The Lesson Of Gettysburg--

 The Lesson Of Gettysburg--


(Below is my comment on today's inspiring letter by Professor HCR on her recent visit to Gettysburg, and the Confederacy's "High Water Mark". Her remarks on Lincoln's dedication speech for the Cemetary were poignant in light of the War for freedom underway in Ukraine today. But in reading it, I couldn't help but be hit with sadness as I had my own thoughts and recollections of Gettysburg and what it means to me, today. So I wrote about it.) 


["Before we moved to Mexico to retire we walked some of the historic Cemetaries in Philly, which was our exercise during the Pandemic lockdown. One that we visited was called the East Falls Cemetary, and we saw some well known Graves there. Matthias Baldwin, the railroad man, Abner Doubleday, who supposedly founded Baseball, and some of the famous City fathers.


 We saw one small Headstone with a small display of flags and went over to it and it was General George Meade, the head of the Union Army at Gettysburg. We found him by accident not knowing he was there. 


All I could think about at that moment was the tragic mistake of Meade in not going into hot pursuit of Lee as he retreated after Picketts Charge. He could have ended the war right there! Instead, after all of the fighting, the losses, Meade decided to rest his Army and let Lee and his Army of Virginia get away.


 Meade in his famous telegram told Lincoln "we have driven the enemy from our soil". Meaning Pennsylvania, the North.  Lincoln was livid at the failure to follow on, and wrote a Telegram in which he said in effect, "the whole Union is our soil" and was ready to fire him. After calming down he decided not to, but all I could think about while at Meade's grave was how history would have been different if the war had ended sooner. Not just the loss of life, but whether Lincoln would have lived, his full Reconstruction plan carried out instead of the Johnson disaster Presidency, and so forth.


 I know this may sound negative, but I often think about this example and how our failures or lapses in following through have a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. An analogue for today? If Trump is not prosecuted for January 6 after his defeat in November of 2020. We will have "driven the enemy from our soil", the White House,  but failed to go in hot pursuit to finish him off. That would be the same historical mistake.


 I hope it is one we don't make, so the souls of General Meade and his men who fought at Gettysburg can rest in peace, knowing that the same adversary that they fought against back then is finally defeated."]


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