Gettysburg Battlefield today On this day in history one hundred and fifty-four years ago, the Battle of Gettysburg began, starting a bloody three day fight which marked the disastrous end of General Robert E. Lee's first, and final, major advance into the North. Thousands of troops representing the Stars and Stripes and the Stars and Bars, The Blue and the Gray, gave their all in a struggle which only one side could win. All fought courageously and valiantly and as is the case in most wars, those fighting, wounded and dying were usually not a part of the issues of the day, just simple, loyal soldiers doing what they thought to be their duty to their homeland.
Starting almost by surprise on this first day, the struggle quickly ramped up on the second day and ended with the futile finale, known commonly as Pickett's Charge, in which out manned Confederate rebel forces were slaughtered by a better positioned and better provisioned Union force. The real tragedy of tragedies in this famous battle is that all participants were Americans, with many cases of father and son and brother and brother and fighting one another. Perhaps it was just destiny that the remainder of Lee's Army limped out of Gettysburg on the way South the day after the decisive battle, July 4, 1862, eighty-six years to the day following America's declaring her independence from Great Britain.
All Americans with the opportunity to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield Park should do so and walk the grounds that pitted great men who were giants of their time, many of whom earlier served together in the military, and who fought one another due to their allegiance to their home states above all else. Remember, the states were in many ways more like individual countries in those times, since state sovereignty often rivaled national sovereignty, and the variation in the burgeoning industrialization of the North was often directly opposed to the more relaxed agrarianism of the South. And while we know that slavery was a huge problem, even many in the South realized it but their entire fortune and livelihood was tied up in it, don't forget that the problem could never have grown so fast had the financiers of the Northern banking system not so eagerly financed it with great profit. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is, after all, history.
Should you get the opportunity to so visit, look at it from the perspective of the times and history. In our push to rewrite our past and block out those things that may be troubling, we destroy history and history always repeats itself. Look at Gettysburg as the way things were, not as the way they necessarily should be and learn from the truth. Political correctness can never provide the lesson of truth.
Let's hope we never repeat a situation like this, but let's make sure we learn from it and take from it the lesson that freedom is dear and must be cherished. If we ever lose our freedom and our individual rights granted by God, we will all ultimately all become slaves and will find ourselves in a worse situation than Gettysburg could ever represent. God help us all.
Starting almost by surprise on this first day, the struggle quickly ramped up on the second day and ended with the futile finale, known commonly as Pickett's Charge, in which out manned Confederate rebel forces were slaughtered by a better positioned and better provisioned Union force. The real tragedy of tragedies in this famous battle is that all participants were Americans, with many cases of father and son and brother and brother and fighting one another. Perhaps it was just destiny that the remainder of Lee's Army limped out of Gettysburg on the way South the day after the decisive battle, July 4, 1862, eighty-six years to the day following America's declaring her independence from Great Britain.
All Americans with the opportunity to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield Park should do so and walk the grounds that pitted great men who were giants of their time, many of whom earlier served together in the military, and who fought one another due to their allegiance to their home states above all else. Remember, the states were in many ways more like individual countries in those times, since state sovereignty often rivaled national sovereignty, and the variation in the burgeoning industrialization of the North was often directly opposed to the more relaxed agrarianism of the South. And while we know that slavery was a huge problem, even many in the South realized it but their entire fortune and livelihood was tied up in it, don't forget that the problem could never have grown so fast had the financiers of the Northern banking system not so eagerly financed it with great profit. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is, after all, history.
Should you get the opportunity to so visit, look at it from the perspective of the times and history. In our push to rewrite our past and block out those things that may be troubling, we destroy history and history always repeats itself. Look at Gettysburg as the way things were, not as the way they necessarily should be and learn from the truth. Political correctness can never provide the lesson of truth.
Let's hope we never repeat a situation like this, but let's make sure we learn from it and take from it the lesson that freedom is dear and must be cherished. If we ever lose our freedom and our individual rights granted by God, we will all ultimately all become slaves and will find ourselves in a worse situation than Gettysburg could ever represent. God help us all.
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