What most started your lifelong interest in the American Civil War?

privateflemming

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California, USA
I saw a discussion about whether the Civil War needs to be taught more in school for younger people to be interested in it so I decided to make this poll. I know a lot of these factors probably play a role for most people but choose the one that you think is the earliest/most fundamental reason for your interest.

Feel free to elaborate more in the comments.
 
In 1966, I went on a 7th grade field trip to Gettysburg. Been hooked ever since. I was 12 in the fall of '66 and I couldn't believe all the monuments and how beautiful the area was. I now have hundreds of trips there and it is still a magical place to me. Every time I drive out Route 30 is met with excitement and "first time" like anticipation. My quest to learn everything about Gettysburg is relentless.
 
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Being born in Virginia, learning about what happened on the ground you were standing on was pretty intriguing, even at an early age. Manassas was my first battlefield experience. I visited Gettysburg at about 12 years old. Had family members living in an around Fredricksburg, Spotsylvania County dating back to the war. I rode on Lee Highway. I attended Robert E. Lee HS, etc... It was all around me, & therefore became an interest even young.

I went on lots of field trips in school. Visited lots of historical places. They were always looked forward to. Learning more didn't really become an interest until much later. Life got in the way for a number of years. :D While I'm still a pretty busy guy, I do carve out a little time for this interest nowadays.
 
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I think what did it for me was visiting the local town festival and seeing a table for the SCV. So I went home and asked my granny if we had any confederate veterans in our family. unfortunately I have never got around to joining the SCV yet but I sure have found a lot of veterans in my family. I also remember in the 8th grade I got to visit Chattanooga and Chickamuga
 
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I had a friend and fellow classmate in the ninth grade that enjoyed a series of WWII Board Games. Being an admirer of his brilliance and motivations, and not wanting to play 'copycat', I decided to interest myself with a similar devotion with our Civil War. Being a rebel as born and absurdly complete, anything that says 'Yanks call it Bull Run, and Confederates call it Manassas' I guess I should put the possessive back on Yank.
Lubliner.
 
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I chose “knowing people who were passionate about it”, namely my Grandfather who was a lover of history and all things old. When I was a child, he would take me on several history trips... from an afternoon at Bushy Run Battlefield, to a weekend at Gettysburg, to a week long Virginia battlefield tour. On a completely unrelated trip to Memphis, we made time to head to Shiloh. My interest and passion began with him.
 
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I had a wonderful 8th grade American History teacher. He would tell stories about the Civil War getting the entire class absorbed. My father took our family on a camping trip two years later & we visited a few of the CW sites the teacher spoke about. I have been hooked ever since.
 
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Great question. For me, I think it was a number of factors. I grew up outside Boston so I was very aware of the historical landscape of where I lived, with sort of got me interested in history in general. I was born in 1982 and was coming of age for schooling at the time of Glory and Ken Burns' series and so I got hooked on the Civil War due to the popular interest at the time. In 1992 my family took a vacation and we stopped at Gettysburg, where they were filming the movie, which we saw when it came out in the theater.
 
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My first Civil War book. I remembered the Confederate being a little more cheerful than the Yank, and that he was holding his carbine and had a turned up brim to his hat.

My parents took the family to Gettysburg when I was little. 4th grade? I remember a first person impression by a ranger of a barefoot reb.
 
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