Statues and Stories, Part 1
"It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another." -- Joss Whedon, from the episode "Jaynestown" of Firefly
"When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy." -- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, from Unkempt Thoughts
It began ostensibly with a statue. The sorry events that culminated in the death of Heather Heyer from behind the wheel of James Alex Fields, Jr.'s car began with the proposal to take down a statue of Robert E. Lee from the town square of Charlottesville, Virginia. The weekend of that riot, my husband and I were attending a science fiction convention in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Much of the inspiration for that specific television show came from show writer and creator Joss Whedon having read a Civil War-based novel called The Killer Angels. One of the convention acticvities included a trip to the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Park, a place well seeded with memorials and monuments to both the Union and Confederate dead.
The tour included commentary from our guide, Bob Prosperi, who spent the greater part of 30 years with the Parks Department caretaking the burden of the legacy of that war which has never really ended in the minds of many. According to Mr. Prosperi, there are far more memorials to the Union dead than to the Confederate because of a list of qualifications that merit a monument for that site, a key point being how much time any given division spent time at any one place on that battlefield during the series of engagements that lasted three days. Gettysburg was a defensive moment for the Union. A defending army tends to stay put; an offensive army is on the move. The Union army managed to establish positions on higher ground and stay there, successfully weathering the offense.
Our guide took us on a chronological trip around the battlefield, starting with the first staging areas for the first day's fighting. There is no spot on these grounds where there is no memorial to some division or other. From our first spot to get off the bus, Mr. Prosperi spoke of the troop movements that first gathered toward Cashtown, but then gravitated to Gettysburg. The second of these pictures was the view toward Cashtown in the distance.
Near this spot, a large monument sponsored by the veterans of both sides still living was erected on the 75th anniversary of the battle. This is a monument dedicated to remembrance and reconciliation, with a symbolic eternal flame of peace at its pinnacle.
Our bus then took us behind the Confederate lines to a series of raised markers along the road that runs behind the line of trees that was the starting point for the various Confederate divisions. Markers for the divisions from each state dot that road at precise intervals. We dismounted the bus to see one impressive piece dedicated to the men of North Carolina. This commission was given to Gutzon Borglum, the man who would later go on to complete the presidential monument of Mount Rushmore.
Our bus then circled the monument to Virginia, one with General Robert E. Lee on horseback, before we continued on our way to Little Round Top, where we would dismount one more time. There was no way to get a good shot from a moving bus, so this is from a public site.
This is a distant view of Little Round Top from the North Carolina monument.
It was at Little Round Top that the 20th Maine commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain held off a Confederate advance at the end of the Union line by charging downhill with bayonets when they ran out of ammunition. There is a statue near the summit of Little Round Top, dedicated to Chief Engineer Gouverneur K. Warren and the Union Signal Corps. Warren realized this high ground needed defending and made sure there were men in place who could. The Devil's Den had to be a source of anxiety as Confederate sharpshooters took aim from behind it.
