starts at 9:30”. And our tickets were time-stamped.

While we were waiting for show time, we walked around and took in the rest of the presentation outside the museum. This is some of the artillery shots they used. There was also some stuff from Eisenhower, but I’ve got my hands full with Gettysburg. No way I’m getting into that as well! He’s here because he had a home very close to here. It’s a museum now too, but you can only get there if you take a tour bus.

Now multiply this picture by a hundred and you’ll get a bit of an idea of what tromped around our nation.
And this is just the calvary and artillery.
No infantry (soldiers) in this picture.

So just what is a cyclorama?

They were a very popular form of entertainment in the late 1800’s in both America and Europe. They’re massive oil-on-canvas paintings that were displayed in special auditoriums and enhanced with landscaped foregrounds that sometimes featured trees, grass, fences and even life-sized figures. The result was a 3D effect that surrounded viewers who stood on a central platform. At the time, there were hundreds of them, but most were lost or destroyed when motion pictures arrived.

The “Battle of Gettysburg” is one that survived and features the final Confederate assault known as Pickett’s Charge on July 3^rd. It was captured by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux, a professional cyclorama painter and artist. Paul wasn’t at Gettysburg, but visited in 1879 and was hired by a group of entrepreneurs to paint the piece for a display in Chicago. He showed up in Gettysburg in 1882 with his necessary equipment and a simple guide book to help him locate the site of the charge. He spent several weeks on the battlefield, observing details of the terrain and making hundreds of sketches. To help him recall the landscape accurately, he hired a photographer to produce panoramic photos. He also interviewed a number of veterans of the battle, who offered suggestions on how to depict the chaos of the battle.

Using a team of assistants to help him sketch out every detail, he began applying tons of oil paint. It took over 1 ½ years to complete, and was opened to the public in Chicago in 1883. It was displayed for nearly 20 years before lack of public interest caused the theater to be financially inoperable and the doors were closed.

When a Gettysburg-area entrepreneur heard it was for sale, he purchased the painting and moved it (and its props) to Gettysburg. It arrived in fairly good condition, but several panels were ripped and some had rotted around the bottom due to moisture in the soil of the foreground. Repairs were made by taking portions of the skyline from the upper section that was removed and discarded, and stitching them into place, where they were painted over by artists as each panel was hung.

It re-opened in 1913, just in time for the 50-year anniversary celebration, and remained in its specially constructed building for approximately 40 years, when it was purchased by the National Park Service in the late 1940’s. In 1962, it was moved to their new Visitor Center and by now, it was in need of a massive restoration that required hours of hand labor to repair water damage and two large sections that faded over the years due to direct sunlight. It re-opened once again in 1962.

In 2003, it received another facelift in the form of a $13,000,000 rehabilitation project, which required specialists to repair unstable sections of the canvas and restoring original details lost during the numerous repair and preservation attempts, as well as restoring the skyline and foreground. It was moved to its new home and unveiled to the first visitors on September 26, 2008.

Incredibly, the Gettysburg Cyclorama is 377’ long, 42’ high and weighs 12.5 tons!

What we want to know is . . . . how in the world did they moved it from place to place?!? We discovered that they cut it into 15′ panels, but how did they actually transport it and put it back in place?

While we waited in line, we met a couple from Ohio who belong to the Jim Smith Club. It’s a club who’s members get together every so often. To become a member, you have to be named Jim Smith. Fun! There were a bunch of people in line with the same T-shirts on.

Once they opened the doors, we all had to walk up to a raised platform and find a place to stand along the rail. We were standing like we were told, until a woman next to us informed us that where we were standing was appointed for the handicapped. We didn’t know. There were no signs and no one mentioned it, but we felt obligated to move. Unfortunately by then, there were no more spots along the rail available. It didn’t really bother Blaine, but I’m about a foot shorter. I didn’t see much, and I wasn’t happy about it. However, low and behold, there was yet another surprise. The painting that wrapped all the way around the room didn’t move. So no one could see it all. They started a narration complete with gun and cannon shots and other noises and occasionally things would light up. We didn’t really see the point of being here.

Until they turned the lights on and told us we could walk around and look! All I can say is, “Wow!” Extremely impressive! What a blessing that they were able to save this masterpiece!

One veteran of Pickett’s Charge who saw this cyclorama,
stated that it was extremely realistic.

Take special note of this one.
The 3D well in the foreground was especially impressive!
The back half of the well is painted. The front half is real.

After viewing the actual thing, they herd you out to a cyclorama information area to learn more about it.

Sometimes lighting presents its challenges.
We had a LOT of trouble inside the museum, as you’ll see later,
and some of the pictures we took turned out so badly, they couldn’t be used. : (

Good luck finding him in the pictures we took. I couldn’t. : )

After this, we armed ourselves with a Park map and set out on the Autotour. There were other cars doing the same thing and we encountered many buses along the way. Many buses! Our three-hour tour took us about 4-4 ½ hours. Typical Blaine and Terri . . .

Wildlife! I made Blaine stop to take this picture because when we drove up, there were birds sitting all over the cows. Of course, they took off the second I got out of the Jeep. : (

This and the next few pictures were taken at an observation tower.
As Blaine said, bet the Generals wish they’d had something like this!

We waited a long time for this group to disperse so I could take a picture of this unusual monument.

In the meantime, we walked around and checked out some others.

There’s a monument out there in the middle of the field.
See it? It’s pretty small, and we didn’t walk out to it.

I don’t think I mentioned yesterday, but Jarrad told us that the Park has worked hard over the years to ensure that the battlefield areas look like they did on the day of the Battle.
That means, if there were trees, there’s trees. If it was a field, it’s a field.
Fences too. Wood or stone, are where they were.
All that seems to be missing are the crops and cattle. : )

They’re finally gone!
And it’s terrible lighting on the most interesting side.

We were told that those symbols (this one, a cresent moon), served to identify which group you were with.

We didn’t understand this place until much later – I think even tomorrow. : )
There was a poor house and cemetery here at the time of the battle – and for awhile after.
I believe all that remains now is the cemetery.
If you read the upcoming Special Edition piece on Jennie Wade, you’ll see what I mean.

It would seem that this person died by drowning?

The four-plus hours we spent on the Autotour also included a short lunch break along the way. And that’s another thing. There aren’t really any picnic areas on this tour, so we stopped at a rock wall that overlooked one of the battlefields and just stood and ate our meat/cheese/crackers and fruit. And a chocolate chip cookie. Can’t forget the cookie! And then we took a couple of pictures. And then we picked up our lunchbox.

And left our plastic lunch bag with all our trash and a bag of trail mix on the wall! We didn’t realize what we’d done until we arrived back home and were unpacking the Jeep! We felt terrible!

The bag’s not visible in the picture, but it’s there.
If we’d left it with the lunch bag, we wouldn’t have forgotton it! *Ugh!!*

We continued our Autotour after lunch, but it was beginning to get late and we still had a few hours of museum absorption to soak up, so we didn’t quite finish.

Just down the street, we came across several bronzed memorials.
I think this one’s North Carolina, but I can’t remember for sure.

A look down the road at the cannons positioned along the stone wall.
During the battle, there were 150 of them.
We didn’t count today. . . . : )

This one’s Louisiana.
We suspect the same guy that made this one, also made Mississippi because in both cases,
the hands and feet are the same.

We’ve come to another observation tower.
This one has views of the Eisenhower property and some information as well.

More wildlife! This time, it’s riders on horseback.
Turns out there’s an equestrian trail in the Park.

You can’t really tell, but the guy on the left is holding some kind of bag,
and the bag’s suspended in the air.
How’d they do that?

This is the part they don’t teach you in school. And no one talks about it.
The Aftermath will be another Special Edition because I feel it’s important to remember.
For some reason, we have no picture of the farm. . . .

This was pretty important ground during the Battle.

And the multiple cars, people and 12 tour buses parked along the road attest to that.
12 buses! No wonder there were so many people up here!

Ha! I just noticed that this monument picture looks spliced together!
It’s not. : )
This is a Pennsylvania Monument, but not the one I mention later.

Those rocks down there are called Devil’s Den and the area called “The Slaughter Pen”.
This is the controversial area where Major General Dan Sickles’ men fought under his own orders to save the high ground here.

This New York monument was gigantic!
But as you’ll see soon, Pennsylvania’s made this look like a miniature.

Blaine went to the top for the sake of perspective, but I didn’t go up.

The stairway he went up on. (This is actually at the top)

So that’s where the term “sharpshooters” came from!

“Brig. Gen. Stephen H. Weed fell mortally wounded near this spot.
Probably the victim of a Confederate sharpshooter.”

This tree isn’t what they call a “witness tree” (one that was here during the actual battle), but it’s gotta be shortly after because it was huge.

Confederate dead in the “Slaughter Pen”
Photograph taken three days after the battle – July 6, 1864
The picture on the information board was awful. I found this one on-line. It’s the same one.

See the cannonball hole? There must be something inside to prevent birds and weather from entering . . . .

The Trostles were forced from their 134-acre home during the fighting,
leaving their dinner on the table, which was enjoyed by Sickles’ staff.
Like many of their neighbors, the Trostles returned to find most of their belongings looted or destroyed.
The 9th Massachusetts Battery had fought a desperate last stand on their farm,
with at least sixteen dead battery horses just in the front yard and over a hundred on the farm.
It was in the field just to the west of the barn where Sickles was hit.
Damage to property and real estate was estimated a $2,500 in a claim filed after the war,
but it appears no compensation was ever paid.
The Trostles sold the farm to the Park Service in 1899.

Out there’s the Pennsylvania Monument I mentioned earlier.

And here we are. Didn’t I tell you it was enormous?!? And beautiful, too!

Even in here, the landing before you go outside, great care was taken.

General Geoge Meade was Commander at Gettysburg.
He didn’t like Sickles at all. : )
He was also career Army, but was born in Cadiz, Spain
He survived the war, and died in 1872 of pneumonia and old wounds at the age of 56.
I have no idea who the other guy is . . . .
There were always people milling about.

I wondered why his hand was in his jacket (like Napoleon),
but I ran across his military photo, and that’s the pose he struck for that. : )
John F. Reynolds was one of the Union commanders – career Army, graduating from West Point in 1841.
He was killed at the start of the first battle.

The guy next to Lincoln was the Governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War.
Andrew Curtin

We made it back to the cemetery where we stopped with our tour guide, Jarrad, yesterday and since we’d already walked around there some, we headed off to the museum, skipping the last three (of 16) stops.

The museum was loaded with information, but it was so dark, it made it difficult to see/read/take pictures of/all the exhibits. We did the best we could.

We’ve entered the museum now.
It’s entirely possible that things may be out of order.
It’s just the way we walked through.

They had a video that spoke quotes by various people.
I took an interest in three of them, but there were more.
This guy said, “Our fathers made this a government for the white man, rejecting the negro, as an ignorant, inferior, barbarian race, incapable of self-government.”
Hey. I didn’t say it. I just quoted it. Boggles the mind that people talked like that. I imagine some still do. Very sad.

“I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”
By the way. Every time we heard the voice of Lincoln,
it was presented by Sam Waterston of Law and Order fame. : )

“…when people believe a delusion, they believe it harder than a real fact, and these people in the South are going for this delusion, to break up the Government under which we live.”
This is the General who took Savannah, presenting it as a “Christmas gift” to President Lincoln.

This is a close-up of the picture above.

Evidence of the battle around people’s homes.

It’s nothing short of a miracle that any Southerners survived . . .

This is from the first battle of the Civil War, Mannassas, Virginia.

The stretcher Stonewall Jackson was carried on.

And the table that was most likely used for his surgery.

Evidence of war ripping through homes.
And just think. These people either left or hid in their basements.
Most Southern homes didn’t have basements. . .
We can’t even fathom that today, except in neighborhoods where gangs are present. . . .

I neglected to take a picture of the table.

These are the actual rafters from the Forney home.

This is a small portion of a huge wall full of pictures.

Regarding the speechs each man gave at the dedication of the National Cemetery.

You can’t please everyone . . . .
The more things change, the more they remain the same.

We’d stayed longer today than we’d anticipated. By the time all was said and done, it was 6:00pm and dinner was at least an hour away between the drive and preparation time. We couldn’t wait that long. Blaine pulled out his trusty Tripadvisor app and found us a pizza joint close by. Great choice!!