What Should We Do to Honor Veterans After Veterans Day Has Passed?

As Veterans Day wound down for another year, I found an interesting article authored by Gillian Richards Augros and Julia Dasaro and published at The Daily Signal. It suggests one way that we can continue honoring “the courage, sacrifice, and enduring legacy” of the veterans who have kept America free. It is by “visiting historic battlefields and military sites where the fight for America’s freedom and prosperity unfolded.” 

The five sites “mark pivotal movements in U.S. history” from the eight years of the Revolutionary War to the four years of the Civil War. The sites “offer a glimpse into the courage and sacrifice that built the nation.” The Heritage Foundation offers the newly released Heritage Guide to Historic Sites to help “Americans to engage more deeply with these sites.”

Yorktown Battlefield (Yorktown, Virginia)

One of the most significant battles of this nation, the Battle of Yorktown was the final major battle of the American Revolution securing American Independence….

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (Baltimore, Maryland)

Fort McHenry was the central site of the Battle of Baltimore, a pivotal episode of the War of 1812. Contrary to popular belief, it was this battle – rather than the American Revolution – that inspired our national anthem. During the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, the Maryland lawyer Francis Scott Key watched from a nearby ship…. [His] poem, later set to music, became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and was formally declared the U.S. national anthem in 1931.

Fort Sumter (Charleston, South Carolina)

Following Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860, South Carolina would become the first state to secede from [the] Union. It was at Fort Sumter that the first shots of the Civil War were fired, beginning the deadliest war in our country’s history….

Antietam National Battlefield (Sharpsburg, Maryland)

The Battle of Antietam, one of the most important battles in the Civil War, was also the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. Nearly 23,000 soldiers, both Confederate and Union, were either killed, missing, or wounded. The Union lost more men but won a strategic victory. While General Robert E. Lee’s army was not destroyed, the Confederates were forced to retreat. This gave President Lincoln the assurance to issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in states that had seceded would be freed at the start of 1863 if those states did not return to the Union.

Gettysburg National Military Park (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)

            The Battle of Gettysburg marked a key turning point in the Civil War. The Confederate Army                 had achieved a series of victories prior to this point, and Lee hoped a second invasion in the                     North would secure an independent confederacy and bring the war to an end. However, the                     battle ended in a Union victory, which changed the course of the war. The three-day battle                     resulted in over 51,000 combined casualties, making it the deadliest battle in American history.              Lincoln later delivered his Gettysburg Address at this site, stating: “The world will little note,                 nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”