Artillery Ridge Campground, Gettysburg, PA

Date of Stay:  Saturday June 14 - Sunday June 22, 2014 (8 nights)

Rate:  $292 (PPA during week 5 nights of $25 each and Good Sam on weekends 3 nights of $56 each)

Website:  Artillery Ridge Campground
   610 Taneytown Road
   Gettysburg, PA 17325
   717-334-1288

Description:  Very close to the National Park and Battlefield.  The National Riding Stables are also here if you want to tour the Battlefield by horseback.  Gravel roads and parking pads.  Most sites are FHU 50A like ours (site 432).  We were in a loop of tight pull thru sites next to the muddy stables pasture.  Several seasonal sites near the front of the park.  Several tent sites and a popular place to bring your own horse.

Activities:  This campground gives free tickets to the Gettysburg Diorama at the Gettysburg History Center.  We went there one day to get familiar with the history of the area and the bloodiest Civil War Battle.  We also spent a day at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center.  There we watched the film “A New Birth of Freedom” which gave a good background of the time before, during, and after the Civil War.  We enjoyed the Gettysburg Cyclorama which had recently been restored.  It is a spectacular oil painting dating back to 1884.  It measures 377’x40’ and gives a real three dimensional feel to the battle.  We then walked through the Museum and bought an audio guide to give more information about the Battle while we did the auto tour.  All the information about the death and suffering was a bit overwhelming so we took a break before we toured the Battlefield with over 1300 monuments.  During this three day battle in 1863 (July 1,2, and 3), over 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing (roughly 23,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate).  Many of the monuments we saw on the auto tour were memorable in their own right, Pennsylvania Memorial being the biggest and most elaborate.  My favorite however, is the Eternal Light Peace Memorial which was dedicated 75 years after the Battle with the help of over 1800 Civil War veterans to “Peace Eternal in a Nation United”.  The idea for this monument was proposed by Union and Confederate Veterans during the 50th reunion in 1913.  The Soldiers’ National Cemetery was the setting for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address during it’s dedication on November 19, 1863.

Trash and Recycle:  There are dumpsters throughout the campground but no recycle.

 

Site 432

 

Entry to Artillery Ridge CG and their office

 

Seasonal sites                                   Interesting cabins at Artillery Ridge

 

National Riding Stables at the campground     Gin enjoys talking to the horses behind our site

 

Gettysburg Diorama

 

Gin at the National Park Visitor Center                  Some guns on display

 

Some scenes on the Cyclorama

 

The Cyclorama is very well done

 

The most meaningful monument (to me), Eternal Light Peace Memorial

 

Virginia Memorial and North Carolina Memorial…

the first two Confederate monuments erected in 1917 and 1929 respectively

 

Many cannons were used here changing the way war was fought

   

 

Several interesting monuments

 

View of Battlefield from Peace Memorial and then from Little Round Top towards Devil’s Den

 

View of the Battlefield from Little Round Top

  

Pennsylvania Memorial is big

 

Under the Dome and spiral staircase leading to the top of the Pennsylvania Memorial

Directions to different areas of the Battle

from atop the Pennsylvania Memorial

 

Soldier’s National Cemetery… many of these markers honored service during WW II

 

Soldier’s National Cemetery… the original section has many Unknown markers

 

Soldier’s National Monument               Lincoln Address Memorial