156 years ago today was the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg

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Revisit the Battlefield That Shaped America

"The Civil War was the most important event in American history, the crossroads of our being,” says documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, whose 1990 The Civil War won 40 major television and film honors. “And it was one hell of a crossroads. It really forces us to reflect about the meaning of four horrible years in our national life, where, in order to become a nation—we didn’t know it at the time—we needed to tear ourselves apart. In the Civil War, we come in contact with the greatest President we’ve ever had—Lincoln. We come closest to losing our country. If I had to pick the one site of the Civil War for kids to see, it would have to be Gettysburg, the greatest land battle ever fought in America.”

Envision the battlefield, ten miles from the Maryland border in Pennsylvania on July 1 to 3, 1863: Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, Peach Orchard, Culp’s Hill, and Cemetery Hill. At Gettysburg, at least 45,000 Americans were killed or injured—more than in any other Civil War conflict.

“Think of that,” says Burns. “Almost one percent of our American population lost. A difficult thing to communicate to kids. I think children are taught best indirectly.”

It is here that the Union crushed Robert E. Lee’s Rebels after his win at Chancellorsville two months earlier. Four months after Gettysburg, President Lincoln honored the Union fallen and redefined the war’s purpose with his stirring "Gettysburg Address." When the South fell, slavery was outlawed in every state.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/best-family-trips/gettysburg/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20190701::rid=00000000000594148660