Continued from July 3rd. A good article about the battle in the USA Today from June 18th.
"Four months after the battle, in an address schoolchildren around the world (around the world? I can understand them learning it in the United States, but, the world?) still study, Abraham Lincoln said 'a new birth of freedom' had consecrated by 'the last full measure of devotion' of the roughly 8,000 Americans (including Confederates) who died here.
I have been thinking of perhaps going to Gettysburg for the sesquicentennial of the speech in November on my way to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, but last year, while at the Antietam Battlefield, a talked with a ranger who said he had been to Gettysburg a week earlier and they were expecting a huge number of people there for the 149th anniversary so might not go.
One of those "measures" took place near Culp's Hill east of Gettysburg and anchoring the Union Army's right flank. It was there that Bradley Clark's great-great uncle, Private Myron A. Clark of Company I, of the 14th Vermont, met his death. His diary led the Clarks there.
Bradley Clark said, "He looked so young" referring to Myron's picture found tucked in the diary. "He looked like an Addison farm boy." I wonder how the family came to receive this diary if Myron had it with him when he was killed. That would be a story in itself.
Some 46,000 on both sides were killed wounded or missing after the battle. Historians still analyze decisions and movements made here. Then, regular folk like the Clarks (and some 3-4 million expected to visit this sesquicentennial year). To them, it is to see where history was made and, in some cases, where ancestors fought.
A Real Turning Point. --Old Secesh
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