Historic playing cards from the Civil War a highlight of the Gettysburg 150th
Seems that everywhere I go, custom card decks somehow become a prominent or recurring theme. When we decided to take some time off for fourth of July, we wound up in Gettysburg National Park for the 150th anniversary of the famous battle which took place there during the Civil War. I will be honest here, I was reluctant to go. I did not think I would enjoy watching men run around in uniforms and with guns and pretending to be in a war. I did not think I would enjoy seeing the battlefields. I did not think I would like ANY of it.
Turns out I was – (as sometimes and only very rarely happens) – completely wrong about the entire thing as well as my actual reaction to it.
The place is enormous – that was the first thing – and the entire countryside there is undeveloped, pristine and amazing. I could see how Pennsylvania would look if there were no houses and development and I could see the beauty of the land and was amazed and a little awed at how pretty it really is there.
“Worth fighting over” was my first thought – although I realize, of course, that it was a lot more than land that was being fought over.
Also the way this historic site is organized – you can drive around it in a loop and see things along the way at your own pace -pulling off and parking along the road and then seeing each section on your own timetable. One of the most incredible things there is the lookout tower. Situated high above the fields – up a few hundred stairs – there is a nice area at the top with a 360 degree view where you can take photo after photo until you get tired and have to move on. The view from up there is pretty great.
Then there were the cannons – I wanted one. Irrationally wanted a cannon. I did the next best thing and took pictures of it. Took pictures of me with a cannon – and my car with a cannon – you get the idea.
Then there werre the encampments. The encampments were a special thing for the celebration – where people are actually living on site at Gettysburg – IN PERIOD COSTUMES IN THE EXTREME HEAT – and sleeping in the rough in period tents.
The really cool thing is that they have all manner of things on display in their tent areas from the era. Things like the orriginal way excedrin came to be, (a favorite of mine as a headache aficionado) clothing from the era, tools, other food containers (in special bell jars to protect them) and- of course- games and playing cards.
It turns out that playing cards from the civil war era had no pips (numbers) in the corners. Both the people in the confederate encampment who were living there and those in the northern encampment had these on display. Apparently before the guys went into battle they discarded all their cards and gambling games on to the side of the road in case they died in battle! Since playing cards were sinful they did not want their families (or their maker) to find those sinful items on their person in case they got killed in the battle. After the battle many of the men had to buy their own items back from entrepreneurs who would collect the items from along the side of the road and sell them back to the survivors!
We met some soldiers who were part of the weapons display and they had been staying on site for days. They were all in original uniforms of the period and they all contributed for food – which was cooked in the old fashioned way by a cook outside by the tents and – in general – they tried to live like the soldiers lived. They were a great group and I have to hand it to them for trying to keep our US History relevant.
Naturally we have added custom civil war playing cards to the line. You can imprint the back and have faces similar to those above from the civil war.
Tagged as: civil war playing cards, custom civil war playing cards, customized playing cards civl war, gettysburg, gettysburg 150th anniversary, gettysburg national park