is too clever for his own good. nobody thought he could survive, but he did. there is a mystery surrounding that. it could be his personal charisma showed over his antics. he was a good writer. he was a good thinker. with some of his thoughts in politics, he disagreed with a lot of people who created civil rights in america. he was a smart guy. he got some slack. maybe someday somebody will come up with a debtor answer. that's the best i can do right new. thank you very much. i appreciate it. [applause] >> before we break for lunch, i have some announcements. atwill see you back here

1:00. announcement before you head off to lunch. we are going to have two sets of concurrent sessions. one set is at 1:00 and another at 2:30 p.m. they will be held in the ballroom and others will be in two other academic holdings on campus. you will see them marked on your map. they are not very far away from here. because of the construction, you are going to have to go down this way. >> this is american history tv on c-span3. for the next hour, we will take a tour of the monuments of gettysburg with two guides who

co-authored a book. >> they have been giving tours of the gettysburg battles field for many years. they recently co-authored a field guide to gettysburg. we joined them to learn the story of the three day battle. we begin with the battle started on july 1, 1863. this is a lincoln highway in pennsylvania. carol: hello. i am carol reardon. i'm a scholar and resident of the civil war era center. with me as colonel tom foss ller. tom and i have led many programs around battlefields at gettysburg. we would like to introduce you

to some of our favorite monuments. monument,particular we are about a mile west of gettysburg. out here is where the battle this statue we1. are standing in front of is john buford. at the time the battle begins, he is the senior union officer on the field. he's got about 2600 cavalry men with him. they have moved up out of maryland into pennsylvania looking for confederates. they find them here. he is going to engage in confederate is here. the advanceld back of the confederate army. they will protect the high ground.

some of general buford's admirers have gotten together and decided they would form the monument association. it is 1895 before they raise enough money to put the monument up. it symbolizes the union commander looking out to the west. they are out there. buford in choosing to start the battle here to protect high ground, he becomes a real hero in this battle. there are about 1400 markers on this battlefield.

the men who fought in this battle want to make sure what they did was remembered. they are going to do that by building monuments. times, we have other ways of commemorating things. in those days, that 70 commemorated. -- created monuments. most of the monuments are union monuments. unions going to be a victory in a northern state. quite honestly, there is not a lot of money to build monuments. especially in northern states. the monuments to help us interpret the events. that's what we are going to do today, interpret the battle through these artifacts. are monuments to

the soldiers. they are also monuments by the soldiers. they had a lot to say about what the monuments would look like and the message they wanted to embark. one of the subordinates was a very young lieutenant. he deployed for of his sons as a gun lieutenant, he had been instilled with the indication keep his record straight. he set down with a number of the troops that he was going to see. tubes are some of the most obvious artifacts of the battle.

which of these canons reused here at gettysburg? this one was here. we know this because when the monument is being put up, the lieutenant found a piece of paper on which he had written down those numbers. what he was able to do is send out a message to all of the army arsenal's saying find me this gun. day ofund here in on the the monument dedication, not only did we have rifles to surround the statute, the one aiming down the road fired the first shot in it is marked with an appropriate plaque, one of the last things that he did was he came back here to the area

and ran a spike and broke it off. he said this piece would no longer speaks during wartime. it would speak to future generations of these. -- piece. it was not clear who was winning or who was losing the civil war. for jefferson davis in richmond, the situation was increasingly more serious. the river town of vicksburg was now under siege by ulysses s. grant. if that port fell to union hands, the mississippi river would fall into union hands completely. along the coast of south growing, an effort was as the union tried to take back that important city.

jefferson davis pondered his next move it generally propose that he go north. the reasons are still open to conjecture. historians have had plenty of opportunities to explain why robert e. lee came north and he never left any record written before the campaign that laid out his active. we know that he worried about supplies. that would be one of his main reasons for coming. there were also suggestions that he might appear to affect northern public opinion, to defeat union army on north ground and perhaps get abraham lincoln to discuss the possibility of peace. there has been a lot of conjecture. 1863, robert e. lee begin moving his army into pennsylvania. he would be facing the union army at the potomac. lee had defeated hooker soundly

at chancellorsville. hooker was still in command. intimidatedbly been a robert e. lee because he kept badgering the administration for more troops. something the administration was willing to do. three days before the battle began, general hooker was relieved of command and his successor was george gordon meade. he was prepared to bring the fight to pennsylvania. of woodlot at the time of the after the cavalry fight that started the battle, union infantry came to replace general buford. the fighting was on. in the woodlot, some of the toughest fighting took place. the monument behind me is the monument to the infantry. if you ask any civil war soldier what his military home was or

what unit he belonged to, he would likely have responded with his regiment. they were raised locally throughout both the north and south had you were likely to find sets of brothers, fathers friends, high school business associates, members of a church congregation, people who worked together. there were tight bonds and regimens. -- regiments. formedwhy so many regimental associations when the war was over. they would write autobiographies of their experiences and dedicate monuments to their service. sometimes, their home states would help a little bit worried many times, it was left up to the veterans themselves to raise the funds and design the monument.

gettysburg was not their first battle. it certainly was their first really big battle. they had been tested at fredericksburg. they had no idea what would be waiting for them here in the woods. 24th belonged to a bigger organization. they had a reputation for being hard fighters. from thebe identified rest of the union army by their very distinctive headgear. union soldiers wore a slouch hat, these men were the

hardy hat, the official headgear of the regular united states army. crown,black with a high one side of it was pinned up with a beautiful gold eagle pair in. -- pin. it was a very distinct kind of headgear. thisbody who saw that new was the iron brigade. according to some stories, even the confederates knew it would when they first attacked here, they thought only local militia was up. . as soon as they saw the black they said that's not militia. that's the army of potomac. the fight was really on. the iron brigade is going to lose over two thirds of its commander. to 24th michigan is going suffer her endlessly in the process.

they brought 496 men. they returned for the dedication of their monument. over theok out assembled veterans, he grew a little quiet and then he said this. volumes have been written about the battle of gettysburg. the whole story has not been told. much of the planning and more than doing has been omitted. the living may have given their version of what they did and what they witnessed here, but if the dead lips could be in sealed, what larger testimony might be spread on the pages of history?

almost 100 men of the 24th michigan fell on these fields. tom: just down the hill is a monument to the 26th north carolina regiment. it's exceptional in a couple of instances. as we said earlier, most of the monuments today are for the northern army as opposed to the southern army. this is one of the few confederate monuments in the field. the other exceptional thing about this monument is it represents a unit. these regiments fighting their strength would go from 1002 330 men. this regiment comes into the withe on the first day

just over 800 men. they have not been in many serious hard fighting engagements yet. they have not taken many casualties. two days later, they are in the middle of what we today call a charge. they were attacking with virginia and others. they will participate in that attack. the next day when we assemble they wills together, go in with 800 men. it is an extraordinary monument.

carol: our story will be the recruiting start in's of coming generations. so says major aj sellers. the monument behind me represents the 90th pennsylvania infantry, a unit in philadelphia. this regiment was built on an antebellum organization. services to their the federal government. back then, regiments only signed up for three-month of active duty. after those three months were over, they were sure the war would be over. the war was not over. here on july 1, the extreme right flank of the first four flight, the places we visited before, general buford's statue was in front of the first core line. this was the extreme right

flank. the 90th pennsylvania held that flank. they would find themselves in a situation where they had to respond to a rapidly changing situation. morning, the threat came from the west. it is now early afternoon and the threat is coming from the north. from their position on this high ground, they look over their shoulders in that general direction and they can see the area where the fighting has been all morning. now they can look in this direction and they can see the arrival of the union armies core. they can see the growing threat of confederates coming from the area. is itealize the situation intense. the 90th pennsylvania is going aiming that first direction. that is down in the slow ground.

after pushing back in alabama -- and alabama brigade, they will cross over to the stonewall to our left. from that stonewall, they will throw back and attack by a north carolina brigade. later in the day, they will resume their position facing the north and toward the red are in and help repel another attack. they put in an awfully long day. the pressure has become too great and this line will begin to rake. the union army will begin to slowly retreat act to the town of gettysburg into the high ground of cemetery hill just south of here. ton major sellers came dedicate this, he did not think about a retreat. he did not think about a withdrawal. he thought about this says one finest moments.s'

he won the medal of honor. battle,wrote about this he wrote about it as a triumph from start to finish. it was not simply the outcome of the fight. it was the outcome of the battle in the out come of the war that made the sacrifice worthwhile. this monument is rather unusual. it is shaped like an oak tree. the soldiers who served here knew that. formed their monument into the shape of a note tree. the impact of artillery fire can be seen in the area where the bark is been peeled away. around the base of the monument you can see the accoutrements of war, a knapsack, canteen. standout is we see the top of the monument. we see a bird's nest, we see a

mother bird. we see birds and that nest receiving food. the war is over, he said. to celebrate used the era of peace and goodwill. the 90th pennsylvania would lose 48% of its strength here on oak ridge. that wouldstories never go away other than their pride in their stand here was there was a second story about that birds nest. been able to find a written source to verify this actually happened. some of the soldiers like to tell friends that during the battle, one of their own members had seen a baby bird fall out of its nest and the soldier at some

risk to his own life picked it up and put him back in the nest. that was the episode they really meant. the preservation of life. tom: we can see the town of gettysburg to the southeast. there is a wooded hill, which is cemetery hill. that is key terrain for this battle. general howard will arrive and order this be prepared as a reserve decision. and artillery will be left there. even more troops will be pushed out to this area here. they will be confronted by additional confederate troops. day, robert e lee will order general richard two it can it -- to

continue the -- to seize the high ground to the front. time, ewellt in will hesitate. he will begin to get dark. he figures he does not have enough daylight left. he chooses not to do so. down, the settle confederate soldiers can hear it get dark, the sound of axes and saws and union soldiers on the high ground cutting down trees and building works. union defenders will defend the line against the confederate attacks the next day.

ende standing on the south of cemetery ridge. these are the confederate battle lines. this is about a mile and a half toward town. the is the key terrain of battle. this is about a mile east of where we are with cemetery ridge. you can see the peach orchard where a lot of fighting takes place. what has been considered -- for the second day of the battle, his main attack is going to come from this area where we are now standing. they will strike the end of the union line.

james long street will be in charge here. from this area, men from south will conduct an attack over to emmitsburg road and get through to the union line. 10,000 men right up to the road. when the confederates have to get through that area, they will proceed back to cemetery ridge and give rise to the fighting. let's go look at some of these mississippi troops making this attack. carol: most of the monuments were built by the veterans for their children's generation. interest has never really waned.

there was a flurry of monument holding by southern states during the 100th anniversary of the civil war back in the early 1960's. some would be built after the centennial. the monument behind me is erected by the state of mississippi. it is dedicated in 1973. the mississippi state legislature considered a bill to put a monument here on the gettysburg battlefield. pass, theythe bill went out and obtain the services of one of the most outstanding sculptors of the mid-20th century. he was born in boston. he was classically trained in europe. thatd an eclectic style combined european elements with his own interests. to build his figures

big. he has three monuments on this battlefield. it's located here in the southern part of cemetery ridge because this is where williams arc stale mate his advance. -- barksdale made his advance. concluded a long and winding march to get in position in the woods over to your right or it at about 4:00 in the afternoon, the confederate attack would take off down toward the round top. they advanced across these fields toward the barn and a peach orchard. that peach orchard stood a brigade of pennsylvanians. they belong to the union army.

he was a political general. he did not go to west point. he had done well enough, he had been promoted core command. he defied the orders. to takemeade wanted him a position on cemetery ridge farther back. in order to be part of the fish hook the fence line he was putting together. he liked the high ground along the road. he moved his men forward to the ridge just about a quarter of a mile in front of us right here. he did not have support on his right flank or left flank. his men stuck out as ready targets. barksdale's men attacked, they hit the line where there was of end. it bent act and created a point right here.

point in theeakest defensive line. that is where miss it -- the mississippians hit. the line broke apart. the union line began to unravel. general barksdale was a commander who like to leave the front. he had long flowing hair. he was a former congressman. when he got out there and yelled forward, his men followed. general barksdale would fall in this attack as would half of his command. they would break the union line. he tried tospirit capture in the monument. we see two soldiers. soldier is standing above him protecting his comrade.

clearly, the soldier has run out of ammunition. he is going to protect his fallen comrade with the last weapon he barksdale's actual attack did not go down to hand-to-hand fighting. motionnument, full of and intensity very much encapsulates the spirit of the mississippi soldiers who fought here and is a finer example of sculpture on the battlefield today. standing between the seminary ridge and cemetery ridge preparing for the confederate attack that would begin at 4:00 on july 2. to my right is the confederate line. they were two divisions of infantry. and that the tortured in this

direction -- and the peach the coreould be stretching to the big round top. is cemetery ridge, the main union position. that is a position at which these troops should be at, back along cemetery ridge. sickle'se units was men -- sickles's men. this was the third infantry regiment. for other regiments were form the principal brigade out of new york city. the 73rd regiment was recruited in the fire halls of new york city. so the firemen of new york city answered a call and entered the army is union soldiers.

there will be about 350 of them out here on july 2. they will suffer 46% casualties in the fighting as the behindrate attacks from and advance through. its dedication, has kind of an eye story to it. it was dedicated in 1897. at the dedication ceremony, the honorable robert said this -- there are times in the lives of nations with the energetic actions encourage a small number of men will arouse in others the highest and noblest sentiments and spur them duty andense of their the chivalrous eloquence of even the most gifted orator, and i

contend that the volunteer firemen are breaking out of the warhead just had such an effect. spoken take those words them -- spoken in the late 1800s and transfer them today. if we think about september 11, 2001, and what happened in new york city and around the country, it had the same kind of sentiments. as winston churchill says, the farther back in time you look, the farther forward in time you can see. when general meade realized the general sickles had advanced his core without permission, he realized that lee was about to attack so he told sickles to stay in place. that meaty no -- that meade

would find other reinforcements. betweenere in an area double's den and the bloody wheatfield behind us. those -- e of some of this is an element of the union army second core. the men of hancock's second corp. you get -- you could always tell what corp a unit along to because they wore a special badge on the top of their hat. to tell you what corp and what soldier a unit along to. you would often wear a four leaf clover because the irish brigade was a part of the second corp. as we walk along this monument, we can see that right.

on this topic older is engraved that denotes the second corp. this is new hampshire was one of the most part fighting regiments in the entire civil war. when they did an accounting after the war to figure out which regiment lost the most soldiers in battle, the fifth new hampshire was very close to the top of the list. on july 2, as they came to assist sickles's third corp, the fifth new hampshire was on the extreme left flank of the second corp reinforcement. the commander of the fifth new hampshire to which the fifth new hampshire belonged was edward cross. character who had traveled all around the united states before the civil war, but when the war broke out, he came back to his state, took command

of the fifth enhancer infantry. over the course of this war up to this point, july 2, he has been wounded 12 different times in action. today will be wound number 13. as his mentor getting ready for battle, general hancock saw him and yelled -- cross, you will win your star today. and cross turned back to hancock and said, no, sir, this is my last battle. his men noticed something unusual. usually when cross went into battle, he wore a red bandanna around his head. at this battle, he did the same thing, but this in the bandanna was black. a number of men saw that as a horrible omen. gade intoght his or the wheatfield -- cross brought his brigade into the wheatfield. in the fight that followed, colonel cross was hit by a bullet that was clearly mortal

from the very start. his soldiers removed him from the field and colonel cross died that night. one of his final sentiments was, i hope the boys will miss me, and indeed they did. his men were enraged by the loss of their commanding officer. and they thought the confederates with a vengeance that they hardly ever displayed before. one of the things that makes the new hampshire memorial different from any markers we have seen is they decided to commemorate not simply their regiment, but the individual soldiers who fell here. right here on this eight sided slab of new hampshire granite, they placed the names of the soldiers who fell here. fell at the age of 19. phelps was designated as the

soldier who fired the round that killed the confederate soldier would mortally wounded colonel cross. how they determined that phelps was the man in the middle of the firefight is impossible to guess, but it guarantees that it is a real tribute to phelps' soldierly qualities to give that credit. 44% of the fifth new hampshire fell in this battle, but none was more limited than colonel cross. -- lamented then colonel cross. center is goode new hampshire granted -- granite. it was one of the earlier thement placed on battlefield -- it was one of the earlier monuments placed on the battlefield. it was who designed actually a soldier himself, not

a soldier of the fifth enhancer, but a soldier from a massachusetts regiment who designed it and thought it summed up the enduring qualities of the new hampshire soldiers. after about 90 minutes of fighting here in the wheat field, most of the union defenders in this area were pushed back, ultimately heading back towards cemetery ridge, back to the lines. tom: we are at the right end of the union lie at spangler spring that sits south of coatesville. we are standing within the lines occupied by the new turn -- the new 13th infantry regiment. and the 13th monument is a great symbolism of that union. -- that unit.

they are not quantify too long or too hard because they won't have to. , as a main confederate attack hits south of the union line behind us, about a mile or so, troops over here on this side on the right side, not yet under attack by confederates, will be pulled out of here to reinforce the left. by the time they get there, the confederate attack on the left has played out in these tubes are ordered back your to the original position only to find the confederates have occupied some of their positions while they were gone. so the real action for the 15th new jersey is going to take place on july 3. these were coordinated attacks conducted on my left. these guys will support them by fire, suffering only one killed and 20 wounded. --the monument is a great

but the monument is a great depiction of a union soldier, fully equipped, kneeling down outg the trees, and firing into the open space of the meadows beyond. the comments given by the new jersey governor at the dedication said these monuments cted are welded here for the purpose of recording the battle, but for the lessons of war that must never be repeated. [birds chirping] tom: virginia will be the first

former confederate state to build a state monument. gettysburg and 1970 --monument in gettysburg in 1970. they decided north carolina needed a monument to window. gettysburg. they will appropriate money for the building of the monument, which was completed in 1929. is my name is very significant and perhaps the most beautiful of the monuments on the battlefield. it takes north carolina soldiers preparing to conduct their part in the third day attack in gettysburg known in history as 's charge.- picket monumentn look at the at the five figures there, very heroic poses. and very lively we have the

leader on his knees. he knows he is not going to make it across the field. the big man in front, you study his face, one were to come to mind, and that word is determination. he is determined he will go across the field. over his right shoulder is a younger soldier perhaps. he is horrified that this is about to happen. just does not think it is a good idea. then there is an older man with a beard, and he is encouraging the younger men to stay the course and keep moving forward. and then the flag bearer pressing forward with the flat covering over the advancing north carolina soldiers. carol: it was important electoral indians to make a statement this bold -- it was important to north carolinians to make a statement this bold. in the newspapers enrichment right after the battle, there was article after article about

picket and his virginia. whenever they had to explain why the charge failed, the usual excuse was, the troops that were sent to support him did not do their job. and sometimes they would point to the north carolinians as the men who did not support the virginians and allow the virginians to fall in such great numbers while the north carolinians had taken part of the attacking force. they did not like been insulted with the charge that they had not done anything than their fullest duty. they would fight this over and over again in the southern newspaper after the war. it would start their own magazines and journals and they would write their own histories about it and come up with a motto. north carolinians were in the front of things. north carolinians to this day do

not generally call the attack of july 3 picket's charge. they instead to call it the pedigree tremble assault named for the troops of north carolina who made this charge. tom: the sculptor for this is famous monument for his work on a massive structure in the dakotas called mount rushmore. he is also famous for the bust in theident lincoln u.s. capitol building. he will use actual photographs of confederate civil war for the as the models faces depicted on the monument. that is that added sense of realism.

a lot of fluidity in movement here and a very striking monument that draws a lot of attention in gettysburg. carol: we are standing on cemetery ridge, the center of the union line on july 2 and third, 1863. the second and third day of the battle of gettysburg. it is in the afternoon on the day of july 3 trophy after 1:00. at 1:00 in the afternoon, this ground all around us would have just been the site of crashing artillery shells. the great artillery bombardment watched by the confederates in preparation of picket's charge has just begun. back along the reverse side of this ridge. and frightened the hostile men, meade'sneers,

headquarters. the bombardment lasted for perhaps a little more than an hour. after it was over, absolutely everybody knew what was one to happen next. the confederate infantry was going to charge. across the valley seminary ridge. that is where the confederate mainline is. 's charge comes to this position, it will come out as two separate attacks. picket's men will come up from the ravine. they will part around the farm with its red buildings still very much visible on the battlefield today. and they will aim up towards where we are right now. where we are right now is a place that became known as the angle. it takes its name from the fact that there is a stone wall that runs across the front. it comes over to a large tree over here where it angles back toward the crest of the ridge.

and in the wall continues northward. in this area right here, the angle, is where picket's charge me to the ultimate -- met its ultimate culmination. when picket's then were advancing across the field -- when picket's men were advancing frontline field, the was the 75th pennsylvania and the other line was the 72nd pennsylvania. this is the monument to the 72nd pennsylvania. according to the rules in place when the monuments were first being located, the monument to the 72nd pennsylvania should have been located on the crest of the ridge. in fact, there is a monument to them back on the crest of the ridge. charge took as

larger part of the story, the minute the 72nd demanded that they be given a much more prominent part in that story. after all, when picket's men broke through here, it fell to the second line. the second mine of which the 72nd pennsylvania was a part. to seal that gap and to throw the confederate backout, and to push them toward seminary ridge. the 72nd pennsylvania charged into the ground, nancy went all the way up to the wall -- and actually went all the way up to the wall. the second part of the great charge of july 3 came from over in this direction. the direction over my left shoulder. if we were able to see it in the findistance, we would ourselves at the north monument.

the attack will get the name picket's charge, but it was two advances aimed at this location right here. the 72nd pennsylvania insisted that their role in this battle be given greater attention than the rules of the battlefield memorial association permitted. when the memorial association would not make an exception to allow the 72nd pennsylvania to move its monument closer to the wall, the veterans of the 72nd did the most american thing of all --they sued. it went through the courts, and finally, the court agreed that the veterans of the 72nd, they brought in veteran after veteran to submit testimony about the fact that the 72nd had moved toward. the talked about how they fought right at the stonewall. one soldier even remembered a soldier in his company by the name of bradley who was beaten to death with a club musket at

the stonewall. to movee been granted the money forthcoming it did not take a long time to figure out what an appropriate motif might be. what we see her on the top of the 72nd pennsylvania's monument soldier, theion greatest majority of the members of this regiment were under the age of 21. these were very young soldiers. he is wearing a slightly different uniform. he is wearing a uniform that was -- it was a modified version of what soldiers in french north africa might be wearing. it was something that really caught the fancy of an awful lot of volunteer units when they were just forming come and many of these young men had served together as firemen and philadelphia -- as firemen in philadelphia fire companies. here, on july 3, 1863, the --

that might've started in the second line came in contributed a great deal to victory in the first line. when the fighting was over, and they counted their casualties, they reached a rather stunning realization. even though most people come here and look at the field at picket's charge and think about the incredible loss of the attacking confederates, there was a great deal of loss attached to the successful defense. the 72nd pennsylvania would lose 50% of its men in ginsburg. -- in gettysburg. we are standing in front of the monuments that has become famous as the high water mark memorial. by any state here or component of the federal government. this was the brainchild of a gentleman.

he arrived at gettysburg. he was an officer and not an active-duty soldier. what he began to do almost immediately was to interview the wounded, the prisoners, anybody who could tell him what happened. he produced some of the first maps of the battlefield and helped put together a large painting of this battlefield and of a key toe kind explain what happened here. ultimately, that gettysburg battlefield association would appoint him as superintendent of tablets and legends, so the veterans who came here to build their monuments had to come through him in order to get the location they wanted. often times, he had different ideas about where the monument should go, and sometimes the veterans went away disappointed or angry, but he was a man who wanted to build this monument. entrepreneurof an and a historian. he wanted people to come to visit the battlefield, so he

attached a great deal of importance to a couple of comments that appear in in the northern -- that appeared in the northern newspapers after the war. the army of the potomac had not had much good fortune before gettysburg. they had lost at fredericksburg and down in the peninsula outside of richmond. they did not have too much to get excited about in the way of victory, but gettysburg changed all that. if you could go up to harrisburg and take a look at the newspaper headlines after the battle, that were veryms big deal and the north. especially after the war, journalists would point to gettysburg as the high water mark of a confederate effort as a turning point of the war. modern historians quibble with that of -- quibble with that a bit. but it has taken root and has

thrived despite historians' efforts to dispel that. a few things by doing it here. he wanted to use it as a way to help promote the spirit of national reunion. on the pages of the book, he salutes not just the union defenders of cemetery ridge, but the confederate assault forces they came over here and tried to bridge this line on july 3. makes him a little unusual that we are saluting both sides. even though the money for this monument mostly came from contributions from northern states, it is still a really eloquent tribute to the fact that both the north and the south were involved in this action. this monument was dedicated in 1892. there were a great number of veterans hear from both sides tchhelder encouraged the southerners to come back to

the battlefield. he hoped that monuments like this might convince southerners that the north was serious about the desire for national reunion. in later years, this would become one of the most visited monuments on the entire battlefield. in fact, when stephen vincent and he wrotem, about the battle of gettysburg, when he talked about its impact and express his desire that we do not forget about the importance of this battlefield, he remembered this monument and he wrote -- "picket came, the south came in the end came, and the grass comes in the wind blows, on the bronze book on the bronze men, on the grown grass, and the wind says come along ago, long ago."

tom: we are now in the soldier's national cemetery, cemetery which will be built after the battles, specifically to bear the union men. whoof 160,000 soldiers would fight in the three-day battle, 7700 would be killed outright in the fighting. over 30,000 soldiers would be wounded. one in seven would die within three weeks of being wounded. so, there is more dying to be done. andrew curtin, the governor of pennsylvania, decided that they needed a final resting place for the soldiers who fell in this battle, and so am a cemetery in thewas acquired national cemetery was established here. the soldier'sg in national cemetery in front of the soldier's national monument. it is the second oldest monument on the gettysburg battlefield.

the monument was dedicated in 1869. it helps us interpret the story. standing at the very top of the of thet is a statue genius of liberty. in her two hands she holds a sword representing war, and the other is all live branches, the classical symbol of peace -- and the other is olive branches, the classical symbol of peace. below the statue are 18 stars. a star for each other 18 loyal state of the union who had soldiers in this battle here at gettysburg. and then there are four statues surrounding the monument. we have a male figure sitting, resting his foot on a canon. this is war. this is the soldier. he is resting after the battle. and he is relating a story to the statute to his left, cleo,

the goddess of history. and he is telling you what happened here. and she is recording in her history book the things that the soldiers are telling her. and she is recorded the names of the dead. and then two other statues represent both peace and plenty. of war having finally brought he's the land -- the war finally brought peace to the land, and a gathering of the harvest, the abundance of the nation as a nation heals its wounds following the american civil war. and the laying of the cornerstone of the monument, one of the participants in the battle made some dedication remarks. and his name is all over howard -- oliver howard, commander of the 11th corp. "thesesaid this --

grounds have already been consecrated and are sacred from the memory of our brother and who live here and from the association with those remarkable men, mr. everett and mr. lincoln who gave tone did exercises of consecration to years ago. we had been called to lay the cornerstone of a monument. this monument is not a mere family record, not the simple of individual fame, and not the city to genius. it is raised to the soldier. it is a memorial of his life and of his noble death. and embraces a patriotic brotherhood of heroes in its inscriptions. unceasing herald of liberty and sacrifice." >>