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. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. In the end, this weekend is about a speech that took roughly four minutes to deliver and numbered only 272 words.įour 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. You can see Scott and his sign just to the left of the blue hospital street sign. Over the past few years, Gettysburg College history professor Scott Hancock has followed these reenactors with a sign pointing out the importance of slavery to the Confederate. Thankfully, not everyone sits idly by an allows these men to parade without reminding the crowd of what they were fighting to maintain. To me, the presence of Confederate reenactors in the streets of Gettysburg every year is a reminder of this horror. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia functioned as a slave-catching army in the summer of 1863. Hundreds were kidnapped and brought back into the South by Confederates. In 1863, the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania forced the Black population in and around Gettysburg to flee their homes and property. On the one hand, it’s certainly a reminder of the power of reconciliation over our memory of the Civil War, but as David Blight has reminded us, to whatever extent the nation did reconcile, it came at the expense of a memory of emancipation and the service of Black United States soldiers. Perhaps it sends a certain message to Gettysburg’s and Adams County’s African-American population? I am sure there are many reasons for this, but I can’t help but to think that the presence of Confederate reenactors among the paraders, with their battle flags blowing in the breeze, has something to do with it. It’s concerning given that this is an anniversary that has been so deeply connected over the years to the history and memory of emancipation and freedom. It’s a great community event, but it always appears to be an event that only brings out the white community.
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