Oct 25
George Will Resurrects Faulkner, Civil War Heroes, And Learning
Cats: Civil War, Gettysburg, History, Museums, People|He said some pretty striking things in that column, some of them politically charged, others of them socially on target, and all of them historically enlightening. Among the gems are:
- In 1863, 11 major roads converged on this town. Which is why history did, too.
- Recently, a Gold Star mother finally visited Gettysburg, after driving by it often en route to visit the Arlington, Va., grave of her son, who was killed in Iraq. She was especially moved by these words from a Gettysburg newspaper published four days after the battle: “Every name … is a lightning stroke to some heart, and breaks like thunder over some home, and falls a long black shadow upon some hearthstone.” Gettysburg still stirs, but not as it used to, or should.
- Ours would be a better nation if boys and girls of all regions, and particularly the many high school and even college graduates who cannot place the Civil War in the correct half-century, could be moved, as large numbers of Americans used to be, by the names of Gettysburg battlefield sites, such as Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Culp’s Hill and Little Round Top, instead of being like the visitor here who said it is amazing that so many great battles, such as Antietam and Chickamauga and Shiloh, occurred on Park Service land; and another visitor who doubted that the fighting here really was fierce because there are no bullet marks on the monuments.
- Ten years ago, this column asserted that disrespect for the national patrimony of Civil War battlefields should be a hanging offense, and said: “Given that the vast majority of Americans have never heard a shot fired in anger, the imaginative presentation of military history in a new facility here is vital, lest rising generations have no sense of the sacrifices of which they are beneficiaries.”
Each of these snippets is a verbatim passage from George Will’s column and they leave me with a thought: Americans are forgetful, ignorant, and nonchalant about their common history. That is why we need such places at the Gettysburg Battlefield and its associated monuments. The preservation of our national heritage is more than honor. It’s a privilege, and the people of Gettysburg are proud to be a part of that. I am too.
