Gettysburg

The countryside resembles what it would have looked like in 1863 before the battle.

Gettysburg is situated south and west of Hershey, about an hour’s drive through rolling farmlands toward the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge Mountains from where General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy made his approach to Gettysburg 150 years ago this past June 26th through July 3rd.  

The story of the battle is well known and the grounds and car tour created by the new National Park Visitor Center (completed in 2008) are even more remarkable now than thirty years ago when I made my first visit to the battle grounds.  Armed with a CD and book that came with it, we set off on a beautiful sunny afternoon under the guidance of a great verbal narrative to see the visual.  

I particularly enjoyed some of the personal stories included about people and a mascot named Sallie that brought the Gettysburg story to life on a more personal note:

Sallie, the mascot.

Sallie, a dog, was a mascot to the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers and was presumed dead along with her soldier companions as a result of the fighting on Oak Ridge that led to the regiment’s retreat to Cemetery Hill where many additional losses were suffered.  However, Sallie had remained on Oak Ridge to guard the dead and wounded of her regiment and here she was found, tired and hungry after the battle.  She survived almost two more years with her regiment until she was killed in February, 1865, on the battlefield of Hatcher’s Run.

Gen. Alexander Schimmelfennig, made a general by President Lincoln because he liked the sound of Schimmelfennig’s name and also because Lincoln desired to recognize the help of German immigrants for the Union cause, survived the battle of Gettysburg after his horse was shot two days before the end of the battle.  Escaping advancing Confederates, he spent three days hiding next to a hog-swill barrel in a local backyard.  When the lady of the home discovered him hiding there as she came to feed the hogs, she promised to feed him as well the next time she came out with swill for the hogs!  He continued to serve in the Union Army and died in 1865 of tuberculosis while serving under Gen. Sherman in Georgia during the “March to the Sea.”

The mountains from whence the Rebels came...

Catherine Mary Hewitt was secretly engaged to Gen. John Reynolds.  On the first day of battle, arriving at about 10 a.m., the general rushed his First Corps into position calling out, “Forward men, forward for God’s sake and drive those fellows out of the woods.”  Fatefully, these were to be his last words as he was felled by a Confederate bullet.  Around his neck was a gold ring inscribed “Dear Kate” found by his family after his death, their first knowledge of his engagement to Kate.  Thereafter, Kate spent years in a convent until she returned to her hometown where she died in 1895.  She never married. 

Enraged that his town was being invaded, crusty 69-year-old John Burns joined the battle.  Firing at the enemy from behind a tree until he was wounded, he later became known as the “civilian hero of Gettysburg.”

After the war General Robert E. Lee became president of a Virginia College known today as Washington and Lee.  He died in 1870, just five years after surrendering to General Ulysses Grant.  His horse Traveler died the year after.  

General Robert E. Lee and Traveler.

Looking at the serene fields and rolling hills of today, it is hard to imagine so many died in this place.  Now I see beauty, not focusing on the commemoration of war and death.  Brave men on both sides, yes.  A cause on either side fought for valiantly based on beliefs, right or wrong.  Could I do the same?  I don’t know.  I have never been presented with the time or place to do so like so many others before me.  But given the choice, I would rather opt for doing what little I can to improve my world, which leads me to the last story of today...

I stopped in at the grocery store yesterday afternoon and as I was leaving to walk to my car I saw a young man bend and pickup a piece of trash someone had dropped in the parking lot.  Bundling up the plastic bag in his hand, he headed into the store to dispose of it and continue his errand.  A moment of happiness touched me as I glanced about the otherwise clean parking lot.  There is good in this world, if only you see the smallest action to convince you of it.  And that is a good thing. 

How many of these trees witnessed the events of the Gettysburg battle?