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Governor Palin has written a beautiful piece for Breitbart News commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg: Today marks the beginning of the week-long ceremonies commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. There will be a full re-enactment of the battle, discussions with panels of historians, and of course a re-reading of the Gettysburg Address.But as Lincoln affirmed when he dedicated that hallowed ground, nothing we say or do can “add or detract” from the great sacrifice made there. Gettysburg was a defining moment in the history of our nation; and consequently, one of the most important battles in...

This is really amazing. The Smithsonian has developed a digital reconstruction of the Battle of Gettysburg, showing not only the map and movement of the respective armies, but what was visible to each side during the battle. Well worth looking at.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — On the second day of fighting at Gettysburg, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee listened to scouting reports, scanned the battlefield and ordered his second-in-command, James Longstreet, to attack the Union Army's left flank. It was a fateful decision, one that led to one of the most desperate clashes of the entire Civil War — the fight for a piece of ground called Little Round Top. The Union's defense of the boulder-strewn promontory helped send Lee to defeat at Gettysburg, and he never again ventured into Northern territory. Why did the shrewd and canny Lee choose to...

President Woodrow Wilson, a son of Virginia, summarized the spirit of this historic event with his July 4, 1913 Gettysburg Reunion Address by saying: quote "We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.” unquote

HISTORY® is partnering with the Gettysburg Foundation and the National Park Service to bring you Gettysburg: A New Birth of Freedom. Tune in live on Sunday, June 30 at 8pm ET [7pm CT, 6pm MT, 5pm PT] for music by the United States Military Academy Orchestra, a performance of the national anthem by country music artist Trace Adkins ...

As gunshots ravaged the bodies of tens of thousands of soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg, military doctors responded with a method of treatment that is still the foundation of combat medicine today. Union Army Maj. Dr. Jonathan Letterman is remembered as the father of battlefield medicine for his Civil War innovations. He realized that organizing the medical corps was a key for any battle. "For military medicine, in particular, the lessons that Letterman gave us are as true today as they were then," said retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Ray Blanck, the former surgeon general for the U.S. Army.

A highlight of the reunion was the Confederate Veterans walk on the path of Gen. George Pickett’s charge that was greeted, this time, by a handshake from the Union Veterans.

On June 10, 1863, the lead troops of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia left the army’s staging area near Culpeper Court House, Virginia and began a march northward. Their destination: Pennsylvania – where Lee hoped to win a major battle on Northern soil and end the Civil War with a Southern victory. Soon his army would be trailed by his main Northern adversary, the Federal Army of the Potomac. Ahead of both armies, across the Potomac River and in the heartland of southern Pennsylvania, lay the quiet crossroads town of Gettysburg, which would become the site of...

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...