Most people living in the Washington DC area are frequently
confronted with history. So it can be
difficult to impress us with historical information. But a trip to Gettysburg is different.
When I heard that friend, John Fix was organizing a trip to
Gettysburg for foreign diplomats and family members, I thought I might be able
to get included. I invited myself. I have known John for over
40 years, so when you’ve known someone that long, you can get away with that
kind of thing.
From the moment we first set foot on the bus trip to
Gettysburg in May we knew we were in for a treat. John had all details of the trip meticulously
organized and we were in the hands of a master historian and military tactician
– Ralph Janikowsky. He is a graduate of
the Naval Academy and taught at the National Defense University. He also conducted tours of the battlefield for
military leaders from all branches of the service. Ralph estimates he has been to Gettysburg more
than 100 times.
To read about an event in a museum, or in a book, is one way
to experience history. But the events seem more real when walking the grounds and seeing the sights that men experienced
as they faced life and death 150 years ago.
Often we remained quietly reflective as we imagined the events
of those days. For me, there was always an undertone of sadness at Gettysburg. No good guys versus bad guys here. It wasn’t the Allies against Hitler in World
War II, or the Americans against the British in the Revolutionary War. These
battles pitted Americans against Americans. Sometimes brothers against
brothers.
The
conclusion of the visit is always moving. As a group we stood on the three-quarter-mile
long open field. Our tour guide
explained how the South had nearly won the battle in day one and again in day
two. But in day three the northern troops
lay protected behind a stone wall on the brow of Culp’s Hill. Robert E. Lee, the commander of the
Confederate Army, hoped to win a
decisive victory, knowing that his armies could never win a battle of
attrition.
He began by
unleashing the largest cannon barrage in history at that time. Lee hoped to
punch a large hole in the center of the Union lines, then rush his troops into
the gap, divide and conquer the Union forces. Some 18,000 Southern soldiers
participated in the assault – led by the
flamboyant Major General George Pickett, who had just recently arrived with his
men.
The cannon’s
barrage was largely ineffective, overshooting where the Northern troops lay
protected. Looking at the open field, with no place to take cover, I cannot imagine
charging unprotected across that ground.
But charge
they did. As the southern forces drew close to the stone walls, Union soldiers
poured devastating fire at the southerners, decimating them. Still remarkably,
some troops did make it to the stone wall before being driven back. As the southern
troops straggled back, General Lee ordered Pickett to muster his division and
charge again. Pickett’s anguished reply
echoes down through the ages. “General, I have no division.”
During the three
day battle of Gettysburg some 51,000 troops on the two sides were killed or
injured.
The
conclusion of our tour brought us to the memorial commemorating President
Lincoln’s famed Gettysburg Address. His words summed up the day’s experience
better than anyone could:
“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… 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. "
