Strong Flashback To Gettysburg

What place and time do you most desire time traveling back to the past?

“The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
The soldier’s last tattoo;
No more on life’s parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.”
(Theodore O’Hara)

I consider myself a fanatic when it comes to learning about Civil War times of America long ago. For I am no casual observer of this conflict, like so many students of my times who relied strictly on facts about the Civil War through high school textbooks or became entertained by a “Hollywood spun” movie depiction or two. So such curiosity to know fuels my strong interest in time traveling in my life back to the those tragic days of July 1-3,1963 when Union and Confederate armies clashed in battle in open fields around the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

I might clarify then my primary motivation to travel back to Gettysburg stems from my desire to study more authentic evidence of Civil War times. For that’s often meant in the past immersing myself with plenty of outside readings about famous battles for research purposes and scheduling timely museum during road trip visits to truthfully feel the wrath of southern slavery and subsequent secession efforts of the Confederacy in antebellum America during that time.

You might also understand my heavy interest in Gettysburg from a biographical perspective, For I’ve often daydreamed about witnessing the excitement of this pivotal moment in American History on November 18, 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln took to the stage and delivered his famed Gettysburg Address at Cemetery Hill to pronounce his vehement opposition to the existence of slavery in the United States. Or such focus on a famous figure might have meant attempting to understand the mindset at Gettysburg of Confederate General Robert E. Lee or Union Commander George Meade as the famous battle ensued. Thus in being obsessed with such human psychology of this conflict, I can also recall several travel instances whereby I stared in silence at Gettysburg’s battlefield environs to envision individual acts of common soldier heroism that took place there during those times.

Perhaps the following photo collection from our recent road visit to Gettysburg best illustrates why one might desire to travel back in time to witness this cruel bloodbath of battle. Looking forward, however, how might these images impact your own perspective about wartime matters in our modern era in some way?