Morass

lelliott19

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mo·rass
/məˈras/
noun - an area of muddy or boggy ground. Synonyms: quagmire, swamp, bog, marsh, muskeg, mire, marshland, wetland,slough, moor

At 3:30 AM on July 2, 1863 the 11th US Infantry marched toward Gettysburg where they went into a reserve position behind the center of the Union line. The scale of the fighting grew in intensity until 5:00 when the brigade was ordered to move to the field north of Little Round Top where, “we were ordered to advance in a line of battle, passing from the shelter of a wood across an open field, through which ran a morass.” (Report of Major Lancey Floyd-Jones, 11th United Infantry)
 
mo·rass
/məˈras/
noun - an area of muddy or boggy ground. Synonyms: quagmire, swamp, bog, marsh, muskeg, mire, marshland, wetland,slough, moor

At 3:30 AM on July 2, 1863 the 11th US Infantry marched toward Gettysburg where they went into a reserve position behind the center of the Union line. The scale of the fighting grew in intensity until 5:00 when the brigade was ordered to move to the field north of Little Round Top where, “we were ordered to advance in a line of battle, passing from the shelter of a wood across an open field, through which ran a morass.” (Report of Major Lancey Floyd-Jones, 11th United Infantry)
As bad as I hate to say it. After sitting here reading personal accounts and battle statistics for the past couple of hours, I looked at the title of your post half blurry eyed and though, what in the heck did she just post! I'm not even going to get into it any further, lol. But, I am going to take a break and rest my eyes before I walk into one of those morasses.:redface:
 
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Laura, your post certainly puts "morass" into an easy-to-visualize context, doesn't it? I've always understood a morass as a place to be avoided because it would slow me down and I'd have a complicated time extracting myself from it. However, I NEVER knew its literal definition until just now. Well, it turns out we've got a lot of places that fit that definition pretty close by--especially with all this incessant rain we've been getting for weeks. Good post!

What's the plural of morass? As I say, we've got a lot of 'em around here at present.
 
mo·rass
/məˈras/noun - an area of muddy or boggy ground. Synonyms: quagmire, swamp, bog, marsh, muskeg, mire, marshland, wetland,slough, moor

At 3:30 AM on July 2, 1863 the 11th US Infantry marched toward Gettysburg where they went into a reserve position behind the center of the Union line. The scale of the fighting grew in intensity until 5:00 when the brigade was ordered to move to the field north of Little Round Top where, “we were ordered to advance in a line of battle, passing from the shelter of a wood across an open field, through which ran a morass.” (Report of Major Lancey Floyd-Jones, 11th United Infantry)
I would assume that they are talking about Plum Run which passes on the west side of Big Round Top and Little Round Top as it heads north towards the Wheat Field. Here is a photo from 2010 after significant amounts of rain. At the time of the battle it was little more then a stream wending it's way north through a killing ground hence it's second name, Bloody Run. So I guess it could have been considered a morass.

PlumRunValley01251001_s.jpg

http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/high-tide-at-gettysburg-some-photographs-of-plum-run-valley/
 
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Simpy almost always wet ground.

On the farm we had a slough. (eieio?) Only after a very dry summer could one walk across it, and it had to be really dry to mow it.

A swamp conjures up standing water; all the time. I wouldn't know how wet a moor is, but maybe our English speaking brothers can enlighten us on that one.

In short, I think a morass is something that is too soggy to cross occasionally, as in kholland's photo. It also has more connotations than the others.
 
Play on.

There are diffences among words, regional or not. They might be minute differences, but they are there. My slough is not a morass. And my slough is a long ways from a swamp. It becomes a quagmire when I try to cross it. Until then, it is just a slough.Dictionary definitions don't always work in the real world.

The word morass is more than a wet, muddy place. It is confusion and desperation. One can wander int0 a morass of popular opinion, which doesn't sound particularly wet.

Maybe the guy just meant that it was too effing muddy to get over. Morass was not the word to use. Maybe it was, at the time, but it isn't now.
 
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