I decided to take advantage of being in PA over the weekend and drove down to Gettysburg.  Maybe it’s just because I want it to be, but Gettysburg is still a powerful place; there’s a lot of cultural memory attached to those woods and fields.  The sheer desperation of the men involved is evident when one looks at the lay of the land and sees how the lines maneuvered.  The scene for Pickett’s Charge is particularly moving.  A line of men over a mile wide were marched, uphill, across open fields for 3/4 of a mile towards a well-fortified Union position.  This was, of course, a disaster.  It’s one thing to read about, but quite another to actually see the land in person.  To attempt such an advance with the technology available at the time would require desperation.  It’s sobering to think that men obediently marched into that sort of situation.

I was proud to find that some Ohio boys were involved too, at least in the initial skirmishes on Culp’s Hill.  My home state was still frontier country back then, and removed from the immediate fight over State’s Rights.  Yet some still fought and died for a cause in which they believed.

13 November, 2008 – The end.

12 November, 2008 – Minions

11 November, 2008 – Floatsam and jetsam.

28 October, 2008 – Nightstand again, and a new book.

23 October, 2008 – Meyer, Aaron Meyer.  Contractor 007, license to configure.

20 October, 2008  (Thaw fail!)

19 October, 2008  (Yay Turboprop!)

18 October, 2008  (Long drive in the 944)

16 October, 2008  (Stuck in Philly)

15 October, 2008  (M. C. Escher I’m not)

14 October, 2008  (A parking lot for Brian)

12 October, 2008  (I love turboprops, even if they’re noisy.)

09 October, 2008  (This is as much traffic as Maine gets.)