Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1895, 32 years after the deadly battle. Gettysburg is the most-visited of the Civil War battlefields.

Many visitors start their visit at the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War. The museum has the world’s largest collection of Civil War objects. The museum has more than 1 million items, from soldiers’ private notebooks and uniforms to original maps of the battlefield. The museum also houses the Gettysburg cyclorama (风景画幕) painting, showing the final attack in the Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett’s Charge. George Pickett was a Confederate general. On July 3, 1863, he led a charge against stronger Union forces. It was a disaster for the Confederate soldiers.

French artist Paul Phillippoteaux and a team of 20 artists created the painting in the 1880s. Phillippoteaux and his team visited the battlefield. It took more than one year for the huge painting to be complete. The cyclorama is 114 metres long and almost 13 metres tall. It has long been one of the most popular parts of the Gettysburg experience. But by the 1990s, the painting was in poor condition. Experts warned that if the cyclorama was not repaired, the painting could be lost.

A restoration project began in 2003. The painting was cleaned and separated into its 14 parts, and later moved into the new centre. There, the original canvas (帆布) was sewn onto new cloth made in China. Park service officials say China was one of the few countries able to produce cloth in the sizes needed. Then each part was hung and sewn together.

A team of cyclorama experts from Poland worked on the project in Gettysburg. The repair work of the Gettysburg Cyclorama marked one of the largest art conservation effort ever in North America.

After the museum, tourists can visit the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, where many of the Union soldiers who died during the Battle of Gettysburg are buried. The cemetery was dedicated on November 19, 1863, the same day President Lincoln gave his “Gettysburg Address”. Historians agree that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality.

Victor Hugo, 1802 -1885, was a celebrated French literary giant. After the British and French invaders(入侵者) bad burnt the Winter Palace(圆明园) in October, 1860, he wrote a reply to an officer named Bartlette one year later.

Sir, you ask me what I think of the expedition(远征) to China. You must feel that it was laudable. In your opinion, the expedition, performed under the joint banner(联合旗帜) of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon, was nothing short of a British-French glory. Therefore, you would like to know to what extent I appreciate this glory. Since you ask, I will answer as follows:

In a corner of the world there existed a man-made miracle - the Winter Palace. Art has two sources: one, an ideal, from which has come European art; two, fancy, from which has come Easter art. The Winter Palace belongs in the art of fancy. The Winter Palace, indeed, was the fruit of all of the art that an almost superman race could have fancied.

For whom was the Winter Palace built, after all? Eventually, for the people. Because as time passes by, all that the people has made remains in the possession of mankind. Great artists, poets, philosophers - they all knew about the Winter Palace. Voltaire once talked about it. Many people at different times compared the Winter Palace to the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena, the Notre Dame. If they could not see the Winter Palace with their own eyes, they could dream about it- as if in the distance they saw a breath-taking masterpiece of art as they had never known before – as if there above the horizon of European civilization was towering the outline of Asian civilization.

Now, the miracle is no more! One day, two pirates broke into it One of them robbed; the other set every building and everything in it on fire! Judging by what they did, we know that the victors could degenerate into robbers. The two of them fell to dividing between themselves the treasure. What great victories they had won! What a heaven-sent fortune! One stuffed his pockets full to overflowing; the other filled in his bags with treasure. Then, hand in hand they made of, laughing happily.

Incidentally, I must thank you for giving me the opportunity to accuse. The rulers commit crimes but the ruled do not. The government becomes a robber, but the people will never.

France has gained a large portion of the treasure. Now, she thinks herself the rightful owner of the property财物), and she is displaying the riches of the Winter Palace! I can only hope that there will come one day when France will disburden herself of the heavy load on her conscience and clean herself off the crime by returning to China all the treasure taken from the Winter Palace.

Sit, such is my praise of the expedition to China.