July 31, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, if there was a single moment in American history—and a single man—that Dwight D. Eisenhower looked to for guidance and inspiration drawn from history, it was Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln. Gettysburg NPS Ranger Daniel Vermilya tells the story of this meaningful connection.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story about Gettysburg, but not about the battle that happened
there in the nineteenth century, but how what happened there
impacted General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the twentieth as our
troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. You're to tell the
(00:30):
story of how Gettysburg impacted Ike his National Park Service
ranger Dan Vermilia, Take it away, Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
When Eisenhower was young, his mom had to hide his
history books to get him to do his chores. Sounds
like all of us here, right. If I've heard it once,
I've heard it a thousand times. Growing up in Abilene,
Kansas in the eighteen nineties and early nineteen hundreds, He's
interacting with Civil War veterans. They're still around, still on
(01:00):
the scene. He's hearing stories from them. And he would
also note that he thought it was utterly strange that
he would go on to a live in a place
like Gettysburg, having spent so much of his early life
talking with Civil War veterans in his hometown of Abilene.
But what got him from I like to read history
just because I like to read about it. To oh,
history shapes the world we live in, and it shapes us.
Gettysburg is what got him there and his trips here.
(01:23):
His first trip to Gettysburg nineteen fifteen, the west Point
Class of nineteen fifteen, the class the stars fell on,
more members of that class reaching the rank of general
than any other.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
He came here with his west Point class to do.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A staff ride, something that still happens every year here
at Gettysburg. Three years later, Eisenhower's back commanding camp cult
the tank training camp.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
It wasn't the assignment he wanted.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He wanted to be with his fellow West Point classmates,
his fellow army officers, going to France getting combat experience
in the Great War. Nobody knew it was the First
World War at the time, the Great War. But instead
he's hearing Gettysburg. He faced a lot of challenges. Not
having tanks to train with for several months for a
tank training camp, that's problematic, Spanish influenza hitting the camp
(02:07):
in the fall of nineteen eighteen. He's facing challenges. One
of the things he did was he went to the
National Cemetery, went to as close as he could guess
where Lincoln's speech was given and then he read the
speech to himself as a way of drawing inspiration for
the problems he was facing. We're going to fast forward
now a couple decades to nineteen forty six. Eisenhower is
(02:29):
one of the most admired and respected men in the world.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
At this point.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
He is the victorious Supreme Allied Commander nineteen forty six.
His name is up there, it's recognized all around the world.
And May twenty seventh he comes back.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
To Gettysburg to deliver.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
A commencement address at Gettysburg College. It's one of my
favorite Eisenhower's speeches. I won't read the whole thing, but
just a couple quotes for you here. No American can
come to Gettysburg unstirred by the memory of those who
fought and of him who spoke here many years ago.
We are intensely proud of America's history, but questionable it
(03:05):
is that we explore that history sufficiently for the inspiration
and example it could furnish towards the conquest of current problems.
Essentially saying, it's questionable whether we're properly exploring the past
to inform our present. You here have been fortunate to
live closely with the traditions of Lincoln and Gettysburg, and
(03:26):
then saying of Lincoln to few is given the extraordinary
combination of qualities to carry the heavy burden that Lincoln bore. Fortunately,
I few were called upon to meet the tests he met.
But basic to his genius for leadership was a willing
acceptance of responsibility and a firm will to render honest service.
I love that quote because, in describing Lincoln, Eisenhower is
also in a sense describing himself. Maybe he doesn't know that,
(03:49):
but I'd say that quote would apply equally to Eisenhower.
So he's seeing the connections between the past and the present.
His speech at Gettysburg College is strongly telling us that
the past has lessons for us in the present. He's
applying those lessons in his time out on the battlefield.
In the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, if you were
(04:09):
touring the Gettysburg battlefield, you may have run into the
former Supreme Allied Commander, and depending on what time, sitting
incumbent President of the United States, Eisenhower used his Gettysburg
farm as a setting for diplomacy, for bringing guests to
meet them, have discussions. The battlefield was a place for
him to engage with and contemplate. As he wrote about
(04:29):
Gettysbergen in his memoir at Ease, Gettysburg in fact, was
a demonstration of what a tiny portion of what a
nation's number can accomplish in the shaping and making of history.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And when he's.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Leading tours, he's using the lessons of the past to
inform the diplomacy he's engaging in his president Can we
see any of that in his leadership on D Day?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think we can.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
On June sixth of nineteen forty four, Eisenhower was calm
under pressure. Specifically on June fourth and fifth of nineteen
forty four, he was calm under pressure because after he
gives the go ahead order to move forward with the
invasion on the morning of June fifth, kind of out
of his hands.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Eisenhower went from having.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The most important, most powerful decision in the world to
make to Okay, everybody's going, they're implementing that order. And
what I'm referring to is the delay of the invasion
by a day due to weather. But in those discussions,
in those meetings about whether to delay the invasion, Eisenhower
did not engage in histrionics. He did not engage in dramatics.
(05:30):
He was cool, calm, and calculated, not unlike George Gordon Meade,
a man he looked up to. Eisenhower wrote of Mead,
his claim to greatness in that moment of assuming command
of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of
Gettysburg may very well be evidenced by the total absence
of the theatrical. When thousands of lives were at stake,
there was no time for postures or declamations. How else
(05:53):
did Gettysburg shape Eisenhower. August eighth of eighteen sixty three,
after this battle, Confederate commander Robert Y. Lee wrote to Jefferson,
Davis and Richmond offering his resignation, noting, no one is
more aware of myself than myself, of my inability for
the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what
I myself desire. Lee was taking personal responsibility and accountability
(06:18):
for the failure at Gettysburg. Obviously, Davis did not accept
the resignation. But is there a parallel with Eisenhower.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I'd say so.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
On the eve of the invasion, Eisenhower wrote this note
and in case of failure messages. It's frequently and commonly
referred to as so that if the invasion would fail,
if something went wrong, if any blame or fault attaches.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
To the attempt.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
As he ended the note, it is mine alone.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The note actually is dated July fifth. He wrote it
on June fifth, as he would say numerous times. It
fell out of his wallet a couple weeks after the
invasion and was found, But it showed a belief that
accountability and character matter. How else did Gettysburg inspire his leadership?
Eisenhower modeled himself after many leaders, but none more so
(07:07):
than Abraham Lincoln. He referred to Lincoln as his ideal
leader on numerous occasions, said Lincoln never slapped a table
or assumed the stance of a pseudo dictator. He was
calm under pressure, he talked to others. Eisenhower aspired to
those same qualities. But Lincoln also was an inspirational leader,
and he inspired others not just with flowing language and words,
(07:29):
but by speaking clearly about the mission, speaking clearly about
what was at stake. His first inaugural the second inaugural
great examples of this, but no example is greater than
the Gettysburg address. Where Lincoln comes here to this war
torn town. He's surrounded by death everywhere he looks. When
he tours the battlefield that morning, he's seeing still freshly
(07:49):
dug graves. He's seeing a war torn landscape. And then
he goes in he delivers the speech, talking about we
have to continue this because the future of democracy is
at stake. Is there a parallel with Eisenhower? I would
certainly say so. His Order of the Day given to
the soldier, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force,
handed out with paper copies, read aloud over loud speakers
(08:12):
on ships before men embarked into their landing craft to
head towards the shores of Normandy. You were about to
embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven
these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you,
the hopes and prayers of liberty lovering people everywhere marched
with you, saying that their task is to bring about
the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of
(08:33):
Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security
for ourselves in a free world no small task, but
he drew these lessons, and in crafting this inspired others
to work towards what he called the Great Crusade in
that message, and we might say that Eisenhower began shaping
the memory of D Day. On D Day by referring
(08:55):
to it as the Great Crusade. He is telling those
on his command that they are involved in something that
has almost religious tones to it. The word crusade is
often associated with that, a righteous tone to what they're doing.
As he would later write, belief in an underlying cause
is fully as important as success in war, as any
local spirit or discipline.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This was the good war. This was the good conflict.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It's easier for us to understand World War Two, perhaps
than the First World War because the causes are much
more clear in many of our minds, in part because
it has those righteous undertones from documents like the Order.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Of the Day.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Eisenhower approached D Day for the rest of his life
with great reverence for what it meant for America's place
in the world, and he also approached it with great
humility for his own role in the success. And we
might say that Eisenhower's Great Crusade what was it? It
depended on when you're talking about in his life on
June sixth of nineteen forty four, the Great Crusade is
establishing a foothold in Western Europe so that Allied arms
(09:57):
could sweep across the continent and defeat not Tyranny May
eighth of nineteen forty five. The Great Crusade then became
taking the lessons of that sweep across Europe.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And applying them to the world going forward.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
History was many things for Eisenhower, but it was a
lesson that drove his actions. And I think as we conclude,
it might be fitting once again to look to both
Eisenhower and Lincoln. As Ike himself once said of Lincoln,
we have not paid to his message. It's just tribute
until we ourselves live it. The question is how do
we pay our just tribute to Eisenhower's message.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What a story, what a connection? The reason we tell
these stories in the end, connecting the past to the present,
Ike to Gettysburg, Ike to Lincoln himself, the story of
the Eisenhower Gettysburg connection. Here on our American stories
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story about Gettysburg, but not about the battle that happened
there in the nineteenth century, but how what happened there
impacted General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the twentieth as our
troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. You're to tell the
(00:30):
story of how Gettysburg impacted Ike his National Park Service
ranger Dan Vermilia, Take it away, Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
When Eisenhower was young, his mom had to hide his
history books to get him to do his chores. Sounds
like all of us here, right. If I've heard it once,
I've heard it a thousand times. Growing up in Abilene,
Kansas in the eighteen nineties and early nineteen hundreds, He's
interacting with Civil War veterans. They're still around, still on
(01:00):
the scene. He's hearing stories from them. And he would
also note that he thought it was utterly strange that
he would go on to a live in a place
like Gettysburg, having spent so much of his early life
talking with Civil War veterans in his hometown of Abilene.
But what got him from I like to read history
just because I like to read about it. To oh,
history shapes the world we live in, and it shapes us.
Gettysburg is what got him there and his trips here.
(01:23):
His first trip to Gettysburg nineteen fifteen, the west Point
Class of nineteen fifteen, the class the stars fell on,
more members of that class reaching the rank of general
than any other.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
He came here with his west Point class to do.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A staff ride, something that still happens every year here
at Gettysburg. Three years later, Eisenhower's back commanding camp cult
the tank training camp.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
It wasn't the assignment he wanted.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He wanted to be with his fellow West Point classmates,
his fellow army officers, going to France getting combat experience
in the Great War. Nobody knew it was the First
World War at the time, the Great War. But instead
he's hearing Gettysburg. He faced a lot of challenges. Not
having tanks to train with for several months for a
tank training camp, that's problematic, Spanish influenza hitting the camp
(02:07):
in the fall of nineteen eighteen. He's facing challenges. One
of the things he did was he went to the
National Cemetery, went to as close as he could guess
where Lincoln's speech was given and then he read the
speech to himself as a way of drawing inspiration for
the problems he was facing. We're going to fast forward
now a couple decades to nineteen forty six. Eisenhower is
(02:29):
one of the most admired and respected men in the world.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
At this point.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
He is the victorious Supreme Allied Commander nineteen forty six.
His name is up there, it's recognized all around the world.
And May twenty seventh he comes back.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
To Gettysburg to deliver.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
A commencement address at Gettysburg College. It's one of my
favorite Eisenhower's speeches. I won't read the whole thing, but
just a couple quotes for you here. No American can
come to Gettysburg unstirred by the memory of those who
fought and of him who spoke here many years ago.
We are intensely proud of America's history, but questionable it
(03:05):
is that we explore that history sufficiently for the inspiration
and example it could furnish towards the conquest of current problems.
Essentially saying, it's questionable whether we're properly exploring the past
to inform our present. You here have been fortunate to
live closely with the traditions of Lincoln and Gettysburg, and
(03:26):
then saying of Lincoln to few is given the extraordinary
combination of qualities to carry the heavy burden that Lincoln bore. Fortunately,
I few were called upon to meet the tests he met.
But basic to his genius for leadership was a willing
acceptance of responsibility and a firm will to render honest service.
I love that quote because, in describing Lincoln, Eisenhower is
also in a sense describing himself. Maybe he doesn't know that,
(03:49):
but I'd say that quote would apply equally to Eisenhower.
So he's seeing the connections between the past and the present.
His speech at Gettysburg College is strongly telling us that
the past has lessons for us in the present. He's
applying those lessons in his time out on the battlefield.
In the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, if you were
(04:09):
touring the Gettysburg battlefield, you may have run into the
former Supreme Allied Commander, and depending on what time, sitting
incumbent President of the United States, Eisenhower used his Gettysburg
farm as a setting for diplomacy, for bringing guests to
meet them, have discussions. The battlefield was a place for
him to engage with and contemplate. As he wrote about
(04:29):
Gettysbergen in his memoir at Ease, Gettysburg in fact, was
a demonstration of what a tiny portion of what a
nation's number can accomplish in the shaping and making of history.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And when he's.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Leading tours, he's using the lessons of the past to
inform the diplomacy he's engaging in his president Can we
see any of that in his leadership on D Day?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think we can.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
On June sixth of nineteen forty four, Eisenhower was calm
under pressure. Specifically on June fourth and fifth of nineteen
forty four, he was calm under pressure because after he
gives the go ahead order to move forward with the
invasion on the morning of June fifth, kind of out
of his hands.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Eisenhower went from having.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The most important, most powerful decision in the world to
make to Okay, everybody's going, they're implementing that order. And
what I'm referring to is the delay of the invasion
by a day due to weather. But in those discussions,
in those meetings about whether to delay the invasion, Eisenhower
did not engage in histrionics. He did not engage in dramatics.
(05:30):
He was cool, calm, and calculated, not unlike George Gordon Meade,
a man he looked up to. Eisenhower wrote of Mead,
his claim to greatness in that moment of assuming command
of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of
Gettysburg may very well be evidenced by the total absence
of the theatrical. When thousands of lives were at stake,
there was no time for postures or declamations. How else
(05:53):
did Gettysburg shape Eisenhower. August eighth of eighteen sixty three,
after this battle, Confederate commander Robert Y. Lee wrote to Jefferson,
Davis and Richmond offering his resignation, noting, no one is
more aware of myself than myself, of my inability for
the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what
I myself desire. Lee was taking personal responsibility and accountability
(06:18):
for the failure at Gettysburg. Obviously, Davis did not accept
the resignation. But is there a parallel with Eisenhower.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I'd say so.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
On the eve of the invasion, Eisenhower wrote this note
and in case of failure messages. It's frequently and commonly
referred to as so that if the invasion would fail,
if something went wrong, if any blame or fault attaches.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
To the attempt.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
As he ended the note, it is mine alone.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The note actually is dated July fifth. He wrote it
on June fifth, as he would say numerous times. It
fell out of his wallet a couple weeks after the
invasion and was found, But it showed a belief that
accountability and character matter. How else did Gettysburg inspire his leadership?
Eisenhower modeled himself after many leaders, but none more so
(07:07):
than Abraham Lincoln. He referred to Lincoln as his ideal
leader on numerous occasions, said Lincoln never slapped a table
or assumed the stance of a pseudo dictator. He was
calm under pressure, he talked to others. Eisenhower aspired to
those same qualities. But Lincoln also was an inspirational leader,
and he inspired others not just with flowing language and words,
(07:29):
but by speaking clearly about the mission, speaking clearly about
what was at stake. His first inaugural the second inaugural
great examples of this, but no example is greater than
the Gettysburg address. Where Lincoln comes here to this war
torn town. He's surrounded by death everywhere he looks. When
he tours the battlefield that morning, he's seeing still freshly
(07:49):
dug graves. He's seeing a war torn landscape. And then
he goes in he delivers the speech, talking about we
have to continue this because the future of democracy is
at stake. Is there a parallel with Eisenhower? I would
certainly say so. His Order of the Day given to
the soldier, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force,
handed out with paper copies, read aloud over loud speakers
(08:12):
on ships before men embarked into their landing craft to
head towards the shores of Normandy. You were about to
embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven
these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you,
the hopes and prayers of liberty lovering people everywhere marched
with you, saying that their task is to bring about
the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of
(08:33):
Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security
for ourselves in a free world no small task, but
he drew these lessons, and in crafting this inspired others
to work towards what he called the Great Crusade in
that message, and we might say that Eisenhower began shaping
the memory of D Day. On D Day by referring
(08:55):
to it as the Great Crusade. He is telling those
on his command that they are involved in something that
has almost religious tones to it. The word crusade is
often associated with that, a righteous tone to what they're doing.
As he would later write, belief in an underlying cause
is fully as important as success in war, as any
local spirit or discipline.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This was the good war. This was the good conflict.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It's easier for us to understand World War Two, perhaps
than the First World War because the causes are much
more clear in many of our minds, in part because
it has those righteous undertones from documents like the Order.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Of the Day.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Eisenhower approached D Day for the rest of his life
with great reverence for what it meant for America's place
in the world, and he also approached it with great
humility for his own role in the success. And we
might say that Eisenhower's Great Crusade what was it? It
depended on when you're talking about in his life on
June sixth of nineteen forty four, the Great Crusade is
establishing a foothold in Western Europe so that Allied arms
(09:57):
could sweep across the continent and defeat not Tyranny May
eighth of nineteen forty five. The Great Crusade then became
taking the lessons of that sweep across Europe.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And applying them to the world going forward.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
History was many things for Eisenhower, but it was a
lesson that drove his actions. And I think as we conclude,
it might be fitting once again to look to both
Eisenhower and Lincoln. As Ike himself once said of Lincoln,
we have not paid to his message. It's just tribute
until we ourselves live it. The question is how do
we pay our just tribute to Eisenhower's message.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What a story, what a connection? The reason we tell
these stories in the end, connecting the past to the present,
Ike to Gettysburg, Ike to Lincoln himself, the story of
the Eisenhower Gettysburg connection. Here on our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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