Few names in American history evoke a greater sense of drama; none conjures up more visions of struggle and poignant tragedy. Three crisp syllables, nothing pompous or resounding, neither English nor Indian. It is simply James Getty`s town, James Getty`s ”burg.”
This town with the ”typical” American name is remembered primarily as the site of the largest and most decisive battle of the American Civil War
(1861-1865). Here, for three days (July 1-3, 1863), some 84,000 Union troops, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, withstood the repeated attacks of approximately 75,000 Confederates, commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee. At the end of those three days, a weary and depleted Confederate army withdrew. About a third of the soldiers in both armies were lying on the field, dead or wounded.
”Gettysburg” was once a synonym for tragedy to dedicated Southerners, for it represented the turning point of Confederate fortunes in the conflict they call the ”War Between the States.” The war would continue for two years, but Gettysburg, almost from the end of the war, has symbolized the whole struggle, where brother literally fought brother.
Weapons of the time dictated that the climax would be fought hand to hand, rifle butts smashed against skulls, the bayonet doing its grisly job. But with the passage of a century and a quarter, the horror and tragedy have been put in place with those of several generations ago. What is left, thankfully, is sheer pride in the courage of the men on both sides who fought here for a cause in which they believed and with a dedication that today we wistfully wonder whether we will ever have again.
Today, tourists from Virginia, Alabama and Arkansas tramp the fields with dry eyes. They and their brethren from the North will participate together this summer in the observance of the 125th anniversary of the battle.
The Gettysburg battlefield is the darling of military history buffs not only for its great historical significance, but also for its rewarding military topography. Various terrain features-Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top-are distinct pieces of ground, easily identified, and each affording satisfying vistas.
It is interesting, in a way, that a visit to Gettysburg, the site of such carnage, can be so rewarding, even soothing. The explanation is simply the inability of the imagination to see the horrors that are no longer there. Today the visitor sees only an empty stage, meticulously kept by the National Park Service, signs and plaques indicating significant points of interest, a sort of open-air classroom in the peaceful green hills of southern
Pennsylvania.
My family has had a close and almost mystical relationship with Gettysburg, beginning 73 years ago when my father, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, first saw Gettysburg as a first classman (senior) at West Point. For the 50 years preceeding 1915, the Battle of Gettysburg had been considered the most important single event in the annals of the U.S. Army. The members of the class of 1915 were therefore sent to study the battle. A photo was taken of the class and it was lost in the basement of the Gettysburg Lutheran Church, surfacing exactly 50 years later, when my father was in retirement at the Eisenhower farm. It became one of his most cherished possessions.
Three years later my father was back again at Gettysburg with a family, this time for duty as a lieutenant colonel commanding a tank brigade at Camp Colt, on the site of Pickett`s Charge, the climax to the Battle of Gettysburg. Years later, when Ike and Mamie were searching for a country home, they included that area in the places they considered. And there at Gettysburg they found a farm that suited their desires. So they renovated the farmhouse and began occupation on weekends and holidays. From 1955 on, the Gettysburg farm supplanted Camp David as President and Mrs. Eisenhower`s weekend retreat.
I became attracted to Gettysburg quite independently when a family friend took me to see the battlefield in 1935. Fifteen years later, as an English instructor at West Point and a Civil War buff, I returned with another instructor to indulge ourselves for three days reviewing every detail of the battle. We left satisfied, and I wished rather absently that I could live near that field someday.
My wife and I bought a house on the Gettysburg battlefield seven years later. Our new home, formerly a little red schoolhouse, was about a mile from the Eisenhower farm. Soon my family was there full time and the children attended the local school for five years. During our time there, the Eisenhower administration came to a close, and from 1961 to our departure in 1964, three generations of Eisenhowers lived in close proximity. The farm passed to the custody of the National Park Service on my mother`s death in 1979.
With that close connection, it is not surprising that I used to relish acting as a tour guide for the Gettysburg battlefield. I lacked the expertise of the professional guides of the National Park Service, but I developed a fair degree of competence. A ”John Eisenhower tour” used to be as short as an hour-or as long as a day. I had several points I felt necessary to any understanding of the significant events.
Of primary importance is the Electric Map at the northern end of the main battlefield. The Electric Map is a remarkable piece of military exposition. The presentation takes about 20 minutes, and is offered twice an hour. Sitting on hard seats in a square, the audience looks down on a large contour map, oriented to the ground outside. Its dimensions, about 25 feet square, represent a land area of about 10 miles either way. On it are thousands of small lights, blue for the Union, red for the Confederate, white for important terrain features. As the taped message comes across the speaker, the synchronized lights flash on and off, making it easy for even the least knowledgeable viewer to follow.
After viewing the Electric Map-or even before-cross the road to the National Cemetery. There, as an adjunct to the pre-Civil War Gettysburg Cemetery, is the final resting place of thousands of Union dead. (The Confederates exhumed their dead after the war and took them back to their homes in the South.) The graves, most of them containing scores of unknowns, are arranged in a series of concentric circles around the spot where President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famed Gettysburg Address. Nearby stands a unique monument not to a person, but to that speech.
From the cemetery, a tour of the battlefield would logically take one a couple of hundred yards from the Electric Map to the critical point of the battle, the High Water Mark of the Confederacy, often referred to as the Bloody Angle.
Here is the scene of high drama. Here is the spot where Confederate Gen. Lewis B. Armistead, heading the lead brigade from Maj. Gen. George Pickett`s division, crashed into the Union position, struggled a few moments, and broke, the survivors retreating to the point at which they began their ill-fated charge on Seminary Ridge. Armistead himself fell mortally wounded near the clump of trees on which he had guided his assault, since known as Pickett`s Charge.
Down Cemetery Ridge, the shank of the Union fishhook-shaped line, lies the critical position of Little Round Top, and atop it stands the erect statue of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, Meade`s engineer, who is often referred to as ”the savior of Gettysburg.” Warren stands on a prominent rock, field glasses poised to study the ground in front of him. Right below his feet is the fearsome scramble of rocks called the Devil`s Den, so named by the country folk years before the battle.
Warren earned his name as ”the savior of Gettysburg” on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. The field at that end of the line was quiet for the moment, but the engineer could see clearly that it would not remain so. Meade`s left flank was open, vulnerable to an attack at any time. Warren hastily sent for two brigades from Gen. John Sedgwick`s 6th Corps, in reserve, and placed them in the path of the Confederate troops who were even then advancing under Gen. James Longstreet.
A seesaw battle resulted, and the soil of the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard below ran with the blood of the struggling troops. At the end of the day, Meade`s line remained unbroken and Longstreet`s men withdrew to safer ground. Without Warren`s intervention, Longstreet would have taken Little Round Top and placed artillery on its crest. Meade, his whole line dominated, would probably have withdrawn, and the final battle would have been fought somewhere else, with what result, no one can say.
The Virginia Monument, at the center of the Confederate position on Seminary Ridge, is the champagne of the entire battlefield. It is a statue of Robert E. Lee atop his beloved mare, Traveler, calmly facing Meade across the field. It is in this area where Lee, on July 3, ordered 15,000 men across a mile of open field to attack the Union line in Pickett`s Charge, the disastrous frontal assault.
For a century, until 1963, Lee`s statue stood alone, as Virginia had been the only state of the South that could bring itself to memorialize the field of Gettysburg. Composed and dignified, the mounted figure represents the Confederate commander as he is remembered in our lore. It omits the anguish that Lee felt that day, as he was heard to declaim: ”It`s all my fault. I thought my men were invincible.”
My father was a frequent visitor of that spot. He never failed to take former military comrades-British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery and French President Charles de Gaulle among them-to see it.
On that personal note, I should say a little about the Eisenhower farm, just a couple of miles behind Seminary Ridge. Though not part of the battlefield, it is administered by the National Park Service as an adjunct. It holds many memories for me, especially of the years after 1959, when as President, my father began entertaining such foreign dignitaries as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, De Gaulle and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan as part of his routine during state visits at nearby Camp David. Sometimes he would bring our children to participate in the visit, as with Khrushchev who, in a grandfatherly way, translated each of their names into Russian.
The Gettysburg farm, however, gives in some ways a false impression of the Eisenhower family. Holding trinkets accumulated by my parents during their years of prominence, it shows little of what my parents were basically like, or of the forces that molded them through the years. But for those visitors who are interested in the presidency, the farm is a worthwhile addition to a visit to the battlefield.
By all means go to Gettysburg, whether to attend the 125th anniversary celebrations, to study the battlefield or to simply glance at a piece of our country`s heritage. If you take only an hour in that shrine of history, it will be an hour you will never forget.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BATTLE The Battle of Gettysburg marked the turning point of the American Civil War. It was fought July 1-3, 1863, by 75,000 Confederate soldiers commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee and 84,000 soldiers in the Union army of Gen. George G. Meade. In the battle, fought over a 25-square mile area, 634 cannon were used. At the end of three days, it is estimated that 569 tons of ammunition were expended.
July 1: Confederate troops attacked the Northern positions west and north of Gettysburg. The Union soldiers retreated through the streets of Gettysburg to the heights south of town.
July 2: The Confederate attack continued, but Lee`s generals failed to coordinate their plan. Combined with the new, stronger position of the Union army, the plan failed. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.
July 3: Lee attacked the center of Meade`s position on Cemetery Ridge, leaving 15,000 Confederate soldiers open to Union batteries. In less than an hour, 10,000 of the 15,000 were killed. The failure of Pickett`s Charge saved the Union forces.
Approximately 51,000 casualties made Gettysburg the bloodiest battle in American history. The war continued for two more years, but the Confederacy never recovered from their defeat at Gettysburg.
