Our American
Civil War Battlefield Trip
- Gettysburg
- Harper's Ferry
- Antietam
- Spotsylvania
- Chancellorsville
- The Wilderness
- Fredericksburg One
- Fredericksburg Two
- Bull Run One
- Bull Run Two
- Petersburg
- Richmond
- Appomattox Court House
- Manassas First
- Manassas Second
- Fort Sumter
- Chattanooga
- Chickamauga
And the Knoxville Zoo
- August 5-17, 1996
- Mileage Start 79,553 --
Home 81,614
- Attended:
Dad, Matt
Click any of
the images for a higher resolution picture (about 1 meg each)
This trip was
originally scheduled for Algonquin. During our last Gettysburg
visit we found an unusual interest in the Civil War. Matt,
especially, has really gotten into it. We've been to Algonquin.
Although there are a few big things we have yet to do there (go to the
other side of the park) it's still Algonquin. ACW (American Civil
War) -- that's new! We've rented innumerable videos (and bought
some). We've read many books. We're looking forward to our
visit starting with Gettysburg!
Gettysburg
Our latest visit
was loads of fun. Matt has a bugle! $39 at an antique store.
We did many of the relic shops with the "Horse Soldier" still being the
best. I can very, very close to buying a 1861 musket! We
bought the other auto tour and took that. We took pictures of the
Irish Memorial. We then went to find the other memorial that has a
dog. In order to do that, as we did not see it at first, we had to
listen to the other tape (driving along with it). We thought that
it was near the center so we skipped the first quarter. Turns out
we did not see it. We stopped at the PA monument and listened to
the tape again. After doing the tour twice we were quite anxious
to find it. After a while they finally talked about it. We
both yelled loudly ... definitely the rebel yell.
Harper's Ferry
This site was the
most interesting. The town was ... small. The history talk
at Boliver Heights was great.
Antietam
Excellent guided
auto tour. Nice battlefield lay out. Neat place.
Chancellorsville,
The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg
This is a
many-month battle. All four battlefields are similar. There
are two visitor's centers. Fredericksburg has been built up and is
but a shadow of the field. Good info, though!
Bull Run One and
Two
A really nice
battlefield. Many of the things that happened here became clearer
when seeing from whence they happened. There are two VERY busy
roads that intersect the battlefield.
Richmond
Richmond was OK.
Sing things that were happening there was useful. The field itself
is layed out all around Richmond. Much is in the slums.
Petersburg
This was SUPER.
A MUST SEE!!! We saw the field and it was OK as it talked a lot
about sieges. The neat part was the living history part. Our
first stop was to see a twelve pound Napoleon cannon demonstrated.
Imagine you are in a roped-off area. From behind a hill, at full
gallop, comes six horses pulling a cannon. Nine men are all
yelling to high heaven. It is REALLY REALLY impressive. They
roar to a stop right in front of the roped off area, unhitch the horses
and then take them below the hill. They turn the limber and then
begin to talk about the cannon, type of ammo, and what each person's job
is. They run through the firing and then do it for real (with one
pound of powder but no ball). BOOM! Very impressive.
They also talk about and demo a mortar and fire a ball about 100 yards
high and 200 yards away. We also went to a recreated fort.
They had a siege line fort with actors (actually historians) in uniform.
They demonstrated a musket drill and fired their muskets.
Appomattox Court
House
This was a long
drive away. The village is recreated and impressive fromt he
standpoint of thinking of Lee riding away after his surrender.
Fort Sumter
This was neat but
small. From the standpoint of design (it was very well designed)
it was interesting to hear what all it stood up to. You take a
three hour boat/walking visit.
Chattanooga and
Chickamauga
We went to a
commercial battlefield electric map. Although it looked like a
come-on, we figured we'd try. It was very nice! We did the
Chickamauga visitor's center and program, saw the park, and went to
lookout mountain. You can see forever. Matt was intrigued by
the inclined railway. Although I figured it would be a dud, it was
pretty neat.
8/15
Matt's friend
Shannon and her sister Kristen visited Knoxville Zoo. It was a
nice Zoo about 60% of the size of Cleveland. We then went to
Gatlinburg on the report there was a Civil War relic shop there.
It was a bust. They swam from 1400 to 1700. Matt went to
Shannon's cheerleading practice and we did hot dogs on the grill.
They left about 2200. A busy day!
8/16
For the first day,
we really did nothing. We slept in. I read. Matt
played Gameboy. Other than taking a shower: nyet. We
did go see the mountains.
8/17
Home!