It's late afternoon on July 3 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Union and Confederate soldiers wait in silence on the battlefield. Cannons have been loaded, ready to be fired. Tension fills the air. No one moves.
Smoke is everywhere.
But today, no lives are lost. That's because it's the year 2000, not 1863. Those aren't real soldiers, but re-enactors, people who act out Civil War battles as a hobby. And the enemy is not the rival army, but the modern, 307-foot tower looming above the battlefield. For over a century, Americans have visited Gettysburg to see this historic site where, in July of 1863, a bloody battle occurred in which more than 51,000 men were killed, wounded or missing.