Free Republic

The commemoration of this year's milestone anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg will include amenities that soldiers would have relished 150 years ago.

My children have long been urging me to give them in a short story my experience in the Battle of Gettysburg. I was then a girl of thirteen, living on the Seminary Ridge which today is known to every child who studies the history of the Civil War. I shall never forget the June afternoon when I stood on the Seminary steps with my parents and other persons to see a Confederate host marching in the Chambersburg Pike. It seemed as if Pandemonium had broken loose. A more ragged and unkempt set of men would be hard to find. Many...

What Adkins does correctly point out is that the ongoing interpretation of the 10th amendment, a.k.a. "states' rights" issue has not been resolved. The federal courts quite frequently decide cases surrounding 10th amendment issues and interpretations. For those of us who are familiar with this topic, including very recent history, Adkins could not be more correct . . .

They introduce themselves politely in restaurants or diners, in a movie lobby or at some civic event, even in front of the Little Rock gate in Atlanta, which has become a kind of Arkansas crossroads. ("You don't know me, but . . .") Then they thank me for remembering Robert E. Lee every January 19th with a column on his birthday. They don't tarry, and I may never see them again. Then they fade away, much like the Army of Northern Virginia (R.E. Lee, General). They have a look about them, or rather a manner. They come in different shapes...

Henry Clay Cochrane traveled thousands of miles around the world as a Marine in the mid- to late 1800s. But it was probably one of his shortest military journeys early in his career that made him famous. The Chester native earned the title of brigadier general after his Marine career ended. But his big moment in history came just as that career was starting. Cochrane was just 21 when he was one of 13 men selected to ride on a train from Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg with President Abraham Lincoln in November 1863. Cochrane was on hand when Lincoln delivered...

The Gettysburg Address "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether...

The 149th Anniversary of Day 3 and Longstreet's Assault. The band Iced Earth wrong a rock song about it (below). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh6M4jBd1O8

Iced Earth's Song, Hold At All Costs, about Day 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsW3i9rY58k

I know that the real focus on Gettysburg will be next year with the 150th anniversary then but I found a Hard Rock band that put together a "Rock Opera" of the battle and figured the 149th was a good enough time to show it. Days 2 and three to follow.

The name might not be recognizable, but you've probably seen a Gadsden flag, typically yellow with a coiled rattlesnake and the warning "Don't tread on me." The flag was flown by colonists rebelling against British rule. And more recently, it's become the adopted symbol of the Tea parties and conservative Republicans, prompting questions as to whether it's an appropriate theme for merchandise sold at the Gettysburg battlefield bookstore. There shoppers will find Gadsden flag shot glasses, mugs, magnets and pins. The souvenirs are the only items representing the Revolutionary War sold in the bookstore, said an employee. Mostly, the store...

It was during the first month of training in 1861 for the new 11th PA Volunteer Infantry Regiment when a stranger from town brought to the captain a puppy, barely four to five weeks old, and presented it to the regiment. She was a pug-nosed brindle bull terrier that soon won the admiration of all the men in the unit. She was cute, and the men named her after one of the local beauties in West Chester, PA, the site of training. In the weeks and months that followed, Sallie could count on the hundreds of uniformed men to play...

Humiston Children Memorial Day had its genesis in the Civil War. First known as Decoration Day, the holiday began by commemorating fallen Union soldiers. The event was inspired by how the Southern States had honored their dead, decorating Confederate graves, usually in the time frame of April through June. The first observance in the North was May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery as well as other cemeteries in the Northern States. But after World War I, the North and South agreed on the same date (May 30th). And Decoration Day was extended to all men and women, who...

After an hours-long wait for some in Gettysburg, a GOP presidential hopeful took the stage there for a rally just after 9:30 p.m. The line to get into the Gettysburg Hotel on Lincoln Square to see candidate Rick Santorum speak stretched down the street, past the Majestic Theater, around 8 p.m., according to reports. It appeared the crowd was too large for everyone to get inside for the speech, which was to focus on freedom. Mitt Romney beat Santorum handily in Tuesday's Illinois primary. Santorum was set to speak on those results, and in advance of Pennsylvania's upcoming primary in...

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Bobblehead dolls of the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln have been pulled from sale in Gettysburg National Military Park's visitors' center. Dolls of John Wilkes Booth with a handgun were taken off bookstore shelves Saturday, a day after a reporter from Hanover's The Evening Sun newspaper asked about them.

When Robert E. Lee was forced to turn back and retreat from Pennsylvania ending his dream of winning the Civil War by invading the North it quickly became clear that he had thrown his best punch and failed. Lee almost won but didn’t. While the Confederates won some major battles after Gettysburg their will to fight and the appetite for loaning them money was gone. Yesterday the Wisconsin Democrats brought their invasion to Republican held State Senate districts. To turn back the tide of conservatism in Wisconsin the Democrats instigated recall elections of six Republican Senators. They almost won enough...

My wife and I are thinking of an October trip that would include Gettysburg. We want to fly into the area and would probably take a bus or some type of shuttle, not a rental car, into Gettysburg for however many days we need to stay. So I need some advice from knowledgeable FReepers (Is there any other kind of FReeper?): First of all what city should we fly into? Baltimore and Harrisburg look most likely. I know Gettysburg has an airport but it doesn't appear to have major carriers. Does anybody know if bus or shuttle service is available...

Five re-enactors were injured by lightning early Sunday morning at a campsite near Gettysburg and taken to area hospitals, and two people remained under observation for burns. The identities were reported as Erich Griffey, 28, and Lou Griffey, 30, of Moon Township, Allegheny County; and Randy Morgan, 61; Marisue Morgan, 45, and Ben Morgan, 11, of Irwin, Pa., near Pittsburgh. Lou Griffey remain hospitalized at York Hospital, as of Sunday evening, and was in stable condition, with relatives and friends reporting that she is six-months pregnant. Marisue Morgan also remained hospitalized in Gettysburg, according to her husband, Randy Morgan. “It...

Fifty years had passed since the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1st- 3rd, 1863.

When I first visited Gettysburg years ago, I was overwhelmed with the sense of sacrifice made to secure our union, but my most recent visit this morning was even more significant as subsequent visits allow reflection on the state of our union today. Striking to me is how ready and willing troops and civilians were in 1863 to lay their lives on the line. Are we as ready and willing to accept the call for sacrifice today in order to keep our union secure? Hopefully the kids on school field trips whom we met this morning grasped the poignant irony...

UPDATE: Former Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin is in Gettsyburg. Her patriotic themed bus is parked outside the Gettysburg Courtyard hotel arriving late Monday afternoon. Palin is not releasing a public schedule, but a crowd is gathering at the battlefield in anticipation she'll make a public appearance Monday evening. Palin is traveling with her husband and daughter on a "One Nation" tour which she began in Washington, D.C.