WEBVTT

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>> Gettysburg is the pivotal battle

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of the Civil War.

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It's the longest single battle
of the Civil War;

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three days, July 1st,
2nd and 3rd, 1863.

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Half of the units
that fought here

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suffered over 50 percent casualties.

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When the battle was over,
every single building here

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in Gettysburg was a hospital.

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The five thousand people

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who lived in Gettysburg were outnumbered

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by the thirty thousand casualties.

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This was the pivotal battle.

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The soldiers who fought here
from Pennsylvania,

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they knew they'd been beaten
before many times in Virginia,

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but they were not
going to be beaten here

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on their home soil,
in Pennsylvania.

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My name is John Griffiths.

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I'm a U.S. Customs and Border
Protection employee.

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I work in the Newark, New Jersey

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C-TPAT office,

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Customs Trade Partnership
Against Terrorism.

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I got started
in Civil War reenacting

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when my father took me here

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to Gettysburg about 50 years ago.

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He put a little bullet
on the side of the road

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and I picked it up,

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and thought
that I had found a bullet.

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And my passion
for the Civil War translates

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into my day-to-day work,

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is that I'm always looking
for something new;

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that I'm not content
to just be there

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to occupy a place in the workforce.

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That I'm looking for new ideas,

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that I'm always trying to come up
with something better.

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I worked at headquarters
for a while in a program in CSI,

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the Container Security Initiative,

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where we put people overseas.

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And we had to come up
with new ways of doing things.

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And I think doing
the Civil War reenacting,

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it just keeps my mind sharp,

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and it keeps me wanting to learn more
and do the best I can.

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And it also gives me a sense

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of what it feels
like to be out on the line.

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I like doing what I'm doing here,
because it gives --

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I connect with American History.

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We're here to give people an idea

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of what was happening
here 200, 150 years ago.

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We love to talk to people,
so the bigger the group,

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the happier we are.

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If I can get one person,

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one child
interested in the Civil War,

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the history doesn't die.

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It stays alive.