My favorite event would have to be the Herr's Ridge reenactment in Gettysburg. Held on part of the actual battlefield this event cost you about $6.00. It was held near where the first shots of the battle were fired. I remember the first night that I ever spent there. Two of my friends and there grandfather who portrayed a chaplain walked around the camps thinking of the awful sacrifice our ancestors who fought on that ground went through so that we could have the freedom that we now take for granted. It was a cool, foggy night. The mooon was out bright though. How I wish I could go back to that moment. It was so peaceful, and then to here the chaplain play his harmonica later that night. You could hear the band playing with him "Battle Cry of Freedom," and the other beautiful songs of the day. The words, "oh how foolish, how thoughtless I have been..." can be heard. How many of those men felt that, and now us here in the year 2000 take the freedom we know for granted. If we knew what kind of sacrifice our ancestors went through we would never take our liberty and other things so priceless to us for granted.

Then the next day you can hear the haunting melody of The Minstrel Boy going through camp. Later in the day during Pickett's Chage I saw only 500 men coming across that field at me. It is a frightening scene. These men are coming across to kill me! Would I have been able to stand there at the Angle as these men came towards me?

When the battle is over and the adrenaline is done pumping I see the Rebs coming towards us, but now as friends, as our countrymen. I realize we are all there for teh same reason to preserve the unique history that we all share together. How great it is to be an American!