the hartsteins

The Battle of Gettysburg

"The Battle of Gettysburg. The third day. Pickett's Charge. The air hung heavily. The acrid smell of gun powder and the stench of the dead."

- Quoted from "Thomas" in the movie "Heart and Souls".

In the 11th grade, I thought I could handle AP US History. First of all, I have a mother who is absolutely in love with US history. Practically every vacation we ever took growing up was to an historic location. Many times to Gettysburg. So you'd think I would do well in this class. No, for all intents and purposes, I failed it and took regular history over the next year. To this day, I'm not entirely sure why I failed it. I'd imagine I simply didn't take it seriously enough or do the work needed to do well. I wish I could get a re-do. What's interesting to me is that all throughout college, I loved to take history courses - and I did very well in them. I hope to take more! I just enjoy learning about our history. Now, again, I couldn't tell you how many times I've been to Gettysburg. My parents currently live in Middletown, Maryland and I could probably go to Gettysburg anytime I'd like to. But it wasn't until this trip to Maryland that I truly began to understand what happened there. It seems I could never wrap my head around it before. There was much I didn't understand, and among them, the most befuddling question I had: why on earth would Pickett make that kind of seemingly suicidal charge?? Well, as mentioned, on this trip, I began to see Gettysburg with new eyes. I better understand what Lee intended for this fight, why certain pieces of ground were so important, and why Pickett would do something as seemingly foolish as his charge. I know that there is so much more history to understand there, but this is a very good and hopeful start for me!

General Lee won at Chancellorsville in May, 1863. Like many folk, he was ready for the war to end. When he laid his sights on Pennsylvania, it was with the intention of obliterating the Northern army by invading the North. He understood that the Northern army would follow him, which Major General Hooker was encouraged by President Lincoln to do. Lee intended to surround the Union military and pick them off one by one. On the first day, he was in a very good position to do just that.

You can read about what happened on the first, second and third days on Wikepedia. I won't bore you with all the details :) But I mentioned in my last post that I learned quite a bit and that I would share a smidge on here. You're welcome!