The Carnage of War:
Gettysburg, by Stephen W. Sears
As of this writing we've been sickened and horrified by many weeks of images coming out of Ukraine. Photos of dead civilians – children and pregnant women – leave us upset and wondering how a superpower like Russia can justify such actions. Many call for military response from NATO countries, but the specter of an engagement that would escalate to nuclear warfare advises caution in that regard.
An army makes an excursion (military exercise?) into enemy territory and engages the home forces in a three-day battle. In 1863 General Robert E. Lee boldly took his Confederate army into Pennsylvania. Union General George G. Meade, Lincoln's latest pick to command his army (in a string of disappointments) confronted the invaders at the town of Gettysburg, resulting in the bloodiest encounter of the Civil War.
In his book Gettysburg, Stephen Sears exhaustively lays out in detail (he uses 600 pages to tell the story of the 3-day ordeal) the personalities and strategies on both sides and gives scope to the massive carnage on both sides... over 7,000 deaths for the two sides combined and over 40,000 more wounded (losing mountains of amputated limbs); not to mention the thousands of horses and mules that perished.
Even with the horrendous casualty figures, and with an inhabited town in the middle of the whole thing, only one civilian was reported killed – sadly, a 20-year-old woman who was baking bread in her kitchen and was hit by a single bullet that tore through two doors and into her heart.
Compare that one civilian loss during that battle to the over 1,000 citizens who have died in four weeks of Russian-initiated terror (200 or so of those being children), and you have to stand in awe at how much more savage the human species has become in the 170 years that separate the two events.
Oh, and, yeah, let's throw a punch at a televised awards ceremony because a comedian is clueless to our wife's health condition. That shows our civilized progression, too.
Peace to all, and grab a book instead of a gun.
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