Gettysburg, PA

This is a recreation of the post I wrote yesterday, but seems to have been lost forever in the ether of the internet.
Today I visited Gettysburg, and it was a dreary rainy day, which seems fitting for visiting a place that is the bloodiest patch of soil in North America. The somber mood was appropriate, but that meant that I was very soggy by the end of my "3-hour" car tour.
Some observations--
Gettysburg is a perfect example of why the South lost the Civil War. Although Robert E. Lee is clearly a tactical (battlefield) genius, he did not have the strategic vision that George Washington had. In this regard Lee was North America's Hannibal or Napoleon. Washington himself never won a battle (unless you count the raid on Princeton) until Yorktown. However, he understood the political nature of the conflict, he had to outlast the British.
Lee saw the Civil War in very simplistic terms, he saw it as a military conflict, to be won or lost on the battlefield. However, this meant that a loss on the battlefield, unlike the Romans at Cannae (who lost more men in one day at that battle than Lee ever did), was devastating to Southern fortunes. In fact, I have read a book pointing out that the real drain on southern manpower was not the devastating hammering they were taking at the hands of U.S. Grant, but the tens of thousands of letters from desperate housewives, begging their husbands to return home, a la Cold Mountain.
These men wouldn't have skeddadled on home if they believed victory was just around the corner, however, this is the real key to the battle of Gettysburg, as you see the various exhibits and monuments, one get's a real sense that it was the Colonels and Lieutenants, the Middle Management if you will, of the Union Army that won the battle. In fact, there were numerous cases of imminent disaster for the North staved off by the brave action of this junior officer or that Regimental Commander. It was the brave Union defense and fortification of Cemetary Ridge, Big and Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, etc... that really gave the victory to the Union. Not that Meade was a bad commander, although, somewhat unimaginative, but that the Union was able to survive some serious bungling on the top of its high Command (General Sickles), and still win the battle.
However, when Lee made mistakes (the so-called "so-called Pickett's Charge"), the Southern cause was doomed, however, when Sickles stepped out into the Wheat Field it was a tragic mistake that did not really effect the outcome of the battle. This is really due to the two different theories of society, the North embracing the ideals of Democratic capitilism, and the South the idea of a landed aristocracy.
Other observations--
The Eternal Peace Memorial set up in the farther Northwest corner of the battlefield is surrounded by cannons which are pointing out, ready to defend the Peace Memorial against all comers. Contrast this with the Peace Memorial I saw in a TV show about El Salvador, where tanks and AK-47s had been covered by cement so that they could never be used again.
Okay, so where is it that you can see the flag of an armed rebellion against an elected, legitimate, and current government of a country displayed on a t-shirt with the slogan "Never Tear Me Down." All this for sale in the section of souvenir store entitled, in large letters for all to see, "All Things Patriotic." Keep in mind that this flag stands for racial apartheid and slavery.
The Gettysburg Museum is a treasure trove of Civil War artifacts, particularly weaponry, and I remember as a child, visiting and being overawed by the exhibits. As an adult, I was duly impressed, but equally aware of the somewhat decrepit state of the building. In fact, Eisenhower himself probably visited the Museum in its current state.
This brings me to my last point. The Eisenhower home near Gettysburg is a wonderful Cold War Era site, where you can see a modern home used by a president. On display are gifts from all sorts of countries, including vodka from Nikita Kruschev. The tour guide, who was good if not eccentric, made great mention of the Suez Crisis. Isn't it amazing to think about a Republican president who asked England and France not to get involved in a war in the Middle East?