Posted on 08/07/2006 8:54:36 AM PDT by Republicanprofessor
I was not a Civil War history buff; my nine-year-old son John was the motivation for our tour of southern battlefields this summer. This essay is about how that trip to twenty Civil War battlefields in ten southern states changed my view of the Civil War and, in more subtle ways, my life
We drove 6,000 miles, from New England down to Maryland and Virginia south to Atlanta, Vicksburg, Shiloh and back to the north again. Throughout the trip, I listened to almost twenty-four hours of Civil War history from Prof. Gary Gallagher of UVA (through the Teaching Company CDs). My son constantly quizzed me from his Civil War cards. I gained an idea of how each battle was planned, but my knowledge is shallow; I do not know which division from which state was where. I admired the monuments from many companies and states that line the battlefield routes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and others. I know a fraction of what there is to know of the Civil War. I respect all of those who have studied much more than I, and I hope to hear from them in reply to this essay. My approach to this essay is more as an artist than as an historian; please forgive me the liberties I take here.
Hearing dry history is one thing; walking the very fields where the soldiers fought and died is quite another. It took me a little time to really feel the power of these battlefields. I think I was overwhelmed in Gettysburg. We had arranged to be there for the re-enactment July 1, but due to the torrential rains of late June, the re-enactment was postponed for a week, so we missed it. But there were many in uniform that weekend, and it was still an exciting time to be in Gettysburg.
Perhaps my emotional turning point in this trip was at Stonewall Jackson’s shrine. It is in Fredericksburg, a bit down Guinea Station Road, seemingly centuries away from the nth development of shopping centers and new home construction in that area.
In fact, Yankee that I am back generation upon generation, I wondered if I could feel anything for the “enemy” Jackson who had died May 10 in that white frame building after being shot by his own men, the 18th North Carolina. Whether it was the wise tour guide, or the effective simplicity of the small white building, then a “farm office” on the Chandler plantation called "Fairfield” near Fredericksburg (around which four major battles raged, two in 1862, two in 1864), I did indeed develop a deep empathy for this great hero shot by friendly fire. (He had been ahead of his troops on an evening rally on May 2, about 9:00 p.m. when the North Carolina 18th regiment fired upon him and others on horses. Despite the cries of “Don’t shoot your own men,” Jackson was shot in hand, arm, and shoulder. His arm was amputated, but then he fell ill of pneumonia and died within a few days, but not before his saw his baby daughter for just the second time.)
It is indeed moving to see the bed and room in which he died. (The bed had been stored for several decades down the road in the plantation B&B in which we were staying.) The setting was so simple: the Fairfield plantation home torn down decades ago, just a few plain buildings beside meadows and railroad tracks. I had truly begun the emotional journey of the Civil War.
Fredericksburg was near the beginning of our trip, after Gettysburg, Antietam, and Harper’s Ferry. I was only just beginning to see how each visitor’s center handled their information. We got our itinerary down pat: at each battlefield, the first stop is the Visitor’s Center. Then we saw the movie, often about twenty minutes. Then we checked the canons and monuments near the center, before heading out for the battlefield auto tour. In many parks, there were bike trails that one could ride. Often horses were welcome.
These battlefields are beautiful places. The contrast is striking between the blood of the past and the present appearance of rolling hills, stretching meadows, or beautiful woods. Perhaps a couple of the more affecting places were the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, where the very trenches of hand to hand combat of 1864, rose on either side of us. It was almost eerie; we could easily imagine the combat around us as we walked. By the end of the trip, I could almost hear the men loading their guns or cannon or stabbing at the enemy with their bayonets or rifle butts.
Sometimes it is the smaller areas that were more affecting, perhaps because they were more intimate. Franklin, Tennesee had two areas of battle importance: the Carter home where one could still see extensive bullet damage, and the Carnton Plantation. At the Carter home, the guide brought the battle to life with his commentary, but what remains of the battlefield has been limited (by city development) to just a few acres around the house.
The nearby Carnton Plantation had been used as a field hospital, and beside it was a small Confederate cemetery. Small rectangular stones were neatly laid out, row after row of unknown soldiers. A few larger monuments said “18 killed at Franklin Louisian” “6 killed at Franklin Kentucky.” No names were known, just their courage. (Later, at Cold Harbor, soldiers would write their names on paper and pin it to their uniforms, so they would not buried as unknown soldiers.)
At the Carter home visitors’ center, there were photographs of those killed. Young faces look out from old photographs; a generation of men who never married, never had children, and yet who marched into battle beside their brothers to defend their homeland (most of these Confederate soldiers did not own slaves.) There is a new book of fiction about the Carnton plantation and about its mistress, Carrie McGavock, who cared for the wounded then; she later oversaw the moving of the confederate dead to the plantation’s private cemetery, which she cared for daily until her death in 1905. Although it is a novel, it uses fact to capture the death, waste, and valor of the Civil War. It is called Widow of the South by Robert Hicks.
We saw many battlefields, each of them unique in terms of strategy and terrain; each of them heartrending for all the young who marched into war. We had a relative killed in Cold Harbor, and we sought his named grave outside of Richmond
From Manassas to Fredericksburg, from Vicksburg to Shiloh, from Chattanooga to Kennesaw Mountain, there is a minefield of history to learn and feel about the Civil War. Most of all we feel the courage of these men, young and old alike, who were so dedicated to their cause. Yes, some deserted; and more died from disease and dysentery in camp than on the battlefield. And yet they came when called, they fought and died for what they believed in. And you can see where they fought: the places where Chamberlain turned the flanks for a bayonet charge on Little Round Top at Gettysburg (even more exciting after one has seen the movie), the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania, the cornfield of Antietam. It is indeed quite stirring to walk through these heroic sites of history.
Little Round Top, Gettysburg and the Bloody Angle
Nowadays, there is a new battle going on in Fredericksburg: a battle between those who love and respect history and those who instead value commerce and development.. They are building shopping centers and housing developments where the battlefields have been. They already have neon strips on route 3, but now they need more malls only a few miles away on route 1 (the Jefferson Davis highway). People are moving from the city hassles of Washington D.C. to “get away” from it all in the country. But they are making the beautiful fields into what they are trying to get away from.
I am not against a few shopping centers. But how many malls does one city need? Perhaps when one’s life is defined by shopping centers to the detriment of other values, we need to look again. In other locations (Vicksburg, Antietam, etc.), the battlefields were beautiful parks: with bicycling, hiking, and walking in addition to their historical value. I believe that several years ago there was a similar fight to save the Manassas battlefields from developers, and I believe that commerce won. All I know is that we saw very little as we drove through Manassas to Washington.
Perhaps nowadays we value comfort and convenience too highly. When we returned from our trip in early August, we were in the midst of another heat waves moving across the country. Temperatures in the nineties are rare for northern New England, but I was as hot after my return from the south as I was walking through any of those battlefields. In the south, air conditioning is ubiquitous; not so in northern New England. We have fans to cool us down for the few hot weeks per year. But I was most amused in late July when we visited a zoo south of Nashville, TN. I overheard one young boy complain that he was sweating. ! Is this what our lives have become, when we visit a zoo in the south in July with temps in the high eighties, and we complain because we sweat? Are we that sheltered that we are reluctant to sweat, or to work hard, or to struggle for what we believe is right?
During this trip, my son often wore a newly-purchased wool confederate jacket and hat. I was sweltering, but he wanted to feel what the soldiers felt during their battles, rattling off the temperatures and dates of battle. Perhaps we all need an impetus to become aware of the true sacrifices that have been made for our country. Perhaps we all need to visit a few battlefields. During the Civil War, 620,000 men were killed, from a population of 31 million. During Gettsburg’s three day battle, 51,000 men were killed. In Vietnam, 58,000 were killed during the fourteen years that we were involved.
The men and women who fought in the Civil War gave their all for their beliefs. Who would do that today? Which of our politicians is so firm in basic values that they would rather die than renounce their values (as did Socrates in 399 B.C.)? I think of our brave men in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I thank them for their dedication and sacrifice. I fear that too few Americans value such loyalty today, and I think that we can all learn more about courage and devotion to principle by visiting a few battlefields of the Civil War.
Ping. If you know of any other military or history ping lists that might be interested in this essay, please let them know.
We are back now. Will you please ping the education list, because you probably have a more updated list than I do now.
Thanks.
Well, this is not the typical art appreciation/education ping, but you might want to know what I've been up to and thinking over this summer.
In a couple of weeks, we'll get back to regular, fun art pings. But maybe this will spark some thoughts of your own.
I'm still figuring out how to create my own abstract works that convey the power of the past of these battlefields with the beauty of the present, park-like state.
I'm glad you had a good time visiting down here and seeing the history. Did you get a chance to make it to Richmond or Petersburg, out of curiosity? The folks here in Richmond are doing their damndest to forget that we were ever the capital of the Confederacy, unfortunately, which is too bad considering the amount of tourism dollars WBTS tourism can bring in.
Stainless, here's a WBTS thread with (hopefully!) no flames and some excellent pictures.
}:-)4
So I felt when we were in the south.
How different would the country be today if the south had succeeded and seceded?
Would Spain have taken us over? (I heard they were waiting in the wings for the Confederates to win.) What would have happened then?
'Ol Dixie Ping
Notice the red states / blue states electoral breakdown among the states nowadays? Is the South not ready to take charge of its own destiny once again? 2 catalysts that I foresee playing a role:
*President Clinton returns to the White House in 2008;
*The national debt keeps reaching record levels even as baby boomers are about to retire in droves:
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
Yes, we passed through both cities. I had seen them before, so we saw the Crater in Petersburg and Cold Harbor on this trip, but as we had just left Appomattox and were on our way to Williamsburg (in the same day), we did not have a great deal of time.
The tunnel to the crater was neat. As was the Yankees reaction when they got through to the blown-up camp of the Confederates...."what do we do now?" and then the Confederates counterattacked and the Yankee advantage was blown. I guess that scenario happened a great deal.
Yes, both cities should triumph their past and educate the tourists.
ping
you should do an article for one of the scholarly journals, based on your trip.
free dixie,sw
We visited Gettysburg, DC, Williamsburg etc, a couple years ago and are going back in November. This time we're adding battlefields in Virginia. Your post will help tremendously!
Battlefields are hallowed ground.... "By the end of the trip, I could almost hear the men loading their guns or cannon or stabbing at the enemy with their bayonets or rifle butts."
A very nice essay, thanks for sharing it with us.
"Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."
I am working up a real itinerary to post on tripadvisor.com, where I got many ideas for this trip. Someone there wanted to know exactly where I did go, stay, etc.
I will try to post it today under many of the southern states, just FYI. We stayed in some wonderful B&Bs, as a rule, and all the places we saw were awesome. I just wish we'd have even more time; the trip could have been 3 months instead of 5 weeks.
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