A statue of Union Army Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren on Little Round Top, overlooking the valley where so many men lost their lives during the Civil War, in Gettysburg, Pa.
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Sun poured over the fields like a blanket, masking a grim past where so many lived were lost fighting for a way of life. While the battle fields here have become a tourist attraction to some, they’ve become part of the professional education of captains at the Corps’ Expeditionary Warfare School. The students made the short two-hour trip to Gettysburg April 29 to experience the history of the bloodiest battle of America’s Civil War.
The EWS students made the trip to learn about this important battle, in which the Union Army repelled repeated attacks by Gen. Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North. The Battle of Gettysburg is known as the turning point of the war, according to the National Park Service.
The air was stale and the fields seemed peacefully eerie as the students filed out of the busses and began to unloading bicycles to ride around the battlefields. An annual trip for the school, most of the instructors have already been to Gettysburg.
‘‘As an African-American military officer, I understand the impact of this battle on the Emancipation Proclamation,” said Maj. David Everly, an EWS instructor.
Prior to arriving at Gettysburg, the students were assigned individual key locations and clashes. They then had to teach themselves about the assigned skirmish and then teach their peers about the tactical side of the encounters in their areas.
‘‘The students are all leaders, and by teaching each other, they get to display that by taking initiative to learn and teach others,” Everly said.
‘‘Gettysburg is a major part of U.S. history,” said EWS student Capt. John Hood. ‘‘The battles fought here were strategic chess matches.”
The students didn’t focus on any one battle in particular, instead they touched on every notable encounter from day one to day three. In three days the casualty total was estimated to be 36,434, according to the Battle of Gettysburg Resource Center.
‘‘The study of historic battles is always relevant; understanding how past leaders make decisions will help me make my decisions,” Everly said.
There were numerous fields where many battles took place, but one thing all of these fields had in common were the scattered monuments to honor the dead warriors who came from as far south as Texas and all the way up to Maine. The students biked around these fields, stopping at different monument locations and each student giving a brief summary of the events that took place there and the outcome.
‘‘All of the battles that took place in Gettysburg and all the blood that was spilled on those battle fields can sometimes seem unreal,” said Capt. Eric Piper, EWS student.
‘‘By studying these battles that took place in the past, we can learn from them and not make the same mistakes in the future,” explained Everly.
The EWS class graduated May 8.
‘‘This group has really gotten close since the beginning of this course,” said Capt. Scotty Welch, an EWS student, ‘‘and this trip is a good way to end it.”
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