ANDREW HAMMER: Angie and I spent Friday and Saturday in Gettysburg.  I stopped along the union lines on cemetery ridge looking out over the battlefield where Pickett led his famous and futile charge.  It's a clear open field for as far as one can see, gradually sloping down over a mile to the west side of Gettysburg (I really need to go back and get a picture.)   It makes me think of WWI charges, Confederate soldiers charging up and across that huge open field directly into heavy artillery fire, almost all dying.  In the larger context of the battle and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, it almost feels like a ritual of sorts.  First, we pour blood into the soil, then we hold worship around the sacrifice.

Richard Koenigsberg—This theory is right on target.  Of course, we believe that the shedding blood of blood in the case of the Civil War (Lincoln’s idea) was valuable/virtuous. But the METHODOLOGY was the same as in the other instances of warfare that I’ve studied: shedding the blood of young men in order to testify to the truth of an ideology.

Are you familiar with this wonderful song by the Weavers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPMqxyCX2IU&list=PLYmwFR_XLSpYtsR_geSE2Yt4UBY81WET3

Complete lyrics are below.

“OUR FATHERS BLED AT VALLEY FORGE. THE SNOW WAS RED WITH BLOOD. THEIR FAITH WAS WARM AT VALLEY FORGE.”

There’s the theory in a nutshell: bleeding gives rise to faith. “Bleeding” for a cause is a concretization of the more abstract way of putting it: sacrificing for a cause.

“Brave men who died at Gettysburg.” Explicit connection between the revolutionary war and the civil war, each of which required BLEEDING to confirm the ideology. NOTICE THE JOY IN THE SONG. My friends and I used to sing it passionately in high school. Such JOY. “Wasn’t that a wonderful time!” But also, “Wasn’t that a terrible time.”

Bleeding as a “wonderful thing”—as long as YOU ARE NOT THE PERSON WHO IS DOING THE BLEEDING. So those who sing the joyous songs are ARMCHAIR WARRIORS. As long as SOMEONE ELSE is doing the suffering and bleeding.

I’m not a fan of Abraham Lincoln. There must have been a better way than the deaths of one-million men (see my conclusion at the end of the lyrics.

LYRICS TO WASN’T THAT A TIME

Our fathers bled at Valley Forge

The snow was red with blood

Their faith was warm at Valley Forge

Their faith was brotherhood

Wasn't that a time, wasn't that a time

A time to try the soul of man

Wasn't that a terrible time?

Brave men who died at Gettysburg

Now lie in soldier's graves

But there they stemmed the slavery tide

And there the faith was saved

Wasn't that a time, wasn't that a time

A time to try the soul of man

Wasn't that a terrible time?

The fascists came with chains and war

To prison us in hate

And many a good man fought and died

To save the stricken faith

Wasn't that a time, wasn't that a time

A time to try the soul of man

Wasn't that a terrible time?

And now again the madmen come

And should our vic'try fail?

There is no vic'try in a land

Where free men go to jail

Isn't this a time!

Isn't this a time!

A time to try the soul of man

Isn't this a terrible time?

Our faith cries out we have no fear

We dare to reach our hand

To other neighbors far and near

To friends in every land

Isn't this a time!

Isn't this a time!

A time to free the soul of man!

  Isn't this a wonderful time!

Koenigsberg: THE ENTIRE SONG IS ABOUT WHAT A "TERRIBLE TIME" VALLEY FORGE WAS, and then concludes "ISN'T THIS A WONDERFUL TIME." What is wonderful is the CONVERSTION OF SUFFERING AND BLEEDING INTO A SACRED IDEAL. Wonderful for everyone...except those who had to suffer, bleed and die.