The town of Gettysburg was settled in 1780, and past the start of the Ceremonious War battle that occurred there in 1863, it contained a population of effectually 2,400 people. The battle changed everything. Not only was the town transformed into the symbolic marker of the turning signal of the war, but it became the site of one of the greatest speeches ever given: the Gettysburg Address. When you visit today, the entire town is geared towards its Civil War history.

Gettysburg is also constrained by the limits of the battleground that surrounds it. Y'all can't develop that land — it's all historical sites. Homes in Gettysburg that are incredibly old aren't torn down. They're restored. The town is trapped in time considering of iii traumatic days 151 years ago. The whole affair's get a war memorial.

I live in DC, about an hr-and-a-half bulldoze from Gettysburg, and I'm surrounded by war memorials, too. They're everywhere here. They were everywhere in my previous home of London. I saw them everywhere when I traveled Europe. They're everywhere period. And there'south an art to visiting state of war memorials. These sites demand more attention than fleeting glances and awkward gestures of respect.

How to look at the memorial

You tin usually tell how the war ended by looking at the memorial itself. The Earth War II Memorial on the National Mall in DC is covered in monolithic granite pillars with two behemothic arches on either side and a fountain in the middle. It'south a memorial with the pomp of a disharmonize won. The Vietnam War Memorial is much more somber; it almost sinks into the ground, strangely self-effacing for an object whose sole purpose is to be viewed. It'south a single hue of reflective rock with a uncomplicated listing of names. There are no signs of victory here.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, there'south a memorial museum chosen the War Remnants Museum. Information technology used to be called the Museum of American War Atrocities. The message there is clear: We won, but the scars haven't healed.

Many memorials will have lists of the state of war dead. If yous don't know someone on the listing, try to pick a single proper noun and comprehend that that person had a full life, family, kids maybe. Once you feel like yous empathize that, step dorsum and look at the whole list.

The final exhibit at every memorial is the people visiting with y'all. Watch them. In DC and in Normandy, for example, y'all'll often come across veterans at the site. They're the near fascinating to both watch and talk to considering the memorial'southward history runs parallel to their own. While you should obviously be respectful and experience out each situation, I've often found that vets want to talk about their experiences.

Observing the other visitors, I'm fascinated by trying to intuit how they feel near the state of war in question. Are they crying? Practise they seem angry? Proud? Baffled?

How to feel about the memorial

In Village, Village says to Horatio, "There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Endeavor to continue that quote in listen at the war memorial (or anywhere, really). This is a identify for humility. Regardless of what your opinions are about the war — whether it was but, whether it was a tragedy, whether it was glorious — they're immune to be felt, but they shouldn't be imposed on other people. Anybody is allowed to limited anger or defoliation or sadness or shame hither. It's not your business to estimate.

War is unremarkably depicted in reductive terms, which is moronic. War is ane of the most all-encompassing, circuitous human phenomena there is. To convince two or more groups they need to kill each other, so to get them to act on that conviction, takes a lot of forces working simultaneously. The forcefulness of history is backside every war, and the politics and the morality and the economics and the technology of that time all manifest themselves in the conflict.

War memorials, on the other hand, aren't meant to exist acted on in any mode. They're meant to be absorbed, then candy, so learned from. They aren't places onto which you should project your ain philosophy; instead, concentrate on allowing them to impress their message — any that may exist — onto y'all.