149th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg

[Grumpy Old Man]

I've got a leg up on this one so that I won't be a day late in posting this. On July 1, 1863 the bloodiest battle of the War of Northern Aggression began at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It lasted 3 days, with the worst fighting taking place at Cemetery Ridge. When the battle was over, 51,000 casualties (dead, wounded or missing) were counted for both sides. All those who participated in the battle were fighting for their country, in a lot of cases, brother against brother and father against son(s). Theirs is a lesson in patriotism we would all do well to emulate. Memorial music for both sides to follow.

[Grumpy Old Man]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyF9n5pOqw

[Grumpy Old Man]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3W_c1ATTF0

[bacpacker]

Another BIG date in America's history. I got to watch a show on History Channel that broke down the battle and showed some pretty realistic reenactments. There was a ton of stuff went on in those three days and it marked a major turning point in the war.

Thanks for putting this up, and for the music.

[Katrina]

I have a friend who was there for the show.
He is a re enactor as a Rebel major, his best buddy is on the other side. First time I saw them coming back from one of the re enactments, They were still dressed up and having a blast waving at all the people who saw them as he had put tape down the middle of the car,hood to trunk, on the outside and each of them had their respective flags on those things you put on your windows for sports events.

[slowz1k]

I've got a leg up on this one so that I won't be a day late in posting this. On July 1, 1863 the bloodiest battle of the War of Northern Aggression began at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It lasted 3 days, with the worst fighting taking place at Cemetery Ridge. When the battle was over, 51,000 casualties (dead, wounded or missing) were counted for both sides. All those who participated in the battle were fighting for their country, in a lot of cases, brother against brother and father against son(s). Theirs is a lesson in patriotism we would all do well to emulate. Memorial music for both sides to follow.

Good post and thanks for the reminder.

There is much we can learn from that battle...Not only from the strategies used, but particularly events after the battle. For those that don't know, Gettysburg suffered from a huge amount of rainfall after the battle. Many of the shallow graves were giving up their freshly buried and rotting dead due to flooding. This in turn polluted the local water supplies. There were also well over 3000 dead horses that needed to be disposed of. Stories say that the stench of rotting flesh traveled from Gettysburg for many miles in all directions for many weeks.
1000's died after the fighting from disentary and infections.

We now have newer and better ways to kill since the introduction of the Minie-ball, but body disposal has remained the same over the past couple hundred years. I feel that it may be something that we all might have to deal with in the future.