Addressing Gettysburg is more than a podcast, even though it is beginning with the podcast. Our ultimate goal is to create a community of Gettysburg-nerds and -novices alike. The nerds help the novices see that history, especially Gettysburg history, is NOT boring. We have ideas for annual conventions, videos, live shows and more. But, first thing's first. Before we can get to most of those ideas, we will need to first complete production and release of season one of the podcast in order to develop the following required to support such ideas. So, if you're reading this before the release of season one, you have a chance to get in on the ground floor by supporting production in one of a number of ways. 

Our goal is not to make money, at least not at this early stage. Our goal right now is to eliminate or defray our costs of production which, luckily enough, are not as bad as they could be thanks to our founder's ability to make and keep the right connections. However, it still costs in time, equipment, incidentals and accomodations for our guests. The most important one is the accomodations for the guests. Every guest is fed before a session. Some guests from out of the area require car services and/or board. This adds up pretty quickly. 

So how can you support us? Well, let's start with the one that is the easiest and doesn't cost you one red cent more than what you were going to pay anyway. We're talking about our Amazon Store. 

AMAZON STORE

Our website is strewn with links to Amazon, be they the links to books and movies on our Recommended Reading page, banners on other pages or the Amazon banner at the very top of our homepage. Should you find yourself needing or wanting to shop Amazon for ANYTHING, all you need to do is the following:

1. Go towww.addressinggettysburg.com​
2. Find the Amazon banner (circled in YELLOW below) and click it. 
3. Now sign in and shop Amazon to your heart's content. 

DONATE

Maybe you're one of those rare few who don't use Amazon. Or maybe you do but you don't want us to wait for $.07 per qualifying sale to eventually add up to a dollar. You can donate via PayPal using your PayPal account or your credit card. And if you really love us and care about the podcast generation learning their nation's history, then you can make it a monthly payment. Just click the "Donate" button. After that, it's pretty simple. The page should look like this (note that they may update their site now and then and slightly tweak the look of things). 

MJC Productions is the name of the production company that produces Addressing Gettysburg. So, don't be confused by the name. 

A fun way to support the show is merhcandise through our Sutler's Store. Like Amazon, there's a catch to us receiving our earnings, but it's not so difficult to achieve. The best part is you get something tangible and can show your support and help us spread the word with your mug, shirt, doggy bandana, phone case, and more. 

​Whichever way you choose to do this, we really appreciate your show of support and we promise, we WILL surprise you and make you glad you got in on the ground floor. 

So what's the real story with Addressing Gettysburg? People are starting to ask when the podcast will be out. The answer is: "the Fall". The real answer is: "when it's ready; hopefully in the Fall". Apparently, though, that is too long to wait for some, so, Matt and Pete took the time to sit don and record an introductory episode to meet and greet you. Enjoy. 

The obvious answer to this question is by bike through GettysBike Tours. Not only are they our sponsor, but we founded the business in 2005, though we are not the current owners. It was designed because no one was successfully doing it at the time, though some had tried. Those that tried failed because, we believed, they didn't design the tours (or the business itself) with the tourist in mind. They applied a "one-size-fits-all" approach to bicycle tours in Gettysburg because, well, they weren't from Gettysburg. Until we started the business, we weren't from Gettysburg either, but we toured it almost religiously, so, by the time we became locals, we never lost our memories of being a tourist.

GettysBike Tours was designed to be an experience and it was born out of a very simple desire we had: to come somewhat close to the hardships soldiers had to face. You won't get even a whiff of that from an automobile. Certainly not from the sky. The best way to experience what a Civil War soldier experienced is to eat very little and walk miles a  day, either sit around in camp for days or weeks or months on end or be thrown into a horrific battle only to retire to camp that night with half the friends you woke up with that morning. But who has time for that? So, the great compromise is a bike tour. Only then can you get an appreciation for "the high ground" (grunted like Sam Elliott in Gettysburg). Or how the elements affect your progress. Then, top that off with one of several Licensed Battlefield Guides telling you what happened along the way. The best part, to me, is feeling the wind in your face as you ride around (hint: it helps cool you better than AC. I swear)

Ok, cycling is not for everyone. The Gettysburg Tour Center is basically an institution here in Gettysburg. They provide tours by bus and with Licensed Battlefield Guides. Before I moved to Gettysburg to open GettysBike, it was tradition for my father and I (and whoever else was along with us) to open the weekend with a double-decker bus tour. You can certainly ride below in the AC and not all of their buses are double-decker, but, in my book, nothing can replace the feeling of having the wind blowing in your hair (or across your barren scalp, if you're bald like me) as you tour the fields. It's like being blasted in the face with history. Are you starting to detect a theme here?

If I'm being honest, my dream was to open another horse tour company here in Gettysburg , but I really only had experience riding horses, which I love, and not caring for them. Plus, who had the money to open that when a very successful one was already in existence? Now, for this recommendation, I'm going to urge you to Google which one to try because it's been many years since I've done a horse tour, so my recommendation would be outdated.
Here's the deal: horseback is a fantastic and closer-to-authentic way to see the fields. Unlike a bike or automobile tour, horses are limited to horse trails that offer a unique view of the battlefield seldom seen by the average tourist. The only down side is you're limited to these trails which limits the sites your can see.  Did I mention you're out in the open AND they utilize Licened Battlefield Guides for their tours?

The best part?

The animal does all the work for you. 
​
Speaking of horses, you can also take horse-drawn carriage rides and tours. Again, more than one company, soooooo...

GettysBike almost  was the company to bring segways to Gettysburg, but, of course, that was ruined by lawyers during contract negotiations and that idea fell by the wayside. That is, until SegTours opened up. Segways are a fun alternative to bikes because the machine does the work for you, allowing you to just enjoy the information, sights and wind on your face.

But, that's not all. SegTours teams you up with a Licensed Guide or an audio recording when one is not available. 

So, of course I'm biased for a few reasons as I pointed out at the start of the artcile. I'm also just right, regardless of bias ;-). 

Look, I get it. You're too old or out of shape or lazy to ride a bike. Maybe it's been too long since you last rode. I know. I've been there and now that I'm back to riding I could kick myself for every stopping. Pizza is delicious, but nothing beats the taste of using your body to move your from one place to another. But, whatever. You can't/won't ride a bike and nothing I say will make you try. Fine...

Then do yourself a favor and see the battlefield in the comfort of your own car: hire a Licensed Battlefield Guide to take you around. Through the visitor center reservation desk or personal recommendations from us, here, at Addressing Gettysburg (matt@addressinggettysburg.com), or directly through their association

"It's easier to get into the CIA than become a Licensed Battlefield Guide and that's why I intend to, er-ah, break the CIA into a million little pieces," President John F. Kennedy famously never said and he was right (had he said it). It is VERY difficult to become a LBG. These men and women really know their stuff and you will too when you hire them to take you on a tour.

Regardless of my bias towards modes of transportation, one thing is indisputable, in my book: a Licensed Battlefield Guide is a MUST on any and every tour you take of Gettysburg. Period. Now, you can make an argument that I'm biased here too because I have quite a few friends and acquaintences who are guides, but only a fool would make that argument. ​

And, hey, open your windows so you can feel the wind in your face.

Let's just get this out in the open before we start having fun: everyone is a tourist, some time, somewhere. All of us. So let us laugh together at some of the things tourists say here at Gettysburg. I'll explain why each question or statement is funny or dunder-headed in italics. The source of these sayings are a mix of firsthand experience, secondhand experience, legend and lore that I just can't believe someone actually said and, well, that's it. Let us begin, in random order.

• "Whose job was it to put up the monuments before the battle?" Evidently, this lady thought that monuments go up before an event. That Civil War generation; they had such foresight!

And a variation on that theme: "wasn't it nice that someone put the monument up so the soldiers would know where to go?

• "Why don't any of the monuments have bullet holes?" Back in 1903, the United States government spent $1.5 million repairing all bullet holes in the monuments "to ensure that future generations will be able to see the monuments as they were before the battle". Actually, that quote is entirely made up. The monuments were, for the most part, erected by the veterans of the battle. They mark the forward-most position their regiment held. In some cases, there's a secondary monument to the primary one, like in the case of the 26th North Carolina, for instance. 

"Can I tie up my boat to the High Water mark?"

• Sigh. There are lakes and streams and creeks and ponds all over Pennsylvania. Many are around Gettysburg. Some run through the battlefield/National Park. None are navigable in the way this man was thinking. "He had to be joking,"  you say. Well, I pressed the source of this gem to think hard and determine if this man was joking. The source really seemed to want to say that the man was joking. But, alas, he couldn't. It's questions like these that make me think that somewhere along the way there was a smart-alec of a guide who came up with these stories and then just spread them around as true. But, then again, I've spoken to many, many tourists, so... yeah.

"Will I find any bullets on the ground?"

• Yes. If you drop one and recover it. Bullets/cannonballs/swords/knives/bayonets/skeletonscan't or bones are most likely still underground around the battlefield/Park. Think about it. Over 100,000 men firing tons of metal for three days-- it can't all be recovered. I've even recently heard of a guide who went exploring through a creek discovering a bullet just laying there amid the pebbles and stones on the creekbed. So, I'm not saying that it can't happen. It's just unlikely and you'd have to be very lucky to stumble upon it. And do you want to know how to take that good luck and turn it into bad luck? It's simple. Take it. Then you'll saddle yourself with fines and--who knows?-- possibly jailtime (not too sure about the legal punishment that comes with relic hunting; all I need to know is that I can get into some deep doo-doo if I take an artifact from the field.). What you should do is just leave it and notify the park service. If you don't know just where you are, look around for a Ranger or Park Police, even a Licensed Battlefield Guide (they wear light blue shirts and gray pants and have this patch and badge). DO NOT TAKE IT!

"Where is the building that Lee surrendered in?"

• I was literally asked this question WHILST WRITING THIS BLOGPOST! As even the novice student of the Battle of Gettysburg knows, in April, 1865, Robert E. Lee said to his lieutenants, "Guys, we can't win this war. So, let's go back to Gettysburg to surrender." But seriously, folks. We should all know that Lee did NOT surrender here at Gettysburg. Where is the building that Lee surrendered in? Why, it's at Appomattox Courthouse...in VIRGINIA. I know, "but history is boring. Who cares about that sh*t?" Well, someone who doesn't want to end up in a blogpost, for one. ;-)

"We just watched the movie Gettysburg. Where did they bury Buster?"

• Ok, I gotta be forgiving here. Buster isn't buried becuase he never died and he never died because he never lived. We get it. [We're a movie culture and, no matter how many times we're told "movies aren't real. Read a book" we never do and keep thinking everything depicted in the movie is true to life. As we discuss in a yet-to-be-released bonus episode featuring author D. Scott Hartwig, the character of "Buster Kilrain" is ficticous. Never existed. In fact, he is the "voice" of "The Killer Angels" author Michael Shaara. He also "damns all gentlemen". 

As you'll find when our podcast is released, while we do take our history seriously, we love it and have a passion for it. Humor is, as it should be, a part of that passion, and, as I pointed out at the start of this post, we are ALL tourists somewhere.