The Battle of Gettysburg

From Hollywood, the CBS radio workshop. In a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hollow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, no long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." The CBS radio workshop dedicated to man's imagination, the theater of the mind presents William N. Robson's production of Gettysburg.

It began 94 years ago, tomorrow morning. Gettysburg before July 1863 was known only to its neighbors. It was neither a place for battle nor a place for immortal oratory.

Gettysburg before July 1863 was a sleepy Pennsylvania village, hemmed in by the rolling green ridges of the Appalachians and criss-crossed by several dusty farm roads. It is quite difficult to think of it now as it was then.

Only the monuments remain and the yellowed pages of the report. Gettysburg, 94 years ago today, was warm sun and ripening wheat, and a strange, quiet expectancy. Today we heard that the rebels were crossing the river in heavy force, and advancing onto this state.

No alarm was felt until Governor Curtin sent a telegram directing the people to move their stores as quickly as possible. Sally Robbins, Broadhead, was a teacher who lived on the Chambersburg Pike near the center of the town.

Day by day, as the rumors she heard grew into reality, Sally put them down on her diary. June 20th. The report of today is that the rebels are at Chambersburg and are advancing on here.

June 21st. Great excitement prevails and there is no reliable intelligence. One report declares that the enemy are at Wayne's Pearl 20 miles off, another that Harrisburg is the point. June 22nd. The report now is of a large force in the mountains about 18 miles away.