I had the privilege of touring the Gettysburg Battlefield and Visitors Center the past two days. What an emotional and inspiring place to visit. Emotions and feelings swung to both ends of the spectrum. It is one of the most beautiful places in Pennsylvania. The view from Little Round Top was breathtaking. And yet the mental images of young men losing their lives in brutal fighting until the land was described as fields of blood was ever present.
The newly opened Visitors Center is a “must-see”. Throughout the many rooms, quotes from Presidents, Generals, Privates, and Civilians are highlighted. Some of my favorites are listed below.
“There never were such men in an army before. They will go anywhere and do anything if properly led.”
Confederate General Robert E. Lee
May 21, 1863 (6 weeks before the Gettysburg Battle)
“There is no better way of defending a long line than by moving into the enemy’s territory.”
Confederate General Robert E. Lee
March 1863
“We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union.”
President Abraham Lincoln
April 14, 1865 (the day he was assassinated)
“I felt … sad and depressed at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though the cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought.”
Union General U.S. Grant
1885
“Who can write the history of a battle whose eyes are immovably fastened upon a central figure of transcendingly important interest – the dead body of an oldest born?”
Samuel Wilkerson
New York Times Correspondent reporting on the death of his son, 1863
