Posted on 06/22/2005 9:43:16 PM PDT by 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-
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The South fought ONLY to preserve slavery. The leaders ALL admitted it. Only the latter day Defenders of Slaverocracy try and pretend that some noble purpose activated them when it was the most sordid of causes. Watching the clownish denials of the DSs is a very amusing activity.
Few things are more boring than the excuses and deceptions of the modern day apologists of this treachery. Secession was planned and developed for the decade prior to Sumter and its ONLY concern was to preserve and spread slavery.
There's a marker in the parking lot at Domino's pizza in Franklin to show where General Cleburne died. I think there's another one in the parking lot at Pizza Hut to show where another Confederate General was killed.
Franklin saw more officers killed that any other battle in US history. And there's a building there, part of the Carter home, that until September 11, 2001 was the most war-torn building still standing in American history. I guess the Pentagon now holds that distinction.
Suppose that a dozen years from now the Federal Government declares that all guns are illegal and to be turned in. Then say the State of Texas declares that to be unconstitutional and secedes from the Union in order to keep the right to keep and bear arms. The Feds then invade Texas to force them to stay in the Union as the citizens of the state take up arms against the Feds in order to defend their homes and rights.
In your opinion, who would be in the right, Texans or the Feds?
I don't agree with all that you say about the Confederacy's reasons for fighting. There was a mixture of good and bad motivation on both sides as far as I can tell.
But there's a wonderful quote which I wish I could find. Near the end of the war a Confederate general or officer did state that they were fighting over who would tell the history of the conflict. He warned his men that if the Union won the war, then they would be sending their teachers down to teach the history of the war to the children of the south.
Pretty darned perceptive, if you ask me.
It was General Cleburne at the Pizza Hut, [boy, that comment sounds wierd!] see details *here*.
Franklin saw more officers killed that any other battle in US history. And there's a building there, part of the Carter home, that until September 11, 2001 was the most war-torn building still standing in American history. I guess the Pentagon now holds that distinction.
There might be a pretty good argument for some of the buildings at Pearl Harbor and Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, hit by the Japs on 07 DEC 1941, since 21 AUG 1959 at least.
Pretty darned perceptive, if you ask me.
If you locate it, kindly let me know. Though some historians doubt its provenance, a quote by General Lee is similarly instructive:
Governor, had I foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no, sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand.-- General Robert E. Lee to Governor Stockdale of Texas, August 1870
It's kind of sad to see the fast food encroachment on the Franklin battlefield. I once had an idea for a poem about what great American died in what parking lot. It does sound so cheap to say that probably the best-loved Confederate General died in the parking lot of the Franklin Pizza Hut.
I almost got to Gettysburg a few years ago when my I was visiting my brother (who lived in PA at the time), but the one day I could go was raining and very cold, so I didn't get out there.
Well, he lives in Maryland now, and while I'm up visiting in August, he and I and my nephew are going to go camping for a few days in the mountains up there, and we're going to take in Gettysburg and Antietam. I'm really looking forward to it.
I visited Vicksburg as a teenager (over 40 years ago)...we were on a family trip to Choctaw County, Alabanga; it was a rainy day and virtually deserted but I still remember feeling the history there.
For your analogy to be remotely applicable, you'd have to show where the Federal Government declared slavery illegal before South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860.
There were more recorded Civil War battles in Missouri than in Virginia; likely more short, brutal raids and ambushes as well. The Missouri Soldiers Database includes 380,000 listings for the Civil War; and Lexington's Battle of the Hemp Bales is still very closely considered for Confederate General Sterling Price's decision to delay his attack on the Union fixed positions until his full supply train had arrived. Junior officers and amateurs study tactics and strategy- real professionals sweat the logistics.
Return to the place of that first visit of yours, my FRiend; next year if not during the September anniversary of that old fight. There are still lessons to be learned there.
You ever notice the name of Rooster Cogburn's cat in the John Wayne movie True Grit?
My Grandfather's brother was killed at the Battle of Cedar Greek October 19, 1864
He is buried in Winchester National Cemetery Winchester Virgina
My Grandfather's brother was killed at the Battle of Cedar Greek October 19, 1864
He is buried in Winchester National Cemetery Winchester Virgina
And to listen to uneducated drivel is boooorrrriiinnnggg.
It is very nice visiting lookout mountain. My aunt and uncle own the 2nd house on the left when you get to the top of the incline.
In your opinion, who would be in the right, Texans or the Feds?
Then there would be no federal government. Such an abrogation of a constitutional right would render not only one section of the document as corrupt, but the entire body; that's a basic tenet of contract and treaty law. Accordingly, the ENTIRE U.S. Constitution would be null and void- and there would be no government for the United States.
Texas would most probably revert to an independent Texas Republic. And would not be fooled a second time around.
I can easily avoid it by staying away from the NeoSecess threads but drop in from time to time to watch them chasing their tails, complaining about Lincoln, trying to elevate a pack of traitors to statesman status, and generally enjoying the pathologies they so readily demonstrate.
Or perhaps NOT!
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