Top Civil War Battlefields

Town Hall ^ | June 23, 2005 | Marvin Olasky [Creators Syndicate]

[quidnunc]

Now that it's officially summer, here's my advice to parents who want to continue teaching their kids during the next two months and learn something themselves: visit Civil War battlefields. I probably overdid it with my own children, visiting about 35 in all, but here are my top five:

1. Gettysburg (July 1863)

Much as I'd like to make a surprise choice, there's no avoiding Gettysburg's primacy and sadness, with over 50,000 soldiers becoming casualties over three days.

Driving and walking this Pennsylvania battlefield explains much: the big rocks of Devil's Den were indeed devilish, and the awesome difficulty of "Pickett's Charge" — across a vast expanse, sloping slightly uphill — makes it seem that Robert E. Lee's hope that day was for God to intervene. (That's what Michael Shaara suggested in his fine novel, "The Killer Angels"; it's well worth reading before a Gettysburg visit.)

2. Antietam (September 1862)

The 30-acre Maryland cornfield through which soldiers charged and countercharged is still a cornfield; the farm road worn down by erosion and called Sunken Road until it gained a new name at the battle, Bloody Lane, is also a good place to meditate on 23,000 casualties incurred in one day.

-snip-

[Coleus]

Boo!

[onyx]

I am disappointed Vicksburg is NOT on the list. I'll be over to see you after the 4th. I have a portrait to show Terry.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I have seen Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredricksburg, Wilderness Battle field , Spotsylvania battle field , Chancellorsville ( were Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Thomas Jackson made the historic strategic move by splitting his forces, and were Stonewall Jackson got mortally wounded ), BullRun battle field ( the battle of Manassas ) Manassas Virgina,
One historic fact that has not been well known is ? Brandywine Virgina was used as a staging ground area for both the Army of the Potomac ( Army of Northern Virgina, most notability the Confederate army ) and the Union Army ( the Federal Army ) of course, not at the same time.
The Civil War documentary was a great documentary, and in that documentary, they said that the battle of Wilderness was horrifying because while the troops shot off their guns, the gun fire caused the trees and plants on the Wilderness battle field to catch fire, and many men were burned alive during the battle.
The battle of Cold Harbor was another horrifying battle in it's own right.

[flying Elvis]

You should check out Vicksburg sometime. The fortifications were so daunting that when seeing them for the first time, some Union soldiers began crying. They assaulted the fortress on May 19 and 22, 1863, but could not remove the dead and wounded from the battlefield until May 25, when Pemberton implored Grant to accept a burial truce. The best time to visit the park is in winter after all of the leaves have falled, for only then can you gain an appreciation for the formidable terrain.

[flying Elvis]

I look forward to it. Terry's a great guy, a real professional.

[Capriole]

People are usually used to reenactors when they're seen at battlefields. But on other occasions. . .

A few years ago I came back quite late from a local living-history event I'd taken part in. I was the house when, at about 1 a.m., I remembered that I hadn't picked up the mail. Still in my cream-colored silk gown, hoopskirt, and dancing slippers, I went out the front door and walked quietly down the path to my mailbox.

Just as I stepped out from beneath the trees that shaded the path, two teenagers came walking down the street. It was a neighbor boy and a girlfriend of his.

The boy saw me silently drifting out from between the trees and screamed, "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!" He turned and ran wildly back into his house, slamming the front door behind him. The girlfriend followed him, not as fast, and pounded on the front door, calling plaintively, "Sammy! Sammy, let me in!" He wouldn't open up, though.

Hah. I bet he had a great time at school the next week when his girlfriend told all her friends what a chicken he was.

It was only later I learned that when I wear that white gown, with my dark-blonde hair and tanned face you can only see the white dress in the darkness. It must have looked to that kid as if he was seeing a headless ghost-woman.

I find that this outfit works GREAT at Gettysburg on summer nights. Gives the tourists something to talk about when they go back to Iowa.

[Mr. Mulliner]

I haven't been to any sites on this list, but I do have to say that I recommend the Battle of Franklin in Franklin, Tennessee. Some historians say that Franklin had the single bloodiest hour of the Civil War and the whole war should have ended after that rather than drag on another 5 months.

Of particular interest is the story of Tod Carter who was a Confederate officer due for 2 weeks leave. The house where he was born and his family still lived was in the middle of the battlefield, being used as Union headquarters. Tod Carter was able to see his house from the top of the hill from which the Confederate Army charged. The battle began late in the afternoon and was over a few hours later.

The next morning Tod Carter's father and sister found him laying 175 yards from the house, still alive. and brought him back home. Two days later he died in the same room where he was born 20 some odd years before.

[flying Elvis]

My speaking area is next to a large bushy tree. Visitors on the driving tour cannot see me until they get past the tree, which is when they slam on the breaks and do a double take. And I would never ever lead them to believe I was a ghost by staring blankly off into the distance and stepping back behind the tree after they spot me. lol

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Here is the best way to describe the Republicans in Congress, having the majority, but, just like Gen. George McClellen refused ( afraid ) to do anything, or use your forces to your avantage.
Gen. McClellen had 12,000 troops to 450 Confederate troops at the battle of the ( Rohrback Bridge ) during the battle of Anteitam.
He had a 12,000 to 450 advantage, and still could not take the bridge and possibly win the battle.


Wednesday, September 17, 1862 - Burnside's Bridge

[Burnside's Bridge, Antietam Battlefield.]

Union Major General George McClellan's plans for the Battle included coordinated attacks on the left and right wings of Lee's army.

The needed reinforcements which the Federals hoped would be pulled from and weaken Lee's middle, would allow a concentrated thrust to split and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia.

However, despite repeated orders to move, Major General Burnside's 12,000 men were held at bay by about 450 determined Georgians perched on the bluffs overlooking the bridge.

Pictured here, the Antietam Creek quietly flows under the now peaceful Rohrback or Burnside's Bridge. "


http://www.brotherswar.com/Antietam-7.htm.
http://www.brotherswar.com/Antietam-Sharpsburg.htm.

[thescourged1]

5 years ago, whilst making a long road-trip to California from New York, I made a point to swing a bit south and visit Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields. It was early April, and I walked onto the Gettysburg field at 6AM on a Sunday morning, the field was still shrouded with a light fog. I had the whole of the battlefield to myself on that quiet morning for a glorious 2-3 hours. It was almost a religious experience.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

What ever how anyone calls it, the thing that is was, was that it was far from Civil.

[Squantos]

Good post........

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Wasn't that the battle, were Grant basically held Vicksburg in a siege ?
One thing in all of the history of the Civil War was, that if the Blacks want reparations, the Civil War by the dying of all of those white soldiers was the payment in full for any reparations.

[babble-on]

I grew up on the battlefield of the Battle of Nashville. Almost the entirety of it has been suburban development for more than 75 years. The Battle of Nashville Preservation Society has done a good job making sense of the remaining earthworks however, and Fort Negley, the big union fort guarding the city was recently restored. (No fighting took place there, since after Franklin the Army of Tennessee didn't have enough strength even to launch the planned assault on the city itself. (My dad found a union bayonet in our yard while he was mowing the lawn once.)

[Dinsdale]

I grew up on the battlefield of the Battle of Westport. A good part of the battlefield is Loose Park in Kansas City. But the battlefield extends from the bar area in Westport (or the WasteSport as the locals call it) to about the intersection of Troost and 75th street.

Somebody found a cannon ball with in about 1975. It's very picked over.

[NewRomeTacitus]

You can't say that on this forum! If you do, you'll be called an environmentalist whacko, a green Nazi, anti-business, anti-free enterprise, anti-property rights. Speaking as a right winger who works for historic preservation on a regular basis, I've been told that none of our historic lands need to be protected from sprawl, and that trying to stop them from being destroyed for the sake of a new Jiffy-Lube makes me a liberal.

Money is not God and those who have more of it than others aren't holy or even right just by having more of it than we do. I'm sick of how these irresponsible jerks constantly try to justify their atrocities for the sake of short-term profits at the expense of the irreplaceable. Keep up the good fight and thank you for trying to preserve our heritage.

[Morgan's Raider]

Chickamauga is also a beautiful setting that hasn't been too badly encroached on by development. IIRC, it was actually the first CW battlefield to be set aside as a national park. Chopped-up parts of the Chattanooga NMP also fall under it's auspices.

Besides a trip to the top of Lookout Mountain (take the Incline Railway for a relaxed, enjoyable ride, and virtually everything that's accesible is within walking distance at the top), drive the route of the main Confederate line beseiging the Union army after Chickamauga along the crest of Missionary Ridge. Several of the houses along the ridge still have cannon in the front yards denoting locations of Confederate Batteries. I always thought it would be neat living in one of these houses, patting Ol' Nap on the muzzle every morning as I left for work.

The National Cemetery, in the Orchard Knob area, was the site of Grant's HQ during the assault on Missionary Ridge, which produced a Medal of Honor for an 18 year old Wisconsin color bearer named Arthur MacArthur. Among the graves there are those of seven of Andrews' Raiders, participants in the so-called "Great Locomotive Chase", who were hanged for espionage and were among the very first recipients of the Medal Of Honor. You can very easily burn up a 2 or 3-day weekend in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga area.

[flying Elvis]

"Wasn't that the battle, were Grant basically held Vicksburg in a siege ?

Correct. He ordered two assaults before deciding to lay siege to the town.

[x]

Was it really a civil war, I thought the south was just trying to Secede and not try to overthrow Washington DC?

A Civil War is "a war between factions or regions of the same country." That pretty much described what was going on in the US between 1861 and 1865. "South" and "secede" and "overthrow" are tricky words in your sentence. Davis's Deep South Confederacy of seven states wanted to secede, but it also wanted the four states of the Upper South. When it got them it wanted the three or four Border States as well, and possibly territories in the West. If it got them, maybe something else would have caught their eye next. The Confederacy didn't want Vermont or Connecticut or Massachusetts or Maine, but just what they did want wasn't so clear and well-defined -- certainly not to people at the time.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Speaking of haunted, Chickamauga Battlefield is definitely it. While a kid in the early 1970s I camped out there one night near the Tower with some friends in a rite of "macho-ness". The morning found six had run home. Of the three remaining, one guy was chattering in his crapped-in sleeping bag, the other said he never sleeped sounder in his life and I had LSD-like hallucinations for days afterward (while never having touched the stuff).

I'll jump out of perfectly good planes, climb up steep cliffs and most anything else you'd ask, but I wouldn't want to spend another night there. It's totally irrational but persistent.