I have talked to a lot of Civil War re-enactors and they all tell me one important aspect of why they do it. One of the truly wonderful aspects of the Civil War re-enacting hobby is the ability to appreciate the locale of history and the impact history has had on those historical places.
Who can say they have not felt something while standing at the wall of Gettysburg, or walking across Kelly Field at Chickamauga? Looking across the cornfield at Sharpsburg or down the hill… scratch that, mountain at Chattanooga; all these places help us to understand the incredible moments of history. Imagine 5,000 cavalrymen sitting atop the high ridge just west of the Nash Farm and visualize them charging with sabers raised high in their hands towards the dismounted Texans standing defiant in the lower end of a corn field.
We can stand at the spot where history was made by men of flesh and blood and iron conviction -- where history was made by men not all that different from us. They breathed, ate and hoped just as we do; they suffered more and faced danger of a sort we can only imagine, but they made history. They saved a nation and made the United States whole again.
At Chickamauga I stood looking across Kelly Field and later looked down from the crest of Snodgrass Hill and tried to imagine what those men faced, a time of terror we cannot fathom -- of courage, bravery and sacrifice unimaginable to us. One can look across that field and down that hill and realize that the trees and the hills witnessed a battle of incredible proportions; one that some might say decided the fate of a nation.
The serene silence of the Bloody Pond at Shiloh, the brutal hills of Georgia and swamps of South Carolina all have left marks upon my soul. By seeing the fields of battle and the sites of campaign I have come to better understand the men of the War Between the States. Seeing the places and walking the fields brought history alive for me and made the words in history books more poignant, more real.
Cold Harbor, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Kennesaw and Nash Farm are all places we can visit today and appreciate the actions of a previous generation. We can appreciate the lay of the land, the scope of the battle and the accomplishments of the soldiers who fought and died there. We can stand on the ground that they did, on the same ground that they fought over and soaked with their blood. Through the land we can better appreciate their actions. One can see the size of the fields and forest they fought through. The killing fields that they dreaded… and knew all too well.
Patriotic blood watered the hills, valleys and plains of over 20 Georgia Counties and thousands of bodies sleep in unknown graves from North Georgia to the small desolate and overgrown cemeteries lying near Lovejoy.
The reminders of the battles fought in Georgia are everywhere.
In our everyday lives in Henry & Clayton County, we are never far away from the markings of that war. We drive past the earthworks; we worship in churches that served as hospitals for wounded soldiers. We are shaded by the same trees that covered the movements of the armies as they marched, rode, or fought on.
We dig up mini balls as we plant our flowers or till our gardens. A statue on the McDonough Square tells us of men who stood up in defense of their beloved town. A small plot of land in Jonesboro still holds the remains of 1,000 unknown soldiers. We live alongside the reminders of Georgia's bloody invasion. We feel the valor and the pain. We still smell the powder burning.
If one wishes, it is not difficult to don the gear of the war, pick up a reproduction rifle and walk the same fields that their ancestors did. Firing a volley in the same place, marching under the same sun or in the same rain brings us that much closer to understanding them. All helps to make us appreciate them so much more.
The passions and fears that drove those men are not that difficult to understand; in fact after reading the letters and diaries it isn't difficult to realize that those men were much the same as we are today. They walked the land by placing one foot in front of the other the same as we, they looked up at the trees and the shade they provided just as we do today. Many of those trees are the same that stood one hundred and forty years ago, though they are and stronger and wiser now.
Combining the knowledge, the letters and diaries brings us that much closer to true understanding. With that understanding one gains appreciation, respect and honor to those who have gone before us. The soldiers of the War Between the States changed our country and our nation's destiny; they made it possible for the United States to grasp greatness and made her the nation she is today.
Victory is great; but honor is greater.
