Gettysburg Battlefield Must Be Respected

I was on a family vacation about five years ago to Pennsylvania. The purpose of the trip was to go to Hershey Park. We’re big fans of amusement parks and roller coasters in my family. As much as I was looking forward to that I had something else to look forward to. I was going to see Gettysburg. Being a history buff at the time and future history major in college it was a great opportunity for me to see something historical first hand. Growing up in Massachusetts you’re surrounded by history, but with things like the Mayflower and the USS Constitution just down the road they don’t share the same novelty of a distant battlefield. As overwhelming at the site turned out to be, much of the surrounding area disgusted me. I could not believe that so many people were so eager to make money off so much death.

From July 1 through 3, 1963, General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac clashed with General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. It was Lee’s second attempt to invade the north and he believed it could be a decisive move for determining the outcome of the war. Over the three days each side suffered over 20,000 casualties and reached a climax when Lee ordered a charge into the center of Meade’s defenses at Cemetery Ridge. Pickett’s Charge was a disaster that lost the battle for the Confederacy and probably the war.

I understand that tourism is an important industry. Tourism keeps places like Gettysburg alive, but something was different. This was the site of the bloodiest moment in American history. The three-day battle changed the outcome of the Civil War and America’s future. Today it’s a town of profit that seems to have lost sight of the sacrifices made there. Seemingly every house on every street had its own historical museum where they showed off miscellaneous memorabilia that may or may not have come straight off the battlefield grounds. Every historical museum came with it’s own gift shop where you could buy Civil War coffee mugs and t-shirts. Tourists come from all over the country to see the battlefield, to take the tours, and try to imagine what those three days were like and for five dollars you go into someone’s house and see a Minie ball.

I felt cheated by my visit to Gettysburg. I was going to a theme park later in the week and did not expect to see such a historical sight turned into one. I’ve never been to Germany, but I highly doubt that Auschwitz has a gift shop and if it does than shame on them as well. Making money off of death is lower than low, especially from the people of Gettysburg who probably have family that died on those grounds and should be more inclined to respect their history.

For months after the battle, the townspeople could still smell the bodies rotting on the battlefield. The stench was so foul that it made many violently ill. Because of this problem for the town, land was purchased for a cemetary. It was at the dedication of this cemetary that Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. In this address Lincoln said, “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” The words are powerful, but not entirely true as we do have the power to detract from the hallowed ground.

Because of my experience it comes as no surprise to me that there is a proposal in the works to add slot machines only a mile away from the battlefield. This is certainly not the message that Abraham Lincoln was trying to convey when he called Gettysburg “hallowed ground.” The slot machines are supposed to bolster the tourism and revenue, but most towns don’t have tourism and they make ends meet just fine. Why can’t Gettysburg be a normal town and respect its historical backyard? The plan has been debated for over a year, but common sense should have killed this idea on day one. Nothing could tarnish our history more than to put little Las Vegas’s outside Vicksburg, or Mount Rushmore, or Yellowstone. Could anything make the skin crawl more than, “The Pearl Harbor Memorial and Gambling Casino.”? Are we going to see World Trade Center slot machines in a hundred years?

Recently Gettysburg suffered from an incident of vandalism that had people outraged. Personally, I see no distinction between people who knock over monuments and people who try to make a buck off of death relics. It’s said that history exists so we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. To do this we have to respect the history that exists around us. It’s there for our learning, not our profiting. Opportunism can be tempting when you have something so important nearby, but we shouldn’t lose sight of why it’s important in the first place. We should feel humbled by what went on there over 130 years ago. Gettysburg was just named an Endangered Battlefield by the Civil War Preservation Trust. Hopefully that will be the start of pushing the greed merchants away because this is an area of our country and our history that should not be touched.