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n July 4, 2020, Scott Hancock arrived at the State of Virginia Monument in Gettysburg National Military Park equipped with a small hammer and signs reading “#FindABetterRoleModel,” and began staking homemade Black Lives Matter flags around the 41-foot monument of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. A dedicated Civil War historian, Hancock wants battlefield visitors to understand a simple truth— that the Confederate leaders memorialzed on the battlefield fought to preserve the institution of slavery. In an effort to unpack the connections between Gettysburg’s history, race, and the college, The Gettysburgian sat down for a Zoom interview with Hancock. Here’s what we learned. Q: Do you think Gettysburg National Military Park reflects the whole story of the Civil War? Is anything missing?
SCOTT HANCOCK on Gettysburg’s Past and Present
BY PIPER METTENBURG
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The Civil War doesn’t happen without slavery, but if you go on the battlefield you would never know that. You could spend all day every day on the battlefield and that message is entirely lost. I ride my bike on the battlefield all the time, and sometimes I see school kids looking up at the Confederate state monuments. Even if they have a good battlefield tour guide who talks about the monuments, you still have these huge, beautiful bronze sculptures that glorify what the Confederacy is all about. Visitors to the battlefield are not getting another message that balances that out unless they have really good educators. Q: It can seem like the history of slavery has been completely erased from the
