Thread by @SteveSchmidtSES

158 years ago at this hour the largest artillery barrage in the history of the Western Hemisphere was underway in preparation for the Confederate Infantry Assault against the entrenched Union positions on top of Cemetery Ridge. (1)

At 2:00pm (est) 15,000 Confederate Soldiers stepped forward on a one mile uphill death march. They were a sea of humanity that spanned more than one mile across. Under the command of MG George Pickett the Confederate force had been ordered by Robert E Lee to smash the Union Lines

at the center. The Union Commander, General George Meade, had anticipated Lee’s attack and was ready. Within the next hours we will pass the exact moment of anniversary that denotes the high water mark of the Confederacy, the penetration of Union lines at the Bloody Angle. (3)

The Confederate assault was repulsed and entire units were completely annihilated. The war would go on for two more long years of killing but the dream of a North American autocratic slave nation died on that hill under a righteous rain of lead, metal and death. 50 years after

that day, on July 3, 1913 Confederate and Union veterans, old men, recreated the events of that day. Union veterans cheered on the old Confederates and when they reached the top of the ridge they embraced in a spirit of national reconciliation. All nations have their

myths and legends; America is no different. The American Civil War killed 750,000 people in a nation of 34 million. The myth of the “Lost Cause,” the idea that their was nobility, moral purpose and justification for a war fought in the name of slavery began at the surrender

ceremonies in Appomattox when the 8 times wounded hero of Little Round Top, BG Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin ordered the victorious Union Army to present arms and salute the defeated Confederates as they passed in review. The Country healed by expulcating itself from the causes of

the war; slavery by pretending it was about something else and that there was honor in the Southern cause. That great national lie was paid for by black Americans, they were written out of the story and consigned to live in a violent, racist, apartheid South for another 100 years

We have multitudes of unfinished business in this country around the issues of race and freedom because of our attachment to the myths of our forefathers. It is time to let them go and address our history with honesty; there is room for both pride and grief. Once again we

live in a time of danger, a time that requires moral clarity around what it is we face. Once again, in our land, we see the forces of bigotry, authoritarianism and oppression on the March. They call themselves Patriots. Beware.

Remember, it wasn’t until I/6/21 that the Confederate Battle flag finally breached the US Capitol. It’s our turn now, all of us, to stand on the line, at our times proverbial Cemetery Ridge and defend this American Republic from traitors to its’ democratic principles