STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We were talking with voters this month in Pennsylvania when we stopped at a place that gave perspective, the Gettysburg National Military Park, scene of the most famous battle of the Civil War. I first went as a kid with my grandparents, and I took the opportunity to return with producer Julie Depenbrock.
What do you think of this?
JULIE DEPENBROCK, BYLINE: It's incredible.
INSKEEP: We were standing in the Gettysburg Cyclorama, a giant old painting of the battle, in a circle, so it's on all sides of you.
DEPENBROCK: Yeah, you just feel like you're in it.
INSKEEP: Painted figures are running, shooting, falling, dying, as they did in 1863.
(SOUNDBITE OF WEAPONS FIRING)
INSKEEP: Outside the cyclorama, the battlefield is preserved. And Britt Isenberg, a licensed guide, drove us there.
BRITT ISENBERG: All right, so to Little Round Top we go.
INSKEEP: A hilltop that was supposed to be part of the Union battle line.
ISENBERG: Indescribable view that never gets old.
INSKEEP: Wow. We're looking down on this rock-strewn valley that was the center of the battlefield. Beautiful fall colors on the ridge on the other side, and that's where the Confederates would've been...
ISENBERG: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...In 1863.
ISENBERG: We could see it all from up here.
INSKEEP: We also see white markers and statues that veterans built after the war. One is a man silhouetted on a rocky outcrop of this hill.
ISENBERG: And we can see Warren standing there in monument form holding his binoculars.
INSKEEP: A single Union officer who realized this hill was key to the battle and that Union forces had left it undefended.
ISENBERG: I really like to dig into this moment, especially when I have young people up here. You know, you've got five seconds. You are General Warren. The fate of the nation is in your hands. What are you going to do? And in those moments, are you thinking about yourself or are you thinking about the betterment of the community?
INSKEEP: Warren called for reinforcements, who raced up one side of the hill just as Confederates pushed up the other. Union troops reached the top first and saved the battle. Though, for many, it was the last day of their lives.
ISENBERG: This history has come down to a lot of folks as some sort of glorious act. It is anything but glorious. You know, you try to imagine yourself as a human in any of these moments, it's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying.
INSKEEP: Is there kind of a cautionary tale? It probably is not a good idea to let a conflict get to this point.
ISENBERG: This is that glaring example, is it not, of what happens when we as a people, as a democracy let self-interests kind of override the collective wellbeing.
INSKEEP: Close to a million people visit this battlefield every year, and it's especially busy in this season when people can enjoy the fall colors as they contemplate the monuments to the dead.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRAIG DUNCAN'S "HARD TIMES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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