Reflections on Gettysburg
by Bruce Catton
Gettysburg today is a place where gallant
spirits still tell their story of high sacrifice and
undying devotion. There is a cemetery, there
are gentle ridges rolling unbroken toward the
sunset, and here and there one can find spots
where everything that is significant in the
American dream speaks to today's world with
an undying voice.
Yet the battle was here and its presence is
felt, and you cannot visit the place without
feeling the echoes of what was once a proving
ground for everything America believes in.
For Gettysburg was where we Americans
came to grips with ourselves. On these Pennsylvania hills, fate once asked men of our
flesh: Do you really mean it? Are you just
coasting, or is the vision this land gave you
something you are willing to die for? They
died on these hills and fields in fantastic
numbers, and the dying was not easy, but
young men who would have preferred to live
did die and this open, sunlit country remembers them, Northerners and Southerners
alike.
We are a young country with he future still
ahead of us, but we do have our shrines and
Gettysburg is one of the greatest of them. It is
great because it once brought us face to face
with certain fundamentals. These still live
with us; we passed one test, and by the story
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