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ENLARGE
By Linda Monohan
Fish Springs Flier
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, America's Independence Day. Our country endured a long and difficult conflict to become a Nation during the Revolutionary War. The Civil War made us the "United States."
Fish Springs Flier
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, America's Independence Day. Our country endured a long and difficult conflict to become a Nation during the Revolutionary War. The Civil War made us the "United States."
If you want to better understand the turbulent history of America, check out the National Military Parks and Battlefields.
While my husband, Norbert, and I were traveling around our beautiful country, we spent several days touring the different Civil War battle sites and reading the inscriptions on the thousands of monuments and tombstones where two great armies once met.
It was the Union Army against the Confederate Army, the North against the South, Americans fighting Americans and brothers fighting brothers. No other event in American history has caused the human tragedy of the Civil War. During the War Between the States over 600,000 men died of their battle wounds and disease. There were 76 major battles and more than 10,000 minor ones.
The northern states were against the southern states with each side convinced they were right and they were willing to die for it. As a result of the Civil War, slavery came to an end and the "United" States of America was held together.
While my husband, Norbert, and I were traveling around our beautiful country, we spent several days touring the different Civil War battle sites and reading the inscriptions on the thousands of monuments and tombstones where two great armies once met.
It was the Union Army against the Confederate Army, the North against the South, Americans fighting Americans and brothers fighting brothers. No other event in American history has caused the human tragedy of the Civil War. During the War Between the States over 600,000 men died of their battle wounds and disease. There were 76 major battles and more than 10,000 minor ones.
The northern states were against the southern states with each side convinced they were right and they were willing to die for it. As a result of the Civil War, slavery came to an end and the "United" States of America was held together.
Norbert and I visited the battlefields of Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn. and also Gettysburg in Pa. Of those, Gettysburg was the most hallowed. On the first three days of July 1863, more men fought and more men died there than in any other battle, before or after, on North American soil.
Gettysburg had the bloodiest battles of the Civil War with 51,000 casualties among the 172,000 soldiers who fought to the death for their philosophical differences.
When the smoke finally cleared and the guns became silent, the Union stood indivisible. Many of the Union wounded were carted off 20 miles to Emmitsburg and a make-shift hospital in the chapel near the old convent that now houses the National Fire Academy.
With more than 1,000 monuments along 40 miles of roads, Gettysburg Battlefield is the most visited and studied battles ever recorded.
Gettysburg had the bloodiest battles of the Civil War with 51,000 casualties among the 172,000 soldiers who fought to the death for their philosophical differences.
When the smoke finally cleared and the guns became silent, the Union stood indivisible. Many of the Union wounded were carted off 20 miles to Emmitsburg and a make-shift hospital in the chapel near the old convent that now houses the National Fire Academy.
With more than 1,000 monuments along 40 miles of roads, Gettysburg Battlefield is the most visited and studied battles ever recorded.
Being there physically is a whole lot different than reading about it. When I was a kid in elementary school, we had to memorize Abraham Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg Address." It is quite short and simple, yet very noble and memorable. I wonder if students today still study this stirring testimony. The ending words are yet engraved upon my soul: "that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
May God bless all our veterans, and "Happy Birthday America." Long may you live!
-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.
May God bless all our veterans, and "Happy Birthday America." Long may you live!
-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.
