So over the last few days I have been in Gettysburg and Antitem and this came to mind as I was walking through the Gettysburg National Cemetery (I know, weird place for a blog idea) and I found myself staring at the Soldier's memorial. There were statues representing four things that I found fascinating. The words were War, Plenty, History, and Peace. And then in the last leg of the journey I found a quote, only seven words, that capture the whole meaning of the Civil War. "Not for themselves, but for their country."
May this make you think,
Jen
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Everyone talks about the calm before the storm, and the devastation that occurs whilst the storm rages. But there is never any discussion of the odd, somber serenity that is the aftermath of a battle.
No one ever speaks about the drizzle that follows the flood waters; the calming tears of a sun-streaked cloud barrier. There are never words penned about the whispers that follow an emotionally scarring shouting match; never a literary picture painted about the droplets falling down from a storm-soaked tree.
The same can be said about the Battle at Gettysburg. A thousand Homeric epics can be spun about that trio of blood-bathed days, and yet not capture it all. But there are no epics to describe the aftermath of those three days; the weeks to come where none could open a window, and each person became a doctor, nurse, or assistant.
Even now, a hundred and fifty two years have gone by. Several wars have been won, and even more have been fought, but saying "I survived the battle" is not the same as saying "I lived through the aftermath."
The end of a battle, be it literal, metaphorical, mental, or spiritual, is never the end. The end is the eye; the second, "false calm". Anyone can fight a battle; anyone can win or lose; anyone can sit in the doctor's office and receive the diagnosis; anyone can stand up; but who is able to deal with what comes next?
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"There are no words in the English language to express the sufferings I have witnessed today."-Cornelia Hancock, July the Seventh
"I saw long rows of bodies of men lying under the eaves of the buildings, the water pouring upon their bodies in the stream."-Maj. Gen. Carl Shurz, July the Fourth
"The houses were marked with shot and shell on both sides of the street. Some with ugly gaps in the wall and others with a well-defined hole where the cannonball entered."-Leonard Gardener, on Baltimore Street, July the Fifth
"Ye advocates of war, come here and look, and answer what compensation is there for this carnival of death."-The Philadelphia Public Ledger, July the Fifteenth, 1863
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To answer the Ledger's command, I ask you in turn a question: What would you give, to preserve the greatest nation on earth, where freedom rings as God reigns, for a hundred and fifty more years to come?
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