[ti:American Places – Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]
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[00:00.04]The Gettysburg National Military Park
[00:03.84]is in the small town of Gettysburg
[00:06.44]in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.
[00:09.56]Much of the area around Gettysburg
[00:12.72]still looks like it did in the 1860s,
[00:16.52]during the American Civil War.
[00:19.60]The town is in the middle of good farmland.
[00:24.80]Roads pass through Gettysburg
[00:27.20]that lead to Baltimore,
[00:29.08]Washington, D.C., and other eastern cities.
[00:33.84]It is hard to believe
[00:35.56]that two huge armies fought there.
[00:39.80]One fighting force
[00:41.60]was the United States Army of the Potomac,
[00:44.84]commanded by General George Meade.
[00:48.12]The other was the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
[00:53.04]led by General Robert E. Lee.
[00:56.04]Lee's troops had moved north
[00:59.12]into Pennsylvania from Virginia.
[01:03.44]Lee believed that a Southern win
[01:06.56]of a battle on Northern land
[01:09.44]would force a negotiated settlement of the Civil War
[01:14.00]and mean independence for the Confederate States.
[01:18.32]The battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863.
[01:25.12]About 170,000 soldiers fought for three days.
[01:31.40]When it ended on July 3,
[01:34.32]more than 50,000 soldiers were dead,
[01:38.24]wounded or missing.
[01:40.72]Lee's army lost the battle.
[01:44.64]Many visitors start their visit to Gettysburg
[01:48.60]at the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War.
[01:52.36]The museum has a large
[01:55.28]collection of Civil War objects.
[01:58.96]The museum has more than 1 million artifacts,
[02:03.32]from soldiers' private notebooks and clothing
[02:06.76]to maps of the battlefield.
[02:10.72]The museum also houses
[02:12.92]the Gettysburg cyclorama painting.
[02:15.96]This kind of artwork completely surrounds
[02:20.00]the people looking at it.
[02:21.76]The painting shows the artist's vision
[02:25.32]of the final major attack
[02:27.96]of the battle on July 3, 1863.
[02:33.60]Over time, it has come to be called
[02:37.40]Pickett's Charge.
[02:39.24]George Pickett was one of several
[02:42.24]Confederate commanders
[02:44.16]ordered to make the charge.
[02:48.16]The Confederate soldiers reached a point
[02:51.08]close to the northern lines and headquarters.
[02:55.00]Today, the point is called the "High Water Mark."
[03:00.68]Northern forces then turned the Confederates back.
[03:06.00]The charge failed.
[03:07.92]Southern forces would never again
[03:10.76]reach so far north.
[03:13.76]Soon after the battle,
[03:15.64]people began to visit Gettysburg
[03:18.76]to try to understand what happened there.
[03:22.84]One of those visitors, on November 19, 1863,
[03:28.56]was President Abraham Lincoln.
[03:31.24]He was invited to help dedicate a burial ground
[03:35.72]for Union soldiers killed in the battle.
[03:40.08]Lincoln spoke for just two minutes.
[03:43.32]But his speech, known as "The Gettysburg Address,"
[03:47.84]is one of the most famous pieces
[03:50.84]of American oratory.
[03:54.32]I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM