Any other Civil War battlefield junkies here?

[10-Ring]

Just read the video game thread and figured some people here ping, Mike .357, would be intrested.  I took this picture at Pea Ridge National Park in Northwest Arkansas last week.  That rock you see there is the top of a rock column about 30 feet across there were a few of them there.  The Confederates hid behind them but were eventually run out or killed by artillery fire.  I have a few more pictures if anyone is intrested.  

 

Edited October 31, 2013 by 10-Ring

[knewcomb]

Lived a few miles from Shiloh growing up. Being from Corinth, MS, I got to see a TON of civil war history

[gun sane]

I've been to Chickamauga and of course Lookout Mountain.  I'm glad to see that most of those sites have been preserved.  So much of the land has been eaten up by progress.  In Knoxville about all that's left is Bleak House, where Gen. Longstreet stayed during the siege and at Campbell Station there's just a tiny museum surrounded by shopping centers. 

 

It almost broke my heart when I visited Stones River.  I was walking around the cemetery and right across the train tracks some business had put stacks of old mattresses out to blight the mood.  Hardly anything is left of Fortress Rosecrans except the mounds.  How are future generations going to learn and respect what was done at these places of honor if so much of it is taken over by developments?

[UncleJak]

More recently I have become interested in this. I found out my grandfather (2-3x great) fought in the NC infantry for the Confederate. I don't know too much but would love to tour a few of the battlefields.
Last week I toured the cold springs schoolhouse that was used as a hospital for camp trousdale. It was interesting but didn't have a lot to offer.

Sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

[DaveS]

More recently I have become interested in this. I found out my grandfather (2-3x great) fought in the NC infantry for the Confederate. I don't know too much but would love to tour a few of the battlefields.
Last week I toured the cold springs schoolhouse that was used as a hospital for camp trousdale. It was interesting but didn't have a lot to offer.

Sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

Head over to Stones Rivers and catch their Cannon firing demonstrations. I love civil war history and reenact it as much as possible. Touring battlefields is a blast!

 

DaveS

[DangerDanJD]

Well I am disappointed this isn't a thread about modded Battlefield IV on the Xbox or Playstation. Get out of the sun and go play some video games. 

[DaveS]

Well I am disappointed this isn't a thread about modded Battlefield IV on the Xbox or Playstation. Get out of the sun and go play some video games. 

Get away from the video games and go out and get some sun!! That's what I tell my grand kids all the time.

 

DaveS

[Mike.357]

Now this is a thread that rightfully grabbed my interest.

 

I have been to a lot of battlefields, skirmish sites and cemetery's.   

 

Shiloh is totally awesome.  Before going one should read Shelby Foote's book titled Shiloh.   I had read it and took it along as reference.  Spent an entire day traipsing around.  It is a great experience.   I spent a lot of time sitting at specific spots referenced in the book and reading the corresponding texts.

 

Chickamauga is another great place right near Tn to spend a day.   I particularly enjoyed an hour I spent at a small spring talking to a local older couple as we dipped water out using an old tin can.  The visitor center is fabulous.  

 

Missionary Ridge is pretty neat, when there and reading descriptions of the battle it was easy to visualize the entire fight and subsequent flight.

 

TN is full of battlefields and the like.   No excuse to not visit them,

[DangerDanJD]

Get away from the video games and go out and get some sun!! That's what I tell my grand kids all the time.

 

DaveS

 

Obviously, I'm joking. I have been to Gettsyburg, Manassas, Vicksburg. Chickamauga is really cool and local for a lot of folks. I would say my favorite site is probably Fort Sumter. 

[DaveS]

Obviously, I'm joking. I have been to Gettsyburg, Manassas, Vicksburg. Chickamauga is really cool and local for a lot of folks. I would say my favorite site is probably Fort Sumter. 

Oh I know. It's funny that you mention what you did because I repeatedly say just the opposite to my grand kids!

 

DaveS

[DaveS]

Now this is a thread that rightfully grabbed my interest.

 

I have been to a lot of battlefields, skirmish sites and cemetery's.   

 

Shiloh is totally awesome.  Before going one should read Shelby Foote's book titled Shiloh.   I had read it and took it along as reference.  Spent an entire day traipsing around.  It is a great experience.   I spent a lot of time sitting at specific spots referenced in the book and reading the corresponding texts.

 

Chickamauga is another great place right near Tn to spend a day.   I particularly enjoyed an hour I spent at a small spring talking to a local older couple as we dipped water out using an old tin can.  The visitor center is fabulous.  

 

Missionary Ridge is pretty neat, when there and reading descriptions of the battle it was easy to visualize the entire fight and subsequent flight.

 

TN is full of battlefields and the like.   No excuse to not visit them,

Mike; I thought I was the only one who did that. It adds a who new dimension to reading about a battle. One that the book alone can't express.

 

DaveS

[Mike.357]

glad I am not alone in that Dave.  I don't exactly recall how long it took me to walk the Sunken Road.  But I spent a lot of time sitting in different spots, looking, reading and envisioning it.    Ending at the Bloody Pond is like a reward for the trek.

[DaveS]

glad I am not alone in that Dave.  I don't exactly recall how long it took me to walk the Sunken Road.  But I spent a lot of time sitting in different spots, looking, reading and envisioning it.    Ending at the Bloody Pond is like a reward for the trek.

When you sit on the battlefield looking at books and maps, it changes the whole view of the battlefield in my opinion.

 

DaveS

[DaveS]

Just read the video game thread and figured some people here ping, Mike .357, would be intrested.  I took this picture at Pea Ridge National Park in Northwest Arkansas last week.  That rock you see there is the top of a rock column about 30 feet across there were a few of them there.  The Confederates hid behind them but were eventually run out or killed by artillery fire.  I have a few more pictures if anyone is intrested.  

 

 

 

When the Confederate troops hauled their Mountain Howitzers up to those vantage points...look at the range they could achieve.....devastating!

 

DaveS

[10-Ring]

Dave S, this picture was shot from almost the same position we are just looking over a little to the left of the first picture.  I'm not sure if you can zoom in on the picture and see it or not (I can on the origional image) but there are Union cannons lined up out in the feild.  

[DaveS]

Dave S, this picture was shot from almost the same position we are just looking over a little to the left of the first picture.  I'm not sure if you can zoom in on the picture and see it or not (I can on the origional image) but there are Union cannons lined up out in the feild.  

That is awesome! What a view our boys in gray and butternut had!

 

DaveS

[DaveS]

I'm a Civil War Artillery Re-enactor, and I guarantee it is easier to adjust your shot down on an enemy than to shoot "up" at them. Them Union gunners had to be very experienced to put their shells on target on a hill top.

 

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

 

DaveS

[safeandsecure]

glad I am not alone in that Dave.  I don't exactly recall how long it took me to walk the Sunken Road.  But I spent a lot of time sitting in different spots, looking, reading and envisioning it.    Ending at the Bloody Pond is like a reward for the trek.

Mike, you are spot-on.  I've been to Gettysburg, Shiloh, Ft. Sumter, Chickamauga, and places around and between.  But Shiloh ... ... now Shiloh ... a different outcome in that battle may or might have made a different outcome in the whole war.  ('Course, you could say the same for Gettysburg or Lee's lost orders, or, well, just about any major fight.)  But Shiloh was the first of the worst,  And Shelby Foote's writings about Shiloh or ANY Civil War battle can't be beat.

 

I had an ancestor who was at Shiloh, and there were an awful lot of unanswered questions about him until I physically walked that field.  It still stirs me to envision troops (from either side) who lined up, shoulder to shoulder, and advanced across an open field into enemy fire.  That sunken road, with Federal artillery to support the position had to have seemed impossible to carry. Yet, the effort was made, time and again.

 

There's something to be said for treading the same ground that armies have fought and bled over.  And Tennessee is rich in them.  If being there doesn't made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, I don't know what will.  DaveS, I suspect re-enactors get more out of a battlefield than most of us.  'Preciate the time and effort you and others go to, in order to let us see a little speck of what it was like back then.

[DaveS]

It touches us as well, as we have to go and make every move every soldier made, so that people can see what happened. It adds a whole new prospective to a battle. Go out and do what Mike does, but now add the noise and smoke and it will surely raise your hair!

 

Take the 125th anniversary battle of Shiloh I was involved with 25 years ago. You can read about Ruggles Battery of Confederate Artillery (62 cannon) firing on the union lines at Shiloh and get somewhat of a feel for that portion of the battle. Now, experience that in person with the noise, smoke and the ground rumbling from those 62 cannons (there were 62 there) firing salvo's into the advancing Union Army. It'll raise your hair and make you weak in the knees. Add on to that, that during the real battle, those 62 guns were firing as fast as they could solid shot, explosive shell and canister (shotgun type shells). Un-imaginable human destruction!

 

DaveS

[safeandsecure]

DaveS, as bad as the solid and exploding shells must have been, the thought of 4-inch (? - I think 4-inch) "shotgun shells" that were able to mow down entire sections of advancing infantry gives me pause.  How any human could see the carnage inflicted and still move forward simply blows my mind.  And watching a re-enactment is one of those rare instances that can almost make time stand still and the heart stop.  I have been fortunate enough to see Stones River and Shiloh re-enactors in action.  You guys can bring history, and a battlefield, to life ... thanks.