SIX SCORE AND 15 YEARS AGO ...; GETTYSBURG MARKS CIVIL WAR TURNING POINT.

Byline: Mary S. Hartman Special to the Daily News

The sun was setting over the soft hills of southern Pennsylvania, casting pink into the clouds left behind.

Below, the earth was warm, the atmosphere mellow. Peaceful. The fields were taking on a light green hue, the promise of new grasses sprouting from the sod.

This tranquil scene was far different from that in Gettysburg on July 4, 135 years ago. Then, the countryside lay ravaged as the Union Army and the Confederates fought the battle history looks upon as the turning point of the United States Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg - July 1-3, 1863.

Now - in 1998 - with the wounds of war long-healed and the nation whole, the people came to reflect on the events that occurred there. They came from North and South - from Massachusetts and Alabama, from Ohio and Virginia, from Colorado, Tennessee, Minnesota and South Carolina. As the sun set, they came to Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg's National Military Park, to pause and to ponder before the statues, the tablets and the monuments, which are among the more than 1,500 in the 6,000-acre military park.

Cemetery Ridge was the site of Pickett's Charge, the definitive Civil War battle, which left Southern Gen. Robert E. Lee to withdraw his Confederate soldiers and to mourn his 20,000 casualties. ``It was entirely my fault,'' he said. ``I take full responsibility for it all.''

The Battle of Gettysburg had begun July 1, 1863, on the eve of our nation's 87th birthday, after Lee brought his Southern army to the locale in search of supplies, specifically badly needed shoes. It was waged at the midpoint of the long struggle to determine whether the United States would remain one nation, or become two.

The conflict here changed Gettysburg forever. The once quiet town of 2,400 residents first would be torn apart by war and forever after would be altered by the hordes who came here each year to relive that war - to put faces on the soldiers and the generals who so valiantly fought the battles for the causes each felt was just.

No tourist trap 

Perhaps because of its historical importance, the little town of Gettysburg, now about 7,000 population, has for the most part been spared the ``tourist trap'' moniker, though the visitor will find tourist attractions - a wax museum, the Lincoln Train and - nearby - the Eisenhower Farm, now a National Historic Site. In addition, the military park's well-planned visitor's center offers two must-see programs for those who want to gain the most from the Gettysburg experience: The Electronic Map and the Cyclarama Theater.

A good way to begin your Gettysburg tour is by attending the Electronic Map presentation. Once visitors are seated in a surround-type theater, the lights are dimmed and a 15-foot-square area on the floor becomes an electronic showcase. Accompanied by an educational narration, pen lights on the map illustrate key advances and defeats during the three-day Gettysburg struggle. Walking outside afterward, visitors will take a new look at the countryside: Culps Hill rises to the east; here the Confederates gained a strong foothold but could not penetrate the Union line. Little Round Top pops up from the south; in a key battle, Union troops arrived here just in time to repel Southern forces.

In a similar way, the Cyclarama Theater illustrates the key events of Pickett's Charge. The theater features French painter Paul Philoppoteaux's intricate 360-degree painting of the climatic moments of the July 3 battle on Cemetery Ridge. Guests stand on a center platform as lighting, sound and narration rivet them to the action. It is all here - the fallen soldiers and their horses, dead from battle wounds; the pillaged farms and fields, the burned-out homes, the terrified residents of the countryside and finally the exhausted but triumphant Union Army, which had held the Confederate advance.

Surrounding the Cyclarama is a museum of war artifacts, including a small diorama showcasing humanity's good, even during a conflict as catastrophic as the Civil War. In this petite but detailed battleground scene, a Southern general lifts a water canteen to the mouth of a fallen general from the North. Thanks to a postscript, we know that the Northern general lived and later befriended the good Samaritan from the South. The Civil War was like that. While North and South fought each other to the death, tales abound of goodness on both sides of the conflict.

Waxing historically

Visitors should not dismiss the National Civil War Wax Museum at Gettysburg. Along with the expected war scenes, the museum also features dioramas of events leading up to the conflict; historical tableaus about the importance of cotton to the new nation's economy, a rendering of Eli Whitney's cotton gin and touching scenes showing conditions endured by slaves in the mid-1800s. The museum also includes a life-sized action presentation of Pickett's Charge, as well as an animation of President Lincoln's Gettysburg address.

Among the most sobering of Gettysburg experiences is a stroll through the National Cemetery. There, more than 3,500 Union dead are buried in semi-circular rows - many of them unidentified husbands, fathers and sons in graves marked only by 8-inch-square concrete blocks each bearing a number - 200, 201, 202, 203 ... Combat-dead from the nation's subsequent wars - World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam wars - also rest at Gettysburg. The cemetery was consecrated when President Abraham Lincoln uttered his famous address there on Nov. 19, 1863.

Gettysburg, as much as any historical site in the United States, elicits ``What ifs ...?'' What if Southern Gen. Robert E. Lee had not needed supplies and had bypassed Gettysburg to fight on different terrain? What if reinforcements had not arrived in time to aid the Union after the Confederates had taken control by the evening of July 1? What if the Confederates had triumphed on Cemetery Ridge? Our founding fathers had a vision for the United States of America. How might that vision have been altered had events of the Civil War taken a different turn?

It's in the details

A visit to Gettysburg can be a life-changing event. The battlefield is enormous; in number and size, the monuments are startling. But, its sights, such as the small American flag fluttering in the Gettysburg woods, especially touch the heart. The flag is tucked against a 3-foot-tall slab of concrete erected to honor Maine's 20th infantry, which had defended the Union against a Confederate assault on July 2, 1863. How fitting, and how American it is that someone, 135 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, trod across the pastureland and into the forest to place a tiny American flag to honor those who fought for the vision of states united and free.

In his Gettysburg Address, delivered near the sight where the small flag waves today, Abraham Lincoln's famous words eloquently anointed the actions of those who drafted our Declaration of Independence.

``Four score and seven years ago, our Fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal ...'' Lincoln intoned.

Lincoln's words upheld the notion that the United States was conceived as a place where people could govern themselves and live together in harmony. He paid tribute to the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg for these ideals. The concluding lines to Lincoln's speech surely would have won the hearts of our forefathers as they met in the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776: ``... this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and ... the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''

IF YOU GO

Gettysburg is about 75 miles north of Washington, D.C. From Washington, take I-270 north to Frederick, Md.; from there, take U.S. 15 north directly to the park. You can also reach Gettysburg from Philadelphia by taking U.S. 76, then U.S. 30 west to Lancaster, York and into Gettysburg.

You will find several motels in Gettysburg. (It's wise to make reservations ahead in the summer.) Call or write Gettysburg Visitors and Convention Bureau, 35 Carlisle St., Gettysburg, Pa. 17325; Phone: [phone]. Motels at the southern end of town advertise, ``Within walking distance of the battlefield.'' We stayed at the Holiday Inn and drove our rental car to the Spangler's Springs parking lot, which we used as trailhead for an early morning walk around the National Military Park. We should not have moved the car; before long, we had looped around and were walking in front of the Holiday Inn. But the battlefield is huge, and even ambitious hikers will need to plan more than one outing if they want to see the area on foot.

Gettyburg National Military Park, 97 Taneytown Road, Gettysburg, [phone]. The battlefield is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily; Visitors Center hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Other Gettysburg attractions, in addition to those mentioned in the accompanying story, include the Hall of Presidents; Jennie Wade House and Olde Town, (Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg); Lee's Headquarters and Museum; the Lincoln Room Museum; and the National Tower, a 307-foot-tall edifice overlooking the battlefield area. The tower was - and remains - controversial. It is built on private land, but it dominates the otherwise sublime landscape of Gettysburg. And Civil War buffs won't want to miss the Gettysburg National Military Park Bookstore at the park's Visitor's Center.

- Mary S. Hartman

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Statues, monuments and memorials line the roadways through Gettysburg National Military Park. At least 1,500 markers have been erected within the park to honor the heroic actions of those who fought and died there.

(2--Color) A grove of trees stands at the High Water Mark on Cemetery Ridge - the furthest advance made by Southern troops during Pickett's Charge. The bronze tablet, in the shape of an open book, lists all military units - Rebel and Union - that fought on Cemetery Ridge, July 3, 1863.

(3--Color) The battle that took place on Little Round Top, July 2, 1863, is commemorated by this monument. Maine's 20th Regiment played a key role in securing it for the North.

(4) In Gettysburg National Cemetery, semi-circular rows of small concrete blocks, many bearing only numbers, mark the graves of unidentified soldiers who died in the battle July 1-3, 1863.

Mary S. Hartman/Special to the Daily News