The Civil War on the Web * Fort Sumter - For now see my Charleston pages * Bennett Place * Chickamauga * Shenandoah Valley * Civil War remembrances in North Carolina * Hollywood Cemetery - Richmond * Bull Run (Manassas) |
Virginia Richmond Petersburg Pennsylvania Gettysburg Maryland Antietam North Carolina |
Civil War Battlefields and Other Sites |
Civil War Travelogues and Photos |
Virginia Richmond Petersburg Pennsylvania Gettysburg Maryland Antietam North Carolina |
Tips for battlefield visitors and history buffs - under construction |
Tips for visiting Civil War battlefields Books about the Civil War Movies about the Civil War |
Other Coming Attractions |
The Civil War on the Web * Fort Sumter - For now see my Charleston pages * Bennett Place * Chickamauga * Shenandoah Valley * Civil War remembrances in North Carolina * Hollywood Cemetery - Richmond * Bull Run (Manassas) |
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The One-eyed Traveler |
This page was last updated on: August 5, 2005
Text and photos copyright 1984-2005 Dan Woodlief |
Most Civil War battlefields consist of little more than cannons, open fields and woods, a few monuments perhaps, and maybe a row of very eroded trenches. This is probably why some people find them boring, just as some people find history itself boring. To really appreciate a battlefield visit, read up on the events beforehand, watch a video presentation at the visitor center, or get a good guide. When I visit a battle site, I don't see trenches and cannons; I envision masses of blue and gray engaged in a flag-waving, smoke-engulfed, desperate back and forth surging clash for a future vision of what their societies should be. I imagine what courage, what audacity, and for some what sheer belief in "the cause" was required to move forward against those trenches with minie balls and canister balls mowing their comrades down like a bloody field of wheat. As a boy growing up in the South, I was highly interested in the Civil War, just as I was in all history. When I was in elementary school, I used to lead gray troops in mock battles during recess. I had no belief in the Southern cause; I am not even sure that I understood much about that at the time, but hey I was a Southerner. After all, my ancestors all fought for the Confederacy. To that extent, I can identify with those who fought for their homes with no thought of the issue of slavery and even honor them for their sacrifices. Over the years, I gravitated more toward European history and went on to other pursuits. I visited a few battlefields over the years, but living most of my young adult years in Wisconsin made that difficult. In the Fall of 2000, I rediscovered an almost lost interest in the conflict while preparing for a 9-day battlefield trip with my wife and 1 ½ year old daughter. The passion has returned, and I have pored through book after book since then. I am decidedly a Union man now; that is, I am glad the North won, and I do believe slavery was the leading cause of the war (i.e. without slavery, there would have been no Civil War). When I visit a Civil War battlefield I respect the Southerners but praise the Northerners for the important victory they won. Let's just say, if I had a son I would be tempted to name him Lincoln, but my wife would kill me (she just doesn't care for the name). But old habits die hard, and I occasionally feel myself subconsciously pulling for the South in particular battles, the underdog if you will, when I read about the war. I have my own opinions about the conflict, but you won't see much of that here (and you certainly won't find terms such as the "War of Northern Aggression," and I don't care if you call Manassas "Bull Run" or Antietam "Sharpsburg"). As a former history graduate student, I try to take an objective approach to studying and discussing the war. Passions are important, but all too often they get in the way of discussing and truly learning about history. Believe me, most people in the South don't spend time pondering the war and who was right and who was wrong (we are too busy living the present), but for some those beliefs do still run fairly deep. Now among true blue (or gray) Civil War buffs this is not the case at all. You will rarely find more passion in any group of people. I had several purposes in putting together these pages. I wanted to share my love of history and the photographs I have taken on my Civil War journeys. I have more than a tourist's interest in the war, but I wrote with the intent of helping other travelers and photographers, even non-history buffs, to get the most out of their visits to famous sites such as Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and Antietam. Those with a little more interest may benefit from descriptions of places such as Guinea Station, Sayler's Creek, and Bennett Place (coming soon). I will eventually include reviews of books, movies, and Web sites to educate and prepare all levels of battlefield visitors for their trips. Since the lists are only based on my own readings and viewings, they will receive constant updates. I am not a reenactor, nor do I consider myself a Civil War expert. I abhor war for its nature and don't like guns (untypical of a small-town born Southerner and odd for someone with a life-long interest in military history). Still, there is a lot that draws me to the Civil War. To understand it adds so much to our knowledge of where our country has gone over the past century and a half. It was a time of desperation, hate, and horror, yet also a time of great hope and change. Hollywood would be hard-pressed to write a better drama than the real-life one carried out on our national stage from 1861 to 1865 by such actors as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses Grant, "Billy" Sherman, Joshua Chamberlain, Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the 54th Massachusetts regiment, and hundreds of thousands of their comrades from Maine to Minnesota to Florida to Texas. If you have an inkling to know more about those actors and their theaters, I hope you will find a little encouragement from what you find here. |
