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I first saw a civil war battlefield about ten years ago while driving north on a two lane Georgia highway. Highway it said, but pretty like a country road. Trees swept out over it, making it shady enough so that when I looked left or right I could see pastures and dirt roads lit by the sun, a graphic delight. But the sight of cannon took me by surprise; first I saw a couple…and frankly wasn’t sure if I had seen what I had seen, as if the eyes played tricks. Then ranks of cannon appeared. Meanwhile, mile upon mile past by. Yet I saw no markings telling me what the cannon represented. About this time I neared the GA/TN line and saw the sign for Chattanooga. I had business there so off I went, leaving my cannon behind.
Fortunately my business at that time, and I had just started it, required that I drive through the entire South, repeatedly. A road trip normally took two weeks and my itinary might lead me from Florida into Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia…and West Virginia; then I shoot home to Florida. Other times it led from Florida into Alabama, Mississippi. Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. All in all, aside from Texas and Arkansas, which I did visit later on, I saw the south in all its glory. Considering I once lived in Missouri for three years, I really got to see Civil War ground, including Kansas. And once I got into it, I made sure to visit Gettysburg and Antietam, so the northern invasions were covered.
But it was my first battle field that hooked me. Chicamauga. I found this out when I returned home and dashed to the library. It amazed me that I knew so little about the war. Yes, I knew about Gettysburg, but I had no idea that within two months another great battle would be fought of almost the same size, with half the casualties. It ignited my interest in the war, and whenever I left my home on a journey, I made sure to stop beforehand at the library and read any civil war material covering the areas I headed for.
By now many of us are familiar with the 900+ sections of libraries; what are they, I forget, 960? 980? You get the point. Libraries enhanced my journeys and in the future would greatly increase my knowledge. I have read perhaps a hundred books on the war, not including articles in magazines. But the magical moments came as I covered Southern ground for the first time. Sadly, as I covered the ground over and over, the magic diminished somewhat, but, oh, the first times, driving or walking over ground I had read about, seeing it in my eye, breathing the air, feeling the ghosts(okay, I wish I had met a ghost, but just treading where their feet had tread provided kinship).
Well, that ignited my deep interest in the Civil War; it also made me diplomatic. Like many Northerners, I had preconceptions about the South and I believed some of the stereotypes I’d read about. I would like to state for the record that I found the South to be the coolest part of the nation, and I have been everywhere. It’s not only a physically beautiful region but the people are forward thinking, sophisticated individuals. Far from living in falling down tobacco curing shacks(my thoughts in looking from I95), I found gorgeous homes, whether red brick, stately, or modern, they lived good. No rickety 1930 trucks; everyone drove a newer model truck or car than I did. And most surprising, and I’ve found this everywhere, people love to give directions, just love it. No matter the culture, creed, race, or religion, people always steered me in the right direction. I don’t know, there’s something about asking directions that creates a rapport between people.
My travels ended after a few years, but I moved to North Carolina and my business confined me to the areas around the borders of that state, which is in the heart of the Confederacy. By then I had greatly increased my knowledge of the war. This leads to the question of why I study it.
I study it in response to the question: what are the things we don’t know that we don’t know?
I didn’t know that Sharpsburg was Antietam, or Manassas was Bull Run. I believe this fact alone keeps many people from understanding the war and examining it further. They may know the Federals stopped the Confederates at Antietam, but then they see the same thing happened at Sharpsburg, and they grow confused. They knew there was Bull Run one and two, but where does Manassas fit it? It confuses people.
Once I grasped the fact that each side differentiated in how they named a battlesite things became immensely clearer, and I could chronologically put the war in order. You know that is still not that simple. Because then I had to break it down into the eastern and western campaigns(my favorite: the western, with its successes, its gunboats, its mighty western boys smiting the southern boys who thought they could whip ten yankees, etc.).
Then began the sorting out of generals. The Union provided the most confusing aspects of it. Too bad the South didn’t dump its officers as fast; it might have made a difference.
Finally I had a fair grasp of things and I could peruse the shelves of libraries and bookstores for things I didn’t know much of, like the battles in New Mexico for example, and how important they were to keep a railroad from California, if California went Southern. Other things like the coastal quarantine, the raiders, Wilmington, and more.
From there I evolved into studying the daily lifestyle of the era, both civilians and soldiers alike. Far from backward people, they were pretty sophisticated. This was the last age before modernization. They were the Silicon Valley of the era; aside from the advances during the war, they began the planning and thinking that over the next three decades saw us talking on the phone, flying airplanes, communicating easily between continents, lighting up our cities, traveling by trolley and train, on and on and on. The people of the midnineteenth century were gigantic thinkers, simply towering in their intellect. That they chose war, and brought those intellects to bear on war, saddened me. And yet had they not, had the war not been fought, had our nation not emerged no awesomely powerful, who could say what the future would have held. Would European powers have surpassed us in might, with iron navies and repeating weapons? Would they have carved North America into different countries? Would there have been a nation to stand against the horrors of the twentieth century if we had not emerged?
This is why I study the war. It is a template for other studies. By it being fairly easy to understand once a person really gets into it, it helps me understand other wars and how they are fought. By seeing the social changes that swept over them, it enables me to understand today’s changes. They truly provided an understanding of the future by allowing us to study them.
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PeteHeron
Thanks for this post, very interesting reading. I agree that the interesting things in a war are not so much the battles but the people who fought them and the life style they lead and the reasons for the war.
What a great way to fuse personal interests and work.
Keep em coming!
my mother took me to see gone with the wind when i was alittle boy-the blue uniforms stuck in my mine,igrew up close to gettysburg and went there alot [still do]i dont know why i love reading and going to cw sites.your right about the first time going to a battlefield-it incredible nothing will ever beat the first time looking for glorietta pass new mexico or wilsons creek or fort pickens or bethesda church-i find going back is a thrill because i know more and sometimes there are new signs and trails-anyway,great post i enjoy reaing what you have to say.
Hey Kakman - How old were you when you saw gone with the wind - I saw it at a young age in the drive in with my family, and it was my biggest childhood trauma - I screamed from the amputation scene on and we had to leave so as not to disturb the other viewers…I am curious to know if this was a hard movie for you to see as a child.
dear sue,it must have been around 1968 0r 1969 iwas four or five theblue uniforms made me want one.the only thing else i rememembered was the flames of the burning of atlanta scene.i was too young to realize how terrible the war was,i can see why the amputation scene made you scream its ghastly,but no the movie wasnt hard for me cause i didnt know any better.ive seen it amillion tmes now one thing [amoung many]that sticks out-the soldier seen only in silouette in the hospital,the nurse islistening to him as he tells her about his brother and not knowing where he is [movie tivia time]-the voice of the soldier is cliff edwards allso the voice of jimmity cricket in pinochio
sue i forgot to ask-what does”fresh boarder” mean by our names
If I only knew at the time that jimmity cricket was involved it might have been less traumatic :-). I guess I saw it around that age, maybe at 5 or 6 years old and then waited for about 20 years before I had the courage to revisit it… I guess that was what gave me my first understanding of the harshness of war.
I think it is till you have posted a certain amount of posts on the forum… and then you get some other title…
I saw ‘Gone With The Wind’ in an old movie house; in was a two part movie. Say what they want, I like tv, cable, and dvd, but nothing beats the big screen…and I mean the BIG screens of yesteryear, not these halfsize ones they pawn off at large movie complexes.
I did not like ‘The Red Badge Of Courage,’ either as a kid or before I got into this field. A year ago I had the opportunity to watch it uninterrupted, and by surprise, on the old movie channel. What an interesting movie. I could really get into it.
‘Dances With Wolves’ opening scenes were cool, especially since you don’t see much anymore on the civil war. Yet it brought to mind many instances I had read about, where stalemate existed, or troops refused to move, and something heroic happened and they just charged. So, it wasn’t so hokey a movie scene after all. Sadly, the pile of legs and arms proved quite realistic.
Honestly, I haven’t seen ‘Cold Mountain.’ Is it worth seeing? I just didn’t want to watch a sad movie. I have heard it is more of a ‘homefront’ movie, showing how a woman survives her man being away at war. Should I watch it?
I have seen ‘Glory’ in bits and pieces, which is unfair to the movie. I must rent it and see it end to end. It quite surprised me that Blacks made up over 175,000 Union soldiers. It was something that I did not know prior to me studying the war. In learning this, I now understand Their complaint that history deliberately ignores their contributions.
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