Gettysburg - A Civil Legacy

While staying near my grandmother's, we decided to take a stop in Gettysburg. This was important for me because my great great great grandfather was wounded in Pickett's Charge under Meade's command. He later died of his wounds. It has been 150 years.

I didn't realize how many people died at Gettysburg, or how heinous the violence was. Maybe when I was young I blocked out the fact that over 50,000 casualties during the three day battle. I didn't think about the men from Pennsylvania who were fighting for their homes, the women who lost their husbands, or children who lost their fathers. And it was horrible. There hasn't been a more awful and bloody time on U.S. soil since. But then again, it had to happen.

If it hadn't happened then, it would have been worse when the fight between industrialization and agriculture took place. But it doesn't make it better.

We can rationalize these things as much as we want, but it won't change the gory impact that battle had, or the imprint it left on the land to this day.

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