Forever Here Now

Part one of this series: New Year's Day 

Part two: Sach's Covered Bridge

Part three: Gettysburg National Cemetery

Forever Here Now

there are so many

monuments to fallen men

markers of the dead

groups from near and far

they left their homes and families

to fight for ideals

they killed and were killed

on these rocks and in these fields

the tens of thousands

we erected stones

hunks of granite and marble

stood against the sky

they stand as markers

so many they make us numb

and lose all meaning

troops and generals

fallen from so many states

remembered in stone

sentries that don't see

the ghosts that gather around

forever here now

Often it's the simple things that have the greatest impact. This is a grave stone inside the National Cemetery. The elaborate monuments of generals and angels and the exquisite architecture of the bigger memorials didn't have the impact on me as this small, simple stone. Two words and a number. 

Gettysburg Battlefield in Autumn: Part 5-The Power of the Monuments

Part 1 "Fog" is here.

Part 2 "Nature" is here.

Part 3 "Roads & Paths" and "Self Portraits" is here.

Part 4 "Monuments & Graphic Design" is here.

I've waited to do this post till now because it was by far the hardest to edit. I've looked at these images every day since I took them, letting them sink into my subconscious in the hopes that choosing the ones that have the highest impact would be easier.  It helped a little.  Without further stalling...

Gettysburg Battlefield in Autumn: Part 4-Design Elements of the Monuments

Part 1 "Fog" is here

Part 2 "Nature" is here

Part 3 "Self Portraits & Roads and Paths" is here

Today starts the two-part post on the monuments themselves. Today will be more about the graphic design qualities of some of the monuments at Gettysburg and or my resulting photographs. Tomorrow will be more about what the monuments represent.

The Gettysburg Battlefield in Winter (part 2)

Where I continue the photographs from a winter photo shoot on the Gettysburg Battlefield...

Many of the photos were taken along "Cemetery Ridge".  I may not have my historical facts exact here so if you are a history buff and I screw this up, please let me know (kindly) in the comments.  

The culmination of the Battle of Gettysburg is known as "Picket's Last Charge".  The two sides faced each other across huge fields.  The lines of infantrymen and cannons ran parallel to each other.  (The whole thing reminds me of some terrible version of Red-Rover on a grand and sadistic scale.)  The Union Army was along a ridge to the east (now "Cemetery Ridge" and littered with monuments and memorials) while the Rebel Forces were in a line to the west with the woods as cover.  Picket and his men charged across the fields between the two armies.  We're talking a sea of bodies coming up out of the woods and across the wide expanse of fields like a human wave.  

Because the Union Army controlled the higher ground they had the tactical advantage.  They mowed the Southern Forces down with cannon shot and gun shot.  And yet, they just kept coming until there were no more to charge.  This battlefield was literally a blood soaked, body strewn mess when the smoke cleared.  I don't know the total number of casualties for that battle only to say that it was in the tens of thousands.  I can't wrap my brain or my soul around carnage on a small scale, never mind something like this. 

I hope these photographs convey even a small part of the feelings this place gives me.  Thanks for looking.

I think 17 years was too long to go between visits to this sad, beautiful place.  I think I'll make plans to come back in the spring.