Hallowed Ground

This September I spent a week in Gettybsurg, Pennyslvania.  It is my third visit there in 12 years.  When people ask me where I am going for vacation I say, "To the Holy Lands Gettysburg, Pennyslvania.  Each time I visit gettybsurf I find new places to visit and learn more about the pivotal battle of the Civil War.   Fifty thousand men and one woman was killed in that three day battle in July.  A million shots were fired.  The National Park service has kept the battle ground in great condition and is in the process of removing trees and brush so it will look like it did in 1863.  What I have written before is just a prelude to why I visit Gettysburg.  It is holy ground and just being on the battlefield and even in thetown I feel that holy ground.  Some sense in me vibrates with this battlefield.  I felt the same way on Omaha Beach.  It is as if the courage, fear, terror, pain, loss, and death has left an seen but felt presence.  I spent time just sitting and let the feeling come to me.  It helps me in my struggles as I reflect on the courage of those soldiers in that horrific battle.  I think of the belief those soldiers had for their cause.  I reflect on their faith in God.   I know at the very core of their ability to fight was they fought for their friends. I am enriched in my relatievely minor problems as I recall what those soldiers did in battle and why they did it  I am a reenacter and have givien many talks in schools and other groups.  I don't emphasize the "facts" but what it was they fought for and what it took to fight.  Soon I shall speak to a history class and I hoe toconvey how the Civil War is not over.  That passion, those beliefs, and even the hate for the enemy is still present.  By understanding what happened maybe we can reflect on our beliefs and see how powerful those feelings are in guiding our lives.  And I hope to show that we still have to heal the wounds and prejudice of the Civil War or as the South calls the war The War Between the States.  Bert Van Essen and Private Charles Houck who fought in the 54th Pennyslvania Company "A" whom I base my life as a Civil War soldier.