Chapter 28

In This Chapter

Working out the details

Arriving at the battlefield

Understanding the terrain

T he previous chapter helps you to establish goals for visiting Civil War battlefields, to look at the time you want to spend on your trip, and to decide upon a method to take on the battlefield — 90 percent of the solution. This chapter helps you to complete your plans and get the most out of the experience, while you are at the battlefield.

Fine-Tuning Your Trip

When planning a trip to a Civil War site an important step is to decide who is going on your trip. Although it may sound a bit silly, this is actually a very important consideration in your planning. Trips must be geared and designed with the toleration limits of other visitors in mind. In other words, do not plan a full-scale campaign trip followed by all-day terrain walks if no one else wants to delve into that much detail. Otherwise, the trip will quickly be ruined for everyone. Gauge the interest level and enthusiasm of your companions and lay out the trip accordingly. (To find out more about the three approaches to visiting a battlefield — mounted, mounted/dismounted, and terrain walk methods — see Chapter 27.)

Getting an enthusiast

Another approach is to invite a knowledgeable authority to travel with you and act as an informal guide. Many Civil War enthusiasts are more than willing to take people on tours of their favorite battlefield. They always have interesting stories to tell and provide a valuable perspective on the events that occurred there. Oftentimes, bringing along an enthusiast is a good way to get family participation and a pleasant introduction to a battlefield. You can also go alone with an enthusiast, get a good feel for the battlefield, use the approach you like best, then act as your own guide for others who are interested in exploring the battlefield with you.

Checking the Internet

Any book written at the opening of the 21st century would be terribly remiss if it did not mention the Internet as a resource in preparing for a battlefield visit. The National Park Service (NPS) offers virtual tours of some battlefields online, as well as helpful information. You can also find many Web sites that allow you to download just about any kind of map you want — from topographical to aerial and period maps. Photos of battlefields are available to give you a feel for the terrain as well as guidebooks, unit histories, and battlefield descriptions. Some Civil War Internet stuff is top-notch; other stuff is, well, unsatisfactory. Check Part VII, “The Part of Tens,” for some decent sites.

Bringing the right stuff

What you bring depends on your level of enthusiasm and interest. A first-time visitor may only want to obtain a park brochure and take a driving tour, also known as the mounted approach to touring a battlefield (see Chapter 27). You don’t need to prepare for this type of visit. Sometimes bringing a history of the campaign or battle along adds to the appreciation and becomes a ready reference when using the mounted/dismounted method (see Chapter 27). Some people like to spend a few days before a battlefield visit exploring the library for accounts of the battle to get a firm understanding of events and to identify locations that they may want to visit. Still others purchase terrain maps and photocopy pages of texts. These people may bring along a chest or a backpack of books — all marked and available for immediate reference — and look for exact locations of units at key times during the battle. These are the people who enjoy the terrain walk method (see Chapter 27). Generally speaking, here are some things to think about bringing along on your visit:

Binoculars: Civil War Generals used them extensively to survey terrain and troop movements. You can do the same. Binoculars give you a better appreciation of distance, and key terrain will stand out as you examine the battlefield from different perspectives. For example, you can examine a particular spot from the point of view of the defender, then move and look at it from the point of view of the attacker. What you will see will surprise you.

Maps: The term maps here includes everything from the basic visitor center brochure and guide (which are almost always excellent) to highly detailed terrain maps. You can find a map to fit any level of interest. Regardless of complexity, a map gives you the basic information you need to understand the events that took place. A map also gets you properly oriented and allows you to locate the most important points of interest and guides you there.

Books: Depending on your level of interest and enthusiasm, books can be very helpful in pointing out details of events that are often overlooked. Sometimes it can be very rewarding to stand on the ground and read a famous historian’s narrative of the event or read the firsthand account of a soldier who fought on the ground you are standing on. Combining a written narrative with a visual survey of the battlefield certainly can help deepen your appreciation and understanding.

Food and water: Having these items handy can help maximize the time you spend on the battlefield. Water fountains are few and far between; you usually have to trek back to the visitor center. Avoid this by having something to drink in your car or backpack. Snacks are always a good idea, depending on how much time you plan to spend.

Rain gear: If you like to get out of the car and explore or are planning a terrain walk, don’t forget some type of bad weather gear. For those unaccustomed to it, Southern summers can be brutally hot. Make sure you are prepared for the hot sun. Sometimes the best time to visit a battlefield is in the late fall or winter, when the trees are bare and more of the terrain is visible. The weather can often be unpredictable, and planning ahead is important.

Money: Some Civil War battlefields require an entrance fee. You pay the fee at the visitors’ center. Here you will usually find a gift shop that has books, maps, and gewgaws that may attract your eye. You can also pick up your battlefield guide and map brochure here. Other opportunities for siphoning money out of your pocket abound in places near the battlefield.

Getting Oriented: The Visitors’ Center

It is not a good idea to drive out to a battlefield and start looking at markers and terrain without having some idea of where you are on the battlefield. If the battlefield you are visiting is operated by the National Parks Service (NPS), you will find that a stop at the visitors’ center is always worth your time. There you can find free information, brochures with maps, and knowledgeable people who will answer questions. Sometimes the visitors’ center has a theater or an electric map that gives an overview of the battle. Oftentimes they also contain a display of artifacts from the battle. You can get oriented at the visitors center and plan where you want to go and what you want to see. Make sure you know your location on the map you have, and make sure you know where the places you want to see are also identified on the map. Always keep yourself oriented to where the forces were at the sites you want to look at. This will prevent you from getting lost or looking in the wrong direction when you get to the place you want to see. Try to picture in your mind who was located where, both while you are driving around and when you stop somewhere. At the battlefields that are operated by state park commissions or private groups, you may not find a visitors center. In that case, go to the most prominent or well known site on the battlefield and orient yourself to the terrain and identify the locations you want to stop and visit. You can then backtrack to where you want to start.

Asking the right questions

Visitors to battlefields are sometimes afraid to ask questions because they think that asking questions makes them appear dumb. Whether you are talking to a park ranger or touring the battlefield with a knowledgeable expert, phrasing a question that can be answered succinctly and still give you the information you want is difficult. Battles revolve around four factors: terrain (the lay of the land), leadership (the actions of the army commanders), firepower (the employment and effects of various weapons on the battlefield), and logistics (the support and supply of the armies in the field). Thus, you can always base a question on any of these four factors and get a satisfactory answer. Here are some sample questions that are common to all battlefield studies that will give you instant credibility:

For terrain: What is the most important piece of ground on this battlefield? Why? How did the terrain affect the placement of soldiers and weapons on the battlefield? Did this make a difference in the outcome of the battle? Why did this particular area become a battlefield?

For leadership: Which commander had a better idea of what was happening on the battlefield? Why? What was the most important decision each commander made in this battle? What happened as a result? What caused this general to win (or lose) this battle?

For weapons: Did artillery play a significant role in this battle? Why or why not? Did the troops dig entrenchments? Why? Where did firepower play the biggest role in this battle? What was the result?

For logistics: What supply problems did the armies have? Did it affect planning in any way? How did the armies deal with casualties? How did they get food and ammunition to the front lines? What critical areas did the army have to protect to prevent it from being cut off from its source of supply?

Something to remember

While battlefields have a park-like setting, they are much more. They are, as Lincoln said, hallowed ground, a place of honor and memory. Please treat the grounds as such. This means that you don’t go passing footballs or sunbathing on Fort Stedman, or picnicking on the rocks at Devil’s Den.

Finding the best monuments and markers

Some battlefields are loaded with monuments and markers — so many that getting to every one would take days. Some visitors feel that they must look at every statue and every sign to understand the battle. This is not true. In fact, the people who do this often walk away bewildered and frustrated rather than informed. Avoid this problem by knowing your goals, having a method, and orienting yourself upon arrival at the battlefield.

Veterans of the war often raised the monuments on battlefields to commemorate both the deeds of their unit on the field and their fallen comrades. The passage of time often has obscured those individual unit contributions (unless you happen to have an in-depth knowledge of specific units, then the location of these monuments is significant). Now there are some monuments on certain battlefields that should not be missed. Asking about the best monuments at the visitors center is always worthwhile.

In addition, markers on the battlefield are sometimes confusing. There are many markers that locate where a specific unit was during the battle. If you are not visiting a battlefield to examine events at such a level of detail, don’t be distracted. Instead, look for those markers that identify significant events on the battlefield. The NPS is good at placing descriptive markers at the important sites. Look for these during your visit. Oftentimes states will have a marker along a main road indicating an important event related to a battle or a maneuver. When traveling in your car near a battlefield, be alert for these markers. They will help orient you. Pulling off the road to read these markers is always best; whizzing by at 50 miles an hour puts a dent in your reading comprehension, and those 180-degree high-speed turns you make when you realize you have passed a marker tend to make other drivers nervous. Be careful!

Appreciating the Terrain

If you have no information on a particular battle, a visit to the battlefield can still be useful by taking time to observe the lay of the land. This is called terrain appreciation . Hills, woods, valleys, creeks, rivers, bridges, railroads, main roads (especially intersections of main roads), and ridges all are significant to military operations. Look for these features at the battlefield and you will most likely find some marker or monument indicating something important happened there. These terrain features dictated how and where a commander placed his units, either to protect them from enemy fire, screen them from the enemy’s view, or protect a critical area and prevent the enemy from capturing it. The good thing about the lay of the land is that while everything else changes, the land usually does not. The same terrain the Civil War armies encountered is often still there for you to see just as they did. Oftentimes Civil War battles were focused on the control of a single important piece of ground, and if you go to that piece of ground, you can understand the entire flow of the battle. Always keep the importance of terrain in mind when visiting a battlefield.

Studying, Stories, and Reflection

Battlefields lend themselves to study and storytelling. Some people like to spend a great deal of time reading everything they can about a battle before visiting the ground. Certainly, studying the aspects of the battle can raise your understanding and appreciation of the events that took place on the battlefield. But study is not necessary for appreciation. One interesting thing about battlefields is that a visitor always comes away with some kind of story about what happened. It could be the historical facts; it could be an anecdote, it could be a tale of mystery, heroism, or tragedy. It could be all three. What is important is that these places allow you to take something away with you.

Battlefields are repositories of memory; they speak to visitors in many ways. There are places on certain Civil War battlefields that rise to the level of consecrated ground, places of courage and sacrifice so great that the echoes of those acts still linger in the air. You can stand literally where great men stood and see the fields they saw and try to imagine what they were thinking. But you must take the time to listen. No matter how much time you spend on a battlefield, take the time, even if just a minute or two, to let those memories speak.