GDG- Gettysburg Memoir

Mon Nov 19 16:26:02 CST 2007

Sam

Enjoyed your memoir.  However, South the "bad guys".  That sounds familiar but juxtapositioned since I'm originally from Louisiana.

Doc C.

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> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:53:18 -0800
> From: historyfreak618 at yahoo.com
> To: gettysburg at arthes.com
> Subject: GDG- Gettysburg Memoir
> 
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> 
> 
> What follows is a memoir which I wrote for my high school English class. I wanted to post this so people can understand the profound impact that Gettysburg has on people. My plan is to submit this is a state-wide writing contest, and any input you have as scholars is greatly appreciated.
> 
>   “In Great Deeds, Something Abides”
>               Unable to stand the dinner-time silence I brought up the recent “hot topic” on the Gettysburg Discussion Group. There had been heated discussion concerning a certain part of the battle, and what had really happened there. My dad took the lead, becoming a professor in a lecture hall, with me as his pupil. He led the lecture, with me chirping in every now and then with the information I knew. Quietly, my mom left the table, leaving my dad and me alone. My dad and I frequently debate, talk, and lecture each other about history. This is what my dad and I do for fun, it’s how we get into each other’s heads and learn how the other is thinking. None of this debate and intellectual discussion would be possible, had it not been for a family trip to a battlefield in Pennsylvania known as Gettysburg. 
>               I knew little of the battle itself. I knew that a man by the name of Joshua Chamberlain fought there, and that he was from Maine. I knew it was a battle fought between the North and the South, Union Blue and Confederate Grey. The American Civil War was a battle fought between the good and righteous North against the “bad guys” of the South. Over the years my knowledge has slowly increased. I can name more commanders, and can tell you what Joshua Chamberlain did before, during, and after Gettysburg. I still have a lot more to learn, and consider myself only an amateur. But at the time of my first trip, with my meager knowledge, I felt that I was a great Civil War historian, like James McPherson.
>               The car drive down to Gettysburg was long for me. Any seven year old forced to stay strapped in with a seatbelt would be restless for a five hour drive to a hotel in New York. It felt like an eternity. (As a child, time seems to last forever. Weeks seem like years and years like centuries. Today, my life passes too quickly. I’m just getting over from waking up, when I have to go back to sleep. Life should be called sleeping with brief moments of being awake.)
>               Upon arriving at the battlefield, I was awed. Large stone obelisks and soldiers waged a war of silence with men cast in bronze. In some ways I felt like an intruder, like I was walking where I shouldn’t and at any moment the Earth would swallow me whole. To this day that feeling still haunts me as I wander across the battlefield. It’s hard to explain, like the eyes of those who fought there years ago still gaze upon the visitors. The land was rolling with pockets of dense woods. Roads intersected and crossed the battlefield, carrying cars and people around it. Any given person was the typical tourist, a map in hand and a camera dangling around their necks. I doubt that many were able to fully comprehend what had happened on the land they were standing on.
>               Walking and driving around the battlefield, my dad was our tour guide. He answered any and all questions my mom and I had. He had a certain sense of excitement when he walked and spoke. He was like a young boy at Christmas, overjoyed by all the eye candy before him. I hung onto every word he said. I wanted to be able to fluently speak this knowledge. It seemed to be like a second language for him. It came effortlessly. I knew a little about my father’s love for history, but at Gettysburg it became ever more apparent at how deep it was. What also became apparent for me was my love of history, and how my dad and I connected.  And finally, at the end of the day, we reached Little Round Top, where Joshua Chamberlain fought on the second day of the historic battle. 
>               I had mixed feelings, I was enthralled and disappointed. For some reason I pictured this place to have people fighting the battle day after day as if they were stuck in another dimension like the Twilight Zone. But still, I was on Little Round Top, where the feet of Joshua Chamberlain had graced the Earth. We made our way to the monument dedicated to the Mainers who fought for the ground on which I walked. Soon the monument came into view. It was small, squat, obelisk in shape, with all the names of men that served under Joshua Chamberlain. It sat upon one of the large rocks that were common in the area. I stood there, at my young age, trying to imagine what it would have been like back in 1863. It was hard for me. My trance was broken for a “photo op”. With this being the highlight of our trip we couldn’t leave without a photo. My dad and I clambered on top of the rock. I sat with one long, outstretched leg, my dad with one leg on the rock. With a quick
>  “cheese,” the photo was snapped. Little did I know at the time, we would return to this place several times with similar pictures being taken each time. Nor did I know the profound impact the trip would have on me.
>               As the years passed by and I got older, my interest in history deepened. I dove into books about the topic, watched documentaries, and played more simulation games. I also noticed that my love of history was a way for my dad and me to bond. We did not have to set aside “father, son” time. Our father, son time was whenever history came up, whether it was dinner, watching a baseball game, or playing a simulation game. We would debate which general was better, which army was better, and many other things. And from night to night the topics could vary greatly. One night we could be discussing the North Africa Campaign of WWII and the next night we might be talking about General McClellan during the American Civil War. My dad and I have taken fantastic trips to Gettysburg, where we’ve had the chance to meet battlefield guides and a professor of history from Penn. State. Some fathers and their sons bond during Sunday Night Football, but my dad and I bonded on a
>  small rock, on a little hill in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 
>   
> Thanks,
> Sam Chatto
> 
>        
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