Orkila

My summer camp was so fun! We played all these games and I jumped into the freezing cold water at 6:30, We did a swim test, I passed, we played life and death in the forest. In that there are 3 different groups, red, yellow, and green. Red eats everything, yellow eats green but runs away from red. Green runs away from everything. If you want to see the website I have posted a link to it at the bottom of the page.

Here is a story from Day 2 at camp: We were doing archery, I had shot three out of four of my arrows. I was on my last arrow. I had shot all misses. Then I shot and the arrow hit the ground. But the reason that I am telling this is that the arrow bounced of the ground and hit the target. I am still shaking my head about that.

this is of my cabin

this is a skit that I did. I am the one pointing

as you may see Orkila was fun

I will probably not post for 2 weeks because I will go on the Dino dig/camping trip

I will tell you all about it! Bye!

Back to D.C.

Ok, now we are going back to D.C and we are living in a mansion. There are two sets of stairs. One is all fancy and the other is steep. The steep one was for slaves back in the old days, the other for masters. This is so the slaves are not seen. The mansion we were staying at was actually the marshal islands embassy. Here

is something cool, when you go in the gates of an embassy you are officially in that country's soil. Here are some photos of me and Lucas traveling.

But anyway, we went to the museums next. Lucas's favorite one was the

natural history. I think you can see that :) .

We also went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That is where they make dollar bills. It was super cool. There where official signs and in the center of them one said: "Think of how I feel, I printed my lifetime salary in a few minutes."

We looked inside the national history Museum which had a super cool U.S. wartime display. We took a tour of the capital building. That one was fun because we went inside the room for the Washington senators to work. It had Boeing photos and stuff.

Now I reveal that the real me is in Seattle right now and is leaving tomorrow for overnight camp. Wish me Luck!

Bye!

Day 3

Day 3 of Gettysburg started as general Picket and general Stuart arrived in town. General Lee chose to send Longstreet's remaining 10,000 solders to march with Picket's 5,000. But before that Lee sent Stuart's men around Culp's Hill and attack the Union from the back. But than Meade saw the coming attack and counted with his own cavalry. His cavalry deflected Stuart's. Meade knew something. Lee had attacked from the back, and both sides. Next he would attack the Union's center. General Lee sent 15,000 men directly up the Union's center. The Union cannons fired. The Confederate solders continued walking. The Confederate solders where blasted, than they got into musket

range. Both sides fought with a rocky wall between them. Soon the confederates retreated. There was 1,000 left. Lee said,"it's all my fault" Lee went into a defensive position but Meade did not attack.

I think you might have seen that this post has different colors, this is showing Union (Blue) and confederate(Butternut). This video below is me and Lucas acting out Piket's charge.

Day 2

When we left off we had what looked like a Confederate victory. But the Union did not give up! General Meade (Union General) worked hard and enforced the idea that if the Union reinforced the tired cavalry and infantry they might have a chance to turn the tide. So after a night of heavy reinforcements on the Union side, Day two began.

Lee ordered General Longstreet to attack on the Union's left flank. Longstreet attacked. A Union General moved his core up to meet the attack. He put his men in the very peach orchard where Reynolds' men had a snack. Longstreet dogged around him and took the devil's den, and then Big Round Top.

Union General Sickels took Joshua Chamberlain by the scruff of his neck and told him to hold the hill at all costs. Chamberlain took the hill. Chamberlain gave his regimental flag to a huge man named Towzer. Towzer was 6'4"! The confederate soldiers charged up the hill. Even though Chamberlain was outnumbered, his regiment, the 20th Maine, held strong. They fought, 5 charges, 5 deflections. Then the 20th Maine ran out of bullets. Then Chamberlain said" Bayonets, Bayonets," a nearby Lieutenant heard him and said" BAYONETS!!!" so loudly that the nearby 23d Michigan also placed there bayonets on their guns. Then they charged. The Confederates retreated. A Confederate soldier came up to Chamberlain and Joshua pointed his sword at the man's neck and said"Surrender." The soldier pulled out his pistol and shot Chamberlain. Or, he meant to. The bullet whizzed over Joshua's ear. Then the solder said "okay I surrender but can I have some water?" Then Chamberlain was really polite to him even though that person almost killed him.

Lee saw what happened and sent soldiers to Culp's Hill and those soldiers were deflected. Now they have a big tower on Culp's Hill so you can see everything and I really enjoyed that.

Next, Day three!

The Story of Gettysburg

When we left off last time our tour guide had begun telling the story of Gettysburg. For you I will tell everything but the story of Gettysburg, I will save that for the end so don't worry. So he told the first day of Gettysburg. Than we biked across the southern line. We saw a huge Virginia monument that had Lee at the top.



Then we saw the peach orchard and the devil's den (a rocky terrain that is named after a 9 ft snake that was impossible to catch hereby thought to be possessed by the devil). And we saw Little round top, a hill smaller than big round top and the center of the Union line with a Meade (Union Commander) statue in sight of the Lee statue.

Gettysburg, day 1:
The first soldiers into Gettysburg was General Hill's Corps. They had orders that they shouldn't fight the enemy. Then General Buford's cavalry came and engaged the enemy. Hill fell back so they could have Lee's entire army before they began fighting. Buford knew the values of terrain, he saw that this must be where the Battle should be. He sent desperate letters to General Reynolds, the head of the First Corps, wanting infantry to back them up. Buford got nothing back as Reynolds thought that Lee was much farther north. Buford's men, therefore, had to spend two hours until Reynolds came loping up to Buford's command post and said "What's wrong?" Buford said that they were engaging the enemy. Reynolds galloped off to his troops, two miles away. The solders charged up and came just in time to make sure that Buford's cavalry did not retreat. Within a short amount of time Reynolds was shot.

Tomorrow, the real story of Little Round Top!

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The Turning Point

I woke up to my dad doing an imitation of the trumpet charge sound. I said, "Daaad," but got dressed anyway. We went down to breakfast. We went into a building owned by our hotel that serves free breakfast to the people who stay at the hotel. First there was a small stand that has apples and bananas on it for us. Then a clear cabinet that hosted blueberry muffins and scones and there was bread and coffee and stuff.

After breakfast we drove over to where the bike tour area was and worked on fitting our bikes. We had fun getting the most perfect bike possible. In the end I got a bike that is called "Devil's Den" Lucas's was called "Phantom" and mom and dad's were anonymous.

Our tour guide came and we enabled headsets that allowed him to narrate for us - He has a transmitter that connected to ear phones that we were wearing. We biked through Gettysburg and our tour guide was droning about exact dates that aren't that exciting. Then we stopped by some smelly dumpsters and we wondered if this would be worth it.

Will the tour be saved? Tune in next time for the next part!

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Now our story in the District of Columbia will turn to a war that happened 150 years ago...

First Before I explain the car ride to Gettysburg I will point out that in the last post Frank mentioned the story of Lee's Mansion. Of those that do not know the story here it is: Lee married a woman that happened to be a direct descendant of Washington. She inherited a house that is described in the post below. Lee lived there until Virginia seceded from the states. Than he left it and moved farther into the south. After the war he went back to the old house. An angry mother that had her son killed by one of Lee's solders buried her son in the Lee's property to irritate the Lees. Than another mother followed suite. than another. soon that place became the Arlington Cemetery with tons of graves.





Now back to the car ride. We stopped at Antietam, the major battle that let Lincoln sine the emancipation proclamation. It was also the place that we saw our first real civil war cannon. (I enjoyed this because I love artillery) me and Lukie also chased each other around the gift shop with wooden muskets and hats. We saw the bloody lane, a sunken road that was used as a pre-dug trench at Antietam. We saw Burnside's bridge. (A bridge that had a lot of death tied into it) And a battlefield full corn pach that was filled with construction workers that recked the moment. At the end of the day we drove into downtown Gettysburg which had stores with names like: Turning Point and Pickett's Buffet. I will tell the story of Gettysburg tomorrow. Goodbye everyone!