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EPISODE 2.04 -
September 23, 2005
One, Two, Many Gettysburgs
Guest: Thomas Desjardin
Living in Gettysburg, historian Thomas Desjardin discovered that many of the most well-known stories of the battle are badly distorted versions of the original events. In These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory Desjardin describes how the postwar efforts of John Bachelder, Dan Sickles, and others helped to create the modern view of what happened at the battle. He raises the disturbing question: is it possible ever to know what really happened in the past?
Blake's Review:
This was the first really interesting interview of Season Two. Gerry and Desjardin have a very interesting chat about Gettysburg history and why we remember it as we do - and why we are often wrong.
The show begins with Desjardin discussing his interest in Joshua Chamberlain and how his legacy really took off after the release of Ken Burns documentary, coupled with the surge in popularity of The Killer Angels and the release of the movie Gettysburg.
The conversation then turns to Desjardin's new book, These Honored Dead, in which "you argue that history is not a fixed and static collection of facts." Desjardin talks about being a Gettysburg native and tour guide and how "you quickly discover that what you think you know about the battlefield is mostly not true, and there are so many myths and legends and so forth."
The Shoe Factory? Wasn't Heth looking for shoes?
There was no shoe factory in Gettysburg. Desjardin states the obvious that if there were shoes that Early's men would have already captured them when he went through the town on the 28th.
So where does that myth come from? Mostly from Harry Heth who, long after the battle, wrote about his divisions lack of supplies (especially shoes he puts in parenthesis in his writing) as the reason for moving on Gettysburg. Shelby Foote and other historians continued to talk about the shoe factory in Gettysburg despite there not being one. Ken Burns also puts the shoe factory myth into his documentary adding to the legend of the factory.
They then talk about Little Round Top and how it has become the most famous part of the battlefield where the battle, and maybe the war, was either won or lost by the actions of Chamberlain. Is that fair? And why is Little Round Top so popular now?
Desjardin says, not jokingly, that LRT is more popular than nearly anywhere else at Gettysburg because it has good parking and a great view. It's also convenient that Gettysburg is near so many eastern cities and is easy to access for millions of people (unlike Shiloh which had, arguably, more influence on the outcome of the overall war than Gettysburg did).
So why does LRT endure? "There were a couple of things that appeal now to our concept of that sort of John Wayne charge or our 'just in the nic of time' kinds of things." They discuss the LRT story and then return to the myths of the fighting. The Federals were not outnumbered by 3, 4 or 5 times by the Confederates and were actually similar in numbers to the Rebs. Did the 20th Maine charge down the hill with Chamberlain leading and capture hundreds of men? Not really. "It just sort of happens. Chamberlain... spent his whole life saying, 'I didn't order a charge.' He said if I had, no one would have heard me."
The myth also lives on with LRT because people think if Lee's army takes the position that they can turn Meade's flank and lay a devastating fire on the Union army causing them to retreat. "When you stand on the surfact (of LRT), you have a great view, but its of the Confederate lines, not the Union lines. So that if the Confederates had gotten to the top of the hill, they would have been able to combard their own troops. But to turn and fire up the long, skinny shape of the hill toward the Union army would have been almost impossible." Not to mention that the Confederates had no massive amount of guns to move up LRT even if the 20th Maine retreats.
The whole interview is very interesting and it's one of the best so far. Highly recommended!
_________________ Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012
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