Gettysburg National Military Park and Museum

On our way to California, Pennsylvania, we decided to stop in Gettysburg....we ended up going to the National Military Park and Museum which has artifacts, stories, videos, pictures and other things related to the Civil War. It was a VERY cool museum..in fact, the very first room we walked into got me teary-eyed!
The Museum
This was one of the first things we saw and it was very interesting to us...under this picture it says,

Union Gen. Abner Doubleday

Never led troops in battle after Gettsyburg, Nor did he invent baseball, for which he still receives credit to this day. He died in 1893, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Aaron has always read and thought that Abner Doubleday was the person who invented baseball...as you all know, Aaron and I are big time into softball and baseball...so now it is kind of weird not to know who really invented the sport...but..don't you worry...Google is our friend and we found out that Alexander Cartwright was the man who invented baseball! You learn something new everyday!
This part of the museum actually made me cry....there were love letters from the soldiers to their wives and letters from the wives to the soldiers. They were the ACTUAL letters written! It is a big difference to read in a text book that wives wrote their husbands and what they said, and to actually see the letter in real life...it makes it more real. As much as you learn, and as much as you read, it doesn't always feel like these things like the civil war and the holocaust are real because we didn't live them, most of us don't know people that have been through it and many times you can't 100% empathize with the situation they were in...but if you read these actual letters, it feels 100% real.
This is an actual U.S Flag. This is the 34-star state U.S flag (1861). The 34 stars on this flag included the 11 states of the confederacy. The U.S. government never the right of the Southern states to leave the Union, and their stars remained on the American flag throughout the war.
These are the instruments of a civil war surgeon...wow.

I am really glad we decided to make the stop in Gettsyburg...This was an awesome museum!! And you know what I love about the east coast?? This stuff is free!! They don't charge you to get into these awesome places!! All the monuements and museums we have visited so far have all been free!...you won't find that in California!