Gettysburg Rocks Cursed?

Steal a rock from Gettysburg and risk the curse
The Washington Post
By Linda Wheeler
Published: July 10, 2016

South Mountain rises in the distance behind the Gettysburg Monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield , which contains broad fields where Union and Confederate troops clashed during one of the most critical turning points in the Civil War.
GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK

National Civil War parks usually don't discuss theft from battlefields for fear it will encourage more of the same. However, the most recent post on the blog of the Gettysburg National Military Park has changed that by publicizing the theft of rocks because those illegal souvenirs may be cursed.

The boxes of rocks have shown up in the mail for many years according to a park official. The blog says the packages are usually addressed just to the park without any department or person noted. There is rarely a return address. Sometimes a note is enclosed.

Two of those notes were included in the blog, both of them claiming lives had been ruined because of a long-ago visit to Gettysburg and what was then considered an innocent picking up of a stone or two.

Two months ago, an unnamed man returned three small stones that he and his wife had picked up 10 or 11 years ago.
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Gettysburg Soldier and Two Vietnam Soldiers, 3 New Medal of Honor Heroes

Obama to award 3 Medals of Honor
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad
Published: August 26, 2014
3 minutes ago

President Barack Obama will award the Medal of Honor to two soldiers who served in Vietnam and one who distinguished himself in the battle of Gettysburg, the White House announced Tuesday.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins and Army Spc. 4 Donald P. Sloat will be honored Sept. 15 for their conspicuous gallantry.

Adkins deployed to Vietnam three times. During his second deployment, in March of 1966, he was a sergeant first class with Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces.

Adkins displayed "extraordinary bravery" during a sustained and vicious attack by the Vietcong from March 9 to March 12, 1966, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. said in 2013.

Rogers spoke about Adkins' actions in asking Congress to pass a bill allowing the president to award him the Medal of Honor.

Adkins had been recommended by his command for the Medal of Honor but received a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions, which included running through exploding mortar rounds while wounded to drag several of his fellow soldiers to safety, Rogers said.

Adkins retired from the Army after serving 22 years and will travel to Washington from his home in Alabama to receive the medal, the White House said.

Sloat was a machine gunner with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, when he was killed in Vietnam in 1970.

Sloat’s squad was on a patrol near Hawk Hill Fire Base on Jan. 17, 1970 when one of the soldiers triggered a grenade booby trap in their path, the White House said. Sloat picked up the grenade, intending to throw it away, but realizing it was about to explode, instead used his body to shield three fellow soldiers from the blast, the White House said.

Sloat’s brother, William Sloat of Enid, Oklahoma, will accept the medal on his brother’s behalf.
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Healing war fighters is the next great task remaining before us

Healing war fighters is the next great task remaining before us
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 19, 2013

Today the speech from President Lincoln honoring the fallen in the Gettysburg Address will be repeated, but there is a special section in it that we really need to focus on.

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."
(Gettysburg Address)

Historians can figure out how many, or close to it, died on the battlefield in every war this nation has had, but the truth is, none of them can even come close to how many we lost because of the battlefield.

They will never know how many committed suicide because we failed to bind their wounds inside of their bodies.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

The Civil War: The Gettysburg Address

The Civil War: The Gettysburg Address
Ken Burns

The Gettysburg Address

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Learn the Address

Commitment to veterans

Veterans always seem to want to "fit back in with society" but the truth is, they never did. There was always something different about them. They were always wanting to do more than others did. The proof of this is in the top five jobs they seek when they come out of the military. Their number on choice is law enforcement to protect society. Number two is firefighting, yet again, to protect society. Then comes emergency responders, medical professions and teaching. All of these are jobs done for the sake of others and not self serving like the rest of us. We depend on people like them everyday.

Yesterday I was talking to a veteran of today's wars. He said how he had a time fitting back in. I asked him why he would want to and then asked him to think about what he was like before he got into the military. Sure enough, he noticed that he was always different from his friends. Oh, by the way, he's still in the Reserves.

Expecting them to be what they are not, it is easy for us to just tell them to get over it and live normal lives. Do we really want them to do that? Isn't that why they were willing to risk their lives in the first place? Do we really expect a National Guardsman to be like the rest of us when a storm destroys everything? Do we expect them to stay home and just take care of their own families and property? No, we expect them to show up and help the rest of us. We never seem to be able to think of them as being like us. Why on earth should we expect it out of them when they come home from combat?

While they are similar to us with their own families and issues, they are not like us because in times of need, they show up.

Column: Commitment to veterans
The Bulletin
By John Costa
Published: November 17. 2013

I don't know another newspaper that has demonstrated a greater commitment to our veterans.

These are the folks who have risked life and limb to defend us, and public recognition is the least we at The Bulletin can do for them.

Last week — the week of Veterans Day — I attended the annual economic forecast breakfast sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

The moderator asked anyone in the audience of hundreds who had served in the military to stand up.

Very few got to their feet.

That's a product of our times, a product of volunteer services and no draft.

It's also a problem.

There are a lot of pluses to a draft-less society, but the steep downside is that there is a fading attachment between citizen and soldier.

Tuesday is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg address, the finest commemoration of citizen soldiery in our history.
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I left this comment.

I couldn't agree more. I track veterans news reports around the country because the major news organizations no longer do it. The only reporters interested in telling their stories and covering their events are local, usually small news outlets.

Had I not read this, I would have forgotten about the anniversary of what Lincoln said at Gettysburg even though I use the quote often. Thank you!

Gettysburg Address Bliss Copy
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Allowed to live or selected to die at Gettysburg

Who 'Dies' is Tough Decision at Gettysburg
Associated Press
by Genaro C. Armas
Jul 04, 2013

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - You're a Civil War re-enactor carrying an authentic musket, out on the field with your history-buff buddies making a charge under withering enemy fire. It's great fun except for one thing: Someone's going to have to "die."

And lying motionless in the grass on a sultry July day in a historically accurate wool uniform while others are performing heroic deeds all around you does not always make for an exciting afternoon.

That's why deciding who lives and who dies - and when they must fall - is one of the heaviest responsibilities a pretend commander at a Civil War re-enactment is likely to face.

"That is the age-old re-enacting question, and that is a tough one," said Bob Minton, commander of the Union re-enactor forces last weekend at Gettysburg, the small town where the pivotal battle between North and South was waged on July 1-3, 1863.

For those whose hobby is dressing up in the blue and gray of the Union and the Confederacy, the Battle of Gettysburg is the pinnacle, and this week's 150th anniversary events are a very big deal.

Re-enactors are sticklers for historical accuracy, but sometimes, in the heat of battle, things go awry. Some people, especially those who might have traveled a long ways for the event, don't want to get shot, bayoneted or put to the sword a mere five minutes into a scene and miss all the fun, and so they keep on marching.

To make sure things unfold realistically, some re-enactor groups draw up scripts and work things out ahead of time with the corresponding enemy unit, deciding in advance who will be asked to give what Abraham Lincoln would later call "the last full measure of devotion."
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Letters provide soldier's account of Battle of Gettysburg

Letters provide soldier's account of Battle of Gettysburg
Jacqueline Baylon
Digital First Media
Posted:06/16/2013

This is Esek Hoff, 29, in uniform.
He joined the 111th New York Infantry Volunteers.
(Courtesy of Ken Harris)

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Union Army Sgt. Esek Hoff took cover on Cemetery Ridge under heavy fire as the Pennsylvania farmland filled with smoke.

Historians later would call the Civil War battle at Gettysburg a turning point for the United States, but all Hoff knew on that summer day in 1863 was that he was fighting for his life.

The 29-year-old Hoff and his unit, the 111th New York Infantry Volunteers, were in the middle of the Union's defensive line, trying to hold off advancing troops led by Confederate Gen. George Pickett. Hoff's unit was looking to redeem itself after surrendering to Stonewall Jackson's veterans at Harpers Ferry and getting branded "Harpers Ferry Cowards."

On July 2-3, 1863, they successfully held the center of the Union line, playing a key role in a battle that turned the tide of the Civil War.

On the 150th anniversary of that battle, which totaled about 51,000 casualties, Americans are pausing to remember the terrible fighting and what it means today. As re-enactors prepare to put on uniforms and head to Gettysburg, Hoff's detailed letters offer eyewitness accounts of that fight and others.

"I do not want nor would anyone desire to see such a sight again," Hoff wrote near Gettysburg on July 5, 1863, after the battle had ended. "Well in the charge of the rebels we lost some of our best men."
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