My World Tuesday: Haunted, Gettysburg

Here's part of a mural in the museum at the Gettysburg Visitors Center. I stopped twice in this small town on the southern border of Pennsylvania when I made my most recent trip to North Carolina. The spirits of all who fought there pervade the area. There is a tranquility, a calm, that embraces me every time I am there. This pilgrimage of sorts has me looking closely, carefully, at all that makes my country. We have an obligation to love it well.

The photo below captures a montage of images of Union soldiers who served at Gettysburg. Beside it was a montage of photos of Confederate soldiers.

This is the Gettysburg train station, from which point President Lincoln walked without bodyguards to David Wills's home when the battlefield was consecrated as a resting place in November, 1863.

Wills's home is the brick building in the left of the next photo. Wills oversaw the creation of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg. Will's hosted the President, who stayed in the room in the bottom photo. There, he put the final touches on the Gettysburg Address.

I bought a copy of At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heart of the Battle, a True Narrative, by Mrs. Tillie (Pierce) Alleman when I was there. It's an extraordinary book that leaves out none of the grit of that three-day battle at the same time it is full of heart and a refreshing, clearly stated opinion on the matter. She concludes: "What in my girlhood was a teeming and attractive landscape spread out by the Omnipotent Hand to teach us of His goodness has by His own direction become a field for profound thought, where, through coming ages, will be taught lessons of loyalty, patriotism, and sacrifice."

My World Tuesday