July 1st, 2nd and 3rd The Battle Of Gettysburg.
As I posted on another site:
We all know about July 4th but why are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July so important to a small Pennsylvania town, Our nation and the world?
It was on those July days of 1863 that we fought the bloodiest battle in the western hemisphere, bloodiest battle in United States history and biggest battle of the Civil War. It was fought in the little Pennsylvania crossroads town of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg caused over 51,000 casualties between it's 172,000 combatants. 634 cannon encompassed an area of 25 square miles. 569 tons of ammunition were expended. 5,000 or more horses were killed.
http://www.gettysbg.com/battle.shtml
To me, one who had relatives on both the side of the Union (North) and Confederacy (South), these men were all Americans so I honor them as such. They fought, bled and died back then to settle the issues of the day so I let it rest with them. If you wish to debate the war, semantics and so on here please do so but be warned I will tolerate no flaming, trolling, name calling, personal attacks or so on..... All I ask is that you do one thing with me and that is honor these brave Americans along with me in a moment of silence and gratitude for their sacrifice.
President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:
"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 cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot 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 God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln, President, U.S.A.
