Gettysburg is one of the most profound, sacred places on earth. Abraham Lincoln called it "hallowed ground." More than 50,000 people died in three days on that great and terrible field of battle.
As part of The Gathering with LCI we visited Gettysburg (only about 45 minutes' drive from York). We had a driving tour and then visited the recently-opened Gettysburg Museum on the grounds of the battlefield (an amazing museum, by the way).
There were so many heroic leaders at Gettysburg - on both the Union and Confederate lines of battle. This was not only tactical leadership (such as Chamberlain's Maine 20th holding Little Round Top), but rather moral leadership. Robert E. Lee is the prototype for this leadership, holding in great tension his faith in God and God's mysterious providence in matters of a civil war.
I found myself grieved by the comparison of war in the 19th century and war in the 21st century. Gettysburg was deeply personal, it was brother against brother fighting for causes that many believed in firmly. Warfare today is impersonal, it is drone strikes and inter-continental missiles. It is no less gruesome than 1863 at Gettysburg, it is simply more removed from our personal realities. I find that quite grievous.
Joshua Chamberlain said this of Gettysburg at the 25th anniversary of the battle: "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision - place of souls."
PS - We ate lunch at General Pickett's Buffets the afternoon of our visit. I love this picture of our fearless leader, Brian Rice, but what I love even more is that Gordon Carpenter is in the background (grey shirt) smirking over the scene!
As part of The Gathering with LCI we visited Gettysburg (only about 45 minutes' drive from York). We had a driving tour and then visited the recently-opened Gettysburg Museum on the grounds of the battlefield (an amazing museum, by the way).
There were so many heroic leaders at Gettysburg - on both the Union and Confederate lines of battle. This was not only tactical leadership (such as Chamberlain's Maine 20th holding Little Round Top), but rather moral leadership. Robert E. Lee is the prototype for this leadership, holding in great tension his faith in God and God's mysterious providence in matters of a civil war.
I found myself grieved by the comparison of war in the 19th century and war in the 21st century. Gettysburg was deeply personal, it was brother against brother fighting for causes that many believed in firmly. Warfare today is impersonal, it is drone strikes and inter-continental missiles. It is no less gruesome than 1863 at Gettysburg, it is simply more removed from our personal realities. I find that quite grievous.
Joshua Chamberlain said this of Gettysburg at the 25th anniversary of the battle: "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision - place of souls."
~ Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
Speaking at the dedication of the monument to the 20th Maine
October 3, 1889, Gettysburg, PA
_______________________________PS - We ate lunch at General Pickett's Buffets the afternoon of our visit. I love this picture of our fearless leader, Brian Rice, but what I love even more is that Gordon Carpenter is in the background (grey shirt) smirking over the scene!
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