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On July 1, 1863, the Confederate and Union armies converged on the sleepy town of Gettysburg, in south-central Pennsylvania. Ironically, the Southern armies came into town from the North, and the Northern armies approached from the South. Confederate commander Robert E. Lee had just launched his second invasion of the North, hoping to deal the Union Army of the Potomac a final and decisive defeat, this time on northern soil. If successful, only a battered and demoralized Union Army would stand between Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Federal capital at Washington, D.C. The Union would be almost certain to sue for peace terms, and the United States of America would likely be united no more. As the lead column of two Confederate brigades marched towards Gettysburg, they met some unexpected resistance from a Union cavalry division led by General John Buford, who was sent to scout-out the area. Buford's horsemen did what they had to do, brilliantly and bravely holding off a much larger force until reinforcements could arrive. The battle then raged north and west of the town until the Union troops, overwhelmed by superior numbers and unrelenting Confederate attacks, were forced to retreat through the town of Gettysburg. Visitors can still see the signs of the battle that raged in town as the Confederates pursued the retreating Federal troops. The South had prevailed on Day 1. But by the end of the day the Union had set up on the high ground south of the city. It was a good defensive position, and the Union Army had been heavily reinforced in the meantime. The next day, July 2nd, the Confederates attacked both flanks of the Union line. Battle raged in some places well into the night. The Southerners' onslaughts were again unremitting. The Federal soldiers were equally resolute in repelling the attacks. Near the Peach Orchard, at the southern end of the battlefield, the fighting was especially fierce. The 7th New Jersey Volunteer Regiment, made-up of many Morris County men, entered the field that day with 331 men under arms. By the end of the day, one-third of those men had been killed or wounded in battle. Fighting nearby was the 88th New York Regiment, part of the famous Irish Brigade. Prior to going into battle, the men of the 88th New York were granted a general absolution by Rev. William Corby. There is a monument to Rev. Corby at the battlefield. He later would become president of Notre Dame. At nearby Little Round Top, troops from Maine, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan barely repelled the repeated attacks of Texans and Alabamans. Col. "Paddy" O'Rorke, born in Cavan County, Ireland, led a New York Regiment in a charge that drove back an uphill assault of Texans. O'Rorke was killed, and an inscription was soon after carved into the rock marking the spot where he fell. In the meantime, Col. Joshua Chamberlain, a professor of rhetoric and natural theology, led a bayonet charge of Mainers down Little Round Top that routed an attacking Alabama regiment. By the end of a grueling and bloody Second Day, the Union Army had held its ground. But it had been a close call. The morning of the third day, July 3rd, was quiet, while Confederate troops prepared their final assault, this time against the center of the Union line -- the infamous Pickett's Charge. After a terrifying, yet ineffectual, artillery barrage, three Confederate divisions (including Pickett's), about 12,000 men, were ordered to march nearly a mile across an open field under blistering Union artillery fire. It was a futile, but unbelievably heroic effort. At a place called the "Bloody Angle," Confederate troops actually reached, and breached, the Union line. But they were quickly overwhelmed. The Confederate attackers broke, and what remained of them fled back across the open field to their lines. The Union soldiers let them retreat unmolested, partially out of exhaustion, partially out of pity, but also out of enormous respect for their gallant foes. Robert E. Lee went out to meet his defeated troops, taking upon himself the entire blame for the catastrophic attack. Lee's Army retreated back to Virginia. The Union had won the Battle of Gettysburg. The North would not be forced to seek peace terms. The Union would be preserved. In the end, slavery would be abolished, both in the South and in the new Western Territories. The dead were, at first, buried in shallow graves where they had fallen. But later that year, a National Cemetery was established at Gettysburg. The Union soldiers (those whose remains could be found), were relocated to the new cemetery. (The Southerners would have to wait some time to be disinterred and transposed for proper burial in the South). In November 1863, President Lincoln agreed to come to the dedication ceremony, to say "a few appropriate words." The 271 words Lincoln uttered that day in dedication of that hallowed ground are considered some of the greatest words ever spoken by man. Fittingly, we ended our visit to the battlefield at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Our battlefield guide, Bill Thomas, joined us in praying the rosary in that sacred place. We prayed for the fallen who rest there until the resurrection, when they will rise body and soul to view the battlefield where they suffered such unimaginable anguish before giving up their earthly lives (the cemetery having been intentionally laid out that way). And we prayed for our own times, where civil strife again threatens us as a nation and as a people. It was a fittingly solemn and reflective end to our visit to Gettysburg.
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