Civil War - 150th Anniversary

[pbans]

Gettysburg is the most powerful place I've ever been. The energies there are almost too much to bear for someone who attuned to those kinds of things. I was back for training at the National Fire Academy and there was a guy in my class who was a civil war fanatic, so I got to tour Gettysburg with him. It was amazing.
I would love to go back. It's definitely on my bucket list of places I want to ride on my bike.....

[Carolinadreamin']

My husband loves Civil War history. When he was active duty, he taught the Army Aviation Advanced Course for officers in Ft. Rucker.....in LA........lower Alabama. He took each class to Chickamauga Battlefield in GA. When we left Ft. Rucker, he said he walked that battlefield so many times, he knew where most of the soldiers fell.

He's been to Gettysburg many times but he would love to go to for the 150th anniversary!

And Larry......Ft. Sumter is great!

[SchoolGirlHeart]

My husband loves Civil War history. When he was active duty, he taught the Army Aviation Advanced Course for officers in Ft. Rucker.....in LA........lower Alabama. He took each class to Chickamauga Battlefield in GA. When we left Ft. Rucker, he said he walked that battlefield so many times, he knew where most of the soldiers fell.

He's been to Gettysburg many times but he would love to go to for the 150th anniversary!

And Larry......Ft. Sumter is great!

Chickamauga is one I haven't been to yet. I visited Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield when I dropped my son off at the Appalachian Trail.

I went to Antietam/Sharpsburg when I took a bump off a plane at Dulles and spent the next day at the battlefield.

The 150th anniversary will be cool, but a zoo. I plan on going. The other really cool time in Gettysburg is Remembrance Day weekend, the weekend closest to the Nov 19th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Big parade and lots of reenacting units conducting memorial services out on the field near where "their" unit fought. The best part though, imho, is the luminary illumination in the National Cemetery, after dark. A luminary on every CW grave. *chills*

[ragtopW]

Wow wish I could visit one of the Famous battlegrounds..
I have visited one place that is seldom identified with the Civil War
Alcatraz.. (built WELL.. Rebuilt.. fortified more so to keep the south from taking over the City)

[ragtopW]

We've touched on it several times in other threads and discussions, so I thought it might be worth its own thread. The Civil War holds a horrible fascination for me. Maybe if they'd just talked it out a little more, the better part of a generation wouldn't have been killed or maimed.



Discuss?

that was not going to happen.. the most common mis-belief from the Civil war is that it was started and fought over Slavery
Kernel of truth in that.. the real reason was States rights: Slavery was a great battle cry for Lincoln
for some of the states it WAS slavery, some was the moonshine thing (dambed taxes) some was just keeping Washington
out of the individual locales business (fast forward to now.. Wolves anyone?) some was just the freedom of not having
"someone else" tell them what to do.. (California was a Southern "leaning" state... Nevada was not even leaning)
most of the west was with the south.. We from the west want to keep central Government out of our doin's

sad yes.. needed. yes.. too bad that 150 years later.. we still need to get Washington out of local issues..

[The Lost Manatee]

Have any of you (I am assuming yes but going to ask anyway) read the Shelby Foote three volume account of the Civil War? Very fascinating read and great detail too.

Not only read it, discussed it with Shelby Foote, the Delta reservation agent (the author's daughter) and with the author himself. I would also suggest reading Bruce Catton's series on the Civil War. Between them you get a very wide ranging set of viewpoints and insights.

Being born in N.C. and having lived in TN. and AL., before moving out west, I spent a lot of years visiting battlefields and studying the Civil War. I've seen most major battlefields and many of the minor ones, including Picacho Peak in Arizona (the western most land battle of the war). My parents indulged my passion by planning family vacations that allowed us to visit as many sites as possible. We frequently doubled up and visited sites from the American Revolution as well.