File:34. North Carolina Monument Dedication Program July 3, 1929 Page 05 (0ff77573-9d8b-4fa8-ac03-9ce1f2c7ed37).jpg

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The amalgam which symbolizes our American character and destiny. Here was written a new amendment to our Constitution – an amendment which although fiercely debated for fifty years could not be agreed upon, but which was here destined to be written into the Constitution in the crimson of the best blood of the land. What is and will ever be an inspiration to all who ponder these fields, whose fertility is enhanced by the effusion of their blood, is the quality of the men who engaged here in a battle, the immediate strategic result of which was not apparent at the time, but which was, nevertheless, in its final results, one of the most decisive in history. It is inspiring to reflect that those who in the famous charge carried the assault at the point of the bayonet, and those who received the shock, equally shed immortal lustre [sic] and renown upon the name of America. The infantry of Lee that could march through the valley of death almost with the precision of a dress parade were men who, a short while before, had come from the farms and villages of the rural South. Their ways and their lives had been those of peace. They were without martial training or ambition. Yet these horsemen of Stuart, the famous foot cavalry of Jackson, Lee’s incomparable infantry,” had performed miracles in battle greater than those which Napoleon called forth from the professional soldiers composing his “old guard,” and the men who, behind the stone walls of Cemetery Ridge could watch without wavering the oncoming hosts of Pickett’s and Pettigrew’s immortal divisions; who could endure for hours what was till then the greatest artillery duel ever staged, and bear it unflinchingly, also possessed those qualities of intrepid courage which have characterized the American soldier from the days of the Revolution to the days of the World War. Whence came the power inherent in these unschooled troops to perform brilliant marches, to carry out deadly charges, to interpose the stubborn and courageous defenses that illumine the records of both sides in the epochal struggle? Surely from nothing less than the morale which springs from a deep conviction of the righteousness and justice of their cause; which is concerned no so much with the quarrel as with the principle; and which follows a belief and sanctifies a faith to final sacrifice. To such men handicaps became an incentive; courage became their creed, and death their accolade. It was at once the pit and the glory of those days of the Southern and Northern soldiers – Americans all – a sense of duty that could not be reconciled except on such a field as this of Gettysburg. Such, my countrymen, were men who struggled and died here. It is the advantage of an occasion like this, where we are met to commemorate a great record of valour [sic], that we can renew and refresh our faith in our common ancestry, whose devotion to their cause brought them into this fierce combat. This idea was well expressed by that great and impartial journal, The London Spectator, a few years ago, when it said: It is now over a half a century since the last shot was fired in the most desperate war in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. Nowadays we see that great struggle in clearer perspective, and we can judge the causes for which the combatants fought with some reasonable perception of their value to mankind. But the chief interest of the war lies in the fact that it was a genuine conflict of idealisms, fervently held and loyally followed by both sides. No struggle has been grimmer and yet none has been less stained by the darkest passions of war. So, sixty-six years ago, this great battle came to pass, much in the manner of a thunderstorm, beginning with intermittent flashes of lightning and the rumble of distant thunder. From Bethel to Gettysburg the fight rage on – even from Sumter to fateful Appomattox, which marked the end. Viewing the four years’ struggle from any standpoint, Gettysburg attracts and holds our attention. It was here

• Keywords: Gettysburg; Gettysburg National Military Park; Photography; monuments; memorials; virtual experience; battlefield