History Lesson On Trump's Visit To Gettysburg
by Sarah McCammon NPR | Oct. 23, 2016 12:48 p.m.
... “A hundred and sixty-two years ago, in a place called the Wilderness, right here in Virginia, the entire center of the rebel line was collapsing,” State Sen. Frank Wagner said ... attempting to inspire the crowd to vote for Trump by telling them about Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, who refused to give up as the Union Army drove to break the Confederate line: “He ran to the sound of the gunfire” ...
“That’s an amazing metaphor, isn’t it,” said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College .. who was attending a conference for Christian historians on the Regent University campus.
Fea noted that Pickett’s Charge — a last-ditch effort by the Confederate Army at the end of a losing battle — could be seen as an unfortunate symbolic choice.
“It was a big-time slaughter, but that was their only chance of getting out of Gettysburg alive with a victory,” Fea said. “That’s pretty much what Trump’s trying to do right now, right?” ...
http://www.opb.org/news/series/election-2016/npr-a-civil-war-history-lesson-on-trumps-visit-to-gettysburg/