A Civil War historian has called the remarks Donald Trump made about Gettysburg during a campaign rally “unhinged.”
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, T.J. Stiles said the former president’s take on the Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought between July 1 and 3, 1863 and killed an estimated 51,000 people, was “inarticulate” and “reductive.”
“Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was,” Trump said during a Saturday rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, in what was his first campaign event in the battleground state. “It was so much, and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways—it represented such a big portion of the success of this country,” he continued.
“Gettysburg, wow—I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch,” he said. “And the statement of Robert E. Lee, who’s no longer in favor—did you ever notice it? He’s no longer in favor. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill, he said, ‘Wow, that was a big mistake,’ he lost his great general. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys,’ but it was too late,” Trump added.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on April 02, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The former president spoke about a major 19th-century battle during a campaign rally.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Stiles said Trump brought up Pennsylvania to “flatter” the audience and that his views were “inarticulate, reductive.”
He added that Trump’s analysis of Lee, a general in the battle, was wrong as Lee was not known “to have issued downslope-only orders” and that his depiction of what happened was “rambling, unhinged.”
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
Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.
Stiles is not the only figure who has commented on Trump’s speech. Author Stephen King, who is also an outspoken Trump critic, wrote a viral tweet calling the Republican “a dimbulb.”
“Trump: ‘Gettysburg! Wow!’ What a dimbulb,” he wrote.
Trump: “Gettysburg! Wow!”
What a dimbulb.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 14, 2024
Trump has mentioned the Civil War in previous events. Talking at a rally in Iowa in January, the former president said that the war “could have been negotiated” and thus avoided. On that occasion, Trump didn’t suggest how he would have avoided the conflict, but said that he found it “so horrible, but so fascinating.”
Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes, the most of any swing state in the country. Trump won the swing state in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes over Hillary Clinton, but lost it to Biden in 2020, who won by about 80,000 votes.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.