PERFECT SYMMETRY

            There were two main engagements on day 2. The first one was titled “Polished Sabers Dazzling in the Sun”. It was the third biggest cavalry battle of the civil war. General Stuart of the confederacy facing General Gregg of the union. The reenactment was great. They had a bout 250 horses on the field. The battle consisted of charges and countercharges executed with strategic perfection.

            The second engagement was later that day, it was titled “Hold the Line”. There were more than 15,000 re-enactors on the field. It was big. The actual battle involved the III corps (about 10,000 men) led by General Sickles and a good portion of Longstreet’s corps. The Union III corps was rendered ineffective after this. They sustained heavy causalities - about 40% of their strength. The south would have won Gettysburg if they capitalized on this victory, and took little round top.

            Seeing the actual battlefield was the highlight of the visit. We started the tour from the south close to big round top. We went up a small hill around that area to investigate a monument that was on top. It was where the 20^th Maine made their famous stand to protect the union’s left flank. It was a well preserved site … there was a low wall (several rocks high) that made a shape of a hook. Standing and looking down I felt that I was there in the middle of it all … It was a well protected site … any attacking army would have had a very hard time taking this position. It must have been a blood bath.

            The next site that we saw was little round top where Gen. Sickles anchored his line on Day 2. The valley below is appropriately called Death Valley . Standing there made me realize the magnitude of the battle … and how vast the battleground was … it stretched from big round top all the way up to the town of Gettysburg .

            I think that’s it …

Listening to
Faithful By Pearl Jam
Present Tense By Pearl Jam
When the World Ends By DMB
Black By Pearl Jam
Light Years By Pearl Jam

I returned from Gettysburg late last night. I watched the reenactments of the second day’s engagements. I also visited the actual battlefield, which was much bigger than what I imagined.
About a year ago, I got introduced to the American Civil War though the book “The Killer Angels”. For some reason this war, captured my imagination. I can probably conceptualize this interest in two main points:

-Warfare strategy: I thought it was outrageous how war was waged at that time. People died from diseases that could have been easily cured. Medical technology could not keep up with the weapons (death technology). Amputations were the only option in most cases (Ironically, they only had a 15-20% success rate). People died for no good reason. They stood in disciplined lines … waiting for their death. I wonder what the survival rate was for the people who were made to stand in the front lines … it must have been a death sentence. This war could have been waged differently … more humanely.

-Self determination: This might sound shocking … but I sympathize with the southern cause. The way I see it, people have the right to self determination. They have the right to do what they want. The will of governments are insignificant in front of the will of the people. Breaking away from the union was the right of every state. They were paying taxes to a government that they thought did not represent them. Of course this argument has no merit when slavery is put in the picture. If Whites have the right to self-determination … then blacks have the right to self-determination as well. The reason why I made the argument for the south earlier is due to the fact that the union was not fighting to end slavery. It was a government that is trying to maintain its territorial integrity (China with Tibet? Russia with Chechnya?). The north was as racist as the south … it took about 100 years after the civil war for blacks to be able to use the same bathrooms as the white men who “freed them”. The union was hypocritical, the south was not. Hypocrisy and insincerity are worse than being wrong.