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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Ambivalent About Tragedy: David Blight On Bruce Catton, Brianna E. Kirk
Ambivalent About Tragedy: David Blight On Bruce Catton, Brianna E. Kirk
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
November 19, 2013, marked a momentous day in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg – the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The 272 worded speech given four months after the Battle of Gettysburg assigned meaning to the intense fighting and death that had besieged the nation for two years. With the war’s end nowhere in sight, Lincoln directed the American people on how to fathom the tragedy that surrounded them, both figuratively and literally, at the dedication of the National Cemetery in 1863. 150 years after this speech, thousands gathered to celebrate and commemorate those few appropriate remarks Lincoln …
July 3, 2013 Reflection: A Chance Encounter, Ian A. Isherwood
July 3, 2013 Reflection: A Chance Encounter, Ian A. Isherwood
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
In a July 4 letter to his father-in-law, General Alexander Hays expressed reserve. “Yesterday was a warm one for us,” he wrote. “The fight of my division was a perfect success […] We are all sanguine of ridding our soil of the invaders.”
The “perfect success” for Hays was his command’s role in the repulse of Pettigrew’s division in what has become known as Pickett’s Charge. It was an unquestionable victory for his division and the Army of the Potomac. Yet Alex Hays’s matter-of-fact letter was not buoyant with the egoism so easily ascribed to generals after their victories. Hays …
“A Great Weight At My Heart:” A Personal Reaction To Pickett’S Charge, Rebekah N. Oakes
“A Great Weight At My Heart:” A Personal Reaction To Pickett’S Charge, Rebekah N. Oakes
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
“When our great victory was just over the exultation of victory was so great that one didn’t think of our fearful losses, but now I can’t help feeling a great weight at my heart. Poor Henry Ropes was one of the dearest friends I ever had or expect to have. He was one of the purest-minded, noblest, most generous men I ever knew. His loss is terrible. His men actually wept when they showed me his body, even under the tremendous cannonade, a time when most soldiers see their comrades dying around them with indifference.”
When twenty-one year old Henry …