Sacred Ground: Americans and Their BattlefieldsAmericans have persistently expressed fascination with the nation's most famous battlefields through patriotic rhetoric, monument building, physical preservation, and battle reenactment. But each site is also a place where different groups of Americans come to compete for ownership of cherished national stories and to argue about the meaning of war, the importance of martial sacrifice, and the significance of preserving the nation's patriotic landscape. From the anniversary speeches at Lexington and Concord that shaped the image of the minuteman to Alamo Day speeches invoking the Texas "freedom fighters" of 1836 in support of the contras in Nicaragua; from passionate arguments over the placement of Confederate monuments at Gettysburg to confrontations between militant American Indian Movement and "Custer loyalists" during the Little Bighorn centennial in 1976; from the treatment of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor to continuing attempts to maintain the purity of these places in the face of commercialization---Sacred Ground details the ongoing struggles to define, control, and subvert patriotic faith as expressed at these ceremonial sites. |
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Alamo heroes April 19 Army Association attack battle reenactments Bearss Billings Gazette Booher Boston CBNM CBNM files celebration Cemetery centennial ceremonies CFPL Cheyenne Civil commemorative Confederate controversy Crow cultural Custer Hill declared dedication defilement Delgado director display erected Express-News fiftieth anniversary fighting film fought George George Armstrong Custer Gettysburg GNMPL files heroic historian Historical honor ican interpretation Japanese John July June June 25 land landscape Last Stand LBHA letter Lexington and Concord Little Big Little Bighorn martial Mexican military minutemen museum name change National Park Service Native Americans navy North Bridge noted Pacific war patriotic orthodoxy patriotic rhetoric peace Pres preservation quoted reconciliation Republic of Texas reunion Russell Means sacred sacrifice San Antonio Seventh Cavalry shrine Sioux soldiers speech story superintendent symbol Tejanos Texans Texas town Union USS Arizona Memorial USSAMA Utley veneration veterans visitors center World wrote
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Page 4 - If our love of country is excited when we read the biography of our revolutionary heroes, or the history of revolutionary events, how much more still the flames of patriotism burn in our bosoms when we tread the ground where was shed the blood of our fathers, or when we move among the stones where were conceived and consummated their noble achievements.