Gettysburg Museum Rewrites History

Gettysburg Museum Rewrites History

Al Ritter 

In 2005 I made a trip to Gettysburg to revisit the Battleground that I visited as a child. The familiar building, complete with a map of the battleground that had little lights that showed each significant skirmish gave me a calming sense that the familiar stories I had heard as a child were still being taught to children that were visiting the Gettysburg Nation Museum then. I visited many of the little independent museums also and learned more of what happened on those three July days of 1863. Following a map of the battleground I drove around for the entire day taking in the landscape and understanding the progression of the battle that killed 97,000 men in just 72 hours. 

The historic building that housed the museum was just across the street from the Cemetery where most casualties are buried from the battle. In that museum were narrated films about the causations of the war. The building also included a diorama of a painting done just months after the battle in 1863. 

It was explained that the reasoning was that the North was exploiting the South for its labor force to supply them with products to manufacture goods with, and returning very little in the way of money. The North continued to force the federal influence on the South even against their threats to secede from the union if their demands weren’t met to preserve their state sovereignty as granted by the Constitution. 

Nine years later I returned to Gettysburg to take a friend whom hadn’t been since her childhood either. I was amazed to see how much the town had changed. The area was now geared much more towards tourism, and had a very commercial feel about it now. The old Museum in the historical building was now gone and new modern building was built on the edge of the battlefield. The complex is massive and includes many different parking areas for not only cars but huge amounts of busses. The federally run facility now employs 10 times the amount of employees that the 2005 site did.  

We paid our fee for museum and started with the display of items collected during the battle and from the area in general, and it wasn’t far into that display to see where this narrative had changed from my previous trip. Although I was perturbed I ventured on. Each and every turn in that display the narrative was changing to a more obvious slant of…..the entire war was fought over slavery. The pictures had progressively changed the farther you ventured into the display to the final rooms that showed nothing but slavery and oppression.  

Shocked we proceeded to the movie in the theatre before going to the Diorama. Once again the movie started and explained the logistics of the battle, but as it continued the presentation took an ominous slant towards the reasons for the war. By the time the lights came on I sat dumbfounded, knowing that the historical narrative had been changed in just 9 short years. We went to view the Diorama which was basically a viewing of the battleground and an explanation of the artists who made it. 

I couldn’t help but to look around us at all the young impressionable minds from schools in the surrounding states. I couldn’t help but to wonder when the narrative of 130 years had changed to this new rewritten version of history, and who had ordered it. Is it merely the progressive push to make the Southern States appear to be the aggressors and the North to be the saving grace of abolishing slavery? Or is this a PC way to lighten the responsibility of the North in the Civil War….aka Slavery trumps everything else.

 

I could go into time frames and actual actions done under Lincoln’s orders that were clear and intentional violations of the Constitution against the South. This is not the point of this article however, the point is the narrative was one thing and now it’s been changed to something else that facts don’t support. 

To me this is NO different than removing the battle flag of two regiments of the Confederate Army. It makes no sense to rewrite the history of our country ever intends to learn and change from our mistakes, to ignore those mistakes only insures we WILL make those mistakes again. 

Teaching our impressionable children the wrong narrative denies them the truth of the war. I’m certain other facilities run by our government are teaching the same myths nationwide and thus promoting lies. 

I’ll close this article with two quotes that are very poignant and relative.

 

“All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true in itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.”—Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X^[1]

"The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes" - Adolf Hitler

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth." - Adolph Hitler

"When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community." - Adolph Hitler

 UPDATE: It's now been brought to light that the Museum is NOT being run by the government but by a non-profit corporation that has chosen to rewrite history according to their own view. I would highly suggest that you spend your money elsewhere, and not support this group.