Civil War Battlefields

In the second week of Mum and Dad's visit, we did a 3 day trip of the civil war battlefields. The civil war is a fascinating time in American History - it was basically a war over whether slavery, already entrenched in the Southern states, should be extended into the West. President Abraham Lincoln was against extending slavery and this angered the Southern states. In the end the Southern states broke away from the Union and fought against them. The South wanted to rule themselves and believed themselves to be an independent nation. They fought under their own flag as the Confederate States of America against the Federals, or the United States of America.

We spent the first day on the battlefields of Gettysburg. This battle took place over 3 days in July 1863 and by the end of that time about 51,000 soldiers were dead. Today, as it would have then, the countryside looks so beautiful and it is hard to imagine it as a place of such terrible fighting. We toured the battlefields in our car, following an audio tour, and saw the many monuments to the different regiments that fought in the war as well as many of the battlefield sites such as McPherson Ridge, Cemetery Hill, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard.

The North Carolina Monument

Ella takes a run down "Pickett's Charge" - the site of a huge defeat to the Confederate Army. Almost 5,000 Confederate soldiers died in one hour and after this battle the South retreated and thus ended the Battle of Gettysburg.


We saw the site of the Little Round Top battle. The statue is of General Warren from the Union army who was integral in allowing the Union soldiers to win the battle here.

Finally that day we visited the National Soldier's Cemetery, where many of the Union dead from the civil war are buried. This is also where Lincoln gave his 'Gettysburg Address'.

James in front of the memorial where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address.

The next day we drove to Antietam, the site of a battle that took place in September 1862. Antietam was a lot quieter than Gettysburg, which had been very busy the day we visited. It was also a very beautiful and peaceful place - like in Gettysburg it is hard to imagine that so much fighting took place here. We saw many of the major battle sites here such as the Dunker Church, the Cornfield and the Sunken Road.

The Dunker Church

The Cornfield - it was said that every stalk of corn was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife after the battle here.

The Sunken Road

One of the most beautiful sites was the Burnside Bridge, an old stone bridge over Antietam Creek, which was the site of much fighting when the Union Army tried to fight their way over the strongly defended bridge. They were ultimately successful in taking the bridge but with much loss of life on both sides. The Unionists were led by General Ambrose Burnside and the bridge was renamed after him. His other claim to fame were his facial hair - he had such huge whiskers and that is where the word 'sideburns' came from - as a play on his name!

The Burnside bridge

On our final day of the trip we stopped in two towns that are also important in civil war history. The first was Harper's Ferry. This is a gorgeous little town that changed hands 8 times during the Civil War. Because it was in such a strategic position on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad it was the site of much fighting and the town suffered much devastation as factories, railroads and bridges were blown up. In April 1861 the Union troops set fire to the Armory and Arsenal here in order to keep them out of Confederate hands.

The town centre of Harper's Ferry

The beautiful view over the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River

Our final stop was Manassas where 2 battles were held at different times during the war. The first battle of Manassas was held in July 1861. This was actually the first time the armies had fought and many of the soldiers had never fought in war before. I found it almost funny, but sad too, to read how so many of them were enthusiastic to fight and many private citizens and congressman from Washington followed them to the battlefields with picnics and wine to watch the 'spectacle' of fighting. They soon found out war was not fun or a spectator sport and by the end of the day nearly 900 soldiers were dead and the Union troops withdrew in panic.

The second Battle of Manassas took place in August 1962 and lasted 3 days. By now the soldiers knew what war was really about and another 3,300 troops were killed. It all seems very fruitless given that neither side really gained much ground at all during this battle. Below are some of the battle sites were visited in Manassas.

The Stone bridge was where the first shots of the battle were fired.

The Old Stone House was where the wounded were sheltered and it was the site of a Union Field Hospital

So thanks to this tour of the battlefields and Dad's expert guidance, I am now feeling a little more knowledgeable about Civil War history! Pia and Ella took the tour in their stride and amused themselves at many of the tour stops killing spiders, which they named 'Confederate spiders'! They also enjoyed running around spotting birds (Pia is loving the cardinals, blue jays and mockingbirds) and they even saw a wild rabbit and a glimpse of a groundhog who scampered quickly back into his hole.

This past week we were lucky enough to go to the Fall Open Gardens tour of the White House and then we did a 5 day trip in Virginia while Mum and Dad have been in New York. I will save all those details for the next post.