Gettysburg: Walking Through History

  

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. "