The town of Gettysburg was settled in 1780, and past the commencement of the Civil War battle that occurred at that place in 1863, information technology contained a population of around 2,400 people. The battle changed everything. Not only was the boondocks transformed into the symbolic marker of the turning bespeak of the war, but information technology became the site of ane of the greatest speeches ever given: the Gettysburg Address. When you lot visit today, the entire town is geared towards its Civil State of war history.

Gettysburg is also constrained by the limits of the battlefield that surrounds it. Y'all can't develop that country — it'due south all historical sites. Homes in Gettysburg that are incredibly old aren't torn downwardly. They're restored. The town is trapped in fourth dimension because of 3 traumatic days 151 years agone. The whole affair's become a state of war memorial.

I alive in DC, well-nigh an hour-and-a-half drive from Gettysburg, and I'thousand 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'southward an art to visiting war memorials. These sites need more than attending than fleeting glances and awkward gestures of respect.

How to look at the memorial

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

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, there's a memorial museum called the War Remnants Museum. It used to exist called the Museum of American War Atrocities. The message at that place is clear: Nosotros won, simply the scars haven't healed.

Many memorials will have lists of the state of war dead. If you don't know someone on the list, attempt to option a single name and embrace that that person had a full life, family, kids maybe. Once you lot experience like you understand that, step back and expect at the whole listing.

The final exhibit at every memorial is the people visiting with you. Watch them. In DC and in Normandy, for example, you'll frequently encounter veterans at the site. They're the near fascinating to both watch and talk to because the memorial'due south history runs parallel to their ain. While you should obviously be respectful and feel out each situation, I've often institute that vets want to talk about their experiences.

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

How to feel most the memorial

In Hamlet, Hamlet says to Horatio, "At that place are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Try to go on that quote in mind at the war memorial (or anywhere, really). This is a place for humility. Regardless of what your opinions are nearly the state of war — whether it was just, whether it was a tragedy, whether information technology was glorious — they're allowed to be felt, but they shouldn't exist imposed on other people. Everyone is allowed to express acrimony or confusion or sadness or shame hither. It'due south not your business to judge.

State of war is normally depicted in reductive terms, which is moronic. State of war is one of the most all-encompassing, complex human phenomena there is. To convince ii or more groups they demand to kill each other, and then to become them to act on that conviction, takes a lot of forces working simultaneously. The force of history is behind 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 be acted on in any way. They're meant to be captivated, then candy, then learned from. They aren't places onto which yous should project your ain philosophy; instead, concentrate on allowing them to impress their bulletin — whatever that may be — onto yous.