A New Beginning

Hello,

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've decided to begin again but at a site directly affiliated with my web site brotherswar.com. If you'd like to have a look, please feel free to join me at brotherswar.com/CivilWarBookmarks.

I'll see you there.

Sincerely,

Randy

Post Script

A few people have been kind enough to ask that I leave this blog on-line for future reference. I will do so. After some time passes, perhaps I will yet begin again.

Thank you.

Randy

Farewell, For Now

I wish you all a fond Farewell and hope that the sun shines on you always as you continue with your journeys.

Sincerely,

Randy

A Short Break

I'm going to take a short time off from blogging.

Thanks and hope to be back soon.

Randy

Lee Hill, Fredericksburg

A 30 pound Parrott Rifle on Telegraph (Lee) Hill on the Fredericksburg Battlefield. As you can see from the muzzle, this gun was not original to the battle, having been forged in 1864 at the West Point Foundry. The barrel weighs in excess of 4,000 pounds and could fire a projectile over four miles.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

The Bloody Angle

The Bloody Angle in Spotsylvania where soldiers unleashed so ferocious a fire that the bullets themselves sawed down an oak tree 22 inches in diameter during the Battle of Spotsylvania.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

Peace on Earth

Gettysburg Christmas Tree
My fondest wish is that we all experience the peace and good will that this season brings and that we share as much with each other throughout the new year.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Sincerely,

Randy

Arlington's Confederate Memorial

The Confederate Memorial on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, former home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The Arlington National Cemetery web site explains its presence by stating:

"In 1898, President McKinley delivered a speech before the Georgia legislature that urged the U.S. government to assume responsibility for the care of graves of Confederate dead. The first attempt at putting McKinley's idea into practice occurred at Virginia's Arlington National Cemetery. Encouraged by research and petitions presented by Confederate veterans in Washington, D.C., the federal government in 1900 agreed to reinter the Confederate dead buried in gravesites scattered in Washington-area cemeteries into a consolidated Confederate section at Arlington. The success of the experiment at Arlington ultimately led to legislation authorizing the War Department to assume the care of the graves of almost 30,000 Confederates buried in national cemeteries in the North.

This effort on behalf of the Confederate dead provides yet another avenue for studying sectional reconciliation in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By focusing on the valorous deeds of the dead, living veterans from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line united in celebration of the common soldier. But though the good will created by reburial and re-marking projects was genuine, the Arlington experience also revealed the limits and complexities of sectional reconciliation. The dead were purposefully segregated within cemeteries, causation of the war was studiously ignored in memorial speeches, and white southern women refused to allow the government to interfere with their sacred trust in caring for Confederate graves in the South, all to maintain the careful equilibrium that allowed former Confederates and Yankees to coexist."

Dedicated in 1914, one of the monument's inscriptions reads:

"Not for fame or reward -
Not for place or for rank -
Not lured by ambition -
Or goaded by necessity -
But in simple -
Obedience to duty -
As they understood it
These men suffered all -
Sacrificed All -
Dared all - And Died"
Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Arlington National Cemetery

The Men from Maine

The 20th Maine Monument on the southern face of Little Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Manassas Monument

One of the earliest monuments erected to the men who sacrificed during the American Civil War. Union veterans placed this monument on the fields of Manassas / Bull Run in 1865. The inscription reads simply, "In Memory of the Patriots who fell at Bull Run July 21 1861". This view shows a portion on the monument as seen through one of the windows of the Judith Henry house.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Judith Henry

The grave site of Judith Henry in front of her newly reconstructed home on Henry House Hill on the Manassas Battlefield. Judith was in her mid eighties when, during the battle of first Manassas, a Union shell tore off most of her foot. She died shortly there after.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Jackson at Sunset

Statue of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson at sunset, Manassas National Battlefield, Virginia.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Chaos of Battle

The above images provide a small glimpse into the chaos of the battlefield and what soldiers endured as they fought for our nation's identity. The first offers an idea of just how the bullets swarmed during some of these colossal conflicts. These malformed pieces of lead are minnie balls found on the Petersburg battlefield that collided mid-air.

The other image shows a ramrod shot through a fence rail as a soldier, in his haste or confusion, forgot to remove it from the gun barrel before firing. This can be seen in the Fredericksburg Visitor's Center.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Colonel George Willard

A rarely visited marker on the Gettysburg Battlefield noting the location where Colonel George Willard lost his life leading his brigade into the maelstrom wrought by General William Barksdale's Mississippians. The marker reads,

Colonel G L Willard
125th
N.Y. Infantry,
was killed
at this place on the
evening of July 2d, 1863,
while leading in a charge
3d Brig. 3d Div. 2d Corps
His men finally stopped the onrushing Southerners. At the end of the battle, the Division commander, Brigadier General Alexander Hays, would say of Willard's men, "The history of this brigade's operations is written in blood...The loss of this brigade amounts to one-half the casualties in the division."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Cashtown Inn

According to the current Cashtown Inn website, this witness to the events of 1863 was "Built circa 1797. The Cashtown Inn served as the first stagecoach stop west of Gettysburg.

During the Gettysburg campaign of 1863, the Inn served as Confederate headquarters for General A.P. Hill."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

North Carolina on South Mountain

Deep in the woods along the ridge of Maryland's South Mountain rests this monument to the men of North Carolina who gave their lives during the Confederate's first campaign into the north. Dedicated only 3 years ago, it highlights the darker sides of war often painted over by a preferred romanticism. The inscription reads:

In memory of the North Carolinians that fought at or near here September 14,1862.
The lst, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 23rd, & 30th NC Infantry Regiments and the 1st NC Artillery, Manly and Reilly Batteries.

General D. H. Hill was in command of the 10,000 Confederates with elements of Longstreet's Corps arriving in the afternoon. The fighting here at Fox's Gap saw one of the few instances of actual hand-to-hand combat of the war. The 13th was totally surrounded after the mortal wounding of Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland just a few yards from here. Two days after the battle, 58 Confederate dead were dumped down the well of farmer Daniel Wise located NW. In 1874, they were re-interred in Hagerstown, Md.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Old Simon

Old Simon, the massive forty-four foot seven inch, 250-ton center statue in the Antietam National Cemetery, honors the individual soldiers who died during this dreadful conflict. Dedicated September 17, 1880, this monument officially bears the name "The Private Soldier". He forever stands watch over the 4,776 Union soldiers buried on these grounds while he faces North, towards home.

At Old Simon's base, a few simple words speak clearly of the men whose ground he shares and whose memory he honors.

"Not for themselves,
but for their country.
September 17, 1862"
Of the 1,836 unknown soldiers buried in this cemetery, the United States National Park Service sadly notes, "All of the unknowns are marked with small square stones. These stones contain the grave number, and if you look closely on a few stones, a small second number represents how many unknowns are buried in that grave."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The War Correspondents Arch

The War Correspondents Memorial Arch in Crampton's Gap along South Mountain in Maryland.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Iron in the Fall

Monument to the 2nd Wisconsin of the Union's Iron Brigade along McPherson's Ridge at Gettysburg.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Always on Watch

Monument to the 96th Pennsylvania looking towards the Wheatfield at the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved