March 17th

After driving the 3rd most miles of the whole trip yesterday, today will be the least driving, except for the consecutive days Rachel and I will be in Charleston and Savannah this week. That gave me plenty of time for my two stops.

Two nights ago, we sang in our Purimspiel finale “Don’t know much about history”. I doubt I will learn and enjoy history more anytime else on my journey as I did today in Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry.

In Gettysburg this morning, I first visited the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. In the picture below you can see FDR dedicating it in 1938 on the 75th anniversary and Union and Confederate soldiers from the battle in their 90’s or 100’s shaking hands. The visitor center has an excellent film and a sound and light Cyclorama show. Then I visited just a few of the hundreds of monuments around the hills and fields, the national soldiers cemetery where Lincoln gave his little “address” and the David Wills house in town where he stayed the night before and finalized his talk.

We all know Harpers Ferry as the place where John Brown tried to raid the federal arsenal and start a slave revolt, but was captured and hung. But the city has had several lives – the first industrial automation (at a gun and munitions factory), the site of a race between canals and trains for access to the heartland of the country, the scene of the Confederates northernmost Civil War victory and the home of Storer College, the first primarily black college in the country The whole town consists of original and some reconstructed buildings with exhibits on all different aspects of living there. I ended my visit taking pictures of the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.

Today’s songs are “Take me home, country roads” by John Denver and a bonus tune, “Take me back to Harpers Ferry” by Magpie (google it and enjoy!)