Three days, July 1-3 in and around a little town in Pennsylvania…
Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard…
Confederate causalities in dead, wounded, and missing 28,000 out of 75,000. Union casualties 23,000 out of 88,000…
Four months later it was dedicated as a military cemetery…
With this 2 minute speech.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we may take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – 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.
Abraham Lincoln – November 19, 1863
If you ever get the chance, Gettysburg ‘should’ be on your bucket list along with Lexington and Concord.
Please take a moment during your holidays to remember those who’ve shed blood for this country and it’s defense from July 4, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was published through the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, and Gulf War II. Without those brave men and women who were willing to give their lives, the USA has survived 237 years so far…
Let’s not let political correctness kill us now…
I’ve walked that battlefield, trying to understand the events.
Humbling.
I too have walked the fields of Gettysburg, looked down from little round top, looked up at little round top, looked across the field where Pickett’s men charged to their death.
What came to mind was the incredible courage of the men fighting there and the realization that this nation still creates men like that. Men that stand up for what they believe is right.
Today I think of the cowards in Washington that do not deserve such men.
Me, too. Walking that battlefield, I am always amazed at the mile of death those Confederates men faced walking toward The Angle. The up-hill fight the Alabamans face charging Chamberlain’s men. How did they do it? What courage it took to put one foot in front of the other.
On the Georgia Memorial is the inscription:
We sleep here in obedience;
When duty called, we came;
When country called, we died.
God bless all those who have given their life in fighting a cause the thought just.
Lincoln, the poet, defined and dedicated the final resting place. But the struggle and push and pull between State’s rights and an all-powerful central government continues.
Irrespective of poetry and politics, Shilo, Gettysburg, Sharpsburg/Antietam, Bryce’s Crossroads in Mississippi, and every other abattoir on Earth where Americans died in conflicts serve as reminders. Particularly now on the eve of Independence Day.
Walked it myself. Sobering.
But even though the Declaration was announced on 4 July, 1776, I consider our REAL Independence Day was born on 19 April 1775, at Lexington and Concord, Mass. And recall all the Battles that followed before 4 July 1776, where a lot of Good Men Died to make us Free.
Just Sayin’….
Amen … enough said
I went as a teenage with my parents. We took the bus tour of the battle ground, and visited the museum. A confederate uniform of one of my ancestors hangs there.. very emotional to see that.
The place is just….I can’t put it in words, its hard to say the feeling i got when I was there. Something I will never forget.
Spent alot of the day watching the Breitbart TV live coverage of the 150th Commemerative of the Pettigrew – Pickett’s Charge for it really was two attacking elements. Picketts troops attacking from the right and Pettigrew from the left (as you face the Union line). My relatives were part of the 22nd NC of Scales’ Brigade of the Pettigrew’s side. They were to the right and behind the 26th NC which many consider as having advanced the furthest into the Union line and hense, “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy” monument is in their honor. I’m sure there many who will argue that point.
I do intend to make that walk from the line of trees where they started to The Angle some day.
Art- It is humbling and amazing to imagine what both sides willingly walked into…
Roger/CP- concur!
LL- Excellent point!!!
Les- Good point too!
Hopper- Yep!
JUGM- And make damn sure to pass that along to your children!
SoCal- I’m glad you got to watch it, and it IS worth the trip!
Always in awe of their courage,and feel simmering anger for the generals and politicans.
WSF- Yep!