Carpenter Civil War Trip

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Bull Run

If this entry is a bit on the crabby side, it is because the Braves are getting drilled by the Nats again tonight. It might be time to think about getting Lowe out of the rotation.

So today was a step back from the frantic site-seeing pace of the last three days. I figured out last night that my plan to see Fredericksburg today and Chancellorsville tomorrow made no sense because they are right next to one another (I knew they were close, but didn't think they were that close) and on the way to Richmond (tomorrow's stop). I figured all this out at 12:30 am last night.

So we slept in today, visited Bull Run for a few hours, played an unexpected round of golf, ate at Cracker Barrel, visited the Salvation Army store across the street from our hotel and are now chilling in the room. It was a very low-key day, but tomorrow will be busy as we're going to cram Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and the Jackson Shrine into a single day.

Bull Run is a nice battlefield - better than Antietam in terms of the museum and staff. The 150-year anniversary was last week (so hot that over 50 people were hospitalized and one horse died according to the Cracker Barrel cashier). We checked out the museum and then walked around the site. There is no love for the 2nd Battle of Bull Run at all here. It is all about Stonewall Jackson and the first encounter of the war. The battle site is very walkable (the 2nd Bull Run stuff requires a car as that battle spread the two armies out beyond the setting of the first one).

The surprise of the park? How about a 3-D show in the Henry House? It wasn't quite Avator, but it was close. No, it wasn't. It gave us a headache but a free souvenir. The battle itself is easy to picture as you walk the trails which is cool (Antietam had me turned around several times, to the point that I thought I was racing down a hill like Burnside did only to find out he was the other side...).

We also got to see a musket fired using the 9 steps a Civil War soldier used to fire his rifle once. I got video of it that should be useful in class.

The rest of the day was non-Civil War related, though I did find a few books on it in the Salvation Army store.

Five stops tomorrow before we pitch our Holiday Inn tents in Richmond tomorrow.

CC

Bull Run (Photos)

There is Carpenter...standing beside a stonewall.

Poor Henry House - right in the middle of the Civil War's first battle.

And Ms. Henry didn't live to see who won.

I can tell you this for a fact: we were not expecting to have a 3-D video inside the Henry House at the Manassas Battlefield.

And you thought the Civil War wasn't cool.

This battery decided it wasn't prudent to fire at the charging Confederates who quickly overran them. Nobody ever figured out why.

Stonewall

Musket firing demonstration. This soldier did not miss many rations of hardtack and salt pork.

YES!!!

Did I enjoy my visit to the Manassas Salvation Army? Yes, yes I did.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Antietam & Harpers Ferry

Gettysburg set a high bar that, unfortunately, couldn't be matched by Antietam. It was like going from Yankee Stadium to a Single-A ballpark. The video looked like it was playing on a VCR and the museum offered nothing. A real letdown for such a great battle.

The field itself had some cool parts - Burnside Bridge was very nice and the observation tower beside Bloody Lane helped. It is very peaceful as the battle took place on a farm. I stole some corn from the cornfield, though I don't really know why.

We then zipped over to Harpers Ferry which was disappointing from a historian perspective. The armory John Brown captured is gone and the rest of the history is underwhelming. We took the tour and listened to the guide tell us how incredibly important the battle in 1862 really was (it wasn't). The highlight was when the guide asked if we knew which battle in the Civil War featured the largest Union surrendering of troops.

Hmm...we're at Harpers Ferry...I wonder...

There were several wrong guesses from the Einsteins among us, including one guy shouting out with great confidence, "Appomattox!" Even better than the wrong answers was the genius in front of us shaking his head as he kept answering "Harpers Ferry" to no avail. That guy must really know his Civil War.

There was also a 50-year old guy wearing kneepads to the battlefield. Coach Carpenter would have been proud.

The moral: West Virginians don't disappoint.

We were finished with history by 3 or so and drove towards Manassas for our third different hotel stop. After a quick rest and shower, we ventured toward downtown DC via the Metro line to see the Braves and the Nationals. Despite two Dan Uggla home runs and Michael Bourn getting a hit to start his Braves' career, the Nats won 5-3. Rick Ankiel hit two home runs, the second of which landed about 10 feet from us. You can clearly see us in the highlights - Ryan is wearing orange and stands up to get ready and I am wearing white and don't budge because I'm eating and don't really think a ball is coming up to us. The guy who botched the ball was aggravated toward the high school kid who ended up with the ball because the botcher had two little kids who would have been beaming to get a ball from Dad. I felt a little bad for the guy as his kids not only didn't get the ball, but also watched their dad choke in his big moment, but the dad really had no right to glare at Skippy for snatching his error.

I have been thinking about what a high school trip to see this stuff would look like. Right now, Gettysburg is a must and will be a hit. Appomattox and Antietam are musts, but I don't know if the guys will like them. Harpers Ferry was beautiful geographically, but it could be done without. Tomorrow is Manassas which is a must and Fredericksburg which ought to be good unless civilization has impeded upon it too much.

I'll tell you what has been the best thing to have on this trip so far: my iPhone. So far, I have taken hundreds of pictures and several videos with it, used it for directions, looked up historical questions, timed my own personal Pickett's Charge, used the compass to figure out where the battle was happening, updating Facebook so people can follow the trip, kept up with the debt deal (boo) and the Braves (yay), and even made some phone calls with it. I'm hooked.

We're sleeping in tomorrow and then zipping just down the road to Manassas. Good night.

CC

Antietam & Harpers Ferry (Photos)

Dunker Church - called this because they were Baptists who dunked people. Cool.

Inside of the church - I don't know how you were supposed to worship God with all the distractions in there. Also, men sat on one side and women on the other.

Wadley & The Cornfield

See me?

Here I am! That is some tough fighting in a cornfield. Thick, hot and cramped. I did take some corn to cook later.

I love Bloody Cornfields!!!

Bloody Lane from the observation tower. I wish there were more observation towers in my life.

Burnside Bridge - notice how high the ground is ahead. The Union was supposed to cross the bridge (while Georgians picked them off from the upper left of the photo) and then scale that hill. They eventually did it, but it took a whole lotta dead federals to pull it off.

Where John Brown shot it out with Robert E. Lee & the U.S. army. Harpers Ferry is unimpressive from a historical perspective, but a very pretty little corner of the country. And there is no apostrophe in Harpers despite the fact I have put one there for all 10 years of my teaching career.

But it only feels like 107...

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Saturday - Gettysburg

I'm totally exhausted right now, so this won't do the day justice. We got to Gettysburg around 9 am and left at 6 pm without taking a break from the site-seeing. It was hot and sunny, and we were outside for much of the 9 hours. By the end of it we were totally out of energy, but it was well worth the exhaustion. Gettysburg is a wonderful battlefield that exceeded my expectations for the day.

The movie is very good (thanks to Morgan Freeman, I now know that Heth is pronounced Heath), but the Cyclorama is wonderful. It is a massive painting that tells the story of the battle (a bit inaccurately, but nothing egregious). The day was off to a great start and we weren't an hour into it.

Ryan and I debated paying $55 for a guide in our car, but decided to do the park at our own pace. In retrospect, it would have been weird to spend roughly 7-8 hours with a guide. There is so much at Gettysburg that it is a fine investment to make, but I'm glad we saved our money.

After checking out Heth's advance on Buford, we worked our way toward the middle of the battlefield where Pickett's Charge took place. Naturally, I charged the Copse of Trees. It took the Rebels 26 minutes; it took me 17. And I filmed it on my iPhone. So if Robert E. Lee had 13,000 of me, the battle might have gone differently. Just sayin'.

The museum at Gettysburg is terrific as it not only covers the battle, but also other battles, the build-up to the war, soldier life, etc. I picked up 10-15 details to add to my lectures beyond the Gettysburg stuff. I also picked up some bullets and little replicas of Civil War weapons which will hopefully help my lousy Civil War weapons class. If not, it might help classroom discipline to have bullets in my possession.

The highlight of the battlefield for me was Little Round Top and then Devil's Den. They are both work seeing just for the topography. The boulders are huge and beautiful. It is kind of like Stonehenge if Stonehenge was in the middle of the Battle of Hastings. There were some miserable kids around the park being dragged along by parents to see some history, but the kids definitely perked up at Devil's Den when they got to climb the rocks and freak out their terrified parents.

We finished the day with samplings from a Gettysburg brewery and a soak in the Holiday Inn hot tub. It was kind of like a wild, hot tub party except there were no girls and two tired guys who'd just spent the entire day at a Civil War battlefield.

I don't know how I'm still awake. Tomorrow we have a super-easy day of Antietam, Harper's Ferry and the Braves/Nationals game.

To bed,

CC

Saturday - Gettysburg (Photos and Hilarious Captions)

The day begins...

Cyclorama!!! The painting is about the size of a football field from one back of the endzone to another. Very cool.

This dude was a 70-years old, War of 1812 vet who demanded to fight at Gettysburg. Gotta love the patriotism and question the sanity.

Reynolds was one of the Union's best generals, but was killed at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg. I knew I wanted to see where he was shot, so I asked a guy where it was. "In the head." Har-har-har.

Hell, yeah.

Home sweet home to me.

The Man.

The Copse of Trees Lee told the Rebels to get to on Pickett's (and Trimble and Pettigrew's) fatal charge. It is also the only time in human history anyone has used the word "copse."

Armistead was shot here (though he probably actually got further).

High Water Mark of the Confederacy - close, but no cigar at Gettysburg.

The Rebels got here, but couldn't hold it against the Union's interior lines.

Meade - congrats on winning the biggest battle of the war and nobody knows anything about you. That is what happens when you let a defeated army retreat across a river and allow the war to continue for two more years. Should've been Reynolds, not you.

Gettysburg Address - though they've decided Lincoln actually gave it a few yards away from the monument.

This dude was grossing people out talking about amputating limbs. Said they would poor freezing chloroform below the belt on patients who didn't wake up after surgery. Pervert.

George Greene - the Joshua Chamberlain of Culp's Hill who didn't get any love in The Killer Angels.

Thanks for freeing the slaves, man. And I'd like a pony and a new bike.

Makes about as much sense as some of the other stuff people say is ordained by God.

Cool collage of dead Confederates from Gettysburg. I had a baseball card poster like this that was much less depressing.

Union collage.

Criticism of the Gettysburg Address. The word "silly" doesn't come to mind. The hat? A little silly. "Of the people, by the people, for the people"? - Not that silly.