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Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Never forget

Last night I had the pleasure of giving a private tour of the Fredericksburg Battlefield to a visiting film director from Savannah Georgia named Clint Ross and his lovely wife Lizzie. Both had spent the day up at Chatham Manor, gathering sources from the National Military Park Service’s archives and they were anxious to visit our hallowed ground. We met at the Visitor’s Center downtown around 5:30 and then slowly walked the surrounding area as the sun set. Our hike took us from the National Cemetery, down the Marye’s Heights Trail to the Sgt. Richard Kirkland Monument, and back along the Sunken Road. Clint was in town doing research for a very special documentary project that he is working on. I really enjoyed sharing the stories of noteworthy witnesses such as the stubbornly courageous Martha Stephens who is said to have ridden out the battle in her house near the Stone Wall and later tore strips from her own garments to bind the wounds of the fallen.

Obviously they had done a great deal of reading about the Battle of Fredericksburg in preparation of their visit and Clint and his wife asked some really great questions that facilitated discussion. I was very glad that he had an opportunity to visit Chatham where the Federal artillery was positioned on Stafford Heights, and then accompany me to the ridge of Marye’s Heights where the Washington Artillery had positioned their guns. The perspective of course was the distance between both sides and the city and the expanse in between that was essentially an artillerist’s shooting range. As we stood atop the bluff near the Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys monument and watched the sun set, I recalled a piece that I had posted several years ago that seemed appropriate for the occasion. I quoted the piece “Then Vs. Now” as it summarizes my personal feelings as a local historian and outlines the understanding I would like visitors to take with them. Here is the 'short' version:

When you come to Fredericksburg and tour her hallowed grounds, everything is perfect. The grass is neatly trimmed and the markers are polished. The freshly painted cannons are all lined up neatly and the landmark buildings are restored to their original splendor. Depending on the time of year, there can be rows and rows of flags or luminaries in the cemeteries and you can often find living historians or re-enactor’s walking about. These romantically peaceful and serene settings unfortunately make it far too easy to forget that at the time of the war, specifically as the events that made these spots memorable in the first place transpired, the fields, roads, and downtown areas were absolutely devastated. In fact, it was probably not at all a nice place to be. The scene was likely one of anguish and atrocity, as dead soldiers and horses covered the ground. At the time, millions of flies and the stench of black powder and rotting flesh filled the air. The sickening sights that littered the city were the scenes that nightmares are made of. In other words, touring a Civil War battlefield means literally walking among the dead. Therefore, we must consciously remind ourselves that the beauty of these places is a façade and that the men that fought and died there baptized the very soil we stand on today with their blood. Never forget that. The next time that you find yourself touring one of these picturesque places, try to remember that although our National Battlefields are beautiful, the war that took place on them was ugly.


Posted by ny5/pinstripepress at 4:25 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 19 March 2009 8:58 AM EDT
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