Gettysburg Connection
As one member of the group explained to a group of curious Boy Scouts, “You are the first people since the day Mr. Lincoln gave his speech to see exactly where the president stood to deliver that speech.”
That insight is the result of a decade’s work by former Disney animator and Lincoln buff Christopher Oakley, his “New Media” students at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, advanced software that allowed a fresh look at six photographs taken the day of Lincoln’s speech, a variety of high tech tools, and the street smarts of civil war, photography, and technology experts.
Oakley had announced his findings the previous day at the Lincoln Forum conference at the Wyndham Hotel. Previous “guesses” about the location included the site of the present-day Henry Bush Brown Lincoln monument near the rostrum, the site of the present-day Soldiers’ National Monument, and various locations in Evergreen Cemetery. In recent years, a rough consensus emerged that the speaker’s platform was located somewhere in Evergreen Cemetery, probably near the present-day fence. Investigate
BookTV aired Professor Oakley’s presentation yesterday and it’s wonderful, well worth your time. Using just six photographs taken from four different locations that day, Oakley was able to exactly pinpoint where Lincoln had to have stood to give the greatest speech in American history. Start at the 2:00 mark if you want to skip the introductions. Watch
If you like history, mystery and the application of modern technology to reveal amazing truths you’re going to really enjoy this presentation.
YAWN
“that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”,,, I have some bad news for you President Lincoln.
Interesting.
H. L. Mencken who was considered one of the most influential writers of the first half of the 20th century was quite impressed with the simple and concise oratory of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. However, he was very unimpressed with the substance of the speech as noted in the excerpt below from one of his books (add https to the link address).
://faithandheritage.com/2012/07/h-l-mencken-on-abraham-lincoln-and-the-gettysburg-address/
But let us not forget that it is oratory, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it! Put it into the cold words of everyday! The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination — “that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i. e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle an absolutely free people; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and vote of the rest of the country—and for nearly twenty years that vote was so effective that they enjoyed scarcely any freedom at all. Am I the first American to note the fundamental nonsensicality of the Gettysburg address? If so, I plead my aesthetic joy in it in amelioration of the sacrilege.
“Four sore & seven queers ago…”
-Pete Butiigieg
Shoot. I thought his address was somewhere on Main Street. (local joke!)
But seriously Gettysburg is an awesome place to visit, and it’s especially beautiful in the morning dew and fog…you can almost hear the ancient rumble of marching and the rattle of artillery.
“the greatest speech in American history”
That’s debatable….
Start the debate, name better and how it communicated it’s core message in fewer words. – Dr. Tar
Fuck off, Doc John!
Worst President ever!
If you ever go to Gettysburg, walk into the Union guns from the copse of trees right down the center, or climb the hill out of Devils Den.
Now imagine it with guys firing 50 and 75 caliber weapons at your face at close range and cannons whickering canister and fragmenting ordinace at you as fast as hardened veteran crews could cycle them.
Holy Shit, those guys had balls.
…but CW2 isn’t going to be done in uniforms and files, it will be low intesity guerilla warfare and will never be over unless and until the Lord comes back, and even then satans minions in the US government will try to fight even Him, as they always have done. It won’t be fought over territory, it will be fought with starvation and disposession as its sharpest tools, with the civilians being hardest hit by Goverment cowards burning whole cities instead of actually fighting, a precident set during the First American Civil War by Sherman and Sheridan. Fighters in the field will be distracted by the imprisonment and rape and murder of their wives and children.
And you’ll hear nothing but lies about it, if you hear anything at all.
Kind of like now.
The difference being that the government has much better weapons and much better surveillance, and far more willingness to kill entire populations with bioweapons and poisons that would make even “Unconditional Surrender” Grant blanch.
CW2 started quite some time ago.
And it will be much, much worse than the first one.
I say build a monument there and have antifa beta males wearing man buns tear it down bc Lincoln was racist or something.
It straddles a private cemetery so arrangements would have to be made with a number of families. – Dr. Tar
The Gettysburg Address is the best speech in American history because in under 280 words Lincoln summed up all of our history to that point and the direction the nation would take after the Civil War.
“Our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
“that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom”
You can easily memorize and recite the whole thing to any leftist screaming “Black Lives Matter” in your face to remind them of the ideals this country was founded upon and blood spilled to keep those promises.
Dr. Tar, you are correct in the quality and conciseness of the speech, if not the honesty. But we will never see its like again for at least two reasons.
One, people are not taught quailty written communications skills any more. If it can’t be boiled down to OMG or LOL, the kids aren’t going to read it. TL/DNR isn’t JUST for things I write, it’s for pretty much ANYTHING that is longer than 140 characters or a TikTok video.
Two, there is no interest in, or even possiblity of, reconciliation at this point. If the CW were fought the same way now, Lincoln’s speech would have been more along the lines of we must hallow their blood by continuing until no person who does not think as we do is left alive, and so that people who do not recognize the supremacy of the Federal Goverment MUST be made to perish from this Earth.
THAT is more along the lines of the speech that would be given NOW.
They are not even interested in pretending any more.
Nor would they be convincing in doing so even if they tried.
Subjugation and control of State’s Rights by the now all powerful Federal Government.
Thank you for posting this Dr. Tar.
I’m a technical nerd and this was full of technical accomplishments to arrive at a precise conclusion.
Worthy of a doctoral thesis.