And, I am going to talk to you today about Gettysburg—America's Epic Tale – Central
to National Identity.
You know, if you are creative, you can never run out of topics on Gettysburg.
Right?
You never can, I had three or four other ones I decided not to do, and this one is a lot
of fun.
I hope you will feel the same way, but as we talk about America's Epic Tale today,
I'm going to kind-of let the slides lead things.
The slide show is well structured, and I don't want to give the whole story to you in one
sitting.
It will gradually develop so that by the end of the presentation, you will feel that Gettysburg
is America's Epic Tale.
And so it starts with sort-of an introduction where we talk about people making a sacred
pilgrimage to Gettysburg just like they have to other sacred sites.
You know, the Indians, Eastern Indians make trips to the Ganges River every year and they
bathe in the river, and I, this past summer, I taught at Delaware Valley University at
the Fort Indiantown Gap Campus to the military folks there and their families, credit courses
there, and I taught Eastern History, Non-western history, mostly Near East, Far East, and so
we delved a lot into India and that thought was in my mind as I pulled up this slide for
you.
There are thousands of people who make pilgrimages every year for the Hindu Religion to use the
cleaning waters and the power of the cleansing waters to renew themselves.
A lot of folks will make a pilgrimage there just to die there and have their bodies burned
and cremated and the body, the remains are thrown into the river, they see the river
as holy.
You see the Via de la Rosa, ah, where each Easter, Christians make the Pilgrimage along
the route Christ followed before the crucifixion.
And, if you were to go to Mecca people that make, you know, hundreds of thousands of people
that make the trip there every year.
Have you ever heard of the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer?
That's about making a Pilgrimage to the site of Canterbury's Cathedral, and to the
site of the slaying of Thomas Beckett.
So, pilgrimages, pilgrimages are made to the Pyrenes Mountains every year, and sacred sites.
In the 33 calendar years that I have done programs for the National Park Service, I've
noticed a look in all of the parks, in the eyes of people that visit, but particularly
here at Gettysburg, a look of that they are not sure why it is on their bucket list to
be here.
Or, I will have people apologize to me, they'' say, "we keep coming back, been here three
or four times in the last year," and I say, "don't apologize to me."
I have thought, "what draws them here?"
And, "what draws me to stay here."
And I think it is because there is something very sacred about Gettysburg as our national
epic.
And so we feel the pull to visit it as though it were some holy shrine.
And so people do that here on the same scale as they would other sacred sites, there are
1.2 million who people who visit here annually.
There are 200-300 people that show up on an anniversary program.
How many of you have been on those anniversary programs?
You what that's like and they are heavily attended.
And, oftentimes, winter lectures often overflow, depending on the weather, you know.
But the large crowds tell us that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves,
that they are searching for something.
I use to joke with Gregory Coco, some of you remember him, he passed away a few years ago,
and he wrote a number of excellent books on the aftermath of the battle.
We would joke behind the scenes about, that he was about to do a Little Round Top tour,
or some other tour, and I would say, "there are going to be large crowds there, give them
what they are looking for."
He replied, "I don't know what they are looking for."
Well, "they are looking for something."
And, as presenters, we are part of something much bigger, a sacred pilgrimage we will call
it.
People have insatiable reading appetites, according to Richard Sauers' bibliography
list that he published, there are over 6,000 books, articles, reviews, and maybe upwards
of 7,000 publications if you count multi-media publications such as war games.
According to Jason Martz, who oversees all of our web and social media, he gave me these
figures a couple days ago, there are over 2 million hits just of the park web page in
2016.
And, over 800,000 park blog views.
And, I'm not in the business here of putting down other parks, and I thought about putting
up statistics for other battlefields like Antietam, or Manassas or Appomattox or Fredericksburg.
Trust me, in most cases the numbers are much, much lower.
Okay, and so, clearly there is something that draws people to Gettysburg here disproportionately.
There's a historic monument collection, over 1,300 monuments, markers and tablets.
Along with Vicksburg and Chickamauga, Gettysburg offers the greatest collection of outdoor
stone and metal art in the Western Hemisphere.
That's quite impressive isn't it?
And some of the most renowned artists in the last two centuries have sculpted on the battlefield.
So an incredible collection that's a testimony to the significance of the place.
What draws people to Gettysburg?
Well one is a great victory on northern soil.
I remember when I worked in the late 1980s as a park ranger at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania
National Military Park, Bob Krick, Sr. was the Chief Historian there, you know his son
Bobby Krick is at Richmond Battlefield now, and some of you know him.
But, Bob Krick, Sr., it, you know a fine man and excellent historian, it use to bother
him that he had this wonderful park that he was chief historian of both Fredericksburg
and Spotsylvania and Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Brandy Station and Guiney Station, it should
be the premier Civil War conglomerate, in his mind.
And it bothered him, I could tell that it bothered him that Gettysburg still had a disproportionate
amount more of attention than at Fredericksburg.
And, that bothers some of the rangers in other parks, so what is it?
It seems like no matter what you do in these other Civil War parks, they somehow don't
live up to the drawing power of Gettysburg.
Another answer to it's a great victory on northern soil, the second answer would be
that Gettysburg is within a closer radius to the national media market than other Civil
War battlefields.
It's closer to New York City.
And, you think about it, it's the one great Northern victory north of the Mason Dixon
Line.
And, if you were a northern veteran, and you belonged to the VFW, American Shriners of
your time, the GAR; and you had your monthly meetings, and you paid your dues, you pledged
allegiance to the flag, and helped with Civil War battlefield preservation, and you had
monies for only one or two monuments, where would you put that monument?
You would put it at the place that you could visit more regularly, and one that was a great
northern victory on northern soil, not one that might be in some far-away place, in a
remote part of the Lower South.
But, I am going to explore a third reason, one that I haven't seen explored yet, the
one I have been working in my head for a while, of having done this for 33 calendar years
now, I have a valid opinion on this.
I watched it, I've studied it myself, ah, that Gettysburg is our great national epic.
And, I have been flirting with that idea from the beginning up until this point so now let's
say it that Gettysburg is a timeless story.
It has all the keys to a timeless classic like the American Iliad.
Whereas Eisenschiml and Newman argued the entire war is the American Iliad --that you
see to the left -- I propose today to you that Gettysburg has evolved the quintessential
essence of that classic, timeless epic.
That, there is a book out there that calls the whole war the American Iliad is valid,
but I am suggesting to you today that the very essence of the epic story is Gettysburg.
And, if there is one more precise comparison between the Iliad and what it was in Western
History, ah, particularly Ancient Western History, and the American Civil War, it would
be the Battle of Gettysburg.
It's our American Iliad.
So, it is a timeless story.
What are the keys to a timeless story?
If you're writing a plot for a movie, or in a book, or if you are an author, and you
want to reach a larger audience, you have to know this.
These are the basics.
Shakespeare understood these.
So, did Euripides, so did Sophocles and some of the ancient writers.
Every great timeless story has a Christ-like figure versus a satanic figure.
There's a hero with a tragic flaw seeking redemption.
In the story, the bottom drops-out and there's sudden chaos.
That's for the hero.
There's a sudden fall.
Every great story has these elements.
If there's a story or a movie that you watch over and over, and go back and forth, and
reanalyze it with these ideas, because you will find that they're all there.
The hero loses something and tries to retrieve it.
Hero's desires are expressed all throughout the book, if it happens to be a story, an
epic poem.
And, the reader knows what the hero wants.
It is stated clearly in the movie that it's hero wants to achieve such and such.
The struggle for redemption must be as hard as possible.
Have you ever watched an exciting film and there's one catastrophe after another, after
another, after another to the hero, to the main character in the plot.
And, it almost, it seems like the obstacles can't be overcome, and you wonder if it's
becoming an unrealistic story, yet they somehow survive.
So, there are enormous obstacles are faced in trying to retrieve that which is lost.
I will through in something here.
How many of you have heard of Alfred Hitchcock?
He did all of these things, but something he did that was a little different was, he
would show you the chaos that was about to unleash before the main character saw it.
So, you knew it was coming and it added tension to the viewer.
Alright, so continuing with the key elements to a timeless story, the hero matures to the
moment where he or she accepts the challenge.
A moment of realization where the hero has risen to whatever the challenge is.
The hero changes, evolves, self-discovery, they are transformed by their circumstances,
there's a crisis, a calling.
So, we watch the character develop in these great, timeless stories.
And, they're transformed on the inside.
They either emerge victorious or they die in the process.
It's an all or nothing proposition.
And, the conclusions are often inevitable.
And, sometimes the reader is given hints to where the story is leading before they actually
get there.
Okay, fall and redemption, the idea of a timeless story goes all the way back to the notions,
you know, of a fall and redemption, that's the very essence of these great stories.
So, there's light and dark, good and evil, there's a Christ-like figure, there's
a satanic—like figure.
There's a hero that falls and is in chaos and is looking for redemption the rest of
the story.
And, your classic example of the story would be that is central to all three major religions.
I taught for 15 years at Harrisburg Area Community College, credit courses in the evening, Ancient
History courses, and so I, this was something we talked about with Islam, or Christianity,
or Judaism, we pointed out the book of Genesis is common to all three of those major religions.
So, this story goes to the heart of what millions of people believe, but the story is the fall,
the first Adam was cursed and banished from paradise when he ate fruit from a forbidden
tree.
Humanity was then thrown into chaos.
You can see that in the artist depiction here.
We're coming to another one.
It's a sneak preview.
There you go, that will keep you hanging on your seat.
But, the angel escorts them out of paradise.
And, there is a plan of redemption implemented 4,000 years later when a 2nd Adam was cursed
on a tree.
The Bible only speaks of two human beings that were born without earthly fathers, and
that was Adam and then Jesus.
So, there's this 2nd Adam that takes the curse on the tree, and then with resurrection
comes new life.
And, so there's a redemption.
In the Old Testament, its all about predicting that there will be this, redeemer, who will
come along and buy back humanity and take the curse upon themselves.
But, there is fall and redemption.
And, then you have the light and dark of Star Wars.
Ah, the battles contrast forces of light and darkness, and then you have naissances within
that.
My son was explaining it to me in depth last night and I was trying to comprehend all of
it.
But, you all know that story is a timeless story, because it has the key elements of
a timeless story.
There are four epics that I want to cross-compare.
And then four themes I want to look at from this point forward to try to persuade you
that Gettysburg is America's Iliad, that it is its epic story.
And, these four epics that are crucial to the identity of the ethnic groups that hold
to them are the Iliad, the Aeneid, Beowulf and Gettysburg.
The Iliad is the story of Ancient Greece, the Aeneid Ancient Rome, Beowulf, it's the
story that's oldest and the longest poem, in Anglo-Saxon history.
And, then Gettysburg, we are arguing today is our epic story.
The four themes that will matrix with it would be that it is a timeless story, okay, I am
going to continue to delve into that.
Secondly, each one of these stories are not only timeless stories, but each one are turning
points.
And, that makes them epic stories, they're turning points in those countries' histories.
They all have virtues that those, that those city-states, if you will, those countries,
those nations adhere to, and build their culture around.
And , then there is a destiny, a preordination to each one of these stories.
I tell my students, I teach at Penn State, I've been teaching credit courses for three
years, and I tell my students we are doing history at a higher level when we compare
and contrast, when we compare and contrast.
We draw distinctions, we learn similarities, patterns across time and space, we learn deeper
truths about ourselves.
We are going to compare and contrast.
Okay, the Iliad is a story of redemption, both on a personal level, and also on a city-state
level.
The Iliad is a story of light versus dark on both the personal and city-state levels.
Greek is light and Troy is dark, that is from a Greek perspective.
The story of redemption on a city-state level is that Agamemnon set sail with an army of
Greeks to retrieve Helen, the wife of Spartan Menelaus, who essentially was abducted by
Paris and Paris took her back to Troy.
And, so the war was waged to retrieve Helen, at least that's how the Iliad casts the
story.
And, this resulted in a 10 year war between Mycenae Greece and Troy.
Redemption, continuing with redemption, is a major theme for timeless stories.
Agamemnon, and this is Agamemnon on your left.
This is a cover mask that was found by Schliemann in the late 1800s at the site of Troy.
And, Schliemann's gold is, a part of it is in Russia, in Moscow, but, it was taken
during World War Two as Berlin was falling, and Hitler's government was falling apart,
the Russian troops took Schliemann's gold with them to Moscow.
Agamemnon and Achilles remained at odds in the Trojan War.
Not unlike Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg, the two Greek leaders fought their own internal
battles of light and dark.
One of the reasons they did not like each other was Agamemnon and Achilles both won
women in a battle.
Agamemnon had to give-up his wife.
She, the father plead for her to be returned from captivity, and he complied, so then he
took Achilles' gal, her name was Briseis, took Achilles' gal, and that put enmity
between Achilles and Agamemnon.
So, they were angry over that more than anything else.
Achilles staid on his ship and withheld his warriors because Agamemnon had taken his wife
to be.
Achilles asked the gods for redemption.
Achilles consulted the gods, prayed to the gods that they would interfere with Agamemnon's
siege of Troy and cause them to fail, so that Agamemnon would have to come crawling on his
knees and apologize to Achilles, and Achilles would come in and save the day.
There's your internal strife, light and dark going on within the camp.
By the way, that's a major theme throughout history, that people are at each other's
throats, envy and strife and internal disputes.
Okay, then Achilles is our hero.
Every great story has light and dark, a hero that has fallen from grace trying to gain
redemption.
Achilles wanted redemption not only for Agamemnon for taking his gal, he wanted redemption for
his friend Patroclus who was killed at the hands of Hector.
Patroclus' took Aeneas' armor, and Achilles said, "I am not going to fight, but go out
and fight, here's my armor, you're my best friend."
And, Patroclus was killed by Hector who was the prince in Troy, and, that caused Achilles
to disembark on the shore, and he went in and killed half of the Trojans.
You see, he was half angelic, so, half, if you will, half-god, almost immortal, and he
was able to kill a lot of mortals.
But, Achilles then met Hector face-to-face, and to get revenge for killing his friend,
they went into a duel and stabbed him in the throat, and as Hector was dying, this classic
light versus dark, hero gaining redemption story, Hector was able to mouth the words,
"You will die too, don't forget, it's in the cards for you to die as well."
Achilles had a tragic flaw, and that tragic flaw was in his heel, you know you have an
Achilles' heel problem.
This is it, heroes have tragic flaws, just keep that in mind.
All great heroes have tragic flaws.
Think of your sports heroes that you love the most.
They have, we won't be specific, and mention names, but they've all had some, break with
immortality.
Something happened to fall, and then they spent the rest of their careers trying to
recover from that.
That draws in an audience, because it is part of a timeless story.
The original story was that his mother was divine, dipped him as a baby into the water,
Achilles into the water, and she held him by his foot, and everything immersed in the
water except his foot.
The water made him immortal, every part except his heel that she never immersed into the
water.
And so, the arrow was directed at his Achilles heel, his mortality.
And, so after Achilles died, then there was a plot to remove the ships, the Mycenae Greek
ships, out of view from Troy, giving the appearance the Greeks had left.
And, then a horse was left behind.
And, if this story occurred in any close way to the way it was described in the Iliad,
the horse was probably a siege machine.
Siege machines were used to roll-up to city walls so that you could get in close without
being killed by an arrow.
They tended to block incoming projectiles, and siege machines allowed you to move in
close enough to where you could dig under a wall, set fires, that would rob the moisture
of the stone, so that it would become brittle, so that you could hit it with battering rams,
and break in the walls and go in that way.
Maybe it was a siege machine on wheels that was dressed up like a horse.
There were some Trojans who did not see it as a prize, that did not want it to come into
their city, but they allowed it to come into the city at the protest of some.
And, then at night, the horse was opened up, and in the cover of darkness, it might have
just been a few men, but they opened all the Trojan city walls, so that a morning, at daylight,
the Mycenae ships returning could have an amphibious landing, run into the open gates,
and just destroy Troy.
That's what happened.
And so this is the story.
You know how in our time, for most of us, we have heard about World War Two our whole
life.
And, that's been a dominating story throughout our entire life.
Well, in ancient times, the story was the Trojan War and the Iliad, and the fall of
Troy.
Every ancient person knew about this battle.
It was the story.
Okay, notice there is a fall, but Virgil comes along hundreds of years later, and tells the
story of Rome, but through the redemption of Troy.
Remember that fall and redemption are the keys to a timeless story.
Through the redemption of Troy, so it's a story of redemption of Troy.
Rome's reputation was built through genealogical connections to Troy.
Reputations, in general, were built through who your ancestors were, and through heroic
deeds.
The Aeneid offered some of both.
Now, as a point I'll make, should I forget to later on, is a very important point to
make before we move on is that reputations are built through oral tradition.
So, oral history is very important in ancient times.
Here at Gettysburg there are a lot of old guide stories that we have dismissed because
there is no written record or paper trail for them.
But, they were told early-on by some of the first guides who were part of burial committees,
and then they were passed on orally.
And, the importance of them was that they built reputations.
We do that don't we?
We tell stories about what we did in high school, that pass we caught that time, and
then the story grows over time, and that.
In the Aeneid, Virgil set out writing the official history of Rome, through the Aeneid,
to try to give legitimacy to Rome as an empire by making genealogical connections with Troy.
Troy had been the greatest civilization in antiquity, at least for a while, before Greece
defeated them.
Virgil wrote this.
I'll come back to it a little later.
But, Virgil wrote this around 30 BC.
Okay, and he was writing this just as the Caesars were starting to gain traction.
Julius Caesar, and then Augustus Caesar, I will return to that idea later in the program.
So, the story picks up where the Iliad left off.
Troy is burning.
Iliad, I should say this about the Iliad.
It, the siege of Troy probably occurred in some form around the 12th century BC, but
it was not put in writing until the 700s BC by Homer.
Virgil was writing 650 years later, a sequel, now the Iliad had its own sequel.
Homer wrote the Odyssey and I left that out and didn't talk about it, but the Aeneid
picks up with the fall of Troy, so it's an attempt to tie Rome to the fall of Troy.
So, Aeneas is mentioned in the Iliad penned almost 700 years earlier, but he's a subplot
character.
And, the Aeneid, Virgil takes Aeneas and has him flee burning Troy.
So, the city is on fire, the Trojan horse has already done its damage, the city gates
have been opened, and the King Priam has been murdered, and a number of key people have
been killed, and the city is falling.
Aeneas wants to fight but he realizes everyone's dead.
So, he runs to his home within the city walls, and he goes in and finds his wife has been
murdered, so she is dead as well.
But, then according to, Virgil, her spirit appears to him and says, "You must leave,
don't fight, don't resist, you must leave and settle a great city to the west."
You know, this is the inevitability of a timeless story.
So, he takes anyone that will come with him and flees.
And, he goes off on a journey.
He makes his way to Pergamum, to Crete, to North Africa, to a place called Carthage.
And, then eventually he comes into Latium, and Latium is the oldest word for the City
of Rome.
And, there he finds there a lady who loves, her name is Lavinia, and he's betrothed
to be married to her, but Juno interferes and has her marry, sort-of against her will,
Turnus who is in charge of the local resistance force in Latium or Rome.
That sets up a duel, a fight between Aeneas and Turnus.
Turnus has taken his gal, and they had a head-to-head meeting in the war, in the siege of Rome.
And, he kills him.
It's really kind-of a sad scene.
These stories really tug at the heart strings.
Turnus throws a stone at Aeneas, and then the life goes out of him.
He realizes that he does not have the will to fight, and the city is already fallen,
and it is now just a one-on-one fight.
And, Aeneas shows him no mercy, and kills him.
And, so that leads to Rome being established, its first king being Aeneas, if you will.
There's a counter-story to that of Romulus and Remus settling Rome, but Aeneas is more
interested in, Virgil is more interested in talking about Aeneas from Troy establishing
Rome.
Now before I move on any further, this is a critical point I want you to see.
This was important all throughout antiquity.
When Rome fell, Latium or Rome fell to Aeneas, Aeneas and his companions, who pulled that
whole thing off, were Trojans.
So, to those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see, and are able to discern what Virgil
is telling his readers, is that Rome is now more legitimate than Greece, because they
find their roots in Troy.
Rome is Troy reborn.
You see that, okay.
Now Beowulf is the great story in England.
And, we are going to tie this in to Gettysburg in a wonderful way, but I am setting it up.
Okay, Beowulf is also a story of light and dark, and it is the story, the oldest story,
the oldest poem that we would consider an epic poem related to the origins of the Anglo-Saxons.
Light and dark is represented when Beowulf fought Grendel.
There is also a major theme in Beowulf of a sacrificial death on behalf of securing
the kingdom.
So, in this story, light and dark, then good and evil, which are essential to timeless
stories are played-out.
Now, we are looking at an artist depiction of Heorot Mead Hall from Beowulf.
This is an artist conception of Meade Hall where the Danish King Hrothgar showed hospitality
to Beowulf and his companions.
When Beowulf arrived with his companions, in Lejre, Denmark that is believed to be the
site today, there's archeology being done there, where the story originates.
Hrothgar invited Beowulf and his companions, his warrior companions in and they had a feast.
Anytime you have a hall like this, with light, and so-forth, it represents light, warmth
and hospitality.
Anytime you read an epic story where there are people gathered in a tavern, and there's
warmth, and there's light, and there's laughter, and presents being given, the symbolism
there is hospitality.
Hospitality is a virtue to ancient people.
Remember that, it is going to show-up in all of the stories that you read.
After the feast is over, Hrothgar turns his attention to Beowulf as to why he is really
there, and it is to kill Grendel, who's this monstrous beast that's been devouring
people in that kingdom.
And, he apparently likes to come into the feast hall, after everyone goes to sleep,
and have his fill, you know.
So, Beowulf has taken on the challenge, and after everyone leaves and the feasting is
over, he waits in the dark for Grendel to show.
And, Grendel shows, as has been depicted, I mean the story was oral history in the 600s
AD, and then it was penned in the 8th century AD, so the story has been told for hundreds
of years.
There was even a recent movie on it that came out maybe about ten years ago, or so.
But, Beowulf and Grendel go at it.
He kills this devouring monster Grendel, along with his mother, to free the Danes and returns
to a hero's welcome back in his own kingdom, which is also in Denmark.
Now, the monster that is described in Beowulf can mean a person with a deformity, or more
likely an alien presence that must be removed to restore safety.
So, the monster doesn't necessarily have to be an abnormal, or incredibly abnormal,
the monster can be a person with a deformity.
But, in any case his deformity is that he was murdering people and Beowulf killed him.
Well, heroes, you know, engage in these great battles of light and dark.
And then, after reigning for fifty years as a Danish King, he fought a dragon to the death,
this is talked about in Beowulf, to secure his people.
This dragon had intimidated people, had stolen treasures, so he killed him, killed the dragon.
Beowulf set an example for his warriors by standing in the face of fire when everyone
else fled.
And, so anytime you have a great epic story, a timeless story, the hero stands up when
everyone else runs.
The dragon started to breathe fire, all the warriors fled, except for him and he stood
and fought to the death.
There was one young warrior who returned, and in his dying breaths Beowulf, with the
dragon also dying, Beowulf said to the young man, you can take over the kingdom.
And, again, that was this selfless final act of Beowulf on behalf of his people.
When he was then cremated, Beowulf was cremated at the end of this epic story, by his warriors.
He was buried in a mound with the treasures that are found with the dragon, overlooking
the ocean, as the mound…if you look at Viking burial mounds, they are all over the place,
the burial mounds with the treasures, and with Beowulf's ashes could be seen far offshore
to further warn ships to not come ashore, and not to wreck there.
The warriors, there were twelve warriors, they rode around the mound because he had
given them a final act of courage.
All heroes show bravery and courage.
He died for his people.
When they all fled, he faced the fire of the dragon.
Hancock rode with cannons ablaze here at Gettysburg.
He rode the battle line during the greatest artillery duel in the history of the Western
Hemisphere.
He constantly put himself in harm's way on behalf of his men.
You all know that don't you?
Okay, and if you number crunch, there were four to six artillery shells hitting something
or exploding second for two hours, during the cannonade.
It was heard in Baltimore, Maryland.
It was incredible, amazing that he was able to ride the line back-and-forth with artillery
ablaze for two hours, and essentially go unharmed.
Why?
So his men who were lying on the reverse slope of cemetery ridge, behind stone walls and
so forth, could look up and see his image silhouetted against the sky, as he rode along
cemetery ridge.
He couldn't fire a shot, but he could be an example to them as they were enduring all
kinds of phobic-like conditions to endure that cannonade.
That's what heroes do whether you are talking about Beowulf, or the Aeneid, or the Iliad.
In Gettysburg, as we cross-compare Gettysburg with Beowulf, the great English Epic, and
we cross-reference it with the Aeneid, or Iliad, light and dark is a theme we see in
Gettysburg as well.
From a Union perspective, the Union Army of the Potomac stood for freedom and light as
expressed in the Gettysburg Address, whereas the Confederacy represented degrees of un-freedom
that accompanied the institution of slavery.
Alright, you've got light and dark, a classic epic story.
We've really been making that point all along.
Hopefully, you've got that part.
Every timeless story has good and evil, light and dark.
Whether it's in the Iliad, with Achilles and Hector, or whether it's in the Aeneid
with Turnus and Aeneas, or in Beowulf where there's Beowulf and Grendel, there's light
and dark.
And, the hero has to rise to the challenge.
Or, whether it's Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, there's, alright, okay.
And, so that is what we have going on, I would suggest to you here at Gettysburg.
We have picture of light and dark.
Now, redemption in this story that makes Gettysburg a timeless epic, came the reversal of two
years of military setbacks.
Now, the Union army had come close to winning, probably should have won several battles.
Their warriors knew they were every bit that of the Confederates in the first two years
of the war.
But, if you were keeping score, and you count Antietam as a tie, General Lee was 12-1-0.
He had yet to lose a battle, right?
And, some would say 13-0.
But, in any case, this was frustrating to soldiers time and time again on the Union
side that saw victories snatched from them at the last minute by someone's timidity,
from McClellan's staff or elsewhere.
Redemption also specifically came to George Willard's brigade formally captured at Harpers
Ferry and reenlisted.
You all know that story and they yelled, "Harpers Ferry!
Harpers Ferry!
Harpers Ferry!," as Pickett's troops were being repulsed on the third day of the battle.
Redemption came to those who had endured Fredericksburg.
In many ways, Pickett's Charge seemed a reversal of the attack on Marye's Heights.
A lot of Union soldiers yelled, "Fredericksburg!
Fredericksburg!
Fredericksburg!"
That's redemption.
Remember that when you here these stories being told on the battlefield.
Epic tales tie-in to redemption, to heroes.
Now, defeating the monster, is more than just Beowulf fighting Grendel.
Defeating the monster, as we cross-reference with the Civil War, from a Union perspective
is defeating the Confederacy.
Defeating the Confederacy was like slaying a dragon.
Pickett's Charge has become the event and moment when the Confederacy started to decline.
Most people would agree with that.
And, so we hear, we see a beast that seems part dragon, and the idea is that the Confederacy
was a monstrous presence, an alien force that threatened the Union.
Do you see the parallels?
I really had to think through that, okay.
Now, you have to understand light and dark did not take on the same form from a Confederate
perspective in this epic story.
The Confederates were, let's just go-ahead read this and then I will comment.
From a Southern perspective, the contrast between light and dark is not defined between
North and South, but rather drawn between Lee and Longstreet, between Lee and those
who are perceived to let him down.
The Lost Cause narrative redeemed Lee and vilified Longstreet.
If you listen to enough Southerners that are interested in the battle, that visit here,
rarely will they ever criticize Hancock or Meade.
In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a Southerner, who visits here, who is preoccupied
with making negative remarks about the Union army.
They are more interested, Southerners are more interested in the conflict between Lee
and Longstreet, or Lee and Stuart, and what the Southerners did wrong.
Remember what General Pickett said when he heard Southerners pointing the fingers at
each other after the war, as to who lost and why?
And, he said, "I always thought the Union army had something to do with it."
Southerners, light and dark is not defined between gray and blue, but, more or less,
Lee and those that didn't support him here.
And so, if you look at the Lost Cause's major tenets as to why the South fought, what
they were fighting for, and why they lost, one of those six tenets is Longstreet essentially
lost the Civil War at Gettysburg.
So, he was demonized, he was made the satanic figure, he was made the dark horse, he became
the Darth Vader.
And, he did all of those things, he became a Roman Catholic when the South was Protestant,
he became a Republican when the South was Democrat, and he was a Georgian in a Virginia
army.
He was all of those things that caused him to oppose Lee.
And, then he tried to drag his feet on the second day of the battle, he was supposed
to have a sunrise attack on the third.
That's what Southerners are interested in, that's where the light and dark is found
for them.
Now, we move from timeless stories to turning points.
Every epic story has not only timeless features like light and dark, fall and redemption,
hero with a tragic flaw, but we've made those points, but now let's move on to another
major theme.
All of these epic tales have a turning point.
Now, let's move away from the Iliad as an epic story for a minute, and let's look
at why the fight between Mycenae Greece and the Trojans was a turning point in Western
History.
In the Iliad, what's really at stake is not a fight over recovering Helen -- that
makes it an epic story -- but the nuts and bolts of it was a fight over the Dardanelles
and over middle ground.
The defeat of Troy gave Mycenae Greece control over the middle ground between their empire
and the Hittite Empire.
This is the middle ground that defined East and West during antiquity.
I'll show you a map of this area in just a second.
There are terrorist activities that are going on in Istanbul, or former Constantinople.
You may have seen that on the news.
That's Turkey, and in antiquity it was called Anatolia.
And, that would be the connecting point between the Near East and the West.
That's where East meets West, between Turkey and Greece.
And, you know, that's why it's in the news.
That's why it's critical in terrorism, because it is seen as the connecting point
between East and West.
That's why Constantine built his new city of Rome and moved it there, initially before
Islam conquered it and turned it into Istanbul, was because Constantinople was centrally located
between East and West.
So, long before that in the 12th century BC, the Mycenae Greeks took that middle ground.
The defeat of Troy gave Mycenae Greece control over the Dardanelles connecting the Aegean
Sea with the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea.
As you see Greece, and see Sparta where Helen was taken from, and you see Troy, Troy is
strategically located on the Dardanelle straits.
There was a great battle there in World War I involving Winston Churchill.
Why?
Because, this was important, the Russians have always been interested in the Dardanelles
because the Aegean Sea, which is connected to the Mediterranean, via the Dardanelles,
it is almost like a natural canal.
It connects with the Marmara, and above that Black Sea, which is adjacent to the Ukraine,
to Russia and then beyond that Bay of Finland and the Baltic, and access to Scandinavia.
So, you've got this connection between Baltic Sea, North Sea and the Mediterranean via the
Dardanelles.
Troy was strategically significant because it sat on that.
Helen dominates the Iliad as a cause for redemption, for the war, but the real reason they were
fighting, and why the Trojan War was a turning point, was because the Dardanelles was taken
and middle ground between East and West was taken.
It is very important.
The Aeneid is also a turning point, watershed, and that makes it an epic tale.
Aeneid, Virgil was writing to his Roman audience a 100 years after the Punic Wars.
The three Punic Wars transformed Rome from an Early Republic to Empire.
Rome emerged from the war to overthrow the Greek Empire within a few years.
So, a watershed year in Roman History was the Punic Wars.
There were three wars.
You know about the second one more than all the others.
That features Hannibal and his elephants crossing the Pyrenees Mountains from Spain into Italy.
And, then great battles that would lead to the destruction of the Roman consul's army,
and then being able to waste the land, Hannibal roamed all across Italy.
There were three Punic Wars and the final Punic War, Romans invaded Carthage, modern
day Tunisia, and that's in North Africa.
Over through Carthage, they salted the ground so that nothing could be grown there again,
literally rubbing salt into the wound.
But, what Virgil is trying to say in the Aeneid . It's very important the time when he was
writing.
That's true when doing a book review.
Look at when it was written.
It was probably influenced by what was going on politically at the time.
Something politically inspired the writing the book at that time.
Probably it had an influence on the author's perspective.
But in the, Virgil wanted to justify the three wars with Carthage, the Punic Wars between
264 BC and 146 BC.
He wanted to justify them because those wars became pivotal, turning point, watershed,
changing, altering, transforming Rome from a local, regional power to an empire.
And, there were people like Cato and Cicero and others that mourned, that were very sad
that Rome lost the innocence that it had as a republic before it became an empire.
But, the Aeneid is trying to say the opposite, that "no" these wars were justified, and
that the greatness of Rome, and its superior culture needs to be taken to the rest of the
world.
That's what Virgil is saying in his book.
So, one of the central points to the story is that Aeneas, after leaving Troy, redeemed
Troy by settling Rome, which is a new Troy.
He stops in Carthage, falls in love with Queen Dido.
And, Virgil made it clear that Rome was justified in warring with Carthage, due to enmity between
Aeneas and Queen Dido.
They fell in love, they had a relationship.
He left because some of his advisors said, you have a mission that is inevitable.
You must settle this great city in the West, that they would call Latium or Rome.
And, you can't stay here, I don't care how much you love her, you have to leave.
And so, when he left, she pleads and pleads that he not leave, and she committed suicide
with his sword.
And, as she was dying, she threw herself onto a funeral pyre, so he could see the flames
lit, Aeneas could see flames lit as his ships were disembarking and heading from North Africa
to the tip of the boot and Italy.
As he was leaving, he could see the flames and he knew what it was.
She declared, and Virgil makes it clear to you that she declared permanent enmity for
the scorned love.
And so, Virgil tells you it is okay that Rome fights with Carthage, because of this fallen
relationship.
It was in the cards.
It was declared.
Okay, and so Beowulf was a turning point more from a literary standpoint.
It is a watershed book.
The 8th century book represents a period when Anglo-Saxon nobility sought to strengthen
their relational ties with Danish kings to legitimize claims to power.
So, when I use to teach an Ancient History course at HACC, one of the points we made
when we talked about the 700s AD, is that the French, called the Merovingian, they came
up with this story where they tried to make their connective ties to Christ.
You've heard that story and all, and eventually the Carolingians under Charles the Great overthrew
them around 800 AD.
But, the idea was they were really reaching weren't they to try and connect themselves
with Jesus Christ, and a far-fetched story, so they could legitimize themselves and the
people wouldn't turn on them.
It's amazing what you do to hang on to power.
The 8th century also marks a period when courtly writers fused Christian values with older
German traditions to conform with a Roman Catholic worldview.
In oral tradition, Beowulf was less Christian, but by the time it was penned in the 8th century,
the writer who is anonymous put all kinds of Christian values and virtues. and so he
behaved in a noble way, did Beowulf.
It was more far-reaching, more noble, and more honorable, and more valorous than had
it been presented the way the Germans would have told it by word of mouth.
Gettysburg is also like these other epic stories as a turning point, and that's why this
epic tale is so appealing.
First-off, it's the High Water Mark of the Rebellion.
I had to write an article a few years ago for North and South Magazine.
Do you all remember that magazine?
They might still be publishing.
Before the internet really gained traction, there were Civil War magazines, and the rangers
contributed to them.
I got an opportunity.
Someone asked me to write a thousand words to argue in a special Civil War edition, an
1863 edition, let's see, I think it was for the 140th edition, or something like that.
But, I was to argue that Gettysburg was the High Water Mark.
And, the editor picked-out someone from Vicksburg that Vicksburg was the High Water Mark, you
know.
And, so I had thousand words to write, and I had a couple thousand, and I had to keep
cutting and pasting, trimming it down, and they trimmed it down even further by the time
it hit print.
But, I thought, "how can I get to the essence of arguing that Gettysburg is the turning
point of the war, that it is the real High Tide of the Confederacy, the High Water Mark?"
This was my answer that in the Civil War, two armies – this is true of Napoleonic
War – tended to fight, not to annihilation, but there would rare ever was there one great
battle that destroyed another army, and the flower of its culture in one day.
There have been a handful of those battles and that's why we know them by name.
But, that rarely ever happened.
Typically, battles would be of attrition, to where one side would be worn down to the
point where they could no longer take the offensive.
And, when that time came, politicians would intervene, and they would negotiate a deal
while there still was some leverage to be had, and you could leave saving face and dignity.
And, when I argued in the article that Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War, rather
than Vicksburg or some other place, was that it was the moment in the war where Robert
E. Lee lost the ability to take the offense.
When you lose the ability to take the offense, you must come to the bargaining table soon.
Why?
It is because the element of surprise is gone.
When your opponent – it is like a football team in the fourth quarter when they are down
by thirty points, and they are not going to run the ball, if you are rushing, you no longer
hold up.
You just blindly roll, or kick, or swim to get to the quarterback because you don't
have to worry about a run.
You become predictable when half of your options are gone.
And, so Lee lost the ability to take the offense.
Yes, there were some offensive thrusts in Virginia the last two years of the war, but
there was never an attempt.
Yes, there was the crossing of the Monocacy, which my colleague Dan Vermilya can tell you
a lot about, he works there as well as here at Gettysburg.
So, there were some offensive thrusts by Robert E. Lee into the North, or towards the North,
but there was never a full blown invasion, with all the complexities that you see at
Antietam or Gettysburg, after Gettysburg.
And, then the Northern people's resolve was strengthened by the win at Gettysburg
and Vicksburg, which further helped the cause and would have to be some more cogs in that
will, to further the cause of Lincoln's reelection.
It meant the draft could take full effect, which meant the Union army would continue
to grow, while the Southern army diminished.
And, that moment is Pickett's Charge.
And, okay, that is why Gettysburg is the turning point of the war.
It's the moment where Robert E. Lee lost the ability to take the offense at the operational
level.
Gettysburg is also the turning point, watershed moment of the Civil War, and that's why
it's America's Iliad, or Aeneid, or Beowulf, in that it introduces a New Birth of Freedom.
You all know that I do an hour, an hour-and-a-half presentation on the Gettysburg Address line-by-line.
The first birth in the Gettysburg Address is that "our fathers brought forth," and
they "conceive in liberty," and she bears a son, liberty bears a son, "all men are
created equal."
The first birth is "liberty," and its articulation is "all men are created equal.
" That dies at Gettysburg; it dies in the Civil War.
Lincoln calls for a "new birth," out of the ashes, redemption.
The new birth is not liberty, but a new birth of freedom.
And, the difference between liberty and freedom is, freedom – you have all your same liberties,
it's just, you police yourself so that your liberties don't infringe on someone else.
You have a right to bear arms, just like you did in the first birth, under freedom you
have right to bear arms, but you don't have a right to go into a community college and
shoot at other people.
You have a right to freedom of speech, like you did in the first birth, but in the new
birth of freedom, you don't have a right to infringe on other people's freedom by
going into a crowded theater and yelling fire.
You have a right to property, in the second birth, in the new birth of freedom that Lincoln
espouses.
You have a right to that to property, but you don't have a right in the new birth
to human property.
You see, life, liberty and property is your right, your liberty, but freedom says you
don't take it so far as to own another human being.
So, the new birth of freedom was articulated here at Gettysburg.
That makes Gettysburg a turning point.
Another reason why it's our epic tale is, Gettysburg is, it is because it is the beginnings
of a national government over a federal one.
A national government, you here about all kinds of national this and national that.
You fill in the blanks.
But, the idea of national government versus federal government is different.
Federal government calls for a "compact of states," where the states and local governments
maintain their autonomy and sovereignty checked against the federal government.
A national government is that the local governments and state governments are "consolidated,"
and the lines are blurred so that the national government is supreme.
Okay, so a national government, we are still struggling with that one, and there will always
be a struggle there as there should be, of where is the balance between a national and
federal government.
But, regarding the beginnings of a national government, the first time "nation" was
mention in a speech by a president, in the way we interpret "nation" today, was Lincoln
in the Gettysburg Address.
He said it five times, "that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."
Nation.
And, it is the tipping point of a modern war was at Gettysburg.
It is a turning point, it's the – the battle of Gettysburg is arguably the last
war of gentlemen, where they fought in open fields, where there are partial fortifications,
and field fortifications.
But, by the time you get to Spotsylvania in May of 1864, you look at the salient there,
earthworks were becoming increasingly larger, to by the end of the Civil War, you have trench
warfare, which carried over into World War 1.
And, so Gettysburg is one of those last great battles, great Romantic battles, if we can
call it that.
So, like the Aeneid, and like Beowulf, and like the Iliad, it's a turning point.
And, then in our last stretch here, we will talk – I told everyone I would be done by
quarter-after, so I have thirteen minutes here.
Then, Facebook goes quiet at that point.
But, the last part, theme that we want to look at – actually it is the next to last,
but that part ends in a matter of two or three minutes.
Maybe the last substantive theme that we want to look, as we compare these epic stories,
is that an epic must teach virtues.
A great story must teach virtues.
Okay, virtues are interwoven into the fabric of each great epic for the purpose of teaching
future generations what it means to be a great citizen of Greece, Rome, England or the United
States.
You may not realize it, but when you come here to Gettysburg, there are messages all
around you about what you should do to aspire to be a better citizen.
And, that's what epic stories do.
They talk these virtues that we must all work on.
Now, Beowulf had his virtues.
He adhered to the warrior code of courage, strength, restraint, loyalty, hospitality
and benevolence.
He weighed retaliation with doing what was right, because of consequences in the afterlife.
Beowulf's perspective gradually transformed from a youth pursuing personal glory to a
wise king seeking protection of his people.
Beowulf persuades that wisdom is a virtue that comes with age and experience.
You see, you have these virtues all throughout Beowulf.
Why?
Because you want to teach the future generations, this is what it means to be English.
Or, in our case, the virtues that are extoled here at Gettysburg teach us what it means
to be American.
Alright, and so what are these virtues?
It is justice, truth, impartiality, fairness, prudence, frugality, strength and purity.
These are things that we should aspire to, to be noble, that's what the veterans want
you to see.
Okay, and so that is why Gettysburg is an epic story.
This, as we look at the seal of New York, we have excellence imbedded into the story,
into the seal.
We have the scales of justice.
We have the sword of truth.
We have strength in the eagle.
We have the liberty pole and liberty cap.
So, we are looking at freedom here, and liberty.
The blindfold represents impartiality regardless race, gender, ethnicity, that you will be
fair to someone.
These are things we strive to be, right?
To be higher beings, to strive for – we are not going to reach immortality on this
earth, but – these are the virtues that are the path to immortality, that all the
great epic tales pass along.
Heroic virtues are also wrapped-up in other monuments such as the Alabama Memorial.
I know that Barbara put together an excellent program for children, and I was inspired by
the program you developed regarding this particular slide.
But, if you were to look at the Alabama monument, and study that monument here on this battlefield,
the lady that we see depicted here, her name is determination.
Well, that's a virtue.
So, when you see her, you shouldn't just see a lady telling some soldiers from Alabama
to go forward and attack Little Round Top, you should see that the soldiers from Alabama,
the state of Alabama are emphasizing a virtue that they want their children to adhere to,
that they want passers-by to contemplate.
It is determination, perseverance, endurance, fortitude and will.
I heard Jimmy V. say, in a recording, "never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give-up!"
Right?
That's what we are talking about here.
That's a virtue.
In the moments we should also see more than stone and metal, we should see in the Masonic
Memorial graciousness in victory and defeat.
A Union soldier, William Henry Harrison Bingham is kneeling down to help a Confederate General
Armistead, showing him compassion and honor.
These are not loose words, these are virtues that we should all aspire to.
Show graciousness in defeat.
I was a basketball coach for my son's sixth grade basketball team, and even when we didn't
feel like it, we lined-up and shook hands and said, "good game, good game, good game."
You've done that before.
It is because you have to be gracious in defeat.
And, of course the ultimate example is showing that when life and death hang in the balance.
Okay, the 1st Minnesota showed courage, bravery, fortitude, the idea that the Minnesotans could
look out, and were told by General Hancock to go take a flag, well they must have seen
thousands of Floridians, Alabamians and we'll have to talk to Chuck Teague on this, but
some Georgians were somewhere in the area too.
You know, there were thousands of Confederates headed towards them, and they had to have
known that they would be fortunate if half of them came back.
But, they still went forward.
That's a virtue courage, bravery, fortitude.
Over on Culp's Hill, this to Maryland's Loyal Sons, Loyalty is a virtue, so is patience.
The 78th and 102nd New York, over on Culp's Hill has imbedded in it the likeness of, the
head of, and the paws of a lion, which symbolizes courage.
The veterans wanted you to see that.
Courage, that's one word, a virtue that you would find in Beowulf, that you would
find in the Iliad, or Aeneid.
Buford –duty.
It is not a lot of fluff and flare to him, he just did his job.
He showed-up and did what he had to do.
He did his duty.
Duty, and this true when you are an adult, there are times when you don't feel like
going to work, there are times when you don't feel like doing this, staying-up late to pay
the bills, or working an extra job to pay for Christmas, or whatever it is.
But, it's your duty as a parent, or duty as a citizen.
You do your duty.
That's a virtue.
Hospitality.
This is Josephine Rodgers Miller, and she is standing in front of the 1st Massachusetts
Infantry monument.
They, the first Massachusetts Infantry, brought her, they paid for her to have a train ride
back to Gettysburg for one of the anniversaries to pose in front of one of the stoves where
she baked bread at the Rodgers house, along the Emmitsburg Road.
Did you know there were the smells of fresh baked bread during Pickett's Charge?
But, that's hospitality.
I'll give you a little quiz.
Where were there other acts of hospitality on the battlefield?
It was Ginny Wade baking bread for Georgia.
Spangler's Spring, Spangler's Meadow, remember they took turns to fill-up their
canteens in the dark there.
That's hospitality.
Do you remember when I showed you the slide for Beowulf earlier, before Beowulf took-on
Grendel?
They had a feast there with Hrothgar, with light, and warmth and hospitality.
These were virtues that the writer of Beowulf wanted to impart to readers.
I would suggest to you today that after we are done, go to a place like Dobbin House,
to Gary Owen, to Farnsworth House, to the Cashtown Inn, the Fairfield Inn, to any number
of places, to the Pub, the Blue & Gray, Mamma V's, O'Rorkes, and go in there, the Mines,
and have some hospitality, some warmth, some light this evening.
It is a virtue, hospitality.
I'm not trying to pour it on too thick, but my colleague Barbara over here has that
gift, that virtue of hospitality, baking things for the staff, and doing things for the staff.
Hospitality is a virtue.
Then, Elizabeth Thorne, alright, who was a caretaker of the cemetery, who apparently
helped with 120 burials, 40 burials she was largely responsible for.
He husband Peter Thorne was near Washington in the entrenchments there, and not with Army
of the Potomac, and they were caretakers of the Evergreen Cemetery.
And, sacrifice, you know she was seven months pregnant, for gosh sakes, and her child was
sickly and never made it to adulthood.
Loyalty, selfless, devotion, these are all virtues that we aspire to in our, epic stories
tell us to aspire to these to achieve immortality.
Loyalty and fidelity, when you see Sally the dog at the 11th Pennsylvania, over at stop
three on the auto tour, or you see the Irish wolf hound.
It's a beautiful dog, and it's wonderful if you have dogs and want to relate that way,
but there's a much deeper message being passed on.
Dogs always symbolize loyalty.
That's a virtue.
You would find that in Beowulf.
And, the 7th Maine Infantry over on Lost Avenue, behind Dean Schultz house.
They were part of was corps?
The 6th Corps, the 6th Corps marched how many miles on the second day of the battle?
So, anytime you see a statue to the 6th Corps, look for references, symbols to endurance,
32 miles they marched in a single day.
If you picked one word to describe the 6th Corps, in the Gettysburg Campaign, it's
endurance isn't it, that long march here.
And, devotion, Colonel Jeffords of the 4th Michigan, in the Wheatfield, a few weeks before
the Gettysburg Campaign, he went to Washington D.C, and there was a ceremony where an official
from Michigan, in front of a crowd of people, presented Colonel Jeffords and the 4th Michigan
a new flag.
And, Jeffords had to say, in front of the crowd, and to the man who presented it to
him representing the state of Michigan, that he would not lose that flag in the upcoming
campaign.
He could only imagine where it would be.
Well, he would have an opportunity to live-up to that promise on the second day at Gettysburg
when DeTrobriand's troops were being overrun, when that whole section of the battlefield,
Tilton and Sweitzer's troops were being overrun.
And, the 4th Michigan went out and stood with Georgians and South Carolinians swarming the
area, and they were closing in to bayonet him and take the flag.
He wrested the flag away from them.
And, so devotion to that flag, you could give a lot of examples to devotion at Gettysburg
couldn't you, especially the flag.
And, virtues of resolve and fortitude of the 20th Maine on Little Round Top, they were
told by Strong Vincent, "hold this ground at all hazards."
There's not a lot of other options with that with that order is there?
Alright, and so for two-and-a-half hours, they stood in the midst of what might have
been around 50,000 rounds fired there.
And, they didn't retreat.
There were times where they might have felt the urge to leave, fight or flight you know,
but they fought.
And, they had incredible resolve and fortitude.
They marched 56 miles from Frederick City, Maryland here in three days.
That's fortitude.
And, then when you think of discipline, you think of the U.S. Regulars don't you?
The U.S. Regulars not only served here at Gettysburg, but they served, in some cases,
25-30 year appointments.
They were the ideal for soldiers all throughout the war.
The Regulars were the standing army during peace time.
Discipline, they showed the example of discipline.
Wisdom, Pap Greene, alright, John White Geary, the future Governor of Pennsylvania said in
his report that the defenses on Culp's Hill would not have held without Pap Greene's
fortifications.
Pap Greene designed Croton Reservoir in New York City.
I talked to someone on a tour three years ago that works for the water systems in Manhattan,
and he said there's still some infrastructure from Pap Greene's construction there.
You think he knew how to build fortifications on Culp's Hill?
And, wisdom, 62 years of age at a time when the average soldier was 19-20 years of age,
they called him Pap.
And so we conclude with this, well two or three more slides here, with a theme of destiny.
Actually there's just a few more slides, but it's a sweeping conclusion here.
Destiny, all of these great epic stories a pre-ordination, a destiny to them, almost
inevitability to them, a certainty to them.
The Iliad espoused the virtues of Greece and therefore ordained the spread of Hellenism.
Alexander the Great, before he conquered the known world, do you know who his teacher was
as a child?
Aristotle taught him the Iliad, and taught him about Greeks right to control Turkey,
and their right to dominate the known world, because they had a superior civilization in
Greek philosophy, Greek medicine, and Greek science, Greek architecture.
So, there was a certain destiny that the Iliad carries out.
The Israelites, I'll throw this one in, they crossed the Jordan and entered the Promise
Land with Joshua at the helm and won the great battle of Jericho.
The Israelites believed the land was theirs based on an ancient covenant with Abraham.
So, there was a certain inevitability that they would control, and they are still fighting
for that ground now.
Achilles knew he would die, yet he fought hard.
He was told by Hector in his dying breaths, "you are going to die too, remember this,
you are not going to make it out of this tragic story alive."
Aeneas was told by the spirit of his deceased wife and by his mother Venus that he would
settle a great city to the West.
Obviously, there's clearly some hyperbole here, but there's this notion of inevitability.
America has a date with destiny does it not?
There's a certain inevitability of America in history that's guided.
America began with destiny, a "Shining City on a Hill."
The Pilgrims declared that, and then American Exceptionalism came along in the mid-19th
century, the idea that the rest of the world has been this way, except America.
That idea still crops up in political speeches.
Manifest Destiny, that destiny spread West, with a moral imperative to settle the West.
And, the idea that America had a destiny, and that meant "sea to shining sea."
That destiny was confirmed at Gettysburg.
Destiny was confirmed on a sacrificial altar to freedom at Gettysburg.
Here's your sacrificial altar.
That's what it really is.
It's a sacrificial altar.
And, this is where America's fate with destiny was confirmed.
And, thene the national destiny was articulated four months after the battle, Lincoln proclaimed
a new birth of freedom vision for the country going forward.
We are still working on that now, defining what freedom is.
This speech defined America's national identity of greater freedom for all.
See, there's an inevitability to this.
There's a mission statement.
And so, today we go back looking for the essence of our national identity.
To the English and to the Danes, and to the Germans, they make the pilgrimage to Lejre,
Denmark to the archeological site of Beowulf to learn its virtues.
People every year pilgrimage to Troy to learn about light and dark, and the whole notion
of redemption, or they pilgrimage, there's the pilgrimage of the Aeneid to Rome to see
where Troy was redeemed through Aeneas taking Latium, and declaring, you know, the great
city of the West he was foreordained to settle.
And, then people pilgrimage to Gettysburg.
And so, there's something that draws us here and we've been talking about that for
the last while.
Why do we make the pilgrimage?
It is in this pilgrimage to Gettysburg that we find our collective selves.
We subconsciously know that Gettysburg is an essential part of who we are as Americans,
and that we will not be complete until the journey is made.
Ivy, this is why you come here, okay.
We are also drawn to the story because it is as old as civilization itself, contrasting
light with dark, and telling the story of many heroes battling with their own mortality,
in search of redemption.
Why do we make the pilgrimage?
Our convictions about what is noble, good, true and virtuous are confirmed too in a myriad
of ways, through hundreds of stories repeated by guides, and thousands of subliminal messages
conveyed by monuments.
In some shape or form, we all leave this place more aware of ourselves.
In a sense, we leave Gettysburg redeemed.
Thank you for coming out.
For more infomation >> Climb is no longer out of reach - Duration: 3:08. 
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