White paper with typed black text

OBEDIENCE TO DUTY We meet at Gettysburg upon the battlefield hallowed for all time on the first three days of July, 1863, by the blood and valor of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was captained by General Robert E. Lee and fought for Southern independence, and the Army of the Potomac, which was commanded by General George G. Meade and fought for the preservation of the Union. We meet here to dedicate a beautiful “Memorial to the Army and Navy of the Confederate States of America.” This monument was designed by the gifted sculptor, Donald DeLue, and was erected at this spot by the eleven Confederate States, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, and the three Border States, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, in remembrance of their sons who fought for the Confederacy in countless engagements on land and sea and now rest in peace on Fame’s eternal camping ground. These fourteen states were persuaded to unite in this undertaking by members of various patriotic organizations, such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who are devoted to the truth that nothing so strengthens the nation as reading the nation’s history, whether that history is recorded in books or inscribed upon monuments. The Gettysburg Battlefield affords an altogether appropriate site for this memorial. This is so because of the heroism displayed and the losses suffered by the soldiers of the South in the most celebrated battle of the War Between the States. The Battle Gettysburg was brought about by Lee’s daring invasion of the North, which marked the heyday of the Confederacy. Lee had defeated the armies of McClelland, Pope, Burnside, and Hooker in succession in defending Virginia against invasion. To be sure, the Confederacy paid an agonizing price for Lee’s defeat of Hooker at Chancellorsville a few weeks before Lee marched northward when Lee’s matchless lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson, suffered accidental wounds which necessitated the amputation of his left arm and caused his death a few days later. Lee bestowed upon his wounded lieutenant the supreme accolade when he states that Jackson “has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.” The invasion of the North by the Army of Northern Virginia was prompted by diplomatic and political considerations as well as by the military consideration that final victory seldom adorns the banners of an army which restricts its activities to defensive operations. It was this military consideration, however, that explains and justifies Lee’s conduct of the Battle of Gettysburg. The battle began somewhat expectedly on the morning of July 1, 1863, when Heth’s division of A.P. Hill’s corps and Buford’s Federal troopers clashed on the roads northwest of the Town of Gettysburg. Both sides were soon reinforced, and a furious fight developed between the Confederate corps of Hill and Ewell and the Federal First and Eleventh Corps. The fight lasted until dark when the Confederates drove the shattered Federal forces onto the heights south of Gettysburg.

• Keywords: gettysburg; battlfield; education; virtual experience; photography; monuments; memorials