About This Quote
This quote is a reference to the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1863, after fighting for several months in the north, General George Meade led the Army of the Potomac to battle against Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During that battle, one of Meade’s soldiers, a corporal named Edward F.
Winslow, was killed in action. Winslow’s commanding officer, General Winfield S. Hancock, ordered a burial detail to remove Winslow’s body from the field and carry him to a makeshift grave.
The detail failed to do so, and Winslow’s body was left on the battlefield as Union troops were retreating from the field. Two days later, the Confederates captured the town of Gettysburg and its remaining Union defenders. According to legend, as they carried Winslow’s body off the field, Confederate soldiers sang: “It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.”
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