Journalists are suppose to be fair, even handed, and even dispassionate. They have to defend their work when challenged. That has never been truer than today when journalists have been called “the enemy of the people” and purveyors of “fake news”. This past week was the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg which turned the tide of the Civil War. The New York Times reprinted an account of the battle by their Washington Bureau Chief Sam Wilkeson Jr. who was one of the most respected correspondents of his time. The battle raged for three bloody days, and determined the future of the country. But, the story of a lifetime became much more for Wilkeson. His 19 year old son, Lt. Bayard Wilkeson was in command of a Union artillery battery.
On July 1, 1863, General Francis Barlow sent Bayard and his six canons to some high ground which seemed like a good battlefield tactic. It turned out to be the kind of terrible mistake that is often made in war. Confederate artillary overwhelmed Bayard’s position. Bayard was an easy target atop his white horse. He and his horse were hit by an artillery shell which went through Bayard’s leg. He used a knife to cut off his dangling leg below the knee. He ordered his men to take him to a house that was being used as a hospital. But the doctors had already fled. He was brought to the cellar where two nurses cared for him. In extreme pain, the nurses said he showed courage, but the wound was fatal and he died on that cellar floor.
Sam went looking for his son after that first day. He went to his son’s unit and asked around. He found the two nurses who told him of his son’s last hours. He saw the spot on that cellar flood and later his son’s body. How does someone deal with the worst possible news about their child in the middle of hell on earth? He had to tell the war story and his own. On July 6, 1863, the Times published a front page story by Sam Wilkeson on what happened at Gettysburg. It’s opening line, “Who can write the history of a battle whose eyes are immovably fastened upon a central figure of transcendingly absorbing interest-the dead body of an oldest born; crushed by a shell in a position where a battery should never have been sent, and abandoned to death in a building where surgeons dared not stay.”
Wilkeson’s grace under pressure, devotion to his son, and dedication to his profession show a strength that few of us could summon under such circumstances. It brings home the burden of man’s decisions to abandoned all other paths, and go down the darkest road. Wilkeson was there to report to the country what he saw, heard, and felt. The story was widely circulated around the country. A pamphlet called “Samuel Wilkeson’s Thrilling Word Picture of Gettysburg” was also published.
Wilkeson also paid tribute to all the men who died during those three days. He wrote,”My pen is heavy. Oh, you dead, who at Gettysburg have baptized with your blood the second birth of freedom in America, how you are to be envied”. These words may sound a little familiar. Four months later, President Lincoln went to Gettysburg to say a few words at the dedication of the cemetery there. Lincoln had seen Wilkeson’s story. In his address, he said, “We are highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
Wilkeson’s war story should be an inspiration to all journalists on the importance of our mission to the profession, our country, and the ones we love.
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