Tales from the road: A purr-fect stop in Gettysburg

Rebecca Brown and Joanie, an eight-year-old pit bull mix, at the George Meade HQ diorama.

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Sometimes dreams do come true.

Instead of returning to home base for a cat nap, I stroll into the strangest place in all of Gettysburg. (And, no, it’s not the Lincoln Links miniature golf course on Steinwehr Avenue.)

At the entrance The Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum on Baltimore Street, a smiling Rebecca Brown greets me. She, along with her twin sister, Ruth, created dioramas of famous Gettysburg battle scenes with thousands of miniature cats.

In all, Rebecca says they have 9,000 tiny soldier felines on display. But she and Ruth have created a shade over 10,000 total according to the sisters’ “cat census.” ( I didn’t have the heart to ask who counted all the faux critters, an egregious example of journalistic malpractice.)

“My God,” I say to myself soon after forking over my seven bucks to enter this wonder of history, “there’s a diorama of Pickett’s Charge!” 

And Devil’s Den… and the fighting at East Cavalry Field… and General Meade’s HQ… and Little Round Top, complete with a “Joshua Chamberlain” brandishing a sword.

“Look,” Rebecca says, “here’s Wade Hampton.”

"Joshua Chamberlain" (bottom middle) brandishes a sword in the Little Round Top diorama.

Union cats maneuver a cannon in the Devil's Den diorama.

Charge! A diorama of the fighting at East Cavalry Field.

“Our handmade miniature soldiers give you 3-D snap-shots of the American Civil War,” the museum web site says. “Get a bird’s-eye view of a battle or get down to eye-level and see what a soldier would have seen: soldiers, horses, cannons and places.”

Like a cat on a hot tin roof (sorry), I bound from room to room examining dioramas, which also include Fort Sumter, the Monitor and Merrimac duel and Andersonville. Meanwhile, Rebecca’s bemused mother Linda and bored 8-year-old pit bull mix named Joanie take in the weird scene.

For decades, the cat-loving sisters — like, no kidding — have been creating mini felines. Mom and Dad aid the effort on the dioramas.

“Anything made of wood is Dad,” Rebecca tells me. “Anything made of fabric is Mom.”

Before departing, I marvel at “Robert E. Lee” and “Ulysses Grant” sitting at their teensy-tiny desks. Then I briefly mull the purchase of a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle of Michigan cavalry cats on the attack — it’s called “Come On, You Wolverines!” and probably the perfect gift for Mrs. B back in Nashville. (Someone purr-suade me that’s a bad idea.)

I probably need to come in from the Civil War wild.

The diorama of Pickett's Charge from above.