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Visiting American Battlefields

I've seen all of the PA and MD battle sites. Pretty sure most of VA too. Spent about 5 summers, every weekend in Gettysburg. I've even got ghost film. lights on the Triangle field and in the dorms at the college. Had to stop at every one between Delaware and Oklahoma as well. Managed a trip to Pea Ridge when they were doing reenactments. I'm so tired of all that old battle shit, I never want to go again. My ex is the one that wanted to see it all.
I was going to question you sir on your experience but I think you soundly made your point made.

-LD
 
My family went through Gettysburg in 2020. I downloaded an app that guided you on a driving tour and gave a small bit of history at numerous points.

It was truly awe inspiring just how immense the whole battlefield was.

Cannon emplacements everywhere. I took a few photos down the tops of the cannons to get a perspective on the gunner.

Also visited Fort Knox in Maine that was a coastal fort during the Spanish-American war.
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Any comments to share with the Hide on those visits by chance?

-LD
The Arizona and the battlefields in Gettysburg, were very humbling for me, due to the fact, thousands of men died in such a small acreage/plot of land. Just imagining what it looked like during, and after the battles. The Arizona, well...that. Mac
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My family went through Gettysburg in 2020. I downloaded an app that guided you on a driving tour and gave a small bit of history at numerous points.

It was truly awe inspiring just how immense the whole battlefield was.

Cannon emplacements everywhere. I took a few photos down the tops of the cannons to get a perspective on the gunner.

Also visited Fort Knox in Maine that was a coastal fort during the Spanish-American war.View attachment 8363316View attachment 8363317View attachment 8363318View attachment 8363319
So many stories to be told from Gettysburg for sure sir.

-LD
 
The Arizona and the battlefields in Gettysburg, were very humbling for me, due to the fact, thousands of men died in such a small acreage/plot of land. Just imagining what it looked like during, and after the battles. The Arizona, well...that. Mac
About 30 years ago- I was a member of the Boy Scouts and was given the opportunity to camp on the battlefield and yes sir- it was a very humbling experience. I look forward to seeing the Arizona at some point in my life.

-LD
 
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Does anyone else on the Hide make a point to visit American Battlefields? I'm fortunate that my present location allows me to visit the Antietam & Gettysburg battlefields easily and Valley Forge & Fort Necessity are all within a comfortable drive as well. I've personally adopted as a collectible mindset to pick up a stoneware coffee mug from each battlefield I visit. Does anyone else here take the time to visit this sites or is it just me?

-LD
Drive down to Fredericksburg and Richmond VA.... Battlefields everywhere!!!!!!
 
eBeing from MS and living in Louisiana, I've sen plenty of civil war sites. Vicksburg is pretty impressive. Port Hudson near Zachary is good as well, just much smaller.
I was impressed with Clusters last stand. I was expecting a field with a sign saying it was here! Since we had a park pass and it being right off the interstate we stopped. After a fire in the area they exhumed the shallow graves and they marked where the solders fell as they retreated. You can look down from the “Last Stand” at the top of the hill and visualize what it must have been like.
 
Like Fort Delaware, where one of my great-great-great grandfathers died as a Confederate POW
Delaware was actually not a bad prison as far as sanitary conditions go. Elmira was the nasty one. And none of them compare to Andersonville. The only place I've ever been that the birds didn't even chirp. No one uttered a word for hours while we were there. If was filled with solemn misery that hung in the air.
 
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I was going to question you sir on your experience but I think you soundly made your point made.

-LD
We even did tours with JD Petruzzi and Eric Wittenberg. My wife knew them through their books. They got our group access to privately owned sections that are only shown in pictures of books. We even took the old battle lines in the woods near the big visitors center and marched across the field. I had a good time when we did it, but I finally got tired of spending every weekend listening to people talk about it while sweating my ass off. I still have a ton of signed Dale Gallons hanging in my house.
 
We even did tours with JD Petruzzi and Eric Wittenberg. My wife knew them through their books. They got our group access to privately owned sections that are only shown in pictures of books. We even took the old battle lines in the woods near the big visitors center and marched across the field. I had a good time when we did it, but I finally got tired of spending every weekend listening to people talk about it while sweating my ass off. I still have a ton of signed Dale Gallons hanging in my house.
Very nice with the Gallons, I've seen a number of those with him being somewhat local and very quality work. I do get it with standing in fields listening in poor weather and I try to go on more temperate days for the same reasons. My plan for this year is to try doing a horseback tour or Gettysburg (something I haven't done before at any location) and giving that a go but again, during cooler weather.

-LD
 
The last battlefield we visited stateside, if it can be called that, was Wounded Knee. It bothers me to no end the atrocities committed on the Natives by our government soldiers. The mass grave has armed security 24/7 to prevent desecration of the grave site. My feelings are very different when visiting a Civil War battlefield. It's hard to describe, but it's different. The Holocaust sites in Europe have left me speechless.
 
I grew up/live in Fredericksburg, Va the whole place was a battlefield. Battle of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, wilderness, Spotsylvania courthouse. It’s notably the place where stonewall Jackson was wounded and then passed a short time later in nearby Caroline county. If you’ve seen the movie Gods and generals (also an Adaptation of a Shaara book) much of this takes place in Fredericksburg.

If you ever get back down to Charleston, the USS Yorktown is an aircraft carrier floating museum and is well worth it imo. There is also a ww2/korea vintage sub of memory serves and a full scale mock up of a Vietnam fire base.i believe it’s called patriot point.

Been to Gettysburg several times and it is certainly a powerful place. Did one of the guided speaking tours once and those guys do make it come alive. You can basically visualize everything happening.
 
Delaware was actually not a bad prison as far as sanitary conditions go. Elmira was the nasty one. And none of them compare to Andersonville. The only place I've ever been that the birds didn't even chirp. No one uttered a word for hours while we were there. If was filled with solemn misery that hung in the air.
Thats how it felt at Buchenwald. DIfferent war..different type of 'prison'....but the evil was palpable.