The Civil War....150 years ago... A Pilgrimage To Gettysburg...

Gary, by "The Slaughter Pen", in the "Valley of Death"; pointing up to "Little Round Top" (Photo by Hugo Doerschuk)

It's not very much of a fence, as fences go...It's not even waist-high in many places. It's simply a low line of rocks, piled along the edge of a country field. One could easily hop over it in many places, and indeed, many did exactly that--at a critical time in our nation's history. For this particular fence marked the grand battle line of the Army of the Potomac on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (from July 1-3, 1863).

On that third day of battle, from out of the woods across that field came a mile-long line of the Army of Northern Virginia. Frustrated by being turned back on both flanks in the previous two days' fighting, a decision was made by Southern General Robert E. Lee to send that army directly across that open field and take the Union position at all costs.

There are many who have second-guessed the wisdom of "Pickett's Charge," as that Confederate assault went down in the history books, but the fact remains that a number of the Confederates, although raked by rifle fire and deadly cannon grapeshot, did indeed make it to that stone fence, and even some fifty feet beyond, when they were finally stopped stone cold near a small stand of trees. That group of trees still marks the "high water mark" of the Confederate attack on that day, and from that day forward the South would never be able to mount an effective massive assault against the Northern armies, even though the Civil War would drag on for nearly two more years.

Today, a one-way road winds through the Gettysburg battlefield in Southern Pennsylvania, making it possible to take your car easily up the side of "Little Round Top," where so many Alabamians and others fell in a futile attempt to take the position of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain's 20th Maine Infantry. You'll first drive by "The Peach Orchard," with its newly replanted seedlings, and "The Wheatfield," and then through "The Valley of Death" before arriving at "Devil's Den" and "The Slaughter Pen." Finally, you'll take that winding left turn to the top of the "Little Round Top" hill.

Confederate General Lee wanted to engage the North, but did not think that Gettysburg was the right battlefield. The Union held the high ground there, and in war, the high ground is golden. Still, Gettysburg proved to be the decisive time and place for that horrific Armegeddon-like engagement to occur between two great armies and two ways of life.

Walking those fields a few weeks ago, I can report to you there is absolutely no place on earth that I know of even remotely like Gettysburg. In the first place, the climate of that region, unlike most of the rest of Pennsylvania, is considered to be humid sub-tropical, like much of the American South. Even on a cool November afternoon, the different "feel" of the place was remarkable. The battlefield appears surreal in every respect. I suppose that all battlefields just "look" different, but Gettysburg truly does. When I arrived at the parking lot between "The Slaughter Pen" and the huge rock outcrop that is known as "Devil's Den," I was struck by an intense other-worldliness...and a strange feeling that I was, indeed, not alone.

Of course, I was with my father, Robert Rice, and our good friend Hugo Doerschuk, who had graciously consented to help us to get to Manassas, Virginia, so that Dad could conduct our original musical composition "The American Veteran's Last Salute March" with The American Festival Pops Orchestra. Hugo is a retired Army officer and offered very significant commentary. There were also some other tourists milling about, but on the whole, the place seemed as if it were another planet.

Many of my dear late mom's family were from Alabama and Georgia, and a Great Great Great Grandfather had supposedly fought for the South at Gettysburg and lived. How? I could not begin to tell you. As I looked up from "The Slaughter Pen" to "Little Round Top," at first the distance did not seem that great. In my mind's eye, I could see those Alabamians rushing towards the top of that hill, taking periodic cover from the boulders that dotted their pathways. I could also imagine the desperate looks on the faces of Col. Chamberlain's 20th Maine as they fought time and again to repulse the Alabamians, finally repelling them decisively with a deadly bayonet charge. From the top of "Little Round Top," you can see how high that hill really was. It was a turkey shoot for the Union Sharpshooters and their fast-loading Sharps rifles. I don't believe that any fighting Alabamian made it to the top of that hill alive.

Some of Dad's ancestors were no doubt also there with the brave Pennsylvanians, who faced the brunt of Pickett's Virginians out on that open field in the center of the battle line on the third day of fighting. Those Virginians raced across that field in a vain attempt at victory, and at the last, they achieved a certain success in one respect...winning immortal valor. I just had to ask myself. Would I even be here now if some part of either side of my North/South gene pool had been lost on that day?

The reasons for the Civil War depend upon whom you ask. From the North's point of view, the "evils of slavery" became their rallying cry. The pursuit of the "Rights of Man" brought a cry to end slavery to the lips of every Union soldier, and yet very few of the Southern men on that field even owned slaves, or for that matter, even cared about that issue. From the South's point of view, they were fighting for the rights of their particular states to follow their own pathways of governance. They were fighting for their friends and neighbors, and, like the Union men across that battlefield, they were fighting for each other.

The issue of slavery, according to a number of historians, was ending in any case. Slaves were simply too expensive to purchase and maintain in the modern world. Economically, it was becoming far cheaper to pay starvation wages to a person for a day's work than it was to keep, feed, and house a person for 24 hours a day. Yes, slavery, bad as it was, was indeed already on its way out. As for "States' Rights," many aspects surrounding that issue are still far from settled, as anyone who has ever studied the politics of government can tell you, and that topic is still very much a part of the Liberal-Conservative debate that rages on today.

So what indeed was "decided" in those three days of fighting in those Gettysburg fields and rocky hills? Well certainly, the fates of thousands of young idealistic men. There were enough killed and wounded from both sides to have populated Lakewood, for example (perhaps 50,000 fallen).  The Army of Northern Virginia was severely crippled, and would never again be able to mount a serious offensive campaign. In a sense, I suppose, a great deal about the future of our nation was decided at that time. What exactly was decided though will be for all of us to reflect on, as we remember this 150th anniversary of our Civil War.