As a battalion commander at Fort Campbell, I took my officers on a battlefield tour of Shiloh. I remember our guide expressing the opinion that Grant was fortunate that the battle was early in the war and in the secondary/western theater, far away from the glare of the eastern press. Who knows if Grant would've survived the onslaught of criticsm in light of the carnage caused and his own mistakes. As it was, Grant was given the luxury of learning from those mistakes, much to the eventual benefit of the Union cause.
BTW CT, I've walked the Gettysburg battlefield three times, with the last time being in the late 90s when I was at the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks--about a 45 minute drive. It's an amazing and emotional experience. My only (minor) criticism is of a factor to which you alluded--it had become too commercialized for my liking. It's probably a poor analogy but I'd liken it to the "money changers in the temple" episode in the New Testament. I'm glad to hear that they've reversed some of that encroachment.