Here's a what if for ya!

[TinCan]

Let's just say that we could travel back in time to a specific day and a specific event. What and where would you have liked to have been? My g-g-g-grandfather was an artilleryman in the Confederate Army. There are two places I would have liked to be. A gunner on the CSS Virginia the first day she came out would be a "what if" worth going for. And if I couldn't do that, being at Sabine Pass with Dick Dowling would have been a hoot. Where and what would you like to be doing? Be specific.

 

[Patrick H]

My response will not ring too many bells with most of our readers. But I would have enjoyed walking out the back door of my house, walking two blocks to Main Street in Boonville, Missouri, and then just standing on the sidewalk and watching Shelby's cavalry ride into my town--either in October of 1863 on Shelby's own great raid, or October of 1864, during Price's expedition into Missouri. You can call me a nut and I won't care. If I could turn back the clock and observe an event of the war, those are the two I would choose.

 

[W. Richardson]

Mine would be..........1st Manassas..........To view the great Stonewall Jackson's stand "like a stonewall" or day 3 at Gettysburg to see Pickett's gallant, but deadly charge as they came out of the woods.

Respectfully,

William

 

[TinCan]

Not bad Patrick, on a similar note I could walk downtown and watch "Stovepipe" Johnson's men burn the courthouse.

 

[TinCan]

William,
Just watched a show on the History Channel about Pickett's Charge. What the Union artillery did to those boys is beyond belief. It'd be a heck of a lot safer to watch than to be in it.

 

[snuffy19608]

William,
Just watched a show on the History Channel about Pickett's Charge. What the Union artillery did to those boys is beyond belief. It'd be a heck of a lot safer to watch than to be in it.

Not to mention the 8th Ohio pouring fire from the left.

And so I don't hijack the thread, being in Lancaster County I would like to be in Wrightsville Pa to watch General Gordon as HE watched the bridge to Columbia burn.

 

[judi]

I would have liked to have been at Gettysburg Nov. 19th 1863 to see Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address

 

[Patrick H]

Not bad Patrick, on a similar note I could walk downtown and watch "Stovepipe" Johnson's men burn the courthouse.

Burn the courthouse? YIKES! Omigosh! You'd better fill me in on that incident!

 

[diane]

Not bad Patrick, on a similar note I could walk downtown and watch "Stovepipe" Johnson's men burn the courthouse.

Stovepipe Johnson! Haven't heard of him for a long while. He was one of Bill Forrest's very colorful scouts and escaped Ft Donelson by hopping into the boat with Floyd. (Knew a sure thing, there!) Then he was with Morgan and, when Morgan was captured he and some others escaped by swimming the Ohio. He was commander of the Texas Partisans, I believe. Stovepipe comes from a trick he played on a Union garrison much larger than his force - used the pipes for pretend cannons. Adam Rankin Johnson - and he was just as colorful before the war and after it.

I'll unhijack the thread now... Where I'd like to be in any battle is as far away from it as possible, but watching Pickett's Charge would be one place. From a safe place, mind...

 

[28thNewYork]

As I went to bed Thursday night April 11, 1861, I would have prayed that Fort Sumter would not be fired on. If the prayer had come true, over 1/2 million human beings would not have died.

 

[Drew]

You can call me a nut and I won't care.

You're a nut!

But really, seeing that or anything like it would really be incredible. But we can't, it's over and done.

 

[Nathanb1]

I think I've said this before, but I'd like to be a fly on the wall before and at Johnsonville to watch--gosh, the whole thing....capturing the gunboats, firing the artillery.....

 

[Lt R. Blackwell 4th Texas]

Great question, easy answer:
To have been in Barksdale's Mississippi brigade at Gettysburg on July 2, and take part inthe "grandest charge ever made by mortal men".

 

[yankee hoorah]

I'd like to join ranks with the 54th and advance on Fort Wagner.

Maybe even defend the Bloody angle at Gettysburg.

Fight the USCT at the Crater in Petersburg. It'd be interesting with that perspective.

 

[AUG]

There are just too many to list, but I've always wished I could witness the last stand at the Alamo and see exactly what happened, like exactly what happened to Crockett. Pickett's Charge and Franklin as well, but not in the Confederate ranks!

Or perhaps witness the the landing at Saipan on this very day from either of my grandfathers' ships - the USS South Dakota (BB-57) battleship and USS Fuller (APA-7) troop-transport - as both were there on June 15, 1944; one bombarding the shoreline and the other dropping off Marines.

 

[TinCan]

"Stovepipe" Johnson captured the town of Newburgh, Indiana with just twelve men and 2 sections of stove pipe mounted on the running gear of an old wagon to make it look like a cannon. On 6 Sept. 1864 he was nominated for promotion to Brigadier General to date from 1 June 1864, but his appointment was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress. He was blinded by a gunshot from one of his own men on 21 August 1864, captured, and remained for most of the rest of the war at Fort Warren. He returned to Texas in 1865 and founded the town of Marble Falls. He died 20 Oct.1922 in Burnet, Texas.
The man who burned our courthouse in Jan. 1865 was William (Bill) Davison who said he was with Johnson's command. In truth, he was an ex-Union army officer that led a gang of outlaws who murdered and stole their way across western Kentucky. It didn't really matter to Davison which side you were on because if you had money he was going to get it. Davison resigned his commission in the Union Army in 1863 after the Emancipation Proclamation came out stating that he wasn't fighting to free any slaves. He hated blacks and took every opportunity to kill them. Hearing that black soldiers were being quartered in the Daviess county court house, he and his men rode into town and burned it. The black soldiers fled across the river and Davison took off as much loot as he and his men could carry.

 

[Drew]

I'm in line for the Roasting Ears fight during the Seven Days' battle on this question. The Texans cleared the field....

 

[dlofting]

This is fun.

I'm assuming that if I travel back in time I'm as involved in what's happening as anyone else that is there on that day......i.e I could be killed or wounded.

That said I'll need some place that is as "safe" as possible, but also allows me to see/experience what I've come there for. I love the sound of big guns and the smell of powder, so I want to be where a large artillery barrage is going on. I'm going to pick Gettysburg on July 3 just prior to Pickett's charge. I think I'm a bit safer on the Union side of the field so will be there. I don't like the idea of being an artilleryman......too much exposure, but I do want to be as central to the action as possible so think I'll hang around with Henry Hunt.....did he have an aide ? If so, that's me on July 3, 1863.

 

[Rio Bravo]

Mine would be watching Capt. Joseph Banks Lyle of the 5th South Carolina Infantry, single handedly, capture over 600 Union Soldiers with an unloaded Rifle on Oct 27th 1864 at the Battle of Williamsburg Road, Virginia !

 

[ole]

"Stovepipe" Johnson captured the town of Newburgh, Indiana with just twelve men and 2 sections of stove pipe mounted on the running gear of an old wagon to make it look like a cannon. On 6 Sept. 1864 he was nominated for promotion to Brigadier General to date from 1 June 1864, but his appointment was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress. He was blinded by a gunshot from one of his own men on 21 August 1864, captured, and remained for most of the rest of the war at Fort Warren. He returned to Texas in 1865 and founded the town of Marble Falls. He died 20 Oct.1922 in Burnet, Texas.
The man who burned our courthouse in Jan. 1865 was William (Bill) Davison who said he was with Johnson's command. In truth, he was an ex-Union army officer that led a gang of outlaws who murdered and stole their way across western Kentucky. It didn't really matter to Davison which side you were on because if you had money he was going to get it. Davison resigned his commission in the Union Army in 1863 after the Emancipation Proclamation came out stating that he wasn't fighting to free any slaves. He hated blacks and took every opportunity to kill them. Hearing that black soldiers were being quartered in the Daviess county court house, he and his men rode into town and burned it. The black soldiers fled across the river and Davison took off as much loot as he and his men could carry.

Sounds like a peach of a guy. Wonder if he left any descendants among our membership named John.