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Showing posts from December, 2024

Harvest of Death and the Ghoul of Gettysburg: The Little Known Tragedy Behind the Aftermath of the Civil War's Greatest Battle

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  When thinking about the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg--the largest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere--most of us can easily conjure up images of row upon row of white headstones laid out in perfect symmetry.   Many of us, if we think about the battle at all, may think of Victorian Era martial monuments made out of granite or marble, or of brass cannon and wooden fences scattered across lush Pennsylvania farmland.  And of course all of us learned as elementary school students, and we are always reminded whenever Gettysburg is mentioned, of President Abraham Lincoln and his famous address which he gave on the site of the battle in November of 1863 only a mere four months after the guns had fallen silent. But there is a more grisly and horrific side to the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, aside from monuments, orderly cemeteries and Abraham Lincoln that few, if any of us, ever think about  today.  However, the horror of the after...