Gettysburg Battlefield

All-day Guided Bus&Walking Trip
Saturday, June 1, 8 AM - 8 PM

To honor the 161st anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Cornell Club of Washington and ColumbiaDC jointly present an all-day guided bus trip to the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Our guide will be Professor David Silbey, a Cornell alumnus and military historian who has published widely on modern warfare and has long experience walking the Gettysburg battlefield.

According to Professor Silbey, Gettysburg is perhaps the most important battle in American military history, fought in the middle year of the most important war in US military history.  It has become both a defining historical event and an overwhelming cultural memory for Americans.  The best way to understand why and how is to go to the battlefield itself, understand the armies that fought there and the ground they fought on, and find out what brought the armies to central Pennsylvania that hot July week.

On this trip, we will look at that battlefield, understand its geography and location, and trace through the elements of the battle - how they occurred, how they were experienced, and how they were understood then and long after. Finally, we will talk about the legend of Gettysburg and how it became an iconic moment in American history, one that belonged to Union and Confederate alike.

Departure Location: Pickup (Washington) - Westfield Montgomery Mall (Mall Location Map)
7101 Democracy Blvd, Bethesda, MD 20817 (Parking Map)

Destination: Gettysburg National Military Park (Map)
248 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Click here to buy tickets!!!

Ticket includes:

• Roundtrip chartered coach from the DC area.
• Free all-day parking at pickup site.
• Complimentary cold drinks and snacks served aboard.
• Buffet lunch adjacent to the battlefield.

Please note that Tour of the battlefield includes walking on uneven ground and climbing stairs

David Silbey is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Cornell in Washington program and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Cornell History Department. Dr. Silbey specializes in the industrialized total wars of the 20th century and the asymmetric responses (guerrilla warfare, insurgency, and terrorism) to those wars. He has written books on the British Army in World War I, the Philippine-American War, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and US military encounters with non-western nations. He is the series editor for Cornell University Press’ military history series “Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History.” Dr. Silbey got his Ph.D. at Duke University and his BA at Cornell University.