Gettysburg - the museum

Though the Civil War attracts a lot of enthusiasts, I haven’t thought about it much.  I know the basic historical facts - when it started, what it was about, when and how ended - but my considering of what life was like in the mid-1800s America is probably limited to Gone With the Wind.

After our visit to the Gettysburg battlefield last weekend, I’m thinking about it more.

The Civil War started at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861 when Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter in the Charleston SC harbor.  

Abraham Lincoln had been elected President in November 1860.  In December, South Carolina formally seceded from the United States of America.  By January 6 more states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) had seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.  In March, President Lincoln was inaugurated and by April the war was on. 

This was 150 years ago, not really so long ago.  My grandparents were born in the 1880s, their parents - my great grandparents - must have lived during the Civil war.

Considering the polarized nature of the political dialogue today, war seems drastic.  What was the big deal?

Underlying hostilities revolved around economic disparities - the manufacturing North was imposing high tariffs that put the Southern economy at great disadvantage.  The South was being exploited to the benefit of Northern industry.  The North also demanded internal improvement - roads, railroads and canals built at national expense - to transport its goods to the South and West.  The Southern states wanted out of the Union.

Caught in the middle of this clash was Slavery, a crucial part of the Southern economy.

Looking at the statistics, I can sense the magnitude of this war - more than 620,000 soldiers died, 10% of all white males aged 20-45 and 30% of all Southern males aged 18-40.  The war touched everyone.

It suddenly seems important to know what happened to this country 150 years ago, and to understand more closely what it means to experience such profound conflict as to be willing to kill and die for a cause.

This is the rebel uniform ...

And this the Yankee ...

The museum included a panoramic 360 degree oil on canvass depiction of the battle at Gettysburg.  Showing this huge aggregation of people (and horses) is not an exaggeration.   There were more than 150,000 troops on the battlefield.  Consider that is double the amount of people at those huge football stadiums.   This is just one small part of the cyclodrama ...

Many artifacts and flags.  The scattered stars of the Union Flag always included stars for the seceded states.

From here we rented a CD audio tour for our car, and headed to the battlefield.  To be continued ...