Hiking Gettysburg National Military Park

The site of the largest and most storied of all Civil War battles, Gettysburg National Military Park has the grandest visitor center of the battlefield parks. The 22,000-square-foot museum features relics and interactive exhibits on the struggle, a film and the restored Cyclorama, a 360-degree painting done in the late 19th century depicting Pickett's charge — the climactic, futile attempt by Lee's army to break the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded then by Gen. George G. Meade.

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun

April 7, 2011