Category: Uncategorized
Planning Your Gettysburg Getaway
February 21, 2018
Winter, spring, summer or fall, there’s never a bad time to pay a visit to Gettysburg! No matter what time of year you decide to make your trip to our historic town, we can help you plan that next Gettysburg getaway with some helpful resources:
Gettysburg Foundation – www.gettysburgfoundation.org
The Gettysburg Foundation operates in conjunction with the National Park Service to preserve Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site. They also play a significant role in educating the public about these sites and our democracy by providing a look into how Gettysburg played a key role in shaping our country.
The Gettysburg Foundation’s website provides useful links to help you plan your visit, purchase tickets to attractions or bus tours, browse the events calendar, and plan a trip for your students, team, scouts, or other youth group.
Museum and visitor hours are 9am-5pm daily, and the address is 1195 Baltimore Pike. You can reach the Gettysburg Foundation by phone at 717-338-1243.
Gettysburg National Military Park – www.nps.gov/gett
Gettysburg Tours – Group Itineraries for Student & Scout Groups
September 19, 2017
Planning trips for students, scout groups, youth groups, or any other groups of young people can be a headache! Let Gettysburg Group Reservations ease the pain by helping to plan your next group tour to Gettysburg.
This is the final installment of our special group itineraries series. Be sure to check out part one – Gettysburg group itineraries for all interests and part two – Gettysburg group itineraries for adults and seniors. If you’d like to learn more about any of our group tours for student and scout groups, just click on the tour name below or feel free to give us a call for more info.
This tour takes your group through what it was like to be a soldier and a civilian during a major turning point in the Civil War. Discover how the men trained before battle, learn to drill like a soldier, then walk Pickett’s Charge with a licensed guide. After enjoying lunch, tour the streets of Gettysburg with licensed town historians who share how the battle left its mark on the community. The kids will love ending the day with a presentation and historic speech by the one and only Abraham Lincoln!
As the name suggests, this tour makes history fun! Sit atop our famous double decker bus and enjoy a two-hour tour through the gorgeous countryside and historic town buildings that have stood the tests of time and war. From here, you can tour the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center and the famous Cyclorama. Don’t forget about the diorama at the Gettysburg History Center, which allows the kids to get a full image of what the entire battlefield looked like. Round the day out with an exciting ghost tour in a haunted house!
We know most student groups visiting Gettysburg are limited on time, which is why we’ve put together this special itinerary to let them experience most of what Gettysburg has to offer in just five hours. This tour begins with a visit to the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center, where students can enjoy a film, the famous Gettysburg Cyclorama, and the museum itself. Following this stop, students will enjoy a boxed lunch from a local restaurant in the group picnic area, then head off on our famous two-hour licensed battlefield bus tour. Learn more about the famous battle from a dedicated historian and walk the very ground where the fighting took place.
Take your scout group on a multi-day adventure with this four-day, three-night adventure! Start by setting up camp and enjoying dinner and listening to some haunted Gettysburg tales told around your campfire. Try to get some sleep, though, as the second day is filled with a historic three-mile Gettysburg trail hike and a tour of the Gettysburg Heritage Center and Diorama. Day three begins with another hike, this time on the 10-mile Billy Yank trail, and then during the afternoon you can get some rest while riding our double decker bus for a battlefield tour. Your scout trip concludes on day four with a four-mile hike on the Johnny Reb trail, lunch at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center Refreshment Saloon, and a recruitment at the Seminary Ridge Museum to “Become a Soldier.”
The best part about these sample itineraries is that they are fully customizable. For teachers, chaperones, and other leaders, there’s even this helpful Gettysburg field trip planner put together by the Gettysburg National Military Park, which can help you prepare for the best field trip ever! We’ll be happy to help you plan by discussing options for your group tour of Gettysburg. To get started, give Gettysburg Group Reservations a call at 717-334-6020 or 1-800-447-8788.
Abraham Lincoln: Did Lack of Security Lead to his Death?
February 8, 2013
Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in April of 1865, was the first American president to be killed in office.
In some ways, his murder came as no surprise. There was no Secret Service at the time and he’d been receiving death threats since he was first elected, and the nation was at war with itself.
The one man assigned to protect the president at Ford’s Theatre that fateful night, John Frederick Parker, was not at his post during the show. He spent some of his time watching the show from a different part of the theatre and spent the intermission at the saloon next door, which is where he was found when the president was shot.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t unexpected. Presidential security was, at the time, scattered at best and hampered by Lincoln himself.
There were elaborate security precautions at the inauguration but they were quickly dropped for Lincoln’s first term—at his insistence.
Republican Inaugural visitor from Iowa, Charles Aldrich, wrote about the March 4, 1861 event:
I went across the street… The area in front of this northeast corner of the Capitol was filled with spectators to the number of many thousands. Just before the appearance of Mr. Lincoln, a file of soldiers, doubtless regulars, came into the area, and marched along in front of the platform, slowly making their way through the crowd. From where I stood I could see their bayonets above the heads of the people. There was at that time serious apprehension that the President might be shot when he appeared to make his address, but this small company of men was all that was in sight in the way of defense. It was quietly understood, however, that several hundred men were scattered through the crowd armed with revolvers.
But shortly thereafter, even the mounted and foot guards posted at the White House gates were dismissed.
In late 1862, two companies were assigned to protect the President — the Union Light Guard of cavalry from Ohio and the 150th Pennsylvania Regiment of infantry- at the insistence of various military leaders.
The special cavalry division, the “bucktails”, were assigned to escort Lincoln, who was prone to riding alone. Their efforts were met with marginal success.
Lincoln rode particularly often between the White House and the “Soldier’s Home”, an area in the Northeast part of the city, that was country-like and where the Lincolns had a small cottage. It was approximately a three-mile ride. He also changed his travel schedule at will.
Lincoln also frequently walked from the White House to the War Department—where the staff was under strict orders to make sure that he was escorted home.
In August of 1864, while Lincoln was riding to Soldier’s Home, he was fired upon. The shot startled his horse, which bolted, causing Lincoln to lose his hat.
It also forced Lincoln to take security more seriously, and allow for both a police guard and to accept the cavalry escorts.
It wasn’t until November, 1864 that the police force in Washington, D.C. created a four man team to act as private body guards to the president.
John Frederick Parker was one of those men. And his actions that fateful day in April let down a man, and a nation, struggling for security.