Hallowed Ground

On July 3, 1863, three divisions of Confederate soldiers, about 12,500 men and boys, led by their generals on foot and on horseback, marched for about a mile across the open ground of a Pennsylvania valley, near the town of Gettysburg. 

They concentrated and centered on this patch of ground, on a corner of this wall (just beyond the focal point of this photo) – hidden from view by the aged veterans you see standing here. 

This was perhaps the greatest military blunder ever made by Robert E. Lee.  Nearly 7,000 Confederate troops were killed or wounded in the battle (roughly 56% of the soldiers who marched that day), and about 65% of their officers were casualties.  Union defenders lost 1,500 men.

This place is called “the Angle.” Thousands of Federal defenders awaited them here, standing and crouching behind this low wall.  As the soldiers marched across the valley and came within range of the Union guns, they faced a curtain of cold steel.  Once here, the fighting became hand-to-hand and the Confederate assault appeared for a moment to be succeeding. But almost as quickly, turning as they tried to breach the Union's defenses at this corner, the "charge" broke and the Rebel advance shattered and was turned back in defeat. 

Today, this event is remembered as “Pickett’s Charge,” the high-water mark of the American Confederacy and the climax of the Battle at Gettysburg.  It marked the end of any lasting offensive success by Rebel troops in the Civil War and from this moment on the final Union victory was assured. General Lee led the demoralized remnants of his Army back to Virginia, never to venture in force into Union territory again, in the remaining (almost) two years of the Civil War.

Because of what happened here, on this ground, nearly four million of our fellow Americans were ensured their ultimate freedom, and this nation started a long process of finally fulfilling the promise of its own enshrined ideals, that “all men and women are created equal” and are deserving of freedom, inviolably deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This process is not finished, but continues today.

That pivotal moment happened here, at "the Angle," on July 3, 1863. This is sacred ground. 

On the day this photo was taken, many years later, former adversaries met each other in friendship, stretching their hands to touch each other once again across the wall they had so bloodily contested.  

Humans are such strange creatures.