The Battle That Changed America’s “Are” to “Is”

In today’s second “On the Square” article, George Weigel explains What Gettysburg Means .  If, he writes,

Gettysburg was the pivot of the Civil War, and if the Civil War changed the country from “the United States  are . . . ” to “the United States  is . . . ” (as America’s Homer, Shelby Foote, often pointed out), then the United States as we know it was forged on July 1-3, 1863, outside a small crossroads town in Pennsylvania.

He goes on to explain what that means, and tells a moving story.