Civil War Museum

On Sunday, Jonathon and I took a drive to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We went to the National Civil War Museum that is located just outside of Pennsylvania's capital. It's about an hour and a half drive. When we were nearly to York, the sky's opened up and the downpour began. It was a little frightening. The rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see the taillights of the car in front of us. Five minutes later The sun was shinning through the clouds. Ten minutes later, it happened again. Jon took the York exit and drove into downtown York. York was the Capital of the United States for a period of time, and Jonathon wanted to see the old capital building but we couldn't find it. We went on to Harrisburg. We knew the approximate location of the museum but we got a little lost trying to find it. We did, however, find a McDonald's where we stopped for lunch. After reviewing the map and finishing our fries, we found where we needed to go. We discovered we were only a couple blocks away. We toured the museum for about two hours then toured the grounds. In front of the museum is a statue called "Moment of Mercy." Charm City Cakes did a chocolate sculpture of the statue.



This is the statue. It features a confederate soldier giving water to a union soldier. The piece is based on an actual event at the battle of Fredricksburg when a soldier risked his life to help another.



This is an actual battle flag that the confederates used in battle. Many people believe this was the Confederacy's official flag but it is actually just the battle flag. The other flag was to similar to the Union's flag and soldiers got confused during battle.



This is a gruesome image of an amputation that Jon took. They had an exhibit on Civil War medicine. Did you know the expression "Bite the bullet" comes from the Civil War? They had pain bullets that they would bite down on so that they wouldn't scream out their pain.





This is looking out from the park grounds onto the city of Harrisburg. In the middle is the capital dome.

So that is our Sunday adventure. This week I work a lot but next week. Cheryl and James arrive so stay tuned to find out what exciting adventures we have while they are here!