One hundred and fifty years ago today, what is known as the "high water mark of the Confederacy" occurred. The war was not yet decided, although the odds of a Southern victory were slight. But there was a chance. A large, seasoned, well-led Confederate army had invaded Pennsylvania. After a day of bloody fighting, the dawn arose on the 3rd of July and Lee decided to take a huge risk at Gettysburg.
It was by all accounts, a failure, like the notion of the Confederacy itself. Although I was not born in the South, and some of my neighbors and relations may not consider me to a true Southerner, my roots are here. My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War and wore gray, but he wasn't at Gettysburg.
I have no sympathy to the overall Confederate cause, which was the preservation of the institution of slavery. I do understand the romantic notions that many Southerners feel for the Old South, however distorted those images may be. Some prefer to remember slavery as a benign institution - nothing could be further from the truth. I am sure that there are some hardcore racists who wished that the institution remained intact to this day. I would suppose that many of the soldiers who took up arms for the South had no greater understanding of some of the forces at play than do soldiers today, who fight because of dreams of glory and adventure, or they follow a flag, or fight for their country, or in the case of the Civil War, for their state, and their home.
William Faulkner wrote a bit about Gettysburg and the emotions and thoughts that it stirs in the minds of many of us.
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago….
The charge, of course, ensured the loss of the battle by the Confederates. Estimates place the number that made the charge over 12,000. Casualties were in the neighborhood of 50%, and Pickett's command was shattered.
The war would drag on for almost 2 more years until at last the forces of the Union prevailed. But on this day I can see through the eyes of that 14 year old boy, and I am there, enjoying the shade of the trees as I gaze across the field and up the hill, knowing the challenge before me. I have been to Gettysburg numerous times. I have walked across the field. For me it is truly a hallowed place.
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