150 Year Ago Today

It was 150 years ago today the 3 day battle that determined the fate of the Union and Confederacy began.  3 days of fire, gunpowder. bloodshed and death.  3 days in which both nations seemed to hold their breaths.  The dates July 1-3 should be enshrined into our hearts.

This was a clash between Major General George Mead's "Army of the Potomac" vs. General Robert E. Lee's "Army of Northern Virginia".  While General Lee was one of the best tactical minds in the world, General Mead had some very fine officers under him who could and did change tactic as the battlefield changed.

On June 30, while part of Hill's Corps was in Cashtown, one of Hill's brigades, North Carolinians under Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew, ventured toward Gettysburg. In his memoirs, Maj. Gen. Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town—especially shoes.

When Pettigrew's troops approached Gettysburg on June 30, they noticed Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. John Buford arriving south of town, and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen, neither general believed that there was a substantial Federal force in or near the town, suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia. Despite General Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was concentrated, Hill decided to mount a significant reconnaissance in force the following morning to determine the size and strength of the enemy force in his front. Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, two brigades of Heth's division advanced to Gettysburg.

Day 1, July 1, 1863

Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge, and Seminary Ridge. These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry division against superior Confederate infantry forces, meant to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could occupy the strong defensive positions south of town at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill. Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, Meade's army would have difficulty dislodging them.

The South entered Gettysburg from the North and the North entered from the South.

Read more about that day here.

Day 2, July 2, 1863

The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles (3 km) along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top. Most of the XII Corps was on Culp's Hill; the remnants of I and XI Corps defended Cemetery Hill; II Corps covered most of the northern half of Cemetery Ridge; and III Corps was ordered to take up a position to its flank. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a "fishhook" formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile (1,600 m) to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill. Thus, the Federal army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five miles (8 km) long.

Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for Longstreet's First Corps to position itself stealthily to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Federal line. The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood's and Lafayette McLaws's divisions, followed by Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps. The progressive en echelon sequence of this attack would prevent Meade from shifting troops from his center to bolster his left. At the same time, Maj. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's and Jubal Early's Second Corps divisions were to make a demonstration against Culp's and Cemetery Hills (again, to prevent the shifting of Federal troops), and to turn the demonstration into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself.

Read more about that day here.

Day 3, July 3, 1863

General Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Federal left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill. However, before Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.m. Harry Pfanz judged that, after some seven hours of bitter combat, "the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before."

Lee was forced to change his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Federal II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Federal positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line.

Read more about that day here.

The Aftermath

It was a bloodbath.  46,286 American were killed, wounded, missing or captured.

Union:

Killed:  3,155  Wounded: 14,531  Missing or Captured:  5,369
Total:  23,055

Confederate:

Killed:  4,700  Wounded:  12,693  Missing or Captured:  5,830
Total:  23,231
A Third of Lee's general officers were either killed, wounded or captured.

Before the Battle of Gettysburg the Union capital of Washington DC was in danger from the armies of the Confederacy.  After the battle no Confederate Army ever was able to invade the Union.  And Union armies not only invaded the Confederacy, but destroyed it.

The Gettysburg National Cemetery within the Gettysburg National Military Park is the final resting place for over 3,500 Union soldiers who died at the epic Battle. Originating as an 1863 state-owned "national cemetery" with reinterments from battlefield graves, the cemetery has subsequent sections for Spanish-American War, World War I, and other wars' soldiers and their spouses and children. The cemetery's historic district contributing structures include the stone walls, iron fences and gates, burial and section markers, the brick sidewalk, and various battlefield monuments, memorials, and exhibits.

It was the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery the Abraham Lincoln delivered The Gettysburg Address.

The Gettysburg Address

Although not written by a "Founding Father", the Gettysburg Address deserves to be included in any list of sacred documents of the United States as an affirmation of our guiding principles.

The Gettysburg Address was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg.

Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 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. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under G-d, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The only confirmed photo of Abraham Lincoln (circled) at Gettysburg, taken about noon, just after Lincoln arrived and some three hours before the speech. To Lincoln's right is his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon.

First it was "...endowed by their Creator" that was dropped by Barack Hussein Obama from The Declaration of Independence, now he has cross G-d from the Gettysburg Address:

Barack Obama twice in recent days has dropped from a quotation from the Declaration of Independence a reference to the "Creator," and now a columnist at First Things has documented how a self-described "leading progressive legal organization" has simply dropped "under God" from the Gettysburg
address.

WND reported on the first incident, from Sept. 15, when Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the document states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

But the actual quotation is:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Barack Obama twice in recent days has dropped from a quotation from the Declaration of Independence a reference to the "Creator," and now a columnist at First Things has documented how a self-described "leading progressive legal organization" has simply dropped "under God" from the Gettysburg address.

CNS news reported just a week later, Sept. 22, when Obama, speaking to a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, did it again.

It was then he said, "If we stay true to our values, if we believe that all people are created equal and everybody is endowed with certain inalienable rights and we're going to make those words live, and we're going to give everybody opportunity, everybody a ladder into the middle class, every child able to go as far as their dreams will take them – if we stay true to that, then we're going to be able to maintain the energy and the focus, the fight, the gumption to get stuff done."

Now comes word from Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, writing in the August/September edition of the First Things website, which is run by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, a nonpartisan research and education institute designed to "advance a religiously informed public philosophy."

He wrote of attending a conference where the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy was distributing copies of a pamphlet with the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and the Constitution.

George noted that the society includes board members former New York Times Superme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, controversial Obama judicial nominee Goodwin Liu and former attorney general Janet Reno.

"How nice, I thought. Here is a convenient, pocket-sized version of our fundamental documents, including Lincoln's great oration at Gettysburg on republican government," George wrote.

He described how, since he had memorized the Gettysburg address in school, he started reciting it, then stumbled on the final paragraph, so he opened the booklet and read: "It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Wrote George, "Deeply moving – but…"

"Did you notice what had been omitted? What's missing is Lincoln's description of the United States as a nation under God. What Lincoln actually said at Gettysburg was: 'That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."

Finish reading here.

Why does this egotistical man demand all references to G-d, the Creator and/or a Supreme Being be removed from all American documents?  He is none of them, nor is he the Messiah.  He is just a souped up Chicago politician, a Community Organizer who can con people into believing he is the best thing to come before them since G-d gave Moses the tablets.

He pulled a Con Job on the American People when he was elected in 2008.  I pray that in 2012 we come to our senses and throw the bum out of office.