That one moment

[Quantrill's Missouri]

As you all have been to many different Civil War sites, can you recall that one moment that just captured you? That one certain place where you stood silent and went "Wow" where you were standing? That specific moment where the impact hit you? Not emotionally in tears, but where it all set in.

Mine was when I was a teenager and visited Pea Ridge. Standing in front of the Elkhorn Tavern and knowing the casualties laying all over the grounds there made me really stop, sigh and think "Wow." I could visualize the carnage and chaos and suffering.

The second was fully entering the chapel and standing inside it at the old Confederate Home and Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri. I could see all the old vets milling about and getting ready for service. I felt like I was among them.

 

[Gandycreek]

Andersonville Ga. "camp Sumter". Its been a good while since we were there. It's just a place you can't forget. It brings the cost of war home to me.

 

[Dave D]

As you all have been to many different Civil War sites, can you recall that one moment that just captured you? That one certain place where you stood silent and went "Wow" where you were standing? That specific moment where the impact hit you? Not emotionally in tears, but where it all set in.

Mine was when I was a teenager and visited Pea Ridge. Standing in front of the Elkhorn Tavern and knowing the casualties laying all over the grounds there made me really stop, sigh and think "Wow." I could visualize the carnage and chaos and suffering.

The second was fully entering the chapel and standing inside it at the old Confederate Home and Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri. I could see all the old vets milling about and getting ready for service. I felt like I was among them.

I have also been to the Confederate Chapel at Higginsville. The chapel seems to have an aura from the past - although the last of the Confederate veterans died there in 1950, it's as if you can still feel their presence.

 

[DixieRifles]

I was visiting Vicksburg when I was 10 —12 or so. The bluffs topped with cannon is very impressive but that cemetery was the first military one I had seen. I didnt know anything about it but that it was a visual representation of the cost of that battle.

 

[Bentonville]

My family visited a lot of battlefields when I was a kid, and Lookout Mountain stands out in my memory. But when I was in College, during one summer I took the bus to visit a friend who had relatives in Americus, Georgia. I was so moved by the Andersonville Cemetery that I wrote a poem about it. That's my standout memory of all the ACW sites I've been to before or since.

I have never been but next time I go back home for a visit I will.