Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
—Abraham Lincoln

We got to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania on a dark and rainy day. On our fall trips, we accept the weather we get, take our photos, and continue on our journey. The morning sky was covered in heavy clouds, but we were hopeful that the rains would stay away for our visit to the park. We stopped at the visitor center and elected to take one of the tour shuttles rather than drive ourselves. If you have the time and inclination, you can drive yourself and follow a map to each of the many battlefield monuments, but you will miss the narrated experience by a guide.

I processed the opening photo from a digital HDR image in Adobe Lightroom, then cropped it square to remove some extraneous background. I was not happy with the three downspouts from the roof of the park building, but they were there, and making the image darker didn’t help much to eliminate the distraction. I finished the edit in DxO’s Silver Efex 2 and called it done. That was several months ago, before Adobe’s Generative Fill and Luminar Neo’s Gen-Erase tools. In readying the rest of the photos, I decided to try Gen-Erase to see if Luminar Neo’s AI tool could remove the downspouts from this image. Following the tip guide that accompanies the tool to erase multiple and larger items in small sections, I applied Gen-Erase three times, once each to remove the three downspouts. For your review, I’ve included a copy of the image just before the Gen-Erase application on my Flickr site here. All of the rest of the images are there as well in 2K HD with photo statistics for the pixel nerds among us.

There are far more monuments than I will feature in this short post. Visitors with more than a passing interest in the Civil War will find a single-day visit to be inadequate. The Battle of Gettysburg was waged from July 1 to July 3, 1863, and though the core battlefield can be defined as roughly 6 square miles (15.5 square kilometers), the broader military context stretches significantly further, depending on the level of detail one might consider.

Our first stop on the tour found us at the Eternal Life Peace Memorial. On July 3, 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt was present to dedicate the memorial on the 75th anniversary of the Civil War. There were many Civil War veterans in attendance, and it would be the last time a large gathering of Civil War Veterans would assemble at Gettysburg.

If you choose to drive through the park, the placards in many places denote important points of the battle site. As it turned out, this stop would be the last stop where we got out of the tour bus. Shortly after returning to the bus, the rains started and we viewed the rest of the monuments through the bus windows.

The Eternal Light Peace Memorial is an imposing Civil War memorial featuring a 47-foot (14 m) tall stone tower with an eternal flame in a bronze urn, atop Oak Hill northwest of Gettysburg. From our vantage points, the flame was not visible.

Sometimes on our tour, the rain was heavy and the best images I got through the bus window became an abstract image like this view of the Pennsylvania State Monument. The monument is a commanding structure that stands in honor of the 34,530 Pennsylvania soldiers who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Erected in 1914, it is the largest of the state monuments on the battlefield.

The 88th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Monument is a short walk from the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center. The monument is a 13-foot-tall obelisk topped with a large eagle. It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in honor of the regiment’s 296 soldiers who fought at Gettysburg.

The bronze equestrian statue of Major General Oliver O. Howard stands on Cemetery Hill. General Howard commanded the XI Corps of the Union Army during the Battle of Gettysburg. The statue depicts Howard on horseback, looking out over the battlefield. The inscription on the base of the statue reads: “Major General Oliver Otis Howard, XI Corps, Army of the Potomac. He commanded on this hill during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863.”

In November 1863, President Lincoln stayed at the David Wills House, which belonged to attorney David Wills, a close friend and supporter of Lincoln. It was during this stay that Lincoln put the finishing touches on his iconic Gettysburg Address where delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. The house is now a free museum and is part of the National Park Service.

The echoes of cannons and the cries of fallen soldiers linger in the crisp air, forever imprinted upon the rolling hills and weathered monuments. Each inscription etched in stone is a testament to unwavering courage. Though the battles have long since ceased, the battlefield remains a crucible of history, forever smoldering with the embers of a nation divided and reforged. Gettysburg National Memorial Park weaves together the solemnity of the battlefield with the enduring hope for unity and a brighter future. The many monuments further emphasize the profound impact of the experience, leaving a lasting impression on the soul.

John Steiner