Echoes of Gettysburg

To visit the town Gettysburg today and the surrounding battlefield is a memorable experience even for those who don't have a strong interest in history. To walk on such ground, where such significant events took place, is a unique and impressive experience. The land is so well preserved and well marked with monuments and markers that it is almost as though the battle is still being fought. However there is a paradox present on the fields of Gettysburg. It is a place where a terrible battle was fought, where many men suffered and died, a place where countless sacrifices were made, and where men had experiences that remained as the core events in their life. However there is now a peace there that can be felt on the battlefield. A powerful silence that encourages one to contemplation of the incredible and valient deeds that were done there. One can at once notice that there is something different about about the fields, hills, and woods at Gettysburg, something that sets them apart from other areas. Perhaps Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain explained this experience best in a speech at Gettysburg on October 3, 1889 when the 20th Maine monument was dedicated,

"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls. This is the great reward of service. To live, far out and on, in the life of others; this is the mystery of the Christ,-to give life's best for such high stake that it shall be found again unto life eternal."