The Battle of Gettysburg is seen as a turning point in the Civil War, predominantly because the Confederacy’s inability to recover economically from this battle led to their eventual surrender. Yet, in a way, the Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point for the entirety of U.S. history. Gettysburg highlighted the tragedy of the war that pitted “brother against brother,” leaving over 51,000 American casualties on U.S. soil. The fallen and wounded soldiers left behind impeded the city’s recovery, and left its citizens under the shadow of war. When Lincoln gave his iconic address four months after the battle, he was speaking to a town in desperate need of hope.
To this day, the resounding prose of Lincoln’s speech and the memory of the brave soldiers lost continues to bring us hope. With this bloody three-day battle a safe 150 years in the past, we can truly be grateful for the peace on North American soil since. On the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, let’s commemorate the fallen soldiers and give thanks for our safe, free, united country untouched by such large-scale violence for nearly 150 years.
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”—Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Visit Gettysburg and Washington DC to commemorate Civil War soldiers