A Lesson from Gettysburg

I'll never forget watching an episode of the "Civil War" by Ken Burns and tears welling up in my eyes.  It was the third day of fighting at Gettysburg, in the afternoon of July 3, 1863.  Robert E. Lee chose a fellow Virginian, General George Pickett to organize an assault on the Union center.  Pickett's men had filed into the woods waiting for the signal to move over an open field leading up to Cemetery Ridge where the Union soldiers were located.  At a little after three, Pickett gave the order - "Up men and to your posts!"  Thirteen thousand men started out of the woods toward the stone wall on the ridge.  They were silent, forbidden to fire or to give the rebel yell until reaching the enemy.  A Union officer described..."more than half a mile their front extends, the arms of men, barrel and bayonet, gleam in the sun.  They move as with one soul, in perfect order, magnificent."  Another Union officer stated "it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw."  When the first southerners came within two hundred yards the Union soldiers opened fire.  Behind the stone wall eleven cannon and seventeen hundred guns went off at once.  "Arms, heads, guns and knapsacks were tossed into the air" one Federal officer said.  The Confederate soldiers reached the Union line at only one place.  The fighting was furious, men firing into each other's faces not five feet apart.  Men went down on hands and knees, some falling - legless, armless, headless.  Thousands of Confederate soldiers threw down their weapons and surrendered.  Others staggered back across the field.  Six thousand and five hundred men had fallen or been captured.  The entire battle at Gettysburg was bloody, 51,000 men were killed - 23,000 from the North and 28,000 from the South.

In 1913 a fiftieth anniversary reunion was held at Gettysburg.  Thousands of survivors swapped stories and looked up comrades for three days.  The climax was a reenactment of Pickett's Charge.  Spectators watched as Union veterans took their positions on Cemetery Ridge to await their old enemy.  The Confederate veterans crossed the field, not with rifles and bayonets but canes and crutches.  One photographer, Philip Myers, wrote "as they neared the northern line, they broke into one final, defiant rebel yell.  At the sound, after half a century of silence, a moan, a sigh, a gigantic gasp of unbelief rose from the Union men on Cemetery Ridge.  It was then that the Yankees, unable to restrain themselves any longer, burst from behind the stone wall, and flung themselves upon their former enemies...not in mortal combat, but re-united in brotherly love and affection."

What a powerful example of forgiveness.  But it is a minor one in comparison to what Jesus has done.  As we struggle with feeble attempts to practice love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Jesus runs toward us to encourage, support, and reunite us with God.  During this time of year for giving, remember and practice the greatest gift of all, forgiveness.

Doug Burns

Stephenville, Texas