Monday, May 21, 2012

Gettysburg



This Saturday all the Washington Seminar participants got on a bus, and drove the 2ish hours to Gettysburg Pennsylvania, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War.

South Carolina flag at the time of the Civil War
I think one of the hardest things about being from the South, and especially South Carolina (The State that seceded first from the Union) is reconciling pride in my state with sadness at its role in the bloodiest war in U.S. history. The thought I ended up with is we (South Carolinians) can't take the blame for something that happened almost 150 years ago, nor can we continue to apologize for the actions of our ancestors. All we can do is own up to the fact that, yes, SC did have a huge role in starting the war, but at the same time we can be proud of the men and women who suffered so much for what they believed in.


There were a lot of SC references in the museum at Gettysburg.  
The uniforms of soldiers from both sides included some sort of pin, these are some from SC

According to their records no one from SC joined the Union army...
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. Abraham Lincoln 
We feel that our cause is just and holy, we protest in the face of mankind that we desire peace...all we ask is to be left alone. Jefferson Davis

Interesting commentary by Jefferson Davis, he didn't want to fight a bloody war, he just felt his only option was to break away from the Union because they were no longer representing his views. The South wanted to be free to live the way they wanted, and the North (rightfully so) did not feel that the right to live as you wished trumped the right of the Federal government to protect the Union of the country. Over and over at Gettysburg I related the lead up to the civil war to the current political environment. Not that we are headed towards another civil war ( I pray that is never the case) but that the two parties at the time had become so entrenched in their beliefs of what was right that there was no room for compromise. The fact that both Republicans and Democrats cannot compromise on issues of importance without succumbing to polarizing political bickering is frightening and brings to mind some of the quotes I saw in the Gettysburg museum. 

A Soldier's motivation

I think the South is still recovering from the the Civil War. 

We at lunch at "General Picketts Buffets" apparently its plural?...

Civil War era clothing....thank goodness for progress! 


As soon as Union Soldiers arrived the slaves in the area would run to their freedom. Many would go on to fight for the Union. 

One of the amazing things about Gettysburg is the battlefield looks almost as if it would have the day the battle started. It is one of the most well-preserved battlefields in the world. 




Its against the law to use metal detectors (or anything else for that matter) to search for relics, but you could still find bullets in the fields. 


The view from "Little Round Top" it is beautiful, which is counter intuitive to the the knowledge that so many died here. 

You can almost imagine Union Soldiers hiding behind these rocks

Our tour guide. He was great and knew a ton about the battle, and the Civil War.







Union Soldiers

Tents

The scene of Pickett's charge...the final push from Robert E. Lee to defeat the Union troops, his gamble failed, and thousands lost their lives between where I stood, and the treeline.

For many years you could still see the scars the bullets had made on the rock walls

Monument to the Soldiers from Virginia, they lost the most soldiers in this battle. The South was not allowed to put up monuments to their dead until many many years after. (Obviously, because they didn't win) Now, however there are monuments to the people who died here. (There was at least one female Confederate Soldier in this battle, her body was discovered afterwards) No Confederate Soldiers were buried in the cemetery nearby, they were buried in mass graves.  

It really is a beautiful place, and reminds us of how fragile peace is, and how we should not take it for granted. 

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