Killing Fields

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is "the most widely known of all the battlefields of America."  This next article is a short article with an 8-page section of color photographs of the beautiful rural setting of Gettysburg in 1931.  No author is listed for "The Most Famous Battle Field in America," National Geographic Magazine, July, 1931, p. 67).

As to the military strategy described therein, I don't understand.  It appeared that the southern forces would have clearly been victorious at one point. They unknowingly allowed the northern army to regroup and were defeated after three days.   This battle, apparently, was the beginning of a total loss of the Confederacy.

In many families, brother fought against brother.  Had I lived back in those times, I probably would have supported letting the South secede rather than go to war!  Yet again, I also would have been an Abolitionist.  Not that the opinion of a woman mattered back then!

The Civil War gave us Americans a taste of what other countries have endured for generations: wars fought on their own land.  It would be most difficult to live under those horrors!  We have got to find a way to stop all the savagery and death.

I've only visited two American Civil War battlefields, one at Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Lookout Mountain, and the other at Perryville, Kentucky, near Danville, where I lived for many years.  Every summer a group of women and our children would picnic at the Perryville Battlefield several times.  It had a great picnic area and playground for the children.  Then one year I decided to visit the museum.  I quickly regretted going there and vowed never to return.  Perryville was considered the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  Thank goodness the photographs displayed were in black-and-white.  If they were in color, I probably would have lost my lunch!  In addition to the weapons and uniforms, there were the 'instruments' used in amputating limbs.  When a soldier was wounded in an arm or leg, he usually would die unless the limb was removed.  The 'hospital' house was shown with the notation that the pile of limbs outside reached up to the second story.  Enough said.