President Carter & Gettysburg

Over the decades, numerous U.S. Presidents have visited Gettysburg – a significant occurrence for a small town surrounded by rural roads. A few have lived here, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, or had a law officer here, as did James Buchanan. Others visited or passed through town, some for a day – as did William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Truman. Others came more than once – including George Washington, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter.

On October 1, former President Carter will pass his centennial birthday, making him the longest living President in United States history. He was the first President to be born in a hospital, in Plains, Georgia, the son of James Earl Carter, Sr. and the former Lillian Gordy. When Carter was a small child, his parents moved to a farm outside Plains, where they grew multiple crops – including peanuts.1

Carter grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but on the family farm they did not feel its full effects as there was plenty to eat, and they sold their crops to a hungry public. Jimmy often sold his peanuts door-to-door during those days, and saved his money to eventually invest in real estate. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1943. Upon graduation in 1946, he married his childhood sweetheart, Rosalynn Smith.2  

Carter spent two and a half years aboard the U.S.S Pomfret, a submarine, then was promoted as the engineering officer of the U.S.S. Sea Wolf. He resigned from the Navy in 1953, when his father died of cancer, to take over the family farm. From that time, Carter became interested in politics. He served in the Georgia state senate, and was later elected governor of the state in 1971.3

By 1976, he decided to run for the highest office in the land. While most Americans had never heard of Jimmy Carter, they were willing to take a chance on him. He had promised the American public that he would never lie to them – a refreshing commitment to a nation that was weary of politicians after the tumultuous 1960s and the recent Watergate scandal. Carter won by a narrow margin against the Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.4  

While Carter, the 39th Commander-in-Chief, served only one term in office, there were many historic events that transpired during his tenure. Runaway inflation and the rise in terrorism, exacerbated by many undocumented masses coming into the country, rankled the populace. When the Ayatollah Khomeini took over the nation of Iran, the U.S. Embassy was breached and many Americans were taken hostage. It was a bitter time for President Carter.

The President believed that talking and listening might be better tactic to avert war, and reached out to two leaders of the Middle East: Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin, and the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.

On July 6, 1978, Carter, along with members of his family, visited Gettysburg. The National Park Service only had a few hours to prepare for his visit, procuring ranger Bob Prosperi as the family’s guide. Civil War historian and author Shelby Foote also accompanied the President at Gettysburg. As his trip was unannounced, the public was not aware of the visit. A few who toured the battlefield were surprised to see the President of the United States.5

President Carter also stopped by the Eisenhower residence to see the widowed Mamie Eisenhower during his visit that day.6

While Carter’s first visit to Gettysburg had been mostly incognito, his second visit was far more significant.

In early September of 1978, Carter hosted President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin, the two leaders from disputing nations. The Arab countries had never liked the post-World War II creation of a renewed Israel, and some had vowed to push the Jewish nation into oblivion. With the Iranian Ayatollah determined to carry out that threat, Carter wanted to avoid a war in the Middle East at all costs. He worked with the two world leaders at Camp David, hoping to find a compromise.

While at Camp David, the subjects of Abraham Lincoln and Gettysburg arose. Prime Minister Begin had once been to Gettysburg, and had mentioned how much he admired President Lincoln. President Carter answered that Gettysburg was close by, and that he had recently visited there. President Sadat also expressed interest. It was Friday, September 8.7

Realizing that it was impossible to simply show up at the battlefield with the two leaders, Carter had an aide place a call to the National Park Service, to explain his desire to bring the men to the historic place. He asked for Bob Prosperi to guide them.

On September 10, President Carter, with Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat, came to Gettysburg. With dignitaries and Secret Service Agents, the number totaled about one hundred.8

“At the High-Water Mark, where the group walked from their cars…Begin and Sadat posed good naturedly on either side of a cannon with President Carter. And it was here that Carter speculated…that maybe that is the kind of weapon we need today, ‘a three-inch ordnance rifle with a maximum firing range of only two miles.’”9

The day trip to Gettysburg helped to bring about an epic peace agreement between the Israeli and Arab leaders. Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat won the Nobel Peace Prize for 1978 for “jointly negotiating peace between Israel and Egypt.”10

The agreement likely led to the highest of costs for President Sadat. He was assassinated in Egypt in 1981. Menachim Begin died in 1992.

While President Carter did not win the Nobel Peace Prize that year, he did earn it twenty-four years later. He was the third of four U.S. Presidents to receive the distinguished prize, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson (Barack Obama would win in 2009). After President Carter was defeated for reelection in 1980, the Carters had continued to work for the less fortunate. He and his wife established the Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 for that purpose. Twenty years later, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights.”11

Jimmy Carter passes his hundredth birthday on October first. The century in which he lived has been one of great unrest and change – but on a September day in Gettysburg, the farmer from Georgia managed to build a bridge between two opposing leaders. It was an historic day at an equally historic place.

The three days at Gettysburg in 1863 provided a vibrant memory of the horrors of war for the three world leaders in 1978 – and aided in their determination, and ours, for the hope of peace.

End Notes:  

1. Angelo, p. 261.  

2. Whitney, p. 386.  

3. Ibid., pp. 387-388.  

4. Angelo, p. 285.  

5. The Gettysburg Times, July 7, 1978.  

6. The Washington Post, July 7, 1978.  

7. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 11, 1978.  

8. The Washington Post, Sept. 11, 1978.  

9. Ibid.  

10. nobelprize.org, 1978.  

11. history.com, Oct. 11, 2002.