I'm tempted to travel down there with my black powder rifle and shoot a few of them

Joshua Chamberlain (20th Maine) charging at little round top

Liberal fascists planning to burn Confederate flags, topple monuments at Gettysburg this weekend.

Steve Moran at PJ Media expresses my own sentiments far more eloquently than I can:

Officials at Gettysburg National Military Park are bracing for a raucous week of protests as the park prepares to commemorate the 134th anniversary of the battle July 1- July 3.

Two pro-heritage groups have received permits to gather in order to mark the sacrifices of their ancestors during the battle. But social media is full of other calls for demonstrations, specifically from the anarchist group Antifa which plans to burn Confederate flags and desecrate grave stones.

Philly.com:

Reports that the anti-fascist group Antifa plans to burn Confederate flags and desecrate graves have prompted calls on social media for other groups to gather in Gettysburg to counter those protesters.

I don't know if I'm just past the point of outrage that nothing the left does angers me anymore, but reading this just fills me with an intense sadness. If there is one place in the U.S. that should represent a healing of our divisions during the most trying times in American history, it is Gettysburg. Besmirching that history — spitting on its legacy by desecrating graves — might be predictable from Antifa. But that doesn't make it any less depressing.

In my own family, we have two great grandparents who fought on opposite sides: on my father's, the Union (61st Pennsylvania); on my mother's, the Confederacy (Louisiana, though I'm ashamed to say I don't know which division — I'll look it up). The fact that the grandchildren of those two could happily marry is testament to how the country came together after the war, as is the reconciliation between the veterans who actually fought against each other themselves—they attended commemorative celebrations after the war, swapped stories, and became friends.

John Caldwell, Union, veteran of Antietam, (both) Battles of the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor, actually slept though the battle, because he'd been double-marched up to Gettysburg to reinforce the forces fighting the Rebs, arriving on the third day, when the tide had turned, and his unit was told to rest until they were needed, which, it turned out, they weren't.

He told that story with amusement, but to visit Gettysburg, especially if one has read the history of the carnage, the bravery and the incredible determination of the soldiers on both sides, is to know that one is walking on sacred ground. Anyone who tries to desecrate that field should be shot for ignorance alone, then shot again for treason.