There is something mystical about a battlefield- especially one where thousands of soldiers fought, dedicated to a cause for which they gave "the last full measure of devotion". Yesterday July 3rd, 2013 I drove out to Gettysburg which I've visited many times over the years... but this time it was a different place. It was the 150th Anniversary of Pickett's Charge, the final tumultuous assault which ended in disaster for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia... and the spirits of those who fought there were all around me...
The Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War in general has generated tens of thousands of books and dozens of movies. This devastating conflict nearly destroyed our nation; the 620,000 casualties is more than all other U.S. wars combined. Yet, as a people we are fascinated with this event- or series of events which tore apart the fabric of our country, spurring brother to fight brother, laying waste to billions of dollars of property, changing people's lives forever. Why is it that our nation continues to be fixated with a war which almost ended the idea we call... America? One answer lies in the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg.
Walking the battlefield at Gettysburg- up to the lookout point on Little Round Top, to the Wheat Field where thousands of soldiers fought in a brutal exchange which lasted for many hours and over to the "High Water Mark" of the Confederacy- the "copse of trees" enshrined now inside iron bars which protect the objects of the rebel advance- I felt a presence and could almost hear the voices of the men who fought there, yelling to "Charge!!"... and those of the wounded, their groans fading to a murmur as comrades left the field of battle. This is sacred ground- all of it- from Culp's Hill in the north to the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and the woods near McPherson's Ridge where Union General John Reynolds was killed early in the action, down to the Peach Orchard, Devil's Den and Big Round Top, standing guard over its smaller brother nearby. As I stopped and walked at each location, tears began to form in my eyes as I could sense the enormous struggle fought for the soil I was walking on, but then they stopped- as I gazed at the sculptures standing tall, stoic in their continuing fight to protect this ground, to "hold the line" at all costs...
I learned much more than I ever knew as I walked the battlefield at Gettysburg yesterday and I know that much of that understanding comes from the souls of the men who fought and died there... 150 years ago... on that day, their spirits still present within every inch of ground they fought to protect. I know that brave men like Joshua Chamberlain- depicted so well in the film "Gettysburg"- and others were there with me. Chamberlain's words reverberated inside me, as I recalled the scene in the movie where he is talking with the company of men from Maine who deserted and didn't want to fight. "This is a different kind of war... We are an Army out to set other men free... Gentlemen, I believe if we lose this fight, we lose the war..." His words re-charged the men from Maine, nearly all of whom agreed to pick up their rifles and fight for the Union again.
Chamberlain's voice from his visit back to the battlefield in 1889 were also resounding yesterday along the hills surrounding the bloody fields where thousands fell. He was there 124 years ago for the dedication of the new memorial to the 20th Maine regiment which defended Little Round Top on the second day of the battle. I stood yesterday at the exact same spot where Chamberlain stood... and could feel his presence... and even the fateful words he uttered when- looking down at the continuing rebel advance, he said: "Fix bayonets!!". Chamberlain's efforts were not limited to the Battle of Gettysburg; he was wounded several times and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. Later he was awarded the nation's highest accolade: the Congressional Medal of Honor. Chamberlain was given the solemn responsibility by General Ulysses S. Grant of accepting the Confederate troops surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. His was a soul filled with devotion to a higher cause, one which knew the intrinsic value of each human being. An ardent opponent of slavery, he understood that the abominable practice must end- and he put his life on the line in that effort. It is because of the devotion of thousands of men like Chamberlain that we now have a more just society, one which comes closer to living up to the ideals spelled out in the Constitution. At the dedication ceremony in 1889, he said: "In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass, bodies disappear, but spirits linger to consecrate the ground for the vision-place of souls..." His spirit was there yesterday as I stood at the peak of Little Round Top. It was everywhere I walked, everything I touched... the rock lying on the ground at the High Water Mark... the fragment of a tree limb I held at the spot where Reynolds was killed... the grass beneath my feet at the Wheat Field... and I know it will be there for generations to come.
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