- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
- Messages
- 22,552
Thank you Shanghai McCoy. It was indeed quite a trip. I spent about 9 days around Richmond & Petersburg to go over the battlefields of the Peninsula Campaign and Overland Campaign that I had missed as well as some of the forts and sites around Petersburg. Robert Krick Jr., the National Park Historian, was kind enough to let me use their research library (oh, what I'd do for a week off just in that library). I also got the contact email of the photographer who took the picture of the big Dalgreen at Fort Darling (Drewy's Bluff). Tried to duplicate it but the shrubbery is too high and from the angle he must have used a ladder (and was a lot taller than myself).
At Petersburg I found some sites that are significant for my work and photographed them. This includes Fort Steadman where John B. Gordon's Corp attempted to break Grant's siege of Lee's Army. The attack was led by the Confederate sharpshooters (read Berry Benson's memoirs). BTW, the Dictator, mother of all mortars has been removed for restoration work. You can still buy the postcard.
At Gettysburg I saw some houses that were used by the Confederate sharpshooters to pick off Union men at Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. The trees are too tall so the line of sight is now obscured. Where the Union Hotel stood at the apex of the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road is now a gas station. From that hotel the Union soldiers engaged Maj. Blackford's sharpshooters (5th Alabama) as well as the 8th Louisiana Inf. By holding the hotel, they kept the Confederates from approaching closer to Cemetery Hill. That was held by Union troops until the third day when the Confederates drove them out with cannon fire but they held the lot and kept the Confederates from advancing into the hotel.
If you get a chance, go to Harper's Ferry during the summer. It's almost like visiting Colonial Williamsburg but with a mid-19th century flavor (gotta have all those interns running about). The old maple tree that stood behind John Brown's fort was being torn down and I got a small sample of it. Enough travel ramblings as I don't want to bore you guys.
Here's the tidbit from the Peninsula campaign. While the cassions may go rolling along, sometimes the artillerists didn't.
[W]hile the men stood to their pieces, straining their eager eyes to pierce the thick brush in front, a dropping fire was opened on us by sharpshooters completely hidden from view, resulting in killing one gallant fellow [who] drooped at his gun and was sent to the field hospital where he died. In another moment brave Corporal Riker tumbled over, mortally wounded, and then Private Cipperly suddenly fell from his horse, with a sharp cry, and was carried to the rear. In quick succession John Johnston and Robert Shaw dropped badly wounded. This murderous fire from an invisible enemy was a severe trial to men who had never yet been in the front of battle, especially as no defense could be made." Their situation was only relieved when the Confederate line of battle appeared murkily out of the bush. A sheet of flame erupted from the vengeful battery which swept the Confederates "away like chaff before the wind."
At Petersburg I found some sites that are significant for my work and photographed them. This includes Fort Steadman where John B. Gordon's Corp attempted to break Grant's siege of Lee's Army. The attack was led by the Confederate sharpshooters (read Berry Benson's memoirs). BTW, the Dictator, mother of all mortars has been removed for restoration work. You can still buy the postcard.
At Gettysburg I saw some houses that were used by the Confederate sharpshooters to pick off Union men at Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. The trees are too tall so the line of sight is now obscured. Where the Union Hotel stood at the apex of the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road is now a gas station. From that hotel the Union soldiers engaged Maj. Blackford's sharpshooters (5th Alabama) as well as the 8th Louisiana Inf. By holding the hotel, they kept the Confederates from approaching closer to Cemetery Hill. That was held by Union troops until the third day when the Confederates drove them out with cannon fire but they held the lot and kept the Confederates from advancing into the hotel.
If you get a chance, go to Harper's Ferry during the summer. It's almost like visiting Colonial Williamsburg but with a mid-19th century flavor (gotta have all those interns running about). The old maple tree that stood behind John Brown's fort was being torn down and I got a small sample of it. Enough travel ramblings as I don't want to bore you guys.
Here's the tidbit from the Peninsula campaign. While the cassions may go rolling along, sometimes the artillerists didn't.
[W]hile the men stood to their pieces, straining their eager eyes to pierce the thick brush in front, a dropping fire was opened on us by sharpshooters completely hidden from view, resulting in killing one gallant fellow [who] drooped at his gun and was sent to the field hospital where he died. In another moment brave Corporal Riker tumbled over, mortally wounded, and then Private Cipperly suddenly fell from his horse, with a sharp cry, and was carried to the rear. In quick succession John Johnston and Robert Shaw dropped badly wounded. This murderous fire from an invisible enemy was a severe trial to men who had never yet been in the front of battle, especially as no defense could be made." Their situation was only relieved when the Confederate line of battle appeared murkily out of the bush. A sheet of flame erupted from the vengeful battery which swept the Confederates "away like chaff before the wind."