I was fortunate enough to be able to visit several civil war battlefields between the two Gettysburg shows with my good friend & fellow dealer Steve Meadow. We spent three days on the road in Virginia and really enjoyed ourselves. We visited the following sites (not in order):
1. Winchester
2. Kernstown, including Prichard's Hill, which figured prominently in both the First and Second Battles of Kernstown
3. Opequon Church
4. Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
5. Hupp's Hill
6. Strasburg
7. Fisher's Hill Battlefield
8. Ball's Bluff Battlefield
9. Fredericksburg battlefield
10. Chancellorsville
11. Wilderness
12. Spotsylvania battlefield
13. Cold Harbor
14. Massaponax Church
15. Petersburg
16. Brandy Station
17. Cedar Mountain
18. Yellow Tavern (small monument where Stuart fell)
19. Savage Station
20. White Oak Swamp
21. Malvern Hill battlefield (one of my favorites)
22. Gaines' Mill battlefield
23. Middleburg
24. Antietam We returned to Gettysburg on Weds. night, truly wore out. I may have missed a few stops, but you get the idea. The consensus between us is that the union army was lead by a batch of idiots for most of the war. Now, I am a true blue Yankee, but the confederates in almost all the fields we visited had the advantage of position, usually because the union generals allowed them to get there first. The rebs were smart enough to get the heights, and they usually took total advantage of their position. This really sticks out as you visit each battlefield. Once the rebs were allowed to get ready (I am being sarcastic of course), our generals would send several thousand of our soldiers to their deaths by charging up hill into well defended lines. This trip really opened my eyes to how badly the union army was led, and it was only because of the private union soldier that the war was won. Just my humble opinion of course.
|
