Thinking about Braver Angels, “new beginnings,” and the multiple meanings of Gettysburg

What is it about Gettysburg? Its cultural meaning seems to be universal.

Carter-Begin-Sadat. Three world leaders in the midst of the highest stakes negotiations of the 20th century take a break to come to Gettysburg. All the generals – both sides, including Sadat – are thrilled to finally see the place they studied so intensely in military academy. And when they come to the cemetery, the one civilian leader in the group — Israel’s Menachim Begin — recites the Gettysburg Address from memory.

Remember the Titans. A Hollywood movie producer trying to show the challenges of integrating a high school football team has his main character deliver an emotional speech about racial strife and togetherness on the Gettysburg battlefield: “Men died right here on this field, fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves ...today…. If we don't come together... right now, on this hallowed ground... then we, too, will be destroyed. Just like they were.”

First Year Walk. Inspired by the actions of the 1863 college faculty and students, who joined President Lincoln on his walk to the new national cemetery, the college sponsors the annual “First Year Walk” at the beginning of the school year to encourage reflection on the meaning of the place.

“July 4, 2020.” In response to an implausible online rumor (but one they believed), more than 1000 armed individuals, as well as representatives of 16 local, state, and federal police forces gathered to “protect Confederate monuments” from being desecrated or destroyed.

Religious/political leader Glenn Beck announces a conference (subsequently canceled due to Covid) dedicated to “Restoring the Covenant on the Sacred Land of Gettysburg.”

Biden. 2020 Presidential candidate comes to Gettysburg for a major policy address on what divides us. “There’s no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg, to talk about the cost of division. About how much it has cost America in the past, about how much it is costing us now, and about why I believe in this moment, we must come together as a nation. For President Lincoln, the Civil War was about the greatest of causes. The end of slavery, widening equality, pursuit of justice, the creation of opportunity, and the sanctity of freedom. “

Hunter College. A major university president gets funding to “take students to visit historic places” and chooses Gettysburg first. And a busload of students with no course credits at stake gives up spring break to come for an intensive tour.

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It is obvious that Gettysburg is a special place to many different people for many different reasons. The universal, must-see Civil War place and, arguably, the universal “US History” place. A shrine to sacrifice and valor, to unity, to Reconciliation, to the Lost Cause, to “a new birth of freedom” and “government of the People, by the People, for the People.” And, increasingly, to “new beginnings.”

Perhaps the boldest symbolic statement came this summer, when Braver Angels, the national organization created to foster bipartisan communication, came to Gettysburg “to give birth to a national civic renewal movement bringing together conservatives and progressives on equal terms to clarify differences, find common ground where it exists, and work together to save our country.” Just like Coach Boone in the movie “Remember the Titans” (“If we don't come together... right now, on this hallowed ground... then we, too, will be destroyed. Just like they were”) or presidential candidate Biden (“There’s no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg, to talk about the cost of division. About how much it has cost America in the past, about how much it is costing us now . . .”), so too, “This July, on the grounds of the great battlefield of our Civil War, we gather to  prevent another one.” Approximately 500 attendees – and the Braver Angels staff – left this place energized and inspired.

The complicated story of Gettysburg was brought into focus recently for me when I had the privilege of touring the battlefield with Peter Carmichael, head of Gettysburg College’s Civil War Institute. Perhaps better than any other guide I’ve encountered, Carmichael captured the multiple layers of meaning this place holds. He crammed all the “valor  and adventure” anyone could hope for into the tour: fighting on the 1st day, at Rose Farm, Pickett’s Charge.... A nice discussion of Bill Frassanito and his identification of the “Rose Farm unburied dead” photos and the “Devil’s Den fake sniper” photo. He also gave a nod to Lincoln’s speech, the reinvention of purpose of the nation (“new birth of freedom … of the People, by the People, for the People”) and of the cause that the soldiers “so nobly advanced.” But the masterwork of this tour was the way he reminded us that the battle and the war were also about the defense by one side of a brutal and dehumanizing institution and the other side’s fight for national redemption. Yes, they fought bravely, but they fought to defend a horrible institution. Yes, Reconciliation was a good thing, but it’s also true that we abandoned the Freedmen in the process.

While I was ruminating about this subject, I found another masterful quote that illustrates our complex story, this a quote from Dean of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs and Africana Studies Prof. Jennifer Bloomquist  during a recent “First Year Walk “

“Like the country then, you are now at a turning point yourselves,” Bloomquist said. “It isn’t where you begin your journey but where you finish it that’s important.”

She used a quote about Lincoln from 20th century activist and author W.E.B. DuBois to illustrate what she meant:

[DuBois said] “Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest figure of the nineteenth century… I love him not because he was perfect but because he was not and yet triumphed.  The world is full of people born hating and despising their fellows. To these I love to say: ‘See this man. He was one of you and yet he became Abraham Lincoln.’"

 The park is also recognizing additional layers to the story, with new waysides (Iverson) pointing out that sometimes all the valor in the world is pointless. With new waysides about three black farmers: Basil Biggs, Abraham Bryan, and James Warfield who fled for their lives and came back to for the most part destroyed property. With new waysides (North Carolina) noting that the 100+ year celebration of “the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here” left important elements out of the story. With new waysides (Warfield house) acknowledging that those kindly Confederate soldiers and their supposed “no looting” order also kidnapped hundreds of African Americans and took them south to be enslaved.

It's a complicated story, that used to be told in a simple way. Yes, Jefferson wrote some of the most enlightened critiques of slavery … and was a slaveowner to the day he died. Yes, the Declaration contains lofty words reassuring us that “all men are created equal” – words that applied to almost nobody at the time they were written. Yes, America is the land of the Statue of Liberty and “bring me your huddled masses” – and the land of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Internment camps … and, belatedly, national apology. The land of Massive Resistance and of affirmative action (oops).

Our national story is a complicated story. And nowhere encapsulates those complications more than Gettysburg. That’s why I love this place.