Posted on 06/30/2010 1:45:25 PM PDT by GOP_Raider
Happy 234th birthday America!
The War Between the States Sesquicentennial, 150th Anniversary, runs from 2010 through 2015. The Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans has an information page. Make it a family affair to attend the events planned throughout the USA . The National SCV Sesquicentennial Commission has a website.
The fading photos and stories of Union and Confederate Veterans from that summer of 1913, shaking hands, sharing a meal and trading war stories is a special part of our National Heritage well worth sharing. Do young people know who Gen. Robert Edward Lee, Major Gen. George Edward Pickett and Major Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain were? Do schools still teach children about these men and all those who met on that famous War Between the States battlefield at Gettysburg , Pennsylvania ? Some call the Gettysburg Battlefield the most haunted place in America as many thousands died on that fateful month in July, 1863.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
Fire away, gentlemen!
I have Bruce Catton’s trilogy (Terrible Swift Sword, Grant Takes Command, This Hallowed Ground). They were favorites of my father, but I’ve never gotten around to reading them. Now might be the time...
Just added “Grant Moves South” and “Grant Takes Command” to my Amazon wish list. I think right now I have about 80 books on my wish list and 2/3rds of them are CW related. I might be about 70 years old by the time I read through all of them.
The fading photos and stories of Union and Confederate Veterans from that summer of 1913, shaking hands, sharing a meal and trading war stories.......................................... LOL, and how about the last battle when the Confederate Veterans approached the Union Center and were attacked by white haired and bearded Union Veterans swinging their canes yelling “We didn’t let you take it then and we are not going to let you take it now.” Geez to think there were still a couple alive in my lifetime. They were guests at the Worlds Fair in NY in 1939. The last veteran lived 20 years past that.
BTW, read the Bruce Catton books, they are a much more comfortable read.
You won’t be disappointed. Catton’s narrative is brilliant.
I’ve got a HUGE stack waiting, & every time I watch Glenn Beck I end up with another 3 or 4 I want! Not all Civil War, but all history or political. Too many books, too little time...
I’ve read both Catton and Foote - 3 volumes each.
Major differences are that Catton was an historian and his sympathies at least tilted towards the North. Foote was primarily a novelist (that’s why his books are titled - The Civil War: A Narrative) and his sympathies are more in line with the South.
They’re both excellent however - albeit it takes a while to make it all the way through either work.
I read Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. You are right. It is the best Civil War book I ever read. It is a historical novel. It won Pulitzer Prize for best fiction in 1975. Every American should read it. Was it Jubal Early who failed to occupy the Little Round top on this date June 30 in 1863? He let his Confederate troops rest while the 20th Maine occupied that high ground. The rest is history.
We visited Gettysburg almost exactly a year ago. I highly recommend it, and if possible, to spend at least a couple of days there and hire a guide. It’s difficult to take it all in.
We are almost as far removed from Viet Nam as the Veterans of 1913 were to the Civil War. I am in my mid 60s, but don’t feel “old”. I doubt if the Viet Nam era Veterans will hold a reunion anytime soon.
For a number of reason, Viet Nam was a war of individuals. Many went over as individual being assigned were needed and then at the end of their tour returning home as an individual.
Someday I hope to make the pilgrimage to the Viet Nam Memorial. My intent is to visit the wall early in the morning or late at night when few tourist are there. I have yet to say good bye to those that did not come home. That is the only reunion I will attend.
You may be right,but I was thinking it was Longstreet that made that terrible error.
The Gettysburg Battlefield is awe inspiring for the bravery that took place on that sacred ground
Was it Early? I think it was Hood and Law who tried to move the 20th from their perch on July 2nd. Chamberlain ordered bayonets and charged from the left flank. If you ask Mrs. Lando, she will tell you my memory is bad, tho.
I agree, it is a fantastic book. I gave it to my elderly father recently. He could not put it down.
Just finished reading Foote for the second time. His sympathies fairly obviously shift more towards the North as the books progress. He even explains why in the introduction to the last volume.
It took him 20 years to write the darn thing and the racist southern politicians of the 50s and 60s, who claimed to be upholding the principles of the CSA, soured him to some extent on the original enterprise itself.
I spent four years at Gettysburg as a student at G-Burg College. The air drips with history. I still get back there anytime I find myself in the northeast...
I have been there many times. It never fails to jolt my sensibilities. Never. I have never felt anything like it.
Two groups of veterans, proud Americans all, meeting and greeting and reminiscing about a war long past? Nothing to fire at. A salute goes out to them all, North and South.
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