On our way to Washington, D.C., we decided to make a stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (the history bug has bitten).  There, we took an open-deck bus tour of this famous Civil War battlefield where the Union and Confederate forces fought for three days in July (1-3) of 1863 and which is considered a turning point of the war.

Though the 6,000-acre battlefield area is filled with 1,400 statues and monuments honoring those who participated in the battle, the real point of interest was in seeing the actual locations where the fighting took place. Our guide was animated and interesting as he spoke of the military tactics which both sides used.

The Union fielded 93,000 troops and the Confederate army 75,000.  The following are the statistics of the carnage:

Union	Confederacy
23,049	28,063	Total casualties
3,155	3,903	dead
14,529	18,735	wounded
5,365	5,425	missing

In three days.

Though Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Confederate forces, had won the first day – including the taking of the town of Gettysburg and its supplies – George Meade, commanding general of the Union army, ended the third day with a decisive win.  Lee had to retreat with a loss of a third of his troops.

The so-called glory of the actual fighting in battle is what most people talk of and read about, but the success of battle is often determined by other factors.  Many of the deaths were not due to the fighting, but to disease, lack of clean water, lack of proper bathroom facilities, and lack of healthy food.

After the armies departed, they left behind the bodies of thousands of dead soldiers (as well as horses) in the fields; most every building that remained standing was turned into a field hospital for the wounded.  Food supplies were almost completely confiscated by both armies and there was a shortage of adequate water for the town’s people and the wounded soldiers left behind.

While taking a walk in the city before the tour, we came across a monument dedicated to the musicians of the two armies.  On one hand, they were entertainment for the troops at rest.  But the trumpet, drums, and flag bearers were also – as we learned in Ticonderoga – the method officers used to communicate with their troops.  Different sounds and melodies represented the different orders.  On a side note (pun intended), the youngest soldier to ever win a Congressional Medal of Honor was a 13-year-old drummer boy who later became a general.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On November 19 of that same year Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address (in a dedication ceremony for the cemetery for Union soldiers killed at Gettysburg), 272 words that lasted two minutes, and which live on forever in the history of the country.  It was a call for hope and healing.