It’s been a century and a half since the beginning of one of the (if not the) most consequential battles of American (and indeed, world) history. It was the beginning of the end for the southern cause, particularly after Grant took Vicksburg the day after the end of the battle, cutting the south in two and freeing him up to come east command the army that would eventually become the greatest the world had known up to that time.
[Update later morning]
Some thoughts from George Will.
The battle is also a sharp rebuke to those who claim that violence never solves anything. Ultimately, it solved slavery in America.
America fought three wars to end slavery: the American Civil War, the Second Word War, and the Cold War. Europeans needed two wars to teach them that slave labor was bad. Right up to the end, Euros defended socialism and its slave labor camps.
Well, according to Dorris Kearns Goodwin’s speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of the battle, it was mostly about Dorris Kearns Goodwin, Bobby Kennedy, gay marriage, and dancing with Lyndon Johnson, and the advance of progressive causes.
A Few Inappropriate Remarks at Gettysburg