Walking the battlefield at Gettysburg today, if you allow yourself to be calm the ghosts will speak to you.  Despite the tourists, immense monuments and modernization around you, it isn’t hard to put yourself in the raggedy shoes of American soldiers who fought there almost 150 years ago.  Stand in the field where Union cavalrymen first made contact with Confederate pickets, and look down into the railroad cut where dozens were slaughtered.  Gaze from the summit of Little Round Top, down to Devil’s Den, across to the Peach Orchard.  Feel the earth shake as two massive armies trade cannonades.  Choke back the lump in your parched throat as you stand on the site of the Union line and imagine thousands of Confederate troops stepping from the forest, coming straight for you in a last-ditch effort to take your position and wipe you from the face of the planet.

The American Civil War was a battle of ideals, and wills, fought by two cultures trying to exist within the same country.  For two years battles raged throughout the southern states, with the Union taking the worst of it.  Something would snap, and change the fate of the war and the Nation.  That something would be Gettysburg.

Why the American Civil War Happened:

Tomes could be (and have been) written on this subject alone.  To be short, hopefully without understating:  The United States, under the guidance of newly elected president Abraham Lincoln, was putting more and more pressure on individual states to end slavery.  Lincoln was an abolitionist, or at least his policies leaned that way.  The southern states didn’t like this.  The north was largely industrial, while the south was agrarian.  The economy and culture of the south were much more dependent on slavery, and southern states saw it as necessary to their livelihood.  Moreover, they resented the rule from the north, and demanded their right to choose their own path.  The slavery issue, along with several other situations, was leaving a bitter taste in southerner’s mouths.   The south seceded from the union, and formed the Confederate States of America.

Why Gettysburg?

The Civil War kicked off on April 12, 1861, with the Confederate (south) attack on Fort Sumter.  For two years the brothers slugged it out in the southern states, with the Union (north) getting the worst of it.  During the summer of 1863 the Army of Northern Virginia, a massive Confederate army under the command of General Robert E. Lee, began a march to the north with the idea of bolstering supply stocks and threatening Washington, Philadelphia and Baltimore.  The Army of the Potomac, under General George G. Meade, would match its movements in an attempt to prevent the northern invasion.  In a turn of fate, the outermost tentacles of both armies would encounter each other near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the two goliaths would be brought together in an epic clash.

What Happened at Gettysburg:

For three days in the sweltering July heat the battle raged.  Union forces took up a defensive position in what would be called “the fish hook”.  The Confederates established their position atop Seminary Ridge.  Each army’s battle line stretched for several miles.  The Union force consisted of nearly 94,000 men; the Confederates almost 74,000.  Thus, over 165,000 men fought at Gettysburg, all told.    

The Confederates mounted numerous attacks in an attempt to shatter the Union position, without success.  They tried an attack around the Union flank, in an effort to take a small mountain called Little Round Top, to no avail.  The Confederate plan was to attack and destroy the Union Army, and they were coming up short on almost every attempt.

Finally, on the third day, General Lee would order one of the most infamous military moves in history.  The Confederates launched a massive cannonade, followed by what would become known as Pickett’s Charge.  Confederate forces numbering 12,500 began a three-quarter-mile march to the Union position, taking massive casualties from cannon fire along the way.  In withering numbers they attacked the Union line, and a vicious hand-to-hand fight ensued.  The entrenched Union forced fended off the assault, and the battered Confederates retreated. 

The next morning, Confederate forces would withdraw from the fight, marking a Union victory, and the first time General Robert E. Lee would ever leave a battlefield in the hands of his enemy.

After Gettysburg:

Gettysburg saw over 57,000 casualties during only three days of fighting.  Eight thousand were dead, the rest wounded or missing in action.  It would be one of the bloodiest days in American history. 

The victory was a much-needed shot in the arm for the Union.  Until then, Robert E. Lee was an almost mythical figure, invincible it seemed.  Now they knew he could be defeated, and the tide of the war would change. 

Historians and military experts debate Lee’s decision to attack the Union line on July 3rd to this day.  It seemed this “all eggs in one basket” decision would cost him the battle, and he never again attempted an offensive in the north.  If Lee had been victorious at Gettysburg, or at the very least was able to continue his campaign in the north, the war may have ended much differently. 

Also up for debate is the impact Gettysburg would have on the outcome of the war.  Some claim this was where the Union ultimately won their victory; others call it a temporary setback that should have been a footnote.  Either way, history was made in the farms and fields of rural Pennsylvania, near a tiny town called Gettysburg.       

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Causes of the War

            Differing views on slavery are one of the major reasons for the civil war. The balance of slave and Free states and as that balance was thrown out of order by the compromise of 1850, Missouri compromise, and the rise of popular sovereignty. The fugitive slave acts helped the south but were easily countered by personal liberty laws and the Underground Railroad. These factors caused the anger of the southern states and soon would lead to secession.

            Another of the main reasons for the secession of the southern states was the states rights issue. The south would very much have liked to stay under the articles of confederation, where as now they where governed by a strong federal govt. of the constitution. The tariff of abominations was one particularly alarming issue of states rights where john c. Calhoun used the nullification theory to declare the tariff void within his borders. This almost led to secession but was stopped after the threat of violence by Washington.

            The election of Lincoln in 1860 was the straw that broke the camels back in the secession of the south. Lincoln won most of his fame from the Lincoln-Douglas debates. When Lincoln won the election over Stephen Douglas and the other two candidates the south felt it lost its voice in government and politics and continued to succeed.

Major Battles and Leaders

            Jefferson Davis was the leader of the Confederate States of America. He was a graduate from West Point and a Mexican war veteran. He tried to organize and make the confederacy more powerful after he took power. Stonewall Jackson was a confederate general who served in the Mexican war and was a west point graduate. He fought in several battles but suffered friendly fire and died of pneumonia.

Fort Sumter was the first battle of the civil war and was caused by a miscommunication. Lincoln told the south he was only sending supplies, but the south didn’t believe him and bombarded the fort led by Henry Farley. No one was killed in the attack but this initiated the civil war leading to recruiting on both sides.

The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the war the confederate general Robert E lee was ambushed. Lee was a distinguished general getting his status from many battles and service in the Mexican war as well as being a top graduate at the United States Military Academy. There was no clear winner of this battle the union did not destroy the Lee’s army, but the invasion of Maryland was ended. Lee’s men only survived due to superior tactics showing an advantage of confederate leadership.

            The battle of Vicksburg was between Union Ulysses Grant and Confederate John C. Pemberton. The battle led on the union side by Ulysses Grant; he was a distinguished veteran of the Mexican war and a graduate of West Point. He led the union army across the Mississippi river and had them hiding in the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The besieged them for forty days before the garrison surrendered this and the confederate defeat at Gettysburg is considered as the turning point of the war.

            Sherman’s march to the sea was a devastating blow to the south. They destroyed many railroads and transportation rail ways as well as burning Atlanta. They also captured the city of savannah, while on the way there they pillaged and burned the countryside. This was led by union general William T Sherman, an outstanding military genius as well as a businessman, educator, and author.

            The battle of Gettysburg had the largest number of casualties in the American civil war. The first two days of the battle were very even with both losing many men. On the third day the union retreated to the top of cemetery ridge, they had the obvious advantage and mowed down general lee’s army, but the confederates kept coming and when the battle was over there was no clear winner but the north took the lead.

Contrast in the North and South

The Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address

            The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order given five days after the battle of Antietam. Given by Abraham Lincoln it proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million slaves and immediately freed 50,000 salves, but didn’t give them citizenship. It greatly affected northern and northern controlled slaves but did nothing for slaves owned by the confederacy.

            The Gettysburg address was also given by President Lincoln on Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. The address was a speech to encourage the soldiers and helped to make the rest of the war possible.

A Soldiers Life

            The soldiers life was a hard one but food was one the most important aspects. They ate jerky, crawdads, eggs, hardtack corn chowder, and they roasted any small birds they could get. The only things they had supply wise was Guns, blanket rolls, dog tents, eating utensils, tin plates and cups, canteens, and maybe a few personal effects. The soldiers were also tormented by disease caused by contaminated water. They suffered from diseases like typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. There medicine wasn’t much better than there diseases, there doctors new little, and often used unsterile equipment, or just plain didn’t know what they were doing. Most battlefield wounds were treated with primitive surgery or amputation. These resulted in bad infections so most soldiers refused surgery.

The Life of a Black Slave

            Black slaves where already being recruited as cook, janitors, and firemen on navy boats but weren’t actually recruited into the army until after the Emancipation Proclamation. Then most of the slaves recruited where southern slaves who gladly joined to help their cause. They were supplied almost as good as the northern whites but did have less, whereas in the south they did not start recruiting blacks until one month before the end of the war. The black troops of the south were very poorly supplied and where treated badly.

    The Appomattox Court House

            The Appomattox Court House was the place of the battle of the Appomattox Court House, where the confederacy surrendered on April 9th 1865 after they were cut off on their escape plan to get to North Carolina army after abandoning the confederate capital. A treaty of surrender was made between Grant and Lee. Grant made a generous treaty allowing them to not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason as well as take home their horses and mules to carry out the spring planting. They also gave Lee’s starving army rations.

Presidential Reconstruction VS Congressional Reconstruction

            This happened in the period of Reconstruction which took place in the southern United States from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until 1877. There was to kinds presidential which was a reconstruction plan that included bring back confederate states into the union and to outlaw slavery and then congressional which is a plan for reconstruction opposed by Lincoln and vetoed by him after it went through congress which wanted to pay loyal owners and demanded civil rights for freedmen, such as measures ensuring suffrage.

Vidal’s epic biographical novel about the presidency of Honest Abe, The Rail-Splitter, The Ancient, Abraham Lincoln.

The meticulously researched book is divided into three sections. The first shows Lincoln from his troubled election and taking office in the then badly built White House, as the country slides inexorably into the Civil War that would dominate his presidency.

Lincoln is not depicted as a total saint. He was not initially for full emancipation of the slaves, but introduced it to gain black support for the Yamkee cause as the troubles intensified, and he planned to have the blacks removed en-masse from US soil after the war, a plan that was unlikely to ever succeed.

For much of the novel, Abe is a background figure, with Vidal showing fascination for his family, the war cabinet, generals and hangers on around him. We see the spendaholic Mrs Lincoln virtually bankrupt the administration funds, and the drug store keeper in Washington, who uses his position to spy on Lincoln for the Confederate cause.

Part Two deals with the war at its height, with Lincoln visiting the enemy wounded, escaping assassination attempts, and realizing the horror of the conflict. This section culminates with his Gettysburg Address.

The final section deals with the end of the war and the death of Lincoln at the hands of John Wilkes Boothe.

Much of the work is factually accurate, with the novel providing speculation on what Lincoln thought and said in the minds of his friends and enemies. A few events are fictionalised, with cameos by characters in Lincolns other novels set in the same period, Burr and 1876.

Many scenes are outstanding, Lincoln’s unfinished joking, risqué anecdotes, and his Machiavellian manipulation of his enemies, his deeply sad death scene. A powerful, heavy but worthwhile read, and for all its fictional conceits, an amazing history of one of the greatest, but most flawed men in history.

Arthur Chappell

Over 160,000 men engaged in mortal combat over a bloody three days period in July, 1863 that was to mark the major turning point in the Civil War, which killed more Americans than both World Wars and the Korean Conflict, combined. Yet, nearly obscured by these tumultuous events and their far reaching effect on the course of American history were the individual deeds of soldiers and their officers whose heroic acts ofter changed the outcome of a  particular skirmish.

In his speech to dedicate the Gettysburg national cemetery November 19, 1863; President Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” Mr. Lincoln’s prediction turned out to be only half correct because no American will ever forget “The Gettysburg Address.”

Today, Gettysburg is a permanent shrine to those brave men on both sides who made the supreme sacrifice to defend their respective beliefs. Whether we are engaged in war, personal pursuits or professional endeavors; each of us must commit to attainable goals and strive to achieve them through our best efforts.

Just as the individual actions of men on the battlefield can alter the outcome of a war, so can the individual efforts of dedicated men and women of all races, religions and economic circumstances profoundly influence the lives of their families, businesses and communities.

In the spirit of the fallen soldiers who so long ago gave their all for what they believed, let us work to preserve for future Americans their sacred right to individual freedom, free enterprise and the pursuit of the American dream.

            July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg happened on beautiful farmlands surrounding the little town at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was a struggle between 75,000 Confederates and 97,000 Union soldiers in a decisive situation.(Tilberg 3) Six months before the battle, the Union and Confederate armies had faced each other in Fredericksburg. In December 1862, under General Lee’s command, the confederate Army of Northern Virginia defeated the Union in Chancellorsville (Catton 9). The victory in Chancellorsville gained General Lee an advantage to move his troops northward to capture some northern key cities such as Baltimore or Washington. However it was a risky decision because Gen. Lee would carry the battle into the northern territory, where the supplies would be scarce. At the same time Northern Newspapers clamored for peace therefore the Army of Northern Virginia believed that they would win the next battle with a high spirit (Tilberg 7).

            General Lee planed a campaign similar to the battle of Antietam, which occurred a year before in September 1862. Lee planed to destroy the bridge over the Susquehanna River and to take over the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad in order to create an advantage in the west. (Tilberg General Lee’s plan would be perfect if there was still a Stonewall Jackson. Jackson, the right hand of Lee, was wounded in the Chancellorsville victory.

Two armies converged at Gettysburg. The Confederate across the mountain, with an advantage on the west, approached Cashtown in Gettysburg on Jun 29 to obtain supplies. The Union, under General Meade command had moved northward to survey the defensive position at Pipe Creek, in northern Maryland (Catton 10). Both General Lee and General Meade expected to take the strong position to force the opposite site attack. (Tilberg 10)

            Early morning on July 1, a brigade of Confederate under Heth’s division, with their purpose of testing the strength of the Union forces, reached Marsh Creek four miles walk from Gettysburg. They were fired upon by the Union cavalry under Buford’s division.(Tilberg 9) Buford was  an insubordinate and combative commander; he chose the ground for battle. At 8 a.m., Archer and Davis‘s brigade, with support from Pegram’s artillery approached Chambersburg Road, near Oak Ridge, to aid the Confederates. However the Union cavalry had an advantage in their carbines, which had rapid-fire; they held the ground against the Confederate attacks. (Tilberg 10) Two hour later Union General John F. Reynolds aided Buford’s troop. The struggle increased in scope as more forces reached the battle field. The Union troops increased with the arrival of the “Meredith’s Iron Brigade”. The Union had successfully countered the Confederate’s first attempt at Oak Ridge and captured the Confederate General Archer (Adams 28). However this early success gave the Union soldiers confidence. Nevertheless the success was determined by Union’s advantage of number of soldier; it wasn’t from both side’s strategy of strong defensive position.

            General Lee quickly orders Confederates, under General Rode’s division, in Cashtown, to march to Gettysburg. Rode’s was ordered to approach the Harrisburg Road. At one o’clock in the afternoon, Confederate’s cannon were all set in the position at Oak Ridge. The Confederate started to fire on General Reynolds’ brigade. They struck the Union under the ridge (Catton 12). Even though the attack wasn’t well coordinated, they annihilated the Union General Inverson’s brigade and opened a space to strike on the left of the Union defense. Two divisions of the Union quickly took the position of Inverson’s brigade. General Dole’s Confederate brigade attacked on another side force two divisions at Inverson’s brigade back temporarily (Adams 30). However it was a fatal decision when Dole’s brigade left the position. (Tilberg 14) Early’s division of the Union, at the north of Harrisburg Road, was indefensibly stroke and annihilated the Confederate’s bridge. Several confederates was killed and wounded. General Doles’ troops stuck in a Union’s circle troop arrangement. However The Union troops would have been in dangerous if Dole’s bridge cut off their lines. The Union open the line to Doles could retreat. The Union troops also retreated from the battleground and hastily occupied the defense position on Cemetery Hill for the next day battle. (Catton 14)

            July 2, The Union established the defensive line from Cemetery Hill to Little Round Top. The Confederate lined up to hide in the Pitzer’s Woods, half mile to the west of the Union’s position. They fired on the group of Union’s scout and also extended the troop line southward. The Union immediately moved to the higher ground at the Peach Orchard. Moving troops to Peach Orchard fortified the Union’s right side but it also weakened the Union’s left side at Little Round Top (Tilberg 17). Lee perceived the weakness of the Union in Little Round Top. He ordered the “Longstreet attacks on the right”, which is the Little Rough Top attack. Union General Warren reviewed the key position of the Union at the Little Rough Top. He was informed that the Confederates concealed in the woods. General Warren ordered to attack in the woods. The reflection of the Confederate’s bayonet review the Confederate’s hidden line in the woods. General Warren realized the enemy was focusing on the Little Round Top. Immediately, the Union brigade of Vincent and Weed. The Confederate’s Alabama troops of Law attacked from the woods on the top of the hill. Young promised solider, Weed, was killed and Vincent had a mortal wound (Catton 25). After four hours fighting, the Union defensive line was broke at Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill was separated. Ewell’s troop of the Confederate was ordered to attack Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill from the broken Peach Orchard (Tilberg 18). However the Union defensive position was still very strong. He failed to attempt the position. The second day battle happened till ten o’clock in the evening; the Confederate successfully broke the Union defensive line but the Union successfully defended the Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill. (Tilberg 20)

            If the Union remained the position for the next day, they might not hold the line any longer. Midnight of July 2, General Meade sought for the advice of his council of War. All the corps commanders advised holding the positions the Union established. The Union also needs to retaliate the Confederate to gain the middle position back. Ruger’s division and Lockwood’s brigade was called to reoccupy their ground.  As Dawn July 3 Union’s guns on the Baltimore Pike opened the heavy cannonade on the Confederate at Spangler’s Spring. The Confederate had been in the wood since yesterday. The wooded area blocked the position of their guns. However the early clash was extremely heavy fire until 10 a.m.( Adams 36).  By 11 the Union troops gain their position. General Lee realized that his troop wouldn’t confront the Union attack anymore, after long hours of struggle. Even though they had gain advantage at the Peach Orchard, the failure of the Confederate at Culp’s Hill led Lee to believe his position was weak. General Lee prepared for his “final thrust” (Adam 38). A hundred and forty cannons of Confederate were organized during the 11 a.m. to noon; they aimed to attack from Peach Orchard. At 1 p.m the confederate guns near Peach Orchard opened fire. The Union gunner, on Cemetery Hill, waited a few minutes until the position of the confederate guns were located; 80 guns of the Union fired back. After 2 hours cannons fired heavily, both side started engaging by melee attack with bayonets. After 3 hours the Confederate left the field and retreated to the north of Gettysburg. The Union held successfully their ground. General Lee perceive, through the desolate field of dead and wounded soldier of his powerful army, that he didn’t only lose the Gettysburg but it is also an end of his advantage during last two years. (Tilberg 27)

The battle occurred with a variety of weapons, revolvers, swords, and bayonets. The main weapons were the muzzle loading rifle muskets (Gramm 113). They were deadly weapons at that time because of their accuracy at a long range. A good soldier could load a gun three times a minute; the fast rate of fire and the effective guns was the reason for the massacre in Gettysburg Battle.

After three days of battle, the Gettysburg towns shared to care for 21,000 wounded and dying soldier of both sides, who was left behind when the armies moved on. Hundreds of solider died every day after match from the mortal wounds, therefore hundred of bodies had been left unburied or partially covered (Gramm 181). Few months after the battle, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, on 19th November, 1863, which set up a national cemetery in Pennsylvania Commonwealth for soldier who died in the bloody conflict (Everett 17). Lincoln wrote in his speech that “the brave men, living and dead, who struggle here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor longer remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they (Confederate and Union soldiers) did here” (Everett 32). The National Cemetery was established on 17 acres of ground (Everett 3); it became a place to burial 3500 Union dead soldiers (Everett and 3,320 Confederates (Everett 11).

            The Battle of  Gettysburg has become the most famous battle of the American Civil not only because of its decisiveness and it is the bloodiest battle in American history, but the Gettysburg battle is also famous for the Gettysburg address. The battle of Gettysburg, however, shows us the horribleness of war. Three days of battle deprived more than 30,000 lives of young man, and left their family the inconsolable sorrows. With the new technological innovations such as faster loading speed, longer range, the battle of Gettysburg was a prominent example of dreadful war. The victory of the Union in the battle of Gettysburg was also because of the Union’s productive strategy and defensive position. Moreover, the Union also had the larger number of soldiers, which is the decisive factor in melee combats. The battle had occurred a hundred and fifty years ago, but the Gettysburg National Cemetery and  the Gettysburg Address  shall  remind us to remember all soldiers who had died, in that blood conflict.

Works cited

Ø Adams, Samuel. The battle of Gettysburg, 1863. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1892. 178. Print.

Ø Catton, Bruce. Gettysburg: The Final Fury. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1974. 114. Print.

Ø Everett, Edward. An address at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, 19th November, 1863. Boston: Little, Brown, 1868. 659. Print.

Ø Gramm, Kent. Somebody’s darling: essays on the Civil War. California: Palo Alto, 2003. 190. Print.

Ø Tilberg, Frederick. Gettysburg. Washington. D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1954. 60. Print.

We the people of America need to send a message to our government. We need to let them know who exactly is in charge. It is time for all hard working, blue collar, middle class, overworked, overtaxed, and underpaid Americans to take a 24 hour holiday on the same day at the same time and just be lazy and enjoy the day off. Shut down the industries for 24 hours that , with your labors, places money in the pockets of fat cats that grease the cogs of the machine that is politics. A 24 hour hiatus (or strike, if that is what you wish to call it) will shut down the businesses long enough to catch the attention of our government and let the politicians know that it is American citizens, not American Industry, who placed them in office. The big industries may have helped in their nominations, but it is the American people who placed them in their political positions they hold until the next election cycle.

Lincoln stated it eloquently in the Gettysburg address, “…government of the people, by the people for the people….” Our government has forgotten this phrase or they choose to ignore it. So, America, take your 24 hour vacation on the same day, at the same time and enjoy the day with your family. Lord knows, the Obama family had plenty of fun times at our expense, so it is time for us, the American People to have  little slice of fun as well.

This project will only succeed if all Americans, affected by the government’s shenanigans, stand up and take the day off at the same time. The choice is up to you.

Replete with historic sites known to have once been the scenes of immense human suffering, Gettysburg PA is an ideal place to visit for those with a penchant for the paranormal.  

Some of Gettysburg’s more horrific sites include; a church where a mass of grisly, amateur amputations took place that required holes to be drilled into the floorboards so that the blood would run out onto the ground instead of congealing onto the floor and “the pit” were Civil War orphans were chained to the walls tortured and beaten to death by a malicious matron and her “stick boys.”

Thankfully spectral seeking visitors to Gettysburg do not have to brave the supernatural alone.   There are a plethora of paranormal based tours that one can partake of.

Here is a list of 6 different ghost tour operators that can provide Gettysburg visitors with a masterfully macabre tour of the cities paranormal hot spots.   Those wanting to learn more about each of the listed tour operators and their tour offerings should contact the operator by phone or online via the company’s website.

Sleepy Hollow of Gettysburg

89 Steinwehr Avenue

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-337-9322

www.sleepyhollowgettysburg.com

Haunted Gettysburg

27 Steinwehr Avenue

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-334-1200

www.hauntedgettysburgtours.com

Civil War Hauntings

240 Steinwehr Avenue

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-752-5588

www.cwhauntings.com

Farnsworth House

401 Baltimore Street

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-334-8838

www.gettysburgshauntedadress.com

Ghostly Images of Gettysburg

548 Baltimore Street

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-334-6296

www.ghostlyimages.net

Ghosts of Gettysburg

271 Baltimore Street

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-337-0445

www.ghostsofgettysburg.com

The Republican Party with Lincoln as the presidential candidate was not a popular party. Across the nation, they had only managed to garner about 35 percent of the vote. Yet…the Democratic Party would split. That meant that a 65 percent showing would be split in half, making 35 percent the winner.

As soon as Lincoln won the election in November, 1860, the Southern states would begin leaving the union.

Mississippi delegate Jefferson Davis stands before Congress and cries.

He cries.

Davis’s father owned slaves but worked side by side with them in the fields. The leader of the Confederacy thus, believe it or not, was more of a sympathizer to slaves then an overwhelming majority of even Unionists! Yet he was bound by duty the way all West Point graduates are. He didn’t question Mississippi’s policies, he simply followed them. And when Mississippi decided to join South Carolina in what would be the first two states to secede, Davis followed. 

With a tearful farewell.

Robert E. Lee as well. Robert E. Lee was head of the entire Union army at the time of Virginia’s secession. He knew all the Union’s military strategies!

By March, 1861, the Confederates States of America was sitting right next to Lincoln’s country waiting for him to be inaugurated that April, fully formed without any union resistance. It’s important to note that this is the reason the inauguration of the American president has been moved back to January.

Lincoln’s first trip to Washington involved a death threat, and then a bomb threat on his train, leading to the White House insiders going ahead and sneaking him out to another unknown train, and then keeping him laying on his back most of the time as to not be in windows’ view. It would get around to all of the world, that the new leader of the Union…was a “coward” who hid in people’s trunks so bad guys wouldn’t hurt him.

At first there was no conscription (military draft). Lincoln simply called for 75,000 cool people to put down this “skirmish”. And he got his numbers almost in no time. This was before the days of radio, television, no presentation of violent images that would sway a person towards or away from violence. If these men in their teens and 20s didn’t go out and fight, people called them pussies. And there would be nothing to do but work and go to church.

People would camp out and watch the first couple battles take place. They would bring picnic blankets and their kids and everything. It didn’t take long for the spectators to really wish they had kept their kids at home. It’s estimated that had the same population figures applied then as today there would have been twenty million Americans killed and fifty million wounded.

Brothers fought brothers, sometimes literally.

There were big problems for the North in this war. All the industry and weaponry in the world didn’t matter when they were not naturals with guns and horses. Nor did they have the advantage of neighbors. All the top military personnel were in the South. Add to that was the question of how Lincoln planned on selling this war on Northerners. Poor whites in the North, who Lincoln depended on as the lifeblood of his army as does any army, risked losing their jobs to slaves should they ever become free. Is it any wonder that he was sold as Honest Abe? He was the salesman of salesmen. It was a contradiction in the tradition of all Federalist-Paper-spawned contradictions. And it worked.

Somehow Lincoln, whose very presence ignited a fight over slavery in Congress and the voting booths, would convince the entire Northern fighting force that slavery had nothing to do with this war. Amazing.

It was the worst four years of the man’s life.

Lincoln lost a son in the 1850s, and now Willie in 1862. He had to institute a military draft, suspend liberties, and do away with the writ of habeas corpus, (meaning he could imprison people without telling them the charge), and he was still on the verge of losing this war.

Many slaves would be used by the Confederates to fix everything that the North had bombed from houses to railroad tracks to shipping ports. Many had even been fighting as snipers for the Confederates and were kicking the Union’s asses. It seemed like a crisis worse then anything yet, the idea of the African-American fighting force being something the Union couldn’t count on. But that’s when Honest Abe realized his dream would come true — for he could at long last convince these legions of racists in his own army that ending slavery was the smartest thing for their own safety and sanctity! And so that New Years of 1863, he declares all slaves in the C.S.A. to be free, risking 100 percent defection in the North. It was like when Bill Bellichick took a safety to get the Patriots in the proper field position to win that game that one year. Now slaves were “contraband”, and able to be trained to fight as they were now in the camps with all the other supplies the Union looted. And with the help of Frederick Douglass and several leading Boston abolitionists, African-Americans were given federal uniforms to help the North!

The big problem was always the middle states. These were the places where violence between blacks and whites had historically been the worst because of the conflicting value systems of the population. It was no coincidence that the Civil War was fought predominantely in Maryland and Virginia because these states consisted of men who wanted blood more then sunlight and air. Lincoln’s smartest move was declaring only that the slaves in the C.S.A. were free…he knew better then to tell the border states what to do.

Yet the South would counter by threatening to get their slaves back. Remembering how annoying the Fugitive Slave Law had been, this statement would keep a lions share of Union personnel to continue to fight. And the South would make good on its’ word…

July 3, 1863

Lee and Longstreet begin a frontal assault in Northern Maryland which…if successful…will put the Confederates in Pennsylvania. Union soil for the very first time. This was the battle of Gettysburg. To overlord through here meant a clear route up Lincoln’s ass, for Washington D.C. was only a hundred miles away from the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

After three of the nastiest days of fighting ever, the North managed to hold them off. The Civil War was about 2/3rds of the way in Lincoln’s favor all of a sudden, when for the first two years it had been a Southern rout. All that was left was to keep their supporters from being able to supply them. And so Lincoln would send General Sherman on a mission down to Atlanta, Georgia, looting homes of soldiers while the soldiers were far away. Women and children left behind in these states would watch Union soldiers take stuff, toss them around, and then burn their houses in front of them. Bales of cotton were stripped out of their warehouses and shipped north. It was a very nasty way to win a war, but those slavemasters got off easy.

Today alot of descendants of these people want to claim that the Civil War was lost on the part of the North because they showed that they didn’t have any “honor”, something that the South showed in great detail while they were splitting apart slave families. Pricks.

But the South were some tough bastards. To destroy the Southern United States is to eliminate our very best fighters. Their culture is designed to do nothing else then create cannon fodder. The children there are trained that it’s cool to respect authority, and still today make this a part of peer pressure to adhere to anything their overlords say. We need a group of Americans who listen to anything the government says. A small pack of Washington jerkoffs who are rich and deeply connected to no credit of their own doing like to hide behind “government” and “church” and want us all to believe that dissing them personally is the same thing as dissing our beloved governments and churchs. To actually make this distinction would keep you from taking up arms for the country. We’re allowed to make this distinction in the North and West because alot of us would make crappy soldiers. The South, where the most gifted soldiers are from, MUST NOT. For the safety of ALL THE REST OF US. I just wish they weren’t so racist is all. 

Consequently, it would take Sherman and the other Union generals making a stick of butter cost a thousand dollars before those rough Southerners finally backed down. And on April 9, 1865 in Appamattox Courthouse, Virginia, Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. The Union could finally take a deep breath. It was the hardest four years in American history. 

And it was only about to get nastier…

Friday, April 14, 1865

2:02 A.M.

“Who is dead in the White House?” Lincoln asked the men he sees on the White House steps as they stand in front of a processional casket. 

“The president,” one of them says. “He was killed by an assassin.”

It is then that Lincoln wakes up in a cold sweat. Phew. It was just a dream…

9:35 P.M.

Lincoln attends a play at Ford’s Theatre called “Our American Cousin”. He’s there at the behest of his wild and wacky wife Mary Todd, his wife, who went through hell for the last several years and was already…not necessarily high-strung, but definitely compared to the other first ladies. It is Mary Todd who insists on seeing this play. For the umpteenth time.

As they’re sitting up in the presidential box which looks straight down from the balcony with a perfect center-aisle view of the stage, Major Rathbone decides he’s gonna go and have a drink. No problem. Oh…except that Rathbone was the lone security guard assigned to said presidential box.

John Wilkes Booth was the Holly Hunter of his day — a famous Southern actor with a very chiseled frame and, like most actors who take up causes, he took up POLITICAL ones. He was heartbroken by the result of the Civil War. He thought he knew a great way to help…

Booth walked up to the presidential box with ZERO resistance, swaying at ease through the theatre to a round of autograph seekers and stovepipe-hat-tipped hellos and good-day-to-yous.

When he shoots Lincoln, he doesn’t run out of the theatre. He jumps down to the stage nearly breaking his leg and declares “SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS!!! THE SOUTH HAS BEEN AVENGED!!!”

Lincoln is dead by the next morning, April 15, 1865.

They got him a few days later in a barn, shooting Booth down atop the hay.

For many years, the doctor who tried with rampant zeal to save Lincoln was villified and sought for questioning. Not only because he would fail, but because he was accused of putting his finger in the bullet hole to check it/get the bullet out, and the theory is that he pushed the bullet accidentally too deep in his brain for him to live. Yet we know today that this doctor is innocent, for now with Bernouli and Boyle, we are more knowledgable when it comes to both physics and forensics. The bullet went in Lincoln’s skull and just formed a tiny canyon that it spun around in until stopping. It resembled a funnel…the top part of the hole being big enough for a finger but the bottom part was too small for the metal casing to get through to Lincoln’s brain just by the pushing of the finger.

With Lincoln gone, his vice-president Andrew Johnson would be sworn in. THIS was a tool. Unfortunately Lincoln’s choices, as with all presidential candidates, comes down to geographical opposition. Every vice-president comes from as far away from where the president comes from as possible in order to assure the most votes. In this case, while Lincoln had been a Northerner from Kentucky who practiced law in Illinois…Johnson was from South Carolina.

And a heavy sympathizer…of the South…

End of Part 5 of 25

Gettysburg National Military Park is situated in the picturesque countryside of south central Pennsylvania.  It was at this location that the defining battle of the Civil War was fought during the first three days of July in 1863.  The events that transpired there forever changed both the course of the war and the path of the nation.  For anyone interested in learning more about this important part of American history, a visit to the park is highly recommended.

Gettysburg National Military Park encompasses 23 square miles of battlefields and houses 1,400 monuments.  With so many things to see spread across so much ground, any visit to the park should begin with a trip to the visitor center and museum.  The museum, which requires a fee to tour it, is a great way to learn about both the history of the battle and the lay of the land.  The visitor center is helpful in planning the type of battlefield tour that you may desire to take, for there are a number of different ways to see the all the historic sites.

Self-guided Auto Tour

The visitor center has free maps available for those who wish to take a self-guided auto tour of the park.  The self-guided tour covers 24 miles of roads and includes 16 numbered stops at various sites throughout both the park and the historic city of Gettysburg itself.  The park stops follow the course of the three-day battle in chronological order.  Most stops contain exhibits and tablets that provide a written description of significant events.  The self-guided tour allows visitors the ability to pick and choose which sites to visit.  If you desire a little more guidance for this tour, you can purchase a CD from the visitor center that tells you the important facts about each site.  It is suggested to allow for a minimum of three hours to complete the whole tour.

Licensed Battlefield Guided Tour

For those seeking a higher level of tour guidance, for a fee you can hire a licensed battlefield tour guide at the visitor center.  The guide will accompany you on a two-hour private tour of the park in your car.  This service is offered seasonally, so make sure to call ahead of time for its availability and to make reservations in advance of your visit.

Bus Tour

Another guided option for touring the park is a commercial bus tour.  Tickets are available for purchase at the visitor center.  The bus tour lasts about two hours is lead by a licensed battlefield tour guide.  The number of bus tours given daily varies by the season, ranging from two per day in the spring to a maximum of six per day in the summer.  A schedule and ticket prices are available from the visitor center website.

Walking Tour

A walking tour is another great way to see the park.  While you will not be able to cover as much ground, this option will give you the opportunity to experience the land in that same manner as the Civil War soldiers did all those years ago.  A brochure is available from the visitor center that contains a map of all the designated trails and pathways in the park.

Biking Tour

Bicycles are allowed in the park, and are a great way to take a more leisurely tour of the sites.  Because bicycles are not allowed on earthen trails and pathways, however, this type of tour is limited to the routes of the paved roads.  The same map that is used in the self-guided auto tour can be used for the bicycle tour.

Horseback Riding Tour

Horseback riding is allowed on designated trails in the park.  Horse trailer parking is available onsite for those who bring their own horses.  Commercial companies also offer horseback rides through the park.  The Gettysburg Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has more information for those who are interested in this option.

Important Park Rules

Finally, no matter which touring option you choose, there are some important rules to remember as you make your way through the park:

-         Backpacks and handbags are not allowed in the visitor center for safety reasons.

-         The historic sites, structures, exhibits, plants, animals, and minerals must be left undisturbed.

-         Relic hunting is not allowed and the possession of metal detectors within the park is prohibited.

-         Picnics are permitted in designated areas only.

-         Pets are permitted in the park, but are not permitted in the Soldiers’ National Cemetery and the visitor   

          center.  Pets must be leashed and attended to at all times.

-         Photography (without flash) is allowed in the museum.