A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian weighs-in on Trump’s comments about the Battle of Gettysburg

Donald Trump was in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania last weekend. His rally took place at the Lehigh Valley Fairgrounds. The rally is making headlines for Trump’s riff on the Battle of Gettysburg. By the way, Schnecksville is located approximately 120 miles from Gettysburg.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian T.J. Stiles offered this analysis of Trump’s speech:

Trump says it's "where our Union was saved by the immortal heroes," adds a string of random adjectives, and clarifies that he thinks it was a good thing: "such a big portion of the success of this country." Inarticulate, reductive, but sure, why not?
2/9
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

Trump says, "The statement of Robert E. Lee, 'Never fight uphill on me boys, never fight uphill.' They were fighting uphill. He said, 'Wow. That was a big mistake.'"

First off, Lee was not a big "wow" guy. Southern gentry and all that. But Trump makes him a passive observer.
4/9
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

But back to the passive-observer angle: Trump's rambling, unhinged depiction of Lee is that of a great general betrayed by his stupid troops. You'd never know he gave the orders for the campaign and battle. He said after Pickett's charge that it was all his fault. It was.
6/9
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

Worse than that, Lee issued orders on the Gettysburg campaign for his troops to enslave all the Black people they could find—not just "runaways" but those born free. A system was set up for processing them. Of the many things the campaign was, it was also a big slave raid.
8/9
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

Footnote: Obviously Trump doesn't know anything about history. He mentions Lee "losing his great general," which is probably an echo of a memory of hearing that Stonewall Jackson was killed—at Chancellorsville, not Gettysburg. But it doesn't matter in the neo-Confederate appeal.
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

Another footnote: To clarify, when I say "history without revision is political as well," I don't mean to imply that the vast majority of revising history is political. We are constantly finding new evidence and rethinking context. That takes us to unexpected places—all good.
— T.J. Stiles (@TJStiles_Author) April 14, 2024

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