Gettysburg
25 July 2012
Stephen
Today we drove to Gettysburg and spent the entire day learning more about this incredible event. We are nearly through Ken Burns Civil War documentary series, a very well done collection that helps put events in sequence.
In three days in July, 1863, over 53,000 men were killed or wounded at Gettysburg. Most of the wounded died slowly from complications, and thousands of bodies were never identified.
We walked through the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln delivered a brief dedication address, probably the most moving speech ever written. Sections of the cemetery have hundreds of small numbered stones to mark where unidentified soldiers were buried.
The history of soldier 517 in Section 14 will never be known...