Scouts of Troop 20 recently spent the weekend of March 4-6 visiting both the Gettysburg and Antietam Battlefield National Historic Sites.
The Scouts visited Gettysburg 18 months ago to complete the first half of the Gettysburg National Historic Trail. This trail was created as a joint program between the Boy Scouts of America and the National Park Service to educate Scouts about Civil War history. The first half of the trail required that the Scouts hike all of the Gettysburg sites and trails over a three-day period.
The purpose was to view the battle from the perspectives of both the Yankees and Confederates. The second half of this trip, taken on a recent cold March weekend, included a morning at the Visitor Center, Museum, Electronic Map and Cyclorama and an afternoon hike through the city of Gettysburg, stopping at many of the historic structures around the city. The Scouts spent another afternoon hiking around the farm of General Eisenhower, located outside of Gettysburg.
Each Scout will receive a nationally sanctioned patch for completing the entire trail. A requirement to receive this patch is that each Scout must carry a booklet with him throughout the weekend. The booklet contains historical information, mapping directions to move between each location and questions that can only be answered by stopping at each site along the trail.
As the Scouts followed their compass directions locating each successive stop along the way, they took time to stop and read many of the markers not listed in the book. Due to their efficiency in map reading, the Scouts had sufficient time to also visit both Devil’s Den and Little Roundtop, one of the highlights of their first outing. Because of the heavy educational component of the weekend, the Scouts were permitted to take one excused day of absence from school.
At the conclusion of two days on the Gettysburg Battlefield the Scouts loaded up and headed south to Sharpsburg, Maryland to visit the Antietam Battlefield. While there they stopped at the Visitor’s Center and Museum, as well as took the auto-tour of the battlefield. One of the highlights of this trip was to climb to the top of the stone observation tower overlooking the battlefield.
Participating Scouts were: Vincent Gray, Jonathan Hampton, Jon Hoffman, Clayton Hoover, Ethan Joniello, Bradley McNeal, Mike McNeal, Dudley McNitt, Mike Moore, Tyke Pavlic, Alan Swann and Dustin Weaver.
Leaders for the weekend were Pack 320 Cubmaster, Ron Osborne and Troop 20 Scoutmaster, Cummins McNitt. Underwriters for some of the weekend costs were: Snap On Tools, Ron Osborne and Stony Point Bed and Breakfast. Troop 20 is sponsored by the Church of the Good Shepherd.
