Battle of Gettysburg survivors drop flowers on battlefield from plane, Decoration Day, 1938

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Battle of Gettysburg survivors drop flowers on battlefield from plane, Memorial Day (then called Decoration Day) 1938:

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One of my favorite historical photos. Men who fought in a savage battle using horses and cannons (shooting cannon balls) lived long enough to experience air travel.

Link to tweet

[LuvNewcastle]

1. That's kind of weird.

[Ninga]

2. Gettysburg was the site of horrific battles. Over 600,000 died. This photo is touching

and in itself, memorable. To see a photo of such a survivor is amazing.

[panader0]

3. A little over seven thousand died, counting both sides.

600,000??? Where'd you get that?

[peggysue2]

4. 600,000+ is generally the body count given for the entire war

The war was brutal and savage and Gettysburg was a killing field.

That photo is amazing when you think about survivors of the Civil War lasting into the 1930s.

[zipplewrath]

5. 51,118

It was the deadliest.

[marked50]

6. Stranger yet for me is

that I was alive (just a toddler) when the last Civil War veteran (undisputed) died in 1956.

[peggysue2]

7. Wow!

Now that's impressive!

I'd read there were a number of young boys--filled up with the 'glory' of battle stories--who lied about their age to join up on both sides. As the war dragged on, it's likely recruiters looked the other way when these kids signed on, too.

Even so, 1956 is pretty amazing.

[Hortensis]

8. One of those rare things that give awareness of the

enormous, runaway changes since the Industrial Revolution started in England in 1750. Before that the human condition and ways peoples lived changed very little over the 10,000 years following the first Agricultural Revolution. Barring the usual disasters, people knew their great-great-great-great-great grandchildren would live and think just as they did.

I often think it's pretty remarkable that society and government function as well as they do and wish more people realized that and were a bit more impressed with what we manage to achieve.

When these old guys' mothers told them not to run with scissors it was because an abdominal puncture almost always resulted in agonizing death, and that doctors should wash their hands between patients and procedures was a relatively new idea that many still resisted. Looking the other direction, there are still many people who believe demons are involved.