At nearly all of the 391 American National Park units, one or more National Park Passport Stamps can be acquired at no cost at park visitor centers and ranger stations. The stamps are similar in nature to passport stamps stamped in a traveler's national passport.  We picked up our books in Washington DC and we’ve been collecting stamps ever since.  The stamps serve as a record of each park visit.  They’re free, fast, and fun to collect, so if you don’t have enough time to complete the Junior Ranger program at a certain park, just get the stamp.

On April 14^th when Gettysburg’s new Visitor’s Center opened, we were there.  It was our first trip to Gettysburg, but it was truly memorable.  Before we went, since we had not yet reached the Civil War in our studies, we read a little about what happened there.  I gave the boys the usual background and explained the importance of that particular battle.  Then we read an account by Tillie Pierce, an eyewitness to the events on those first few days of July in 1863.  It was chilling, especially for the boys, considering she was school-age when she witnessed what she did.  At one point they asked me to stop reading because they were so horrified, but we managed to make it through her story.  It brought life to the things that we would see later that day. 

Hard Tack

Hard Tack was a hard bread carried by soldiers during the Civil War.  Make your own and see what you think of it.

MATERIALS:

2 cups of flour
¾ to 1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening (Crisco)
6 pinches salt

PROCEDURE:

Mix flour, shortening, water and salt into a stiff dough, kneading several times. Spread dough ½ inch thick onto baking sheet and slice into 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch squares. Poke holes in dough as illustrated below, four lines of four holes across and four down. Bake for ½ hour at 400 degrees. Remove from the oven, cut dough into 3 inch squares. Turn dough over, return to oven, and bake another ½ hour. Turn oven off and leave hardtack in until it is cool.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches ever given in American history.  Below, read the speech, then try to answer the questions.

  

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Paragraph 1

• What is a "score"?
• Who did Lincoln mean when he talked about "our fathers"?
• Where did the idea come from that it was a "nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal?"
• When Lincoln said "all men are created equal" he was drawing from the Declaration of Independence. Why did he refer to this document and not the U.S. Constitution?

Paragraph 2

• Lincoln states what he thinks is the purpose of the Civil War. What is it, in his opinion?

Paragraph 3

• What is Lincoln saying about the men who died in battle here?
• Did Lincoln think that his words would be remembered?
• What does Lincoln say is the responsibility of those who are still living?
• What do you think Lincoln means by the phrase, "government of the people, by the people, for the people"?

 from www.nps.gov