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The next morning came with great and horrible contrition.
Now contrition comes in many forms when one drinks too much.
For this particular morning Mike and Bone had to nurse their cottoned mouths and hammering headaches at a local Applebees with Sarah and Van, who with verbally and non-verbally disapproved of the Boys past evenings exploits.
After an very awkward goodbye for Mike with Sarah and Van, the Boys turned their bleary-eyed attention back to the already steamy battlefield.
A Steamy Gettysburg College
With a few hours until they had to leave the Boys figured they would hit some of the sites in Battlefield they had yet to check out,
General Lee's Gettysburg Hangout
It is said that General Lee was suffering Angina (Heat failure is what eventually killed him in1870) during the Gettysburg Campaign, and based on how hot it was in his old Headquarter, Mike and Bone could see why ! Of course dear readers, it had to be the heat that was causing the suffering of Marse Robert, Mike and Bone,,,, it could not have been related to the 7 straight hours of drinking, could it !?!
General Reynolds Requiem
General John Reynolds who was the Union General that courageously held off the Rebel's on the first day of fighting until Meade and the rest of the Union Corp's could arrive on the scene fell on this spot.
General Lee Picketing a Charge
The epic conclusion of the 3rd day of the Battle was Pickett's Charge, so it made too much sense and irony for Mike and Bone to charge like Pickett!!
Pickett's Charge was a controversial conclusion for the Confederates. "Old Pete" Longstreet wanted to flank the Yankees around the Round Top Mountains, Marse Bobby Lee with his gander up, ordered a full frontal attack, right in the middle of the Yankee Line, where in fact they were indeed the weakest. Longstreet, knowing the probable casualties, dragged his feet well into the afternoon when he ordered the Confederates Chief of Artillery Fitz John Porter to launch the largest artillery battle in North America. The guns of both armies roared so loud that they could be heard in Washington, Baltimore, and Pennsylvania's Capital.
Once the guns quieted, Longstreet order the effete, pompous Virginian, General Pickett to charge the Union Line.
Mike and Bone with a Successful Charge to the Angle!
It was a grand charge, despite a murderous crossfire from the Union the Pickett's men walked the field, where half way across General Lewis Armistead (grandson of the hero of Fort Mc Henry in the War of 1812) exclaimed " for our Honour Boys !, placed his cap on his sword that he held high forward, and started a double-quick towards the "Angle", the weakest point of the field. Unfortunately for the Reb's a fence halfway across the field stopped the men long enough for the Union to target them and inflict tremendous casualties, stopping the charge and any chance that the South would win the War. Armistead was one of the few southerners to actually make it to the Union line where he was mortally wounded. He lived long enough to see his best friend from WestPoint who was a Union General. After the Battle as the southerners were retreating, Robert E. Lee went up to Pickett and asked him where his Brigade was, Pickett emotionally and scornfully said "General, my Brigade is gone, dead on the field." Pickett never forgave Lee for destroying his Brigade on a Charge neither he or Longstreet thought was a bad idea. With that, Mike and Bone, being the rebels that they are, performed their own Pickett's Charge in the Midday Heat, of course with no bullets flying at them, but they were still hung over !
"Pickett didn't have'ta walk back !
One thing that is never mentioned in all the books and film about Pickett's Charge is that it is not flat ! There is a perceptible grade uphill from the Confederate position on the Field to the Union's Angle ! So the Rebels were not just dealing with bullets, and a fence, but all uphill!
Trip Post Script
Just as the Reb's had to retreat back, so did Mike and Bone! With it getting dangerously close to the Boy's flight, they double-quicked back to the Car and back to BWI with only minutes to spare. So in three days, Mike and Bone did three major Civil War Battlefield's, annoyed Buckeye's and Bikers, and drained most of the beer and whiskey on this side of the Allegany's, in other words, another successful Mike and Bone Tour !!!!