Visiting Gettysburg

A copy of Abraham Lincoln’s immortal speech is etched in a glass window at the Gettysburg museum. A visitor listens to a dramatic reading of the two-minute speech.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors watch and listen as lighting and sound bring the battle to life inside the park’s cyclorama theater. The massive painting depicts the ill-fated Confederate charge led by Gen. George Pickett. In its 19th century heyday, it reportedly brought veterans to tears.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors study the faces and names of Civil War officers and soldiers at the military park.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A large regimental flag is on display at the museum. At left, visitors study artifacts before a huge photograph of Gettysburg in 1863.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Nick Lorentz engages the crowd as a Civil War-era newspaper reporter. He’s part of the Gettysburg museum’s “A Visit to the Past” program.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)