This photograph, taken in July 1863, is of General Meade's (Union Army) headquarters, just after the battle. The view is looking north along the Taneytown Road in Gettysburg, PA. The present National Park Visitor Center (built in 1920) is currently located at the top of the hill behind the small house, in what would be the far background of this view of the battlefield. The National Park Service realizes that non- historic structures, including these visitor facilities and parking lots, obviously do not belong on hallowed ground. That's one of the main reasons they want to remove the modern buildings and build a new visitor center on less storied land.
The photo (below) was taken just after the battle of the Union dead on the Gettysburg Battlefield. These are just some of the men President Lincoln referred to in his Gettysburg Address. Over 900 Union casualties occurred on the exact location now occupied by the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center and Cyclorama Center. This main battle line should not have been developed, any more than a Visitor Center would ever be right on Omaha Beach (where the WWII D-Day invasion occurred). It's time the battlefield should finally be restored!
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� July 14,1861Camp Clark, Washington DC �Dear Sarah: The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt. Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us. If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name... Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been!... But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again...
Sullivan Ballou was killed a
week later at the 1st Battle of Bull Run.
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