Gettysburg
The Gettysburg National Military Park is run by the National Park Service, and they do a good job. After seeing a film that explains the significance of the battle and seeing a giant Cyclorama of the third day of battle, I went on a walk led by a park ranger up to Cemetery Ridge. The ranger explained clearly the three days of the battle, pointing out where each group of soldiers stood and the strategies behind how the troops were deployed.
Standing there, after hearing the sounds of the artillery barrage during the Cyclorama presentation, I still couldn't imagine it -- the destruction of human life so appalling. 62,000 men were killed, wounded or captured in 3 days of fighting. The ground littered with bodies and body parts. Some units lost 75% of their members. The ranger made it clear that the Civil War was being fought over the question of slavery -- would the parts of the US where slavery was allowed be expanded or would the new states and territories be free, upsetting the balance between slave and free states? The inability of the writers of the Constitution to resolve the question of slavery had risen up and engulfed our country in war. Surely, surely, we humans can find a better way to resolve our conflicts?
We passed this small, two room house, the home of Lydia Leicester, a widow with a couple of kids, who had a little farm in these peaceful rolling hills. As a mother, I relate to her story. During the first day of the battle, she could hear the guns in the distance. That evening, soldiers came over the ridge above her farm and she took her children and fled down the Baltimore Pike to stay with relatives. The Union commander, Gen. Meade, used the house as his command post on the second day of battle. The third day began with a 2 hour artillery barrage, cannonballs began falling near the house, and Gen. Meade had to move farther back, After the battle was over, the house was used as a hospital for several days until the wounded could be taken to a larger hospital. Mrs. Leicester did come back to her farm. I wonder what it looked like -- trampled, littered with detritus from the battle and the soldiers who fell, the house damaged but repairable. She did resume her life there until the 1880's when the War Department bought up all the land around the battlefield to make the park.
In the afternoon, I took another ranger walk to the National Cemetery, where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, just four months after the battle.
The first speaker that day, Edward Everett, was a famous orator who spoke for two hours. During his speech, he gave the first clear description of all 3 days of the battle. Then Lincoln spoke for 2 minutes. The ranger explained that Lincoln probably wanted to use this nationally reported event to make some important points about where our country stood at that moment, still over a year before the end of the war. He wanted to remind everyone that our government is an experiment, that we are still evolving it.
"It is for us, the living . . . to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is . . for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I hope everyone who visits Gettysburg will be inspired to dedicate themselves as he asked us to do.
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| Despite the blustery November weather, a group of 25 or 30 people listened attentively to the ranger describe the battle. |
Standing there, after hearing the sounds of the artillery barrage during the Cyclorama presentation, I still couldn't imagine it -- the destruction of human life so appalling. 62,000 men were killed, wounded or captured in 3 days of fighting. The ground littered with bodies and body parts. Some units lost 75% of their members. The ranger made it clear that the Civil War was being fought over the question of slavery -- would the parts of the US where slavery was allowed be expanded or would the new states and territories be free, upsetting the balance between slave and free states? The inability of the writers of the Constitution to resolve the question of slavery had risen up and engulfed our country in war. Surely, surely, we humans can find a better way to resolve our conflicts?
We passed this small, two room house, the home of Lydia Leicester, a widow with a couple of kids, who had a little farm in these peaceful rolling hills. As a mother, I relate to her story. During the first day of the battle, she could hear the guns in the distance. That evening, soldiers came over the ridge above her farm and she took her children and fled down the Baltimore Pike to stay with relatives. The Union commander, Gen. Meade, used the house as his command post on the second day of battle. The third day began with a 2 hour artillery barrage, cannonballs began falling near the house, and Gen. Meade had to move farther back, After the battle was over, the house was used as a hospital for several days until the wounded could be taken to a larger hospital. Mrs. Leicester did come back to her farm. I wonder what it looked like -- trampled, littered with detritus from the battle and the soldiers who fell, the house damaged but repairable. She did resume her life there until the 1880's when the War Department bought up all the land around the battlefield to make the park.
In the afternoon, I took another ranger walk to the National Cemetery, where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, just four months after the battle.
The first speaker that day, Edward Everett, was a famous orator who spoke for two hours. During his speech, he gave the first clear description of all 3 days of the battle. Then Lincoln spoke for 2 minutes. The ranger explained that Lincoln probably wanted to use this nationally reported event to make some important points about where our country stood at that moment, still over a year before the end of the war. He wanted to remind everyone that our government is an experiment, that we are still evolving it.
"It is for us, the living . . . to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is . . for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I hope everyone who visits Gettysburg will be inspired to dedicate themselves as he asked us to do.
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