Charlevoix county herald., 1907-05-25
AT GETTYSBURG
Field of Battle Is Forever
Consecrated to the High
EST Ideals of Amer
lean VoLor.

GEE Naples and die" wrote an en-
thusiast, and gave a new vogue
to moribund old world city by
a sententious saying. But to the
American whose soul is alive to patri-
otto emotion, a more fitting exhorta-
ton would be, see Gettysburg and
live! And so seeing, live to be conse-
Grated anew to American ideals. Real
lie and drink in from that historic
fount the immortal lesson of what
they did here" that the nation might
live-a grand object lesson, made
manifest so that he that runs may
read by its 600 monuments and tab
lets dedicated there to American val.
or. A thrilling page it is that may
be read in these silent yet speaking
symbols which mark the various posi-
tons held by the $40 organizations
that fercely contended for victory
during those fervid July days of 63
And punctuating the long lines of mar
bic and granite memorials that thickly
strew the picturesquely diversified
field impoSingly stand out the colossal
bronze images of the leading generals
in the commanding stations each &C.
cupied, or where they fell wounded or
dead, while directing their hosts.
While here and there dotting the ele-
vations whence the batteries belched
out their terrible shots and shell are
grim cannon, in some instances the
self same pieces that sent their wing
ed deaths searching Ewell's, Hills
and Longstreet's lines stretched
around the town and along Seminary
ridge, or hurled them at Meade's en-
battled front opposite.
All the historic landmarks, too, are
there to-day Away to the west the
Lutheran seminary, still standing like
a sentinel on the outpost, round which
the waves of battle ragged and spumed
and from the cupola of which Rey-
nolds and Buford watched Hills adj
vance debouching from the woods on
either side of the Chambersburg pike;
and, just beyond, the undulating plain
and McPherson'S wood the scene and |
altar of sacrifice whereon the valient |
first corps of Meade's army unstinted- |
ly poured out its libation of blood. To |
the east and south, Cemetery hill and |
its prolonged ridge, along which stand |
out those never to be effaced features |
OF the landscape-the national ce.<e-
terry, with its 1876 graves of union
dead, the clump of trees or high wa
ter mark of the rebellion" whence
Pickett's braves were hurled back in
disaster and death; the bloody an
gle," and the peach orchard, which
season after season renews itself in
blossom and fruit; the wheat field,
yearly sown to the same crop, but no
longer yielding its harvest of DEATH;
grim Devils Den, rocky, wood-tan-
gled maze today as 1t was and has
ever been since the red Indian and
savage beast sought 1t for their lair:
the same wooded heights of Little and
Big Roundtop, partly denuded, yet
With many surviving ancient trees
scared and broken and torn by solid
shot and shell, or trunks pimpled by
mimic bullets, but fruitful yet with
eafy life.
vanished only are the mangled
,orpses of the slain, the rushing col
INNS OF struggling foeman, the blaz-
ng lines, the crash OF musketry and
deafening roar, the dying
5roans and frantic, swelling cheers.
With all these marvelously preserved
vestiges of the battle still defining its
Tarying fortunes. and with the graph
C story OF the guides, very little ex-
'rcise OF the imagination is needed
wen to a stranger, none at all to the
'eteran who fought there to recon
truct the scene. and once seen render
Is realization wildly Impressed for
yer on the mind. II