Dr. Larry Koch is a retired educator who lives in Magnolia.
As I understand it, apparently someone complained that an exhibition about Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Gettysburg was offensive and asked it to be taken down. It was removed by Cornell University librarians. After an outcry, the university claimed that this was not actually the craven response it appears to be because it was supposed to be a temporary exhibit, which should have been taken down anyway. I don’t buy it, and the incident leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
We own our collective past, the good as well as the bad. Gettysburg should be an object of unity and pride, and a review of the event and its importance might be especially helpful to students in schools where often today this is not taught, as well as universities (not just Cornell) who forget their role as guardians of our nation’s heritage.
Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Union soldiers lie behind a low wall on Cemetery Ridge in front of a clump of trees at a point later remembered as “The Angle.” The federals, not all of whom were native-born, and some of whom were still teenagers, watched intently as battle-hardened Confederate troops silently emerged from their lines and began their 1-mile trek separating the two armies. By all accounts, it was an awe-inspiring sight. One soldier later declared that the oncoming enemy looked “like a magnificent parade.” Nevertheless, the outnumbered defenders at The Angle selected their targets, aimed their weapons and waited until the enemy came within firing range.
Understand the task these Union defenders had — and put yourself in their place. Few could have been well rested, as the night before they were subjected to the greatest heavy artillery barrage in North American history, conducted by 175 rebel guns. In the distance, they could see glistening bayonets of 15,000 soldiers of the “Army of Northern Virginia,” which had won victory after victory against larger and better-armed federal forces. Many Union soldiers must have been miserable, as they were wearing their regulation heavy blue-wool uniforms on a humid, windless 87-degree day.
The defenders on Cemetery Ridge were part of the luckless union “Army of the Potomac,” led by incompetent generals, which had been, time and again and repeatedly, humiliated in battle. Their new commandant, George Meade, was known to be ill-tempered and stubborn but, at this point, was largely of an unknown quality. While Meade reinforced the troops in the center of Cemetery Ridge, the men he specifically entrusted to defend The Angle were made up of the 59th New York, the 71st Pennsylvania and the 69th Pennsylvania, the latter a predominantly “Irish Brigade” (there was another Irish Brigade with the same number and nickname from New York), totaling about 6,000 men.
The rebels were finally close enough, and 49 Union batteries opened up, blanketing the enemy with shot and canister. The massed Confederate line was shredded; knapsacks, canteens and body parts flew up in the air. Despite the carnage, the Southerners kept coming.
Finally, the Confederates were within range, and thousands of concentrated Union rifles exploded simultaneously. Soldiers in the rebel front ranks faced that withering fire and were virtually wiped out. But they kept coming.
Then, with bayonets leveled, the remaining Confederates charged. In their tattered, bloodied grey uniforms, looking to the world like vengeful ghosts, the Southerners once more pierced the air with the “rebel yell” — a battle cry that Union troops had learned to fear. The first Union regiment to break ranks at that awesome sight and flee was the 59th New York, followed almost immediately by the 71st Pennsylvania. Two of the three regiments Meade had placed at The Angle were gone, and only one remained — the 69th, the Irish Brigade.
What would have happened if the Confederates had broken the Union line and won the battle? The road to Washington would have been open, and there was no other major federal force available to stop them. The South would have won their independence, and the defeated North would have been traumatized. The national government would have been shattered, and riots and recriminations would have followed, especially against the abolitionists and Black people that many blamed for the conflict itself.
A defeat for the Union would have been especially catastrophic for people of color. Four million Black individuals would be governed by a Southern nation that offered them no rights and guaranteed perpetual slavery, as “the immutable law of the land.” As the Confederates moved into Pennsylvania, both free Black residents and former slaves they encountered were enchained and sent South, foreshadowing an ominous and vicious result of the anticipated rebel victory.
The results of a Southern victory would have also had worldwide implications. Cotton growers demanded additional lands for cultivation, and the Confederates already had their eyes on northern Mexico and the Caribbean islands. Slavery in Cuba and Brazil would have become more entrenched. In addition, Jefferson Davis wanted the new nation to renew the slave trade!
Gettysburg was the Confederate high-water mark, and they believed a victory would help them achieve all their goals. The rebels did breach the Union defenses at The Angle and were busy mopping up their tormentors from the 69th, but in this, they did not succeed. Unfortunately for the South, massive Union reinforcements arrived and overwhelmed the rebels, who had no choice but to surrender.
Arguably, more than disunion, slavery — “human bondage” — was an underlying cause of the Civil War. Slavery was evil, but America was not the only land where it existed. Human bondage was a worldwide phenomenon, and most of the slaves transported went to other destinations besides North America. Spain enslaved natives and literally worked them to death on many islands, committing genocide. In Haiti, slavery was so brutal that less than 50% survived their first year, with 3 out of 5 Black individuals dead in their first five years on some British islands. Back in the Old World, captured Black men were often killed immediately in Arab North Africa, and captured females survived as sex slaves. Babies born from these liaisons were routinely murdered at birth.
America was unique, however, in that it was the first nation to have an abolitionist movement. Slaves hated slavery — naturally — but many non-slaves in America opposed human bondage for moral and religious reasons. Those who argued against immediate emancipation claimed the need for unity against the British, but the anti-slavery movement would not be silenced. It is beyond the scope of this essay to note much more than that those abolitionists at the founding fought the good fight and did have some victories. They outlawed slavery in the Northwest territories and in many states after the Revolution and are credited with inspiring others, such as the British anti-slavery movement, as well as a farm boy, born in Kentucky, who would someday be president.
Ironically, today’s malevolent ideologues, both Black and White, find nothing worthwhile in America’s past and demonize any historical figures or facts that do not fit their narrative. One suspects, with good reason, that people with those views were the ones who complained about the exhibition about Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. I feel their arguments are based on ignorance and a pathological hatred for America, and hopefully, some readers of this essay, unlike the librarians and officials at Cornell University, will stand up for this country.
Oh, finally, one more thing: Hurrah for the Fighting 69th. Erin go bragh!
