It was my honor and privilege to have visited the battlefield at Gettysburg over the period of July 1-3 this year. It was my second visit and was the more impressive one to me. Some study of books about the battle, the activities by day and the missed opportunities helped me to be better prepared for this visit. It also reminded me how truly brave were those who struggled there.

We can debate the merits and demerits of both Lee and Meade and their subordinates. However, it is important to put into perspective what the two leaders and their subordinates could in fact visibly see - over a battlefield that covered 6,000 acres. That is a lot of geography you must admit. As it turns out, Lee could see less than 30% of the force arrayed against him, from his headquarters. This in all likelihood played into his approach to the battle.

In my own view, he directed the battle, rather than led - which is how he won so many other battles. Leading , rather than directing. True, he was without Stonewall Jackson, a huge loss to Lee. And Jeb Stuart was literally free-lancing somewhere until he was too late arriving to be an effective force. We stood there looking at the trees from which Pickett and his men emerged and the open field they covered to get to the Federal line. The bloody angle is still clearly delineated and the stone wall that they briefly breached is still there. It is an awesome place to stand and remember. I got goose bumps standing there. Then it was over.

Could Meade have finished off Lee if he had given chase? Perhaps, but we will never know that. Think how capricious the battle was and how fortunate the Union was to have taken Little Round Top and Big Round Top - huge advantages. Anyone walking those two sites can well appreciate the strength they provided to a defending Union against the attacking Confederates. Could the end of the war been expedited if the Union had followed up?

Perhaps it was not meant to be. For in the words of Abraham Lincoln in March of 1865. . . The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope–fervently do we pray–that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

My own personal view is that the Lord was not finished punishing this country for the scourge of slavery. Hence this country would continue to pay the price of purging itself of this terrible institution called slavery for another 19 months.

It is well that we remember “what they did here” and this battlefield be preserved for all future generations to come. It is our responsibility to insure our nation’s historic sites. Gettysburg is one of the most important of those sites.

There continues to be efforts to nibble away at the edges of this great battlefield by commercial interests. There is an organization called Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association (GBPA) that is vigilant about watching all of those efforts. We have a responsibility as heirs of those who fought there - to preserve that site.

For those of us who live in the Atlanta area, there are many sites in our state and in the Atlanta area that are threatened by commercial interests. We have lost much already beginning at the end of the war in 1865 and the need to forget the huge losses as well as the horrors of war. Like Gettysburg, we as heirs have a responsibility to preserve our rich history. There are many ways to do this. I will do a separate article on what you as an individual can do to help at a later date.