civil war
 

as everyone knows, its the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the civil war.
148 years ago today, the gettysburg battle ended with an astonishing loss of life. at the same time that battle was being fought between lee and meade, grant was succesfully ending the siege of vicksburg in mississippi. they would officially surrender that city to grant on july 4, the same day that meade was victorious at gettysburg, with the finding that lee had left the field and was moving as quickly as possible south. his accomplishing keeping his army intact, and returning across the river into va, is what led to meade losing his command, and grant coming east-against sherman's advice(he said d.c. was an awful place, and would ruin grant).
vicksburg was what 'won' the west for the union, with the closing of the mississippi to all confederate traffic, and dividing the eastern confederacy permanently from the western. the loss of men and supplies from texas and other states did much harm to the southern cause.
meade allowing lee to escape prolonged the war in the east, with lee's surrender essentially finally ending the war two years later.

some of us ;)

The Civil War 150th. From the pages of the Daily Dispatch on today's date in 1862.

That small column has appeared on page 2 of the Richmond paper i think since the first of the year...

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/civil-war/

thanks for posting that.

geez, mclellan.....what a maroon as bugs bunny would say.

Make your plans now for the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. I'll most likely be there.

Re-enactments on the battlefield including:

Saturday July 6th - 1 p.m. "Hold the Line" Battle at Little Round Top and Devil's Den

Sunday July 7th - 3:30 p.m. "The High Water Mark" Pickett's Charge

More info at: http://www.gettysburgreenactment.com/150thInfo.htm

i'd like to make that, but a bit too far away. i'll have to see if vicksburg is holding anything.

My parents own a place on Isle of Palms, S.C. ......Fort Moultry is on the end of the island and you can see Fort Sumter from there, I have been to Moultry alot and it still gives me chicken skins, you can feel the history.

been to moultrie and sumter, as well as jackson and pulaski (all last summer)outside of savannah. moultrie was really neat, since it's in such good shape. of the four, the most interesting imo is pulaski. it was a state of the art fort when built, but they soon came out with rifled cannon. when they finished emplacing guns about a mile off from the fort (pulaski is surrounded by swamps, and was 'impregnable' vs the guns made at the time) they sent a message to the fort. you have til daylight to surrender, or firing will commence. the sneering reply was pretty much have at it, you can't do anything.
12 hours after shelling began they surrendered. a couple more shots, and the fully exposed powder magazine would have gone up. every side of the fort is still perfectly intact-except for the one section they pounded. there are still sabots stuck in the wall. amazing stuff, rifled cannon.
taking fort pulaski ended savannah as a viable port. the city was left pretty much alone, with the city elders giving the key to sherman after the defending army scampered out of town.

Danzig next time you are around Isle of Palms take a trip to Boone's Plantation...they filmed the tree lined drive in Gone With The Wind there. I was really affected by the the slave quarters and just the thought of how horrible we treated other humans.

rpncaine, love your avatar, recognized the location immediately.

Here's another famous picture (although the dead body was moved to stage the photo) of where you are standing at base of LRT



I've got a couple of great books showing civil war location images from 1863-64, and what they look like today.

Thanks. I had read that to about the photograher moving the body to stage the photo. I love that place, gonna try real hard to get there next year for the on site re-enactments on the anniversary of the battle.

Roger

i'll make sure to do that...running out of things to do in that area since we've made so many trips out with both sons being there.
and yeah, it is horrible to study all of that. amazing how many back 'in the day' actually tried to say slaves were better off than they would have been as freemen. i guess people will attempt to justify just about anything.

i was just reading about the assistant to brady the other day...he's the one who staged that photo. the article i just read said someone just found a bunch of the slides/negatives from his work from those years, and they're having a showing. he had a studio in d.c., as did brady. one of the few times i wish i still lived up that way so i could go see the photos.
i have one book here with many civil war photos-the feelings they evoke are hard to describe. maybe poignant is the word? seeing some of the cities, and all the destruction...absolutely unreal.

Not another country in the world interfered with our conflict, perhaps a lesson in history that we should take from.

yeah, it was a close one a couple times, with england nearly entering the fray. their first concern was if they came in, they might actually end up facing a re-united country. they were also worried they could finally end up losing canada if they interefered. so they ultimately decided to stay out, as it offered far more risk than reward.
we would have done well, more than once, to take heed of george washingtons infinite wisdom in his farewell address. one of his biggest pieces of advice-stay out of europe and her petty bs. and with what we now face in the middle east, he'd have said the same about that region.

Appomattox is about 50 miles from me and only been there once, years ago.
I still have a 4 page foldout booklet, Lee's retreat, from Petersburg to Appomattox, The Final Days Of The Civil War..has a map of the route of Lee's retreat..pretty much follows what is now rt 460..several pictures and comments about the retreat...including the pic of Lee and Grant at the table..

interesting story about appomattox and the house where grant and lee came to terms.
the homeowner and his family had lived in manassas, but decided to move away from there after the first battle, as they didn't want to be caught up in any other war issues, etc. so, they built that house where lee, grant and their staff all descended on them to finish what started pretty much in their backyard a few years before! people actually started removing pieces of the table and other furnishings as souvenirs.

chancellorsville is where i'd like to go. the house where jackson died after coming down with pneumonia is still there. it's not typically a part of the tour, but i wonder if you made arrangements ahead of time if they'd allow a visit?

chancellorsville is about 10 miles from Fredericksburg, my daughter got her undergrad degree from Mary Washington with her last year at UVA...we never made it to chancellorsville, too busy carting things back and forth i guess...

Another interesting place is Harpers Ferry,WVA a stone's throw from Charlestown race track, my old home away from home...lol..
Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859 and its role in the American Civil War..We toured the Armory and other areas, i have some pics buried somewhere around the house...wife calls me a hoarder..lol..

My wife is originally from KY, once visiting her folks we made a trip over to Lincoln's birthplace...I only remember going thru his log cabin...

been to harper's ferry, it is interesting. we went to springfield a few years ago. went to lincoln's tomb, and they had just opened the new abe lincoln museum, which is fantastic.