Gettysburg

On this Independence Day we should be giving thought to the sesquicentennial of one of the major turning points in American history, the Battle of Gettysburg.  It is one of the most documented events perhaps in human history and is uniquely American.  Anyone who has taken the time to read a good history of the battle and/or more generally, the Civil War, tends to become addicted.  And, a visit to the battlefield sucks you in even more.  Each of the three days of the battle (July 1-3) holds its own lessons and stories of the extremes of courage, military tactics, tragedy, sacrifice and unmitigated slaughter of which people are capable.

150 years ago today Gen. George Meade, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, blew his chance to end a war that dragged on for two more years costing further 10s of thousands of American lives.  The Confederates were strung out in retreat backed up against the Potomac River, short of supplies and arms, and exhausted.  There has been endless speculation as to why he didn't press his advantage.  My guess is that he along with most other commanders on the field that day just couldn't psychologically deal with the horrors of the previous three days, and needed a small respite before fighting on.  I think the battle tested the very limits of human endurance and the combatants had to turn away, nurse their wounds and somehow call on their resources to regroup for the next terminal phase of the war.

Please take the time to reflect on what our ancestors sacrificed in blood, misery and human deprivation so that we can have the luxury to sit at our computers and endlessly prattle on about the three Es, concepts they couldn't even conceive of, and remember that we are truly blessed to be living in a time of such abundance and absence of misery.

Doug