Gettysburg

Monument to Pennsylvania Regiments involved in battle.

We visited Gettysburg on the way home.  It is called a National Military Park by the National Park Service, which looks after the site.  On July 1,2 and 3 1863, Confederate and Union forces had a huge fight here, costing more than 51,000 dead - more than in any other battle on American soil before or since. I think the Unionists won, but probably the reality is, as with most wars, everyone paid a price (esp considering this was old fashioned cavalry and infantry and canons-at-the-back fighting).
Lincoln gave his 2 min Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the cemetery for the Union dead (the confederates being taken to some cemeteries in the south) which is now hailed as a masterpiece of English, among other things. We were surprised by the amount of visitors - this is obviously important locally.
It is about 4,000 acres, and they advise about 3 hours to complete the self guided auto-tour (in a car). There are various trails, and you're welcome to walk all over the place. There are a huge amounts of monuments, commemorating various groups and fights.I was unprepared for the hugeness of the site, and if you read some of the monuments, they were place by survivors, which means that within a few years, the Battle of Gettysburg was seen as significant among all the battles in the civil war.
I just felt sad by the end.