Any USA Civil War History Buffs?

[Moderator 2]

My husbands relative lost an arm at Devils Den I think and he found a copy of his pension.

[display name]

[quote name='YYZ66' timestamp='1330362508' post='1005136']

A complete tactical blunder. March your men across an open field into a wall of cannon? Not very smart. I really think the heat, along with the nasty humidity of southcentral PA, took its toll on Lee. Up to Gettysburg, Lee had been pretty much tactically brilliant. Longstreet practically begged Lee not to charge and fight defensively. How much different might the country be if Lee had listened to Longstreet?
[/quote]
Gotta get passports to go accross most of the Patomac, 'cause that's the USA. Up here in Maryland would still be USA. (There were a fair amount of rebs in southern MD and Eastern, so the Unions had to keep us down as not to completely surround Washington D.C. in gray!) Robert E. Lee was just off his game at Gettysburg. I love the Pickett's Charge part (especially the music) in one of the Gettysburg films. Da-da-daaaaaaaa-da-da, daaaaaaaaaaaaaa-da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-da-daaaaaaaaaaaaada..... I'm in my zone. Don't mess with me!

[display name]

[quote name='bpytnjr58' timestamp='1330366827' post='1005227']
I lived in New Oxford for about 8 years...i spent many an afternoon on Little Round Top and the Devil's Den.
[/quote]
Must be nice. The part where Chamberlin had his bayonette charge is not on the beaten trail like Devil's Den. You seen it?

[YYZ66]

[quote name='PARavensgirl' timestamp='1330252583' post='1003285']
You are indeed. I understand now how blessed I am to have been born and raised a short jaunt from Gettysburg. It's my sacred ground (and I will miss it greatly). In fact, Gettysburg was my first NPS park. I volunteered there Sundays for eight months in '97 and worked an internship there in '98 while I was in college.

I met Brian Pohanka before he passed away. Talk about feeling like you were looking at the face of God (reenactor God but you get the point).

Ask me about the Iron Brigade, if you dare. [img]http://content.boards.baltimoreravens.com//public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png[/img] I'm also a student of Civil War artillery.
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Ya know what's terrible? I'm about an hour away (if that) and have only been there once....

[bpytnjr58]

[quote name='display name' timestamp='1330397992' post='1005877']
Must be nice. The part where Chamberlin had his bayonette charge is not on the beaten trail like Devil's Den. You seen it?
[/quote]
Yes...you can hike through the areas.

[theblackdog]

When I was in grade school in CA, we got to take a trip to Angel Island out in the San Francisco Bay and re-create life in Camp Reynolds, which was a base for the Union during the Civil War.

[MsMarvel73]

[quote name='YYZ66' timestamp='1330448975' post='1006333']

Ya know what's terrible? I'm about an hour away (if that) and have only been there once....
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Heck had I known that, I would have dragged you there by your neck before I left!!! [img]http://content.boards.baltimoreravens.com//public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.png[/img]

[MsMarvel73]

[quote name='display name' timestamp='1330397992' post='1005877']
Must be nice. The part where Chamberlin had his bayonette charge is not on the beaten trail like Devil's Den. You seen it?
[/quote]

It's not THAT far off the beaten trail. In fact, there's an old asphalt path that goes back there...just walk down the road from the top of LRT and you're on your way.

But the monument isn't in the right place. Blame that on Bachelder.

[MsMarvel73]

I discovered via digging through ancestry.com that indeed I do have a Civil War ancestor on my mother's father's side of the family.

My grandfather's grandfather Daniel...his older brother William Henry Harrison (my great-great-grand uncle Harrison) enlisted in Company A of the 16th PA, served from April to July 1861 (yes a 90 day wonder) and apparently never served again after that.

My 3-greats-grandfather William has a veterans burial card and is buried in the same cemetery as Harrison, but the burial card doesn't have any unit listed...a phantom Civil War ancestor? I still can't figure that one out.

[display name]

I discovered via digging through ancestry.com that indeed I do have a Civil War ancestor on my mother's father's side of the family.

My grandfather's grandfather Daniel...his older brother William Henry Harrison (my great-great-grand uncle Harrison) enlisted in Company A of the 16th PA, served from April to July 1861 (yes a 90 day wonder) and apparently never served again after that.

My 3-greats-grandfather William has a veterans burial card and is buried in the same cemetery as Harrison, but the burial card doesn't have any unit listed...a phantom Civil War ancestor? I still can't figure that one out.

I am supposedly related to a Union general.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

Someone went digging...
Anyways I am somehow linked to Stonewall Jackson, I think he is my great x 3 uncle but I don't remember the specifics I would have to go digging in the files to check.

[MsMarvel73]

I cut my military historian teeth on the Civil War. My first NPS position was as a college student intern interpreter at Gettysburg.Plus, born and raised in York, a mere 30 miles east.

 

I could recommend mountains of really good books if any of you are interested. I've read a great deal of lots of different stuff in the last 20 years. Just drop me a line on what aspects you're interested in and I most likely will be able to find you a good one.

[MsMarvel73]

A complete tactical blunder. March your men across an open field into a wall of cannon? Not very smart. I really think the heat, along with the nasty humidity of southcentral PA, took its toll on Lee. Up to Gettysburg, Lee had been pretty much tactically brilliant. Longstreet practically begged Lee not to charge and fight defensively. How much different might the country be if Lee had listened to Longstreet?

 

Ah but that is the way West Point taught cadets back in that day. Lee got that training, as did all the Union West Point graduates. Tactics were all about the Napoleonic back in those days and the armies suffered because the military technology had gotten more sophisticated.....the rifles and the rifled cannons, etc. Look at what happened to the Union Second Corps at Marye's Heights during Fredericksburg.

 

I don't think Lee could really comprehend doing what Longstreet suggested because it went against the precepts and tenets he had been taught...perhaps Lee lacked imagination for whatever reason...ilness or whatever.. Hindsight is always 20-20.

 

But think about Longstreet's idea of going around......the Confederates, had they tried, would have run smack into the Union 6th Corps, the largest of the Army of the Potomac's Corps...and even though they were being held in reserve, they were still at the ready.

[flaccopoe]

Though I don't have a connection with the area as a local I'm fascinated by history and the subject

No doubt you've all seen them before:
The two Ted Turners films Gettysburg and God and Generals

A less well known film but very memorable is Andersonville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_(film)
Desperate men in a desperate situation and it brings out the best in some but the worst in others who bully and prey on the weak. Not a film you'd soon forget

Bernard Cornwell is a fiction writer, probably best known for Richard Sharpe series about a British rifleman in the Napoleonic wars.
He did four books on the Civil War, Copperhead, Bloody Ground, Rebel, Battle Flag.
Superb books, fictional characters but follow real events and there are historical notes at the end of the books

Just a few things I've enjoyed

 

Saw Andersonville.  Didn't know Cornwell wrote about the Civil War, as I know him for his medieval novels.  And look up Elmira.

[flaccopoe]

A complete tactical blunder. March your men across an open field into a wall of cannon? Not very smart. I really think the heat, along with the nasty humidity of southcentral PA, took its toll on Lee. Up to Gettysburg, Lee had been pretty much tactically brilliant. Longstreet practically begged Lee not to charge and fight defensively. How much different might the country be if Lee had listened to Longstreet?

 

Thank goodness he didn't have access to Gatorade.

[Ragin'Raven]

I am a history buff, not necessarily a war one. I minored in History in college. I am reading Gettysburg right now though, and it's a fascinating book! I also love exploring the battlefields. There is so much we don't understand about the amazing sacrifices those who came before us made.

[Moderator 2]

I am a history buff, not necessarily a war one. I minored in History in college. I am reading Gettysburg right now though, and it's a fascinating book! I also love exploring the battlefields. There is so much we don't understand about the amazing sacrifices those who came before us made.

Gettysburg is one of my favorite non- beach places and will be a good place to take your boys in a couple years, especially the horse drawn carriage rides of the Battlefields and I like the ghost tours around Halloween. I most likely have 50 books on the subject, I like the locally published stuff.

[YYZ66]

Ah but that is the way West Point taught cadets back in that day. Lee got that training, as did all the Union West Point graduates. Tactics were all about the Napoleonic back in those days and the armies suffered because the military technology had gotten more sophisticated.....the rifles and the rifled cannons, etc. Look at what happened to the Union Second Corps at Marye's Heights during Fredericksburg.

 

I don't think Lee could really comprehend doing what Longstreet suggested because it went against the precepts and tenets he had been taught...perhaps Lee lacked imagination for whatever reason...ilness or whatever.. Hindsight is always 20-20.

 

But think about Longstreet's idea of going around......the Confederates, had they tried, would have run smack into the Union 6th Corps, the largest of the Army of the Potomac's Corps...and even though they were being held in reserve, they were still at the ready.

 

Great point!  Antietam was another blood bath caused by Napoleanic warfare, wouldn't you agree?

 

I believe the most gruesome example of this was WWI, marching into machine gun fire.  That carnage must have been horrific.

[YYZ66]

Thank goodness he didn't have access to Gatorade.

 

Listen here smart guy!!!  Why don't you come down to southcentral PA during the nasty months of summer, and deal with this humidity in a complete wool outfit!!   :D

[flaccopoe]

Listen here smart guy!!!  Why don't you come down to southcentral PA during the nasty months of summer, and deal with this humidity in a complete wool outfit!!   :D

 

I would've made like Rambo and fought with my shirt off.

[YYZ66]

I would've made like Rambo and fought with my shirt off.

 

Not a bad idea.  But remember, no such thing as sunblock back then.  Could you have dealt with the sunburn?

[flaccopoe]

Not a bad idea.  But remember, no such thing as sunblock back then.  Could you have dealt with the sunburn?

 

I don't know, I don't have his complexion.

[display name]

I am a history buff, not necessarily a war one. I minored in History in college. I am reading Gettysburg right now though, and it's a fascinating book! I also love exploring the battlefields. There is so much we don't understand about the amazing sacrifices those who came before us made.

Walking Pickett's Charge is one of the best things you can do.

[display name]

Someone went digging...
Anyways I am somehow linked to Stonewall Jackson, I think he is my great x 3 uncle but I don't remember the specifics I would have to go digging in the files to check.

cool guy

[The Oakland Cathedral]

cool guy

I know I am.

[display name]

I know I am.

no, him

[The Oakland Cathedral]

no, him

Ah, darn.

[flaccopoe]

Anyone seen Birth of a Nation?

[MsMarvel73]

Walking Pickett's Charge is one of the best things you can do.

 

But make sure you have a vehicle on both sides or you will have to walk the mile back across the field...and depending on what time of year you're there, that could be a rather nasty decision (packlotsofwater).

[MsMarvel73]

Great point!  Antietam was another blood bath caused by Napoleanic warfare, wouldn't you agree

 

Yes that and McClellan was a twit. He had the Lost Orders in hand and waffled....badly. A more decisive commander like Grant would have slammed Lee at Antietam and it would have all been over in 1862, hypothetically.