To teach about Gettysburg is a powerful lesson. To teach about Gettysburg after experiencing the battlefield is to be able to create a story for the students that a textbook could never begin to capture. One weekend in July changed so much in our country’s history. The idea of maintaining the higher ground, how reality and expectations don’t always match, the human factor that can make or break an event-lateness to a battle, ego, personal crises. Those don’t often make it into the textbook, but they are all part of this story, and allowing teachers to experience Gettysburg gives us the tools to bring the story to life back home.
The geography of Gettysburg is so important to understanding what took place here and as we were guided through the battlefield step by step, day by day, we could visualize the two fish hooks and how the battle shifted from day one to day three. Cemetery Ridge, Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, the Peach Orchard were now all within sight throughout our two hour journey through the park. Our guide gave us moment by moment description of developments, strategies, adjustments, locations throughout the battle.
Gabor Borritt makes a solid argument that the Gettysburg story does not end with the battle, but really it is the starting point of the shift toward the end of the war, toward the healing of our nation, and of course it is the story of how one little town coped with the massive costs of war and death following these first days in July 1863, only 90 miles from Washington DC. Ultimately four months later, it becomes the place where Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to our nation, dedicating Gettysburg as a national cemetery, that after all, would be long remembered and noted by the nation and around the world as the most famous of speeches.
This day at Gettysburg was invaluable for our understanding of the history that shaped the future of the United States.
