Gettysburg: A New Birth of Freedom

[Warph]

"Sunset at Gettysburg"

A New Birth of Freedom
The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the war's bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal "Gettysburg Address".

There is a famous quote from William Faulkner's "Intruder in the Dust" that says a lot about why the Battle of Gettysburg has such a hold on the American imagination:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago....

Faulkner was writing of a South in the 1930s still nearly prostrate from defeat in the Civil War — a region psychologically devastated, beat down by racism and inequality, where the hope for the future actually rested in the past. Allowing oneself to imagine victory in the space between the woods and Cemetery Ridge where 12,000 Confederate soldiers marched up a gently rolling hill into immortality answered the hopelessness of the times with the pathetic "what might have been" if Confederate soldiers had been able to breach the Union lines at the famous "angle," split the Yankee force in two, and march on to Washington.

It was a mirage. Not enough guns, not enough men. All the courage in the world could not have brought the South victory that day. And the defeat proved far more costly than anyone in the South realized at the time. The Battle of Gettysburg destroyed once and for all the ability of Robert E. Lee to carry the war to the North. The loss of 28,000 soldiers (exact figures are hard to come by given poor recordkeeping) — the flower of the Confederate army — meant that Lee could no longer maintain the offensive. There were occasional offensive thrusts later on, but Lee's victories for the last two years of the war were all tactical and won from fixed defensive positions, as Grant almost broke his army in two with frontal assaults against Lee's lines.

So, in the end, Faulkner's 14-year-old boy was chasing an illusion. But that illusion — of cavaliers and knights in shining armor winning the right by force of arms to live in a fairytale land that was built and run on the backs of human slaves — still affects us 150 years later.

Get over it already? Yes, there's that. Dwelling on the sins of our past can be unhealthy for a country that rarely looks over its shoulder for anything or anybody. And there are those whose business it is never to allow us to forget slavery — not when political gain can be had and the guilt trip laid on fools and half-wits can force them to open their wallets and enrich those who were formerly oppressed.

But mention the word "Gettysburg" to the average American and they will certainly know of Lincoln's famous address. But there is also what one might call a racial memory of the battle that inhabits a place in our minds we can only dimly reach. Over the next 10 days, several hundred thousand Americans who don't know Longstreet from Reynolds will visit the Gettysburg National Park to take part in the observance of the 150th anniversary of that battle. They will be drawn by the need to be a part of an event that commemorates the turning point in our most devastating war. They will come, many with their children in tow, to absorb whatever lessons the men who fought and died on this parcel of Pennsylvania farm land can impart.

But the Confederate attack, known in the annals of history as Pickett's Charge, ended about a mile away in failure, gray-clad troops blunted by determined Union troops at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Those young boys recalled by Faulkner were stopped at the Angle, a stone wall considered the high-water mark of the Confederacy -- perhaps the last chance for victory in the U.S. Civil War. Instead, the Union prevailed at Gettysburg, a turning point in the four-year war that claimed at least 620,000 lives.

This weekend and through July 7, between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors -- more than the number of combatants -- will flock to the town and fields of Gettysburg National Military Park to mark the 150th anniversary of the three-day clash, which cost an incredible 51,000 casualties.
http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

Pickett's Charge will be the climactic event of a large re-enactment this weekend outside of park boundaries. On July 3, the actual anniversary of the attack, National Park Service rangers will guide thousands of visitors in loose formation across a gently rolling field. Others will stand where Federal regiments poured rifle and artillery fire into the arc of Confederates.

The event ends with the playing of Taps by multiple musicians, a solemn remembrance of selfless sacrifice by the warriors at Gettysburg.

Times have changed since previous anniversary observances, including the 1938 reunion, at which grizzled veterans of the battle met at Gettysburg one last time in an event known for reconciliation. They shook hands across that famous wall at the Angle. Some let out the haunting Rebel Yell.

The 150th commemoration of the battle will tell a wider story than previous observances, officials told CNN.

"For decades, people came here for military and black powder," said Carl Whitehill, media relations manager for the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Now they want to know about the civilians and what they endured during and after the battle."
http://www.gettysburg.travel/

BUILDING A BATTLEFIELD
http://www.pa69irish.com/Before-After.html

Mike Litterst of the National Park Service said interpretations at federal Civil War battlefields have evolved in the past 25 years. Besides telling the story of the battles and the homefront, exhibits increasingly stress the importance of the conflict to civil rights and the role of African-Americans, thousands of whom served in the Union Army.

About 400 events are planned over 10 days, including a second battle re-enactment next weekend.

Gettysburg National Military Park on Sunday will hold one of its 150th anniversary signature events, an evening program entitled "Gettysburg: A New Birth of Freedom." The keynote speaker is historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Country music singer Trace Adkins and a military band will perform the national anthem.
http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/150th-anniversary-events-2013.htm

The ceremony concludes with a procession to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, where luminaries will mark each of 3,500 graves of soldiers who died at Gettysburg.

"I think it is an opportunity for people to have a deeper understanding of what happened here and how it is still relevant in 21st century America," said Litterst.

Small town made way into history books

Gettysburg, then a bucolic town of 2,400 souls, found itself directly drawn into the Civil War during the first days of July 1863. Southern troops took the war to the North after a resounding victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville two months before.

Gen. Robert E. Lee's soldiers on the first day of battle pushed Union troops through the town and onto hills and ridges that eventually played a large part in the battle's outcome.

"There was street fighting in the inside (of Gettysburg)," said Whitehill. "Throughout the town, a lot of people were shooting muskets out of windows."

Jennie Wade, while kneading dough, was fatally shot in the back on July 3, the only civilian casualty at Gettysburg,

Gettysburg, now with a population of about 7,800, and surrounding Adams County anticipate a $100 million economic impact from 150th anniversary observances.

Whitehill has spent much of his time assisting nearly 700 journalists from across the United States and abroad. Among international media are German, UK, Australian and Swiss companies.

"One of the things that amazes international visitors and media is why we re-enact this war. It is such a pivotal and painful time for this country but every year we bring it to life and re-enact it."

The area's 2,600 rooms and 1,800 campsites are largely filled, although a few are left.

"A lot of people move to this area for the history," said Whitehill. "A lot of people just love being close to it."

First aid tents all over town will assist any visitors and event participants who run into problems from the muggy and warm temperatures.

Visitors can take free shuttles into downtown and re-enactments. The National Park Service also offers shuttles and satellite parking.

Traffic flow on Friday, the first full day of 150th events, went well.

Thousands of re-enactors go back in time

Don Ernsberger led the building of a replica Pickett's Charge stone wall for this weekend's re-enactment at Bushey Farm.

http://www.pa69irish.com/Wall/Fence.html

Seventy volunteeers shaped 88 tons of stone to re-create the focal point of the march.

"The Confederates captured that angle for about five to eight minutes and the Union reinforcements came in and pushed them out."

Ernsberger, who authored a book about the wall and the attack, will portray a Union lieutenant on Sunday.

"I wrote this book three years ago and I hope to see it happen before my eyes," he said.

An estimatetd 10,000 re-enactors are on hand at Bushey Farm this weekend, said Kris Shelton, media and marketing coordinator for the Blue Gray Alliance, which is sponsoring the event.
http://www.bluegraygettysburg.com/

The first mock battle went well Friday, said Shelton, who said organizers have detailed logistics plans for the maneuvering of troops at the site.

There's a chance of rain for the next several days.

"We are historically accurate, but we don't control the weather," Shelton said.

Organizers expect tens of thousands of spectators on Saturday and Sunday.

Besides portrayals of the fighting, the re-enactment will include about 200 individuals representing the town of Gettysburg in 1863.

"The civilians living there have done careful research of the residents of the town and they have taken on their identities, including their trade and craft," said Shelton.

Safety of participants and guests comes first, but authenticity also is a priority.

"People are here to recognize and honor and commemorate what these people went through, the sacrifices of both soldiers and civilians," said Shelton.

The battles draw re-enactors devoted to donning the proper uniforms and equipment. They can get caught up in the heat of the battle and emotional or significant moments.

"That intensity is something that really sparks re-enactors," she said. "That combined with leaving electronics and the modern world behind."

Visitors and participants alike understand that real people died in battle -- that freedom had a cost.

Making the battlefield historically accurate

While battle re-enactments are not permitted on National Park Service sites -- the commemorative clashes will be on privately owned land -- such events and the visitor experience at Gettysburg National Military Park are "not mutually exclusive," said Litterst.

"We want that excitement to spill over to the sites and grounds where the events actually took place," he said.

The National Park Service does not provide crowd estimates or projections, but it's clear the park will be busy over the next week, given ranger-led hikes and special programs.

"We will probably see crowds we probably haven't seen before, or since the centennial," said Litterst. "For the next couple weeks, there won't be many places to get some alone time here."

But for those who want to get away from at least some of the hustle and bustle, he recommends a visit to the East Cavalry Battlefield Site east of town and the park's Big Round Top, which has a great walking trail.

The battlefield looks much different from even 20 years ago as the NPS worked to make it look much closer to its 1863 appearance. Trees have been removed in some places and orchards planted.

Thousands may make the July 3 Pickett's Charge commemorative march, timed to the actual assault.

Those with younger legs may be in front. And, like battles of old, there will be stragglers.

"There will be not be a shortage of people with stories and pictures of great-great grandfathers who made that march," said Litterst. "That is a neat part of the story."

[redcliffsw]

A Note on the Gettysburg Address
One hundred fifty years after the battle

The (Lincoln) Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination — that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.

-Thanks to H. L. Mencken for the inspiration