Gettysburg and Lunatic Asylum

Gettysburg was such an incredible experience.  I didn't realize how little I knew about this battle.  We viewed the artifacts in the visitor's center, then took the 24 mile auto tour of the battlefields and learned the history of the fighting in the order that it happened during those three days, while viewing the places where they fought. There were so many memorials to each company of soldiers it was overwhelming.  We made a brief stop at the National Cemetery where Lincoln gave his famous speech. It was really something to remember.

We headed into West Virginia to the Transallegheny Lunatic Asylum next.  What a crazy place to visit!  All the staff were dressed in old fashioned nurse uniforms.  The Asylum shut down in the '90s, but was built in the 1800s. It was self-sufficient with a farm, greenhouse, and even a coal mine to support it. It purportedly is haunted, and at one time it even housed soldiers in the Civil War.  It was quite a tour.  They had a room where they showed us some of the "treatments" given, I am so glad medicine has come a long way! 

patient ward hallway

the crib cage for "calming down" patients