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Iverson’s pits . He had around 12 hundred men in line , advancing towards Chambersburg pike.
Never saw the Yankees hiding behind the stonewall on his left. His men were dropped in rows! They were buried in a mass grave in that field. Supposed to be the most haunted place on the battlefield.
I have spent quite a few evenings in that tower on Doubleday Road. One night with Carol was sorta cold and creepy. Another night up there Penny heard horses and military bands.
I guess I ain’t clairvoyant. I didn’t hear Jack!
But if you know the history, I can guarantee you, that place will speak to you! On that field, over 100 years later, I have been afraid for my life! I sure can’t explain it, but it is an awesome, powerful place!
Those brave soldiers, of both sides, have my love and respect! I can hardly imagine, and it truly humbles me.
Reon

I've always been of the opinion that Custer saved the day on day 3

We had to go to Harpers Ferry and see the early industrial area of that time. It is interesting to see the history here, even Meriwether Lewis getting his gear manufactured here before the expedition to the Pacific…

They still got that electric chair dude there ain’t been there in 20yrs

Ya Archers brigade what was left charged with Pickett July 3

I was there today. I love that place. It's so peaceful

I had to stand 15 feet away when we talked, since he was wearing an orange “Biden For President” T shirt…

Do they still have S&W's barrel rifling machine running in the factory? Dang, I bet it was 25 years ago that we were at Harper's Ferry.

😂

I spent days studying the terrain and tactics of both armies while a student at the US Army War College back in the early 90s. Courage and bravery were common, on both sides.

😂🤣👍

As many times I have been to Gettysburg, I still never visited that farm!
I know Ike felt about Gettysburg much like me.
After he moved there, he hosted Churchill, Monty, and General Zukov of the Red Army as guest.
But maybe knowing the history so well, it keeps me on the field when I visit.
No disrespect for Ike. I admire the man!’
Reon

And Nikita Khrushchev

Fox gap turners gap south mtn don’t forget those

When I was growing up in Virginia, in school we were taught Virginia history in the 4th, 7th and 9th grade. And in those days, it was not the modern politically correct version that they want you to believe nowadays. I gather unless someone grew up in Virginia during those days or before, they wouldn't know that Virginia tried to abolish slavery in the very early 1800s. Most of the plantations were located in the SE Corner of the State, down on the North Carolina line in the NE part of their state. Many of those owners were related to others across the state lines.

Virginia would pay plantation owners, for the freedom of each slave. But as soon as the slave's freedom was purchased, he would be kidnapped and smuggled across the state line into North Carolina, where their freedom wasn't recognized by North Carolina. Then a new slave was transferred from the family relative's plantation in North Carolina to Virginia. The State of Virginia was buying slaves freedom for about 2 years from 1808 to 1810, when they quit. The Scam nearly bankrupted the State of Virginia, but made plantation owners in SE VA and NE North Carolina fairly richer.

Most of Virginia didn't have the number of plantations that other southern states had. After Ft Sumpter in South Carolina, and SC seceding from the Union, the legislature was out of session at the time. Virginia was not desiring to secede from the Union, but slave plantation owners from the SE part of the State, made it up to Richmond and held an emergency session, and declared Virginia was seceding from the Union. A call went out for legislators to make it to Richmond to rescind their supposed secession.

However Washington DC had received word of their secession, and that meant a Confederate State was now just across the Potomac. Union Forces invaded Alexandria and Fairfax Counties to provide a buffer to the nation's capitol. What went wrong tho, is Union Troops, were busy burning farms in Northern VA in those two counties. State militias were being rounded up and were pushed north, as Union Troops, moved into Prince William and Loudon Counties. That news spread to Union Forces, and they were bolstered up by more units. They then started to move further west into Virginia toward Prince William County ( Manassas ). They were stopped just to the north side of the town of Manassas, along a creek called Bull Run. People from Washington, came out in carriages bringing picnic baskets, to watch the battle and cheer on Union Troops.
Didn't quite work out as they had planned. Union Forces were defeated in many instances and were left running back to the safety of DC.

In invading across the Potomac, a large piece of property overlooking the District of Columbia, was owned by the Lee Family.
Command of the entire Union Army had been offered to Robert E Lee, but he turned it down when Union troops crossed into Virginia. His loyalties belonged first to his home State. He accepted the Command of the Army of Northern Virginia and resigned his commission in the US Army. His home was confiscated by the Union. Part of his home was made into a Cemetery for Union Troops killed at the Bull Run Engagement. Today we know that as Arlington National Cemetery., and Ft Myers.

That solidified Virginia's succession from the Union. The western counties of Virginia did not want to leave the Union. and declared loyalty to the Union. So there was two Virginias. The western counties finally seceded from Virginia after being known as Kanawha ( pronounced Ka Noi in the language the Indians spoke ). It finally became its own state on June 20th 1863, with Charleston as its capitol. Despite that ,many of its citizens still had loyalty to Virginia. In my youth and thru the 1980s, in most towns that had statues of Soldiers who fought for Virginia during the Civil War, you saw few if any statues dedicated for soldiers who fought for the Union in most of the southern and eastern part of West Virginia.

The Union in invading Northern Virginia in 1861 to defend the nation's capitol, is what pushed Virginia to the side of the Confederacy. IN school we were taught it was never about Slavery in Virginia, it was about State's rights. Burning and robbing farms in Alexandria and Fairfax Counties, and pushing over into Prince William County, is what solidified VA's secession.

After the Civil War, the western Counties that had seceded, the Federal Government stopped any and all attempts to reunite them with the State of Virginia. So West Virginia still exists, and the Lee Family farm was never given back to the rightful owners.. and their property is still the most famous of our National Cemeteries.

Back in the late 80s or early 90s, I was back east and stopped by Harper's Ferry for a day. I use to spend a lot of time up there when I was in High School. In the 80s or so, they had done a lot of work restoring many of the buildings that were in the town of Harper's Ferry. I was there just after that.

What they found, was alot of graffitti that had been written on the walls by both Union and Confederate Troops. Many of those walls had been covered up by walls that had been built over them AFTER the Civil War. NO one really knew about that, because it was lost to history, by the people who had lived in the times after the Civil War in Harper's Ferry.

When the Park Service was doing the repairs, many of those walls they left a cover of Plexiglass over them so that the public could read them. Harper's Ferry changed hands 56 times during the Civil War.

That was really cool to read all of those... don't know if they left them that way, or just temporarily.

Good on you two guys meeting... Both of you guys are two folks I've had a lot of respect for, in the 20 years of so I've been part of the campfire.

Glad you guys met up.

I’ve been to Gettysburg prob’ly five or six times.

One thing I hadn’t realized until my last visit was just how wide a breach Armisted and crew made in the Union line, about 100 yards wide or so.

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong on this.

Today we head to Manassas and other sites. It isn’t complete without the reflection of what it must have been like to charge the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. Looking at mile of open country and a road with fences on both sides, let alone the Union troops waiting to pick you off, how does one expect a charge like that to work?

Shrapnel,

Live near the battlefield, in Gainesville..

PM me if you want to meet up for a cold one.