On this day 150 years ago, the mostly costly battle in terms of American casualties in the Civil War ended in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After three days of brutal fighting in the fields and the streets of that town, the consequences of the battle begin to emerge; nearly 50,000 casualties on both sides were dead, wounded or missing.
The importance of Gettysburg was understood immediately following the battle, but it wasn’t until President Lincoln’s address during the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery that the legacy of the struggle was cemented for all time, as this video explains:
There are a lot of retrospectives on the battle to mark the 150th anniversary. Here are a few:
- The Smithsonian Magazine has put together a robust interactive map to literally see the Gettysburg in a new way
- Army Lt. Colonel Robert Bateman, a historian in his own right, has been immersed in a deep dive in the daily goings on in Gettysburg for Esquire
- Over at The Atlantic, Iraq Veteran Brian Mockenhaupt takes a look at how The Civil War was a time when Americans were viscerally connected with the violence of war, and how that has changed today
- Richmond Times-Dispatch photographer Zach Gibson captured some incredible images of the Gettysburg reenactment over the weekend
- For more photos, the Atlantic Wire has collected great images from Gettysburg, then and now