Gettysburg - Category of Backgroud

Gettysburg Travel Council , 35 Carlisle St (daily 8.30am5pm; tel 717/334-6274), is housed in the tiny historic train depot where Lincoln disembarked in November 1863 and should be the first stop on any visit. Though the town is compact and easy to walk around, there is no public transportation, and a car helps when touring the huge battlefield. Bikes can be rented in the battleground at the campground at 610 Taneytown Rd (AprilOct; $15 half day, $25 full day; tel 717/334-1288). Two-hour Battlefield Bus Tours, running through the town and making numerous stops in the battlefield, depart from 778 Baltimore St (daily every 30min; $18.95; tel 717/334-6296).

The small town of GETTYSBURG , thirty miles south of Harrisburg near the Maryland border, gained tragic notoriety in July 1863 for the cataclysmic Civil War battle in which fifty thousand men died. There were more casualties during these three days than in any American battle before or since a full third of those who fought were killed or wounded and entire regiments were wiped out when the tide finally turned against the South.

Four months later, on November 19, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery. His two-minute speech, in memory of all the soldiers who died, is acknowledged as one of the most powerful orations in American history. Lincoln himself was convinced that it was a "flat failure," and prefaced his remarks with the words "the world will little note nor long remember what we say here "; you'll be muttering it in your sleep by the time you leave.

Gettysburg, by far the most baldly commercialized of all the Civil War sites, is overwhelmingly geared toward tourism , relentlessly replaying the most minute details of the battle. Fortunately, it is perfectly feasible to avoid the crowds and commercial overkill and explore for yourself the rolling hills of the battlefield (now a national park) and the tidy town streets with their shuttered historic houses.