The Civil War, 150 years ago... It Is For Us, The Living... Lest we forget Memorial Day...
Photo by Gary Rice
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced...." Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address.
19 November, 1863
The once-golden fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania were no longer all that golden. Just months before, they had been raked by brutal cannon and musket fire in one of the most significant battles of the American Civil War. As the cool winds of autumn brought those ubiquitous cumulus clouds over the Allegheny foothills west of the town, those same winds brought the rains that finished what the cannon balls had begun, turning parts of that once placid farmland into pools of oozing fetid black and bloody mud. A number of the estimated seven to eight thousand bodies of the men who had so recently perished there were still in the process of reburial. Evidence of war's carnage could still be discovered, from rotting pieces of horseflesh to the shattered canteens and muskets of the fallen.
The weather, however, was reportedly fine that morning, and in any case would have in no way interfered with the quiet dignity of the flag-draped ceremony that was transpiring in the newly created, soon-to-be-dedicated 17-acre National Cemetery. The principal scheduled speaker was former United States Senator Edward Everett, and he actually delivered the longest speech of the day, lasting around two hours. He was followed by the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's speech lasted barely two minutes, and the President at the time felt that it had been a failure, as reportedly it barely received even polite applause at its conclusion.
As we know today, it was not a failure, nor was it forgotten.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is perhaps the best known speech in history. So much of our national purpose, future dreams, and pure patriotic ideals are contained in its brief message, along with so much remembrance of those who gave their lives in the defense of American liberty.
One could say that Gettysburg's remembrance ceremony on that day presented the first template for post-war observances that would later became known as Memorial Day. Sadly, however, while the Gettysburg observance was being held, the Civil War was continuing, and would continue for two more years.
After the Civil War, in towns across this country, people constructed monuments and cemeteries honoring those who had fought in that war and developed similar ceremonies to honor their fallen sons. For years, these were local events. In the South, mothers and daughters honored their Confederate fallen, while in the North, similar events transpired for the Union men. In 1913, a great 50-year commemoration was held at the Gettysburg Cemetery, and veterans from both sides were finally able to sit down together and have fellowship.
Memorial Day, once called "Decoration Day," is clearly an occasion to remember fallen soldiers. At the same time, as Lincoln stated so well, it is for us, the living, to advance the cause of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
That has not been easy to achieve, however. Now, as then, there continues to be bitter division in our country between decent people as to the size of our government and how we should be governed. Now, as then, there seems to be a polarization between sides, possibly encouraged by powerful behind-the-scenes interests. Now, as then, people seem less and less willing to compromise with points of view differing from their own. Now, as then, Americans are confronting other Americans face-to-face with more and more "my-way-or-the-highway" thinking.
But as for our honored dead? They would well know where that kind of no-compromise conflict leads. It leads to the hallowed ground where they repose. Conflicts, after all, are the absolute antithesis of compromise. We can try to second-guess history's outcomes if we want to. We can wonder whether, at some point, the South's slavery issue or desire for "state's rights" could have been resolved in some manner other than by cannon fire. We might even conclude that perhaps that war had to happen, and that compromise and conflict resolution could never have been arrived at in any other way than through the violence of thousands of men standing in open fields, firing muskets at each other. Still, sooner or later, wars come to an end. Yes indeed, we rightfully remember our soldiers, and yet...from their graves, our honored dead would seem to plead with us for the cause of finding a better way to solve arguments than with their lives.
We well know why wars were fought then, and continue to be fought now: money, power, scarce resources, political ideals, and so on...Each of these pedestals still stand, and they mock our efforts to join hands with each other in the pursuit of a more peaceful world.
We teach conflict resolution skills and non-violence to our high school students, but as soon as they come of age, some of them march off to one war or another, where they learn that whatever they learned about getting along with each other in school no longer counts in a real world filled with gunfire and the explosions of IEDs.
And yet, to blame the military for any of this would be simplistic and just plain wrong; for it is not the military that sends people off to war. We the people do that. The military simply responds to those time-honored calls of duty, honor, and patriotism. It is, after all, their job, and stated in their oath, to defend us from "all enemies foreign and domestic," and they should be honored for their service... and their dead, honored and remembered forever... and not just on Memorial Day either.
No, the fundamental question (and the answer that we are seeking) cannot be asked of the military. It is rather one that "we the people" need to ask of ourselves... "What more can we do... to stop making enemies in the first place?"