By America's noble sons
If it hadn't been for Irishmen
What would your Union've done?
Hand to hand, we fought them all in the burning sun
Stripped to the pants, we did advance
At the Battle of Bull Run
On a cold October's day
The battlefield at Gettysburg
On a plaque I read my name
The wheels of time begin to turn
I see the years stripped away
I see their lines blue and gray
Down in Gettysburg, saw them fall
Bloody Gettysburg took them all
Waited for the word, never came
Retreat from Gettysburg
I've seen a lot of wicked things
Heard a lot of people cry
I knew it couldn't touch the pain of seeing 50,000 die
I saw the sun fall away
The moon shone white on their graves
Billy Yank said goodbye
Mother's son left to die
Dixieland, look away
Mother's son died today
Papa fought a bloody war
His father in the one before
Walking through the haunted field
I knew we couldn't give no more
I saw the year stripped away
I watched men die blue and gray
~ Dave Kincaid & Carl Funk (for The Brandos)
So I did not know this song or this band. But Gettysburg is the first stop on this road trip, so Google introduced me. One might interpret the song as a first person account from a dead soldier, but the truth is that Dave Kincaid had a great-great-grandfather who fought for the Union. Kincaid says he was not aware that his relative fought at Gettysburg until he saw his name on a plaque there. I guess he was compelled to write a song about it. "Gettysburg" appears on 1987's Honor Among Thieves.
The drive to Gettysburg took four hours, and upon arrival, we immediately went to the visitor center, watched the film (A New Birth of Freedom), solemnly experienced the Cyclorama light show, explored the museum, and then went back outside into the gloriously beautiful autumn day. I will admit to being sad that the Electric Map is no longer a feature at the park. (Apparently, they discovered some years ago that it was loaded with asbestos and prohibitively expensive to remedy.)
But let me repeat: the day was gloriously beautiful. It was warm enough to put the top down on our auto-tour around the battlefield. We climbed the observation towers, learned (or relearned) lots of history from the auto-tour CD, chatted with some park volunteers, and generally had an educational Gettysburg experience. But aside from feeling sickened by the realities put forth in the museum exhibits, I realized that I did not have the same emotional reaction to the on-site history lesson as I'd had on previous visits. Was it because the day was so beautiful that the nightmare of war didn't seem possible? Was it because this was my third or fourth visit, and the shock feature was not there? Or was it that, as Neil Young sang, I'm living with war everyday? Has war become our norm so much so that we are no longer emotionally devastated by our study of it? I am afraid of the answer to that.
But the thing that certainly came close to devastating me was the realization that in 1860, the country was so divided over the issue of slavery that there seemed to be no solution other than war. Today, I see our country divided, not over slavery, but over ideology. Over symbolic gestures like standing during the national anthem, or saying "Merry Christmas," or selling a wedding cake to a homosexual couple. None of those things comes close to the issue of owning another human being, and yet, the passion behind opinions on those things seems overwrought. I admit to being very uneasy as to how this division will be resolved.
The wheels of time begin to turn . . .
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