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| Confederate dead on the east side of the Hagerstown Pike near the hill where the Visitor Center is located today, with the photographer looking toward the Dunker Church. (Source) |
That building in the background, that's the Dunker Church, just outside Sharpsburg, Maryland. In the photo it's 1862, but when I saw the photo, it was 2023 and my car was parked in front of that building.
I remember dismounting from Blue and looking around, at the time I remembered that photo above. Rather than an abandoned limber and dead soldiers, I saw this from the Dunker Church:
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| If you look carefully you'll see a group of cannon in the distance to the left of the path. Somewhere between where I was standing and those cannons is where those dead soldiers lay. OAFS Photo |
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| The Dunker Church in May of 2023. OAFS Photo |
Not sure why (wink) but my thoughts keep straying to the American Civil War lately.¹ Might be because I visited the Antietam battlefield for my birthday, might be because of my current reading ...
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| Amazon |
Minus the Minié balls whizzing past, the screams of the wounded, and the sheer horror of the affair. The book is aptly named.
As for the book on the right? If you want a concise, and I will say brilliant, explanation of the Minute Men and the battles of Lexington and Concord, you have to read this book. If you have any interest at all in the events of 19 April 1775 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, you must read this book. Trust me.
I wrote of my trip to Antietam here and here. Two of my kinfolk fought in the ACW, a great great uncle and my father's grandfather, who may indeed have been in western Maryland on that eventful day. If there is such a thing as ancestral memory, I may have felt a touch of what Great Grandpa saw and experienced when he was a young man.
I wrote of my trip to Antietam here and here. Two of my kinfolk fought in the ACW, a great great uncle and my father's grandfather, who may indeed have been in western Maryland on that eventful day. If there is such a thing as ancestral memory, I may have felt a touch of what Great Grandpa saw and experienced when he was a young man.
It's not something I'd wish on anyone.
If we're not careful, it could happen again.
¹ And let's not go nuts over what to call the war, in these spaces it's the ACW, the official name if you will.
Those early photos of the battlefields with their dead, sobering indeed. Thanks for the book referrals, Sarge, the Minute Men book goes to the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteMen who but a short while before that photo were alive, who had hopes and aspirations, only to die on some bloody field. And to what end?
DeleteThere is so much going on today that is not good, it's widespread and it's out of my hands. Reminds me...
ReplyDeleteI was stopped in a left turn lane waiting for the light, it was an intersection sloped down towards me, it was raining and a car was hydroplaning right towards my door ( he'd meant to make right on to the street that was just left of my drivers door). No place to go, nothing to do but wait and see... it was out of my hands.
That day the car stopped a few inches from my door, the guy driving looked relieved. I'm not sure who's driving whatever is that's happening today but I suspect that stopping just short of hurting me/you/us is not part of the plan.
Those driving what's happening these days don't care because they're truly evil, or they must be the stupidest people to ever live.
DeleteEmbrace the power of "and" Sarge.
DeleteBG
Word.
DeleteSarge, growing up in a part of the country that had neither American Revolution nor Civil War battlefields, I live mostly through pictures and books. I do not think that it became "real" for me until last year when on our trip to Pennsylania and Maryland we visited The Brandywine Battlefield, Valley Forge, and Fort Delaware.
ReplyDeleteThe enthusiasm entering such a thing is almost never borne out by the results. And it seldom goes according to plan.
The enthusiasm always boggles my mind, lambs to the slaughter.
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting that when I was at SAMS at Ft Leavenworth, we studied the American Revolution, but not the battles, more of the "Why". We spent an awful lot of time studying the Battles of the Civil War, more so from the Strategic and Operational levels of war, little on the Tactical. We did visit Gettysburg and Antietam, because these (at least according to the Army) were among the first to be planned at the Operational level. To be sure, there were a lot of lessons learned at the Tactical level, many extremely painful, because of the Operational level hadn't been fully fleshed out yet. By the end of the war, the North was much better at that level than the South. Unfortunately, most of those lessons were lost between then and the First World War. And, the casualties showed that. We did somewhat better in WWII, forgot it again in Korea and Vietnam, did pretty well in Desert Storm. I get a strong sense in reading about the current military that we have pretty well sunk back to knowing nothing about planning and executing warfare.
There will be a price to pay.
juvat
There is always a price to pay when the hard warriors get shuffled aside to make way for the perfumed princes.
DeleteWe lost the "War in Vietnam". Set in motion a bunch of "never again" feelings that are destroying our culture, our schools, our military. We laughed at Kurchatov pounding his shoe and promising to bury us. We should have listened. This is going to be so expensive, in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteIt could be, hopefully we'll have enough people realize that and "right the ship" before it capsizes.
Delete(You meant Khrushchev, right? Spellcheck will do that.)
We won the fighting. Congress and the media lost the war. Bastids.
DeletePrecisely, which is why most of our wars cost more and yield less.
DeleteI don't think a civil war is in the offing. I think it'll be Balkanization. If anything, it'll be worse than the 1860's. Past offenses, racial hate, ecumenical divides, maybe even school rivalries will be on the table. Saddens me that our betters in the permanent political class have so little regard for those that "bankroll" their profligate lifestyle. I trust that they will be held to account. If not here, then at the Judgement.
ReplyDeleteI did some digging on the paternal side of the family. My great great great granddad lost 4 of 5 sons to that mess. One is in a POW cemetery, Camp Douglas, Chicago. One in Murfreesboro, then another at the end of the fracas in Alabama. The surviving son served as well. My great great granddad lies in Virginia, dying after the horrible 1963 winter under Longstreet in eastern TN. I fear we may learn how to live without the civilizing benefits of electricity or natural gas at some point soon, too. I am sharing my old physics professor mind now. He expected the back to simplicity movement would not support enough nuclear capable engineers. I think this political correctness slop is doing a much more thorough job than back to nature ever could. If we can't educate enough folks to build and maintain our infrastructure, it's all done but for the waiting. God, be merciful to us. Happy Christmas.
Unless we wake up, and soon, we might get to experience what life was like in the 18th Century.
DeleteI figure the throttle is wired wide open and the direction is right where you said. And the "elite brains" don't seem to have a clue we are, all of us, attached at the hip.
DeleteYup, the "elite" are not and who knows what's going on in their wee brains.
DeleteYes, the "elite" do not seem to understand chess (doing something without thinking ahead to 2nd and 3rd order consequences [and unexpected consequences] of their action).
DeleteTheir eyes are fixated on power and wealth, at the expense of everyone else.
Delete"The Minute Men" is indeed a very important and well done book, recommended by someone here (after I made some disparaging comments on militia in general, which I still consider mostly accurate).
ReplyDeleteWe all know the plot and ending, so no spoiler alert needed. An important fact that I did not know is that the Minute Men in April 1775 were not responding to the British march that day much differently than they had been doing for a year (maybe two?) when Brit forces went marching around the countryside with unknown intentions. Thus, there was an established, albeit somewhat ad hoc and informal, network for passing alerts through the area surrounding Boston in all directions. Further, a portion of the militias has been directed to be "ready to march at a moment's notice" when needed.
Massachusetts militia tradition extended back to the early days of the colony. Despite a tasty Thanksgiving feast, the natives were increasingly hostile, resenting encroachment on "their" lands and occasionally raiding outlying farms or settlements, with retaliatory raids by the English settlers. The 29 Feb 1704 Deerfield [MA- home of Yankee Candle] resulted in 47 settler killed, and 112 taken captive and headed to Montreal. There was less time between this and April 1775 than between today and Pearl Harbor. After this, militias were taken very seriously (in Massachusetts during this period) as there were not really any "Regulars" to protect them. Thus, miltias were formed and exercised and even during the early days, a number were expected to be ready to react on very short notice. The spectre of sudden raids and unstylish haircuts was a powerful motivator.
One caution is that the fame and success of the militia actions of April 1775, and recurring celebrations had likely increased the number and contributions of people who (or may not) have actually been there, so I am somewhat skeptical about the accuracy of some individual accounts, but the overall book is excellent.
Lots of copies on ABEbooks for under $10.00
John Blackshoe
The book is outstanding. Reading it I realized that what I learned in school about that day was far more accurate than the lessons which were foisted upon the youth in later years. Perhaps it's my New England upbringing that the Minute Men were pictured more accurately than other regions may have been taught.
DeleteI was looking for a place to chime in on Galvin's book and I'll use this one; as I may be the "guilty party" referring the book to Bother Blackshoe. I will just reiterate my endorsement of it, though JB's reservation may cause me to go back to it (it's been some years since I read it)
DeleteBoat Guy
I thought it superb.
DeleteFWIW, I believe that the 1862 picture shows a limber, not a caisson. The body of one of the draft horses, perhaps still in harness, lies with it.
ReplyDeleteYou beat me to it, that is, indeed a limber. Now, it MIGHT have been the limber for a caisson, but more likely it was for a gun or howitzer.
DeleteAny Mouse - Yup, my bad, fixed it.
DeleteJoe - In the passion of writing I didn't think.
DeleteIn the Taylor Sheridan production of "1883" a scene starts with that photo and morphs into color showing the protagonist ( played by Tim McGraw) as a Confederate Artillery officer regaining consciousness and reacting to what he sees; quite a powerful scene.
DeleteBoat Guy
That sounds like a very good scene. I'll have to track it down.
DeleteHave people on both sides of the conflict. So many issues involved in that war, sooo many. Got skin in the game on both sides of the Rev War, too. Only one side on the Spanish-American War.
ReplyDeleteWar sucks. Especially if those in charge don't change with the times.
Those in charge are the ones who cause the wars.
DeleteA friend who did the war collage thing told me that all wars are started by politicians who want something that the other guy has.
DeleteBingo!
DeleteSee the dead horse behind the limber? I know animals rank lower then humans but the terror animals suffer in war is horrible. An ancestor from Wisconsin was in the Iron Brigade and fought in four major battles.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't rank animals lower than humans. All were made by the Creator.
DeleteThe Iron Brigade was an outstanding outfit.
I'm with you, Sarge; except that I rank animals, especially dogs, horses and mules above many people. Given Free Will, many people choose to conduct themselves on a lower level. The suffering of innocent animals in horsedrawn war would horrifying me even more.
DeleteBoat Guy
Yup, many of those rank well above some humans.
DeleteIf it happens again, it's going to make CW1 look like intermission at a Grateful Dead show. It will be all-inclusive and... unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it doesn't come to that.
Delete