CWT: Atanta Campaign

The Walking Dead

Corporal
Joined
May 19, 2021
I see there have been CWT gatherings at several of the major battlefields. Has anyone thought about a gathering for the Atlanta Campaign (i.e. New Hope Church, Peach Tree Creek, Kennesaw Mountain and perhaps others)?

Or a CWT gathering covering Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign?

While CWT hasn't done it, I know of a few instances where descendents of veterans who served in the same unit had reunions. Has anyone thought about having a gathering where descendants of soldiers who fought against each other were asked to attend? We had family at the Dead Angle (Cheatham Hill) and my daughters would like to meet descendants of Union soldiers (52nd Ohio) who made that assault.
 
I see there have been CWT gatherings at several of the major battlefields. Has anyone thought about a gathering for the Atlanta Campaign (i.e. New Hope Church, Peach Tree Creek, Kennesaw Mountain and perhaps others)?

Or a CWT gathering covering Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign?

While CWT hasn't done it, I know of a few instances where descendents of veterans who served in the same unit had reunions. Has anyone thought about having a gathering where descendants of soldiers who fought against each other were asked to attend? We had family at the Dead Angle (Cheatham Hill) and my daughters would like to meet descendants of Union soldiers (52nd Ohio) who made that assault.
I don't know about official gathers, but me and my friends visited Kennesaw Battlefield last week at the end of our road trip, I'll grab a couple pictures.

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Has anyone thought about a gathering for the Atlanta Campaign (i.e. New Hope Church, Peach Tree Creek, Kennesaw Mountain and perhaps others)?
I am ready to go see some battlefields in Atlanta. I don't think any of my ancestors made it there---they either died or were captured before their regiment fought there. But I'm still interested to see where Featherston's brigade, Loring's Division fought at Kennesaw Mountain.
 
I spent years studying both campaigns since I lived in Georgia and Virginia. I also had kin who served in both campaigns.

While major battlefields have a lot to offer, so do some of these lesser known. A gathering for Jackson's Valley Campaign might be more centrally located for forum members.
 
Unfortunately, most of the battlefields in Atlanta look like this.

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One of the sadder truths of this campaign.
Somewhat related: My friends also visited the Cyclorama, just doesn't hit like it used to visiting now, especially with the new movies they're showing with the creation of the whole thing; kinda found many bits of that frustrating and overplaying into the new wave of "Radical Republicanism" we see nowadays in the literature and culture, at least that's how I see it. Stuff like this makes me appreciate the battlefield parks, you can visit the battlefield yourself without needing to have it "interpreted" by the visitor center.
 
One of the sadder truths of this campaign.
Somewhat related: My friends also visited the Cyclorama, just doesn't hit like it used to visiting now, especially with the new movies they're showing with the creation of the whole thing; kinda found many bits of that frustrating and overplaying into the new wave of "Radical Republicanism" we see nowadays in the literature and culture, at least that's how I see it. Stuff like this makes me appreciate the battlefield parks, you can visit the battlefield yourself without needing to have it "interpreted" by the visitor center.
I found the same thing at the Gettysburg Visitor Center. The video seemed to spend a lot more time talking about the causes of the war than it did talking about the Battle of Gettysburg. Not that this stuff isn't important, of course (I say this as an 8th grade history teacher), but I think the presentation at a battlefield park should be specific to the events of that particular battle.
 
I spent years studying both campaigns since I lived in Georgia and Virginia. I also had kin who served in both campaigns.

While major battlefields have a lot to offer, so do some of these lesser known. A gathering for Jackson's Valley Campaign might be more centrally located for forum members.
I would definitely like to do that
 
I found the same thing at the Gettysburg Visitor Center. The video seemed to spend a lot more time talking about the causes of the war than it did talking about the Battle of Gettysburg. Not that this stuff isn't important, of course (I say this as an 8th grade history teacher), but I think the presentation at a battlefield park should be specific to the events of that particular battle.
Absolutely, the war was fought regardless of the reasons. We’ve all heard about the reasons for the war, from both Northern and Southern points of view. I already know the reasons, I’m interested in the way things played out on the battlefield
 
Without context, battles are nothing but mass murder. If a person does not know that the Battle of Stones River occurred the day the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect, what was at stake is impossible to understand. If a visitor does not know that possession of Nashville, not just a corn field was at stake. The defeat of Bragg’s attacks on the Round Forrest is a pointless slaughter without context.

At CW battlefields, we have visitors from all over the world. A remarkable number of native borne visitors are profoundly ignorant or only know simplistic tropes. The NPS & state park rangers & historians are there to help you drill down as far as you want to go. Nobody can know the battlefields like they do.
 
Absolutely, the war was fought regardless of the reasons. We’ve all heard about the reasons for the war, from both Northern and Southern points of view. I already know the reasons, I’m interested in the way things played out on the battlefield
The problem is that a lot of visitors to these battlefields aren't like you, me, or most of the people who use this site - they know little to nothing about the causes. I've had NPS rangers tell me some shocking questions they get from the public. Attribute this to a failure to adequately educate kids in schools about history and the ability of just about anybody to put up a blog site and post absolute fiction/junk. So the NPS is trying to balance all of this. As for finding out how things played out on the battlefield, a video isn't going to do much more than scratch the surface anyway. There are plenty of ways to get what you're looking for - reading before you visit, bringing along one of the excellent battlefield tour guides, using a licensed battlefield guide at sites like Gettysburg and Antietam, signing up for tours operated by various groups (such as Dave Powell's excellent annual tours at Chickamauga), etc.
 
The museums at “black powder parks” that were created for the Centennial in the late 1950’s were an expression of the scholarship that existed at that time. A casual observer could have walked away without realizing that an people of African descent lived in the South, let alone were the reason the war was fought.

When I started volunteering at Stones River almost 30 years ago, it was common for a visitor to espouse Lost Cause tropes. It was obvious that the “myth” & associated tropes were far more important than any objective fact.

Today, as we know from posts that appear in CWT, the basic tenant of the Lost Cause is still being argued. Slaves really loved their masters & were willing to fight & die to preserve the right to hold human beings as property is the heart of that argument. Fortunately, when a visitor enters the museum at Stones River, that argument is shown up for the lie that it is.

it is surprising how knowledgeable TN 4th graders can be. Unlike my mom, they did not learn about the antebellum south from UDC publications. “You Friend the Klan” is no longer on their reading list.

I sometimes wonder where the narrative is headed. Reenacting is, as know, a geezer activity. The living history volunteers at black powder parks are, on many cases, dominated by females. The evolution is going to be interesting.
 
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