What's your favorite Civil War battlefield and why?

In order to do proper research for my novels, or because of reenacting, or mostly for just plain fun and adventure, I have visited almost every major battlefield east of the Mississippi at least once, including Vicksburg & Fort Donelson, and some multiple times, like Franklin, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Stones River, Antietam, Harpers Ferry, pretty much all of the Virginia ones multiple times, but Gettysburg reigns supreme. I have visited it at least 45-50 times now, and I never tire of it. I always learn or see something new! We have walked it and driven over it at all different times of day and evening. I have been at the Angle at exactly the time Pickett's Charge took place on July 3rd on the 145th anniversary, etc. I have re-created the charge with my friends and pards. I have climbed up Little Round Top and Devil's Den, Culp's Hill in the daytime and evening, East Cavalry Field, etc. and we have witnessed some sights purely unexplained by science. To me, this is a very sacred place, and the spirits live on there. I never tire of visiting it. It is because of some of those experiences that I will NOT go out there on the battlefield at night.
 
Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi. I had relatives that fought there, and one that died there. The battle itself is, in my opinion, underrepresented and underreported on. The battle itself is a fascinating study, even beyond my personal connection to it. Granted, the ground is mostly private farmland and prone to flooding (like last summer when I traveled back down there) but the overall layout remains pretty much the same as it was in Dec. 1862.
 
Chickamauga for sure. While down south I visited Shiloh, Corinth, Parker's Crossroads, Lookout Mountain and Chickamauga. Chickamauga was surprisingly set aside from the busy city sprawl of Chattanooga TN / Fort Oglethorpe GA. I spent 3 days on that battlefield tracing the movements of the 38th Indiana while reading a regimental history on them called Enough to Make Angels Weep: A History of the Thirty-Eighth Indiana Infantry. It was a surreal experience being able to look across a field described in the book and vividly imagine rebels pouring out of the trees.
 
I plan on visiting it and hiking the battlefield prior to the Shiloh Muster. It's got what 20 miles of hiking if you do every loop, but I think you can actually probably cut some of the milage off. Having not been there yet, not sure how feasible that actually is though.
The terrain is very hilly. IMHO only a seasoned hiker in good shape could do the entire route. And I know that is not me..:bounce:
 
The terrain is very hilly. IMHO only a seasoned hiker in good shape could do the entire route. And I know that is not me..:bounce:

I myself do about 10 miles worth of walking a day (one of the joys of working two jobs) but for the most part it's either indoors or parking lots with the hardest thing is stairs that go up four floors. Once spring comes out though, I want to start actually hiking trails near my apartment to get into the shape needed.....but not sure I'll be there by late April. lol
 
I've heard that once you go off the beaten path, you actually start running into quiet a bit of the original trenches.
I agree. You hit the nail on its head.
It’s so quiet and peaceful. I live near it and have read and studied all the movements, many of the more prominent soldiers. It’s amazing when you know what happened, and where it happened all in solitude with little tragic
 
Please don't laugh--Cowpens. I happened to be driving to western S Carolina and happened to notice a sign advertising the park. I wasn't in a hurry so I decided to check it out. I was blown away. Just as a picnic/park area it was sublime.

The interpretive area was small but well designed and informative. Plus given the size of the battle anything bigger would have been a waste.

To actually tour the battle field itself, you have to exit the back of the building, walk down a path, cross a short rough patch, pass through a small strand of trees whereupon you find yourself viewing the field itself. The field itself is not quite 2 football fields long and about 1 1/2 wide.

The panoramic view allows you to see the entire field at a glance and especially after viewing the materials in the center you can see where each movement took place, where each volley occurred, where move and countermove happened. You can visualize the redcoats advancing, the militia making good on Morgan's request to make one volley and run away. You can see the British restarting their advance and being met by the Continental regulars holding their ground volley after volley. And you can see how the militia who had run away not to the rear but more towards the American left flank, turned the tide and brought about victory by attacking the redcoats in their right flank and rear.
I cannot recommend this site too much. You will enjoy it.
 
Please don't laugh--Cowpens. I happened to be driving to western S Carolina and happened to notice a sign advertising the park. I wasn't in a hurry so I decided to check it out. I was blown away. Just as a picnic/park area it was sublime.

The interpretive area was small but well designed and informative. Plus given the size of the battle anything bigger would have been a waste.

To actually tour the battle field itself, you have to exit the back of the building, walk down a path, cross a short rough patch, pass through a small strand of trees whereupon you find yourself viewing the field itself. The field itself is not quite 2 football fields long and about 1 1/2 wide.

The panoramic view allows you to see the entire field at a glance and especially after viewing the materials in the center you can see where each movement took place, where each volley occurred, where move and countermove happened. You can visualize the redcoats advancing, the militia making good on Morgan's request to make one volley and run away. You can see the British restarting their advance and being met by the Continental regulars holding their ground volley after volley. And you can see how the militia who had run away not to the rear but more towards the American left flank, turned the tide and brought about victory by attacking the redcoats in their right flank and rear.
I cannot recommend this site too much. You will enjoy it.

I'm not laughing, but it's not a Civil War battlefield....

That said, I agree with everything you say. As a longtime student of tactics, I find Morgan's design and execution of the defense in depth tactic to be nothing short of brilliant.

Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee adopted and executed the same strategy at the Battle of Averasboro on March 16, 1865, also to great success--even down to having three separate, distinct lines, just as Morgan had at Cowpens. With 8500 men, he held off Sherman's 30,000 for an entire day and then escaped that night to fight another day.

averasborough.jpg
 
Exactly. Walking over the Burnside Bridge from the Union perspective you could almost see how tough it would have been going up against the Georgians on the other side of the hill.
Are you kidding?????!!!!!!!!!!! The first time I visited the battlefield I could not but wonder in the face of a couple of hundred Confederates the 12,000 men under Burnside could not have simply waded across a creek that my 80+ year old mom could have forded.

I have seen the question debated in multiple CW magazines and I come down firmly on the conclusion that Burnside's dithering was due as much to a fit of pique against McClelland as to any opposition he faced across the bridge. I am not a fan of any sort of Little Mac, but in this case he gave the correct orders to do the proper things and his subordinate(s) simply failed to carry them out.
 
I'm not laughing, but it's not a Civil War battlefield....

That said, I agree with everything you say. As a longtime student of tactics, I find Morgan's design and execution of the defense in depth tactic to be nothing short of brilliant.

Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee adopted and executed the same strategy at the Battle of Averasboro on March 16, 1865, also to great success--even down to having three separate, distinct lines, just as Morgan had at Cowpens. With 8500 men, he held off Sherman's 30,000 for an entire day and then escaped that night to fight another day.

View attachment 356868
I didn't think it was CW battlefields only. I was referring to the relatively small size of the battle and the field.
 
Please don't laugh--Cowpens. I happened to be driving to western S Carolina and happened to notice a sign advertising the park. I wasn't in a hurry so I decided to check it out. I was blown away. Just as a picnic/park area it was sublime.

The interpretive area was small but well designed and informative. Plus given the size of the battle anything bigger would have been a waste.

To actually tour the battle field itself, you have to exit the back of the building, walk down a path, cross a short rough patch, pass through a small strand of trees whereupon you find yourself viewing the field itself. The field itself is not quite 2 football fields long and about 1 1/2 wide.

The panoramic view allows you to see the entire field at a glance and especially after viewing the materials in the center you can see where each movement took place, where each volley occurred, where move and countermove happened. You can visualize the redcoats advancing, the militia making good on Morgan's request to make one volley and run away. You can see the British restarting their advance and being met by the Continental regulars holding their ground volley after volley. And you can see how the militia who had run away not to the rear but more towards the American left flank, turned the tide and brought about victory by attacking the redcoats in their right flank and rear.
I cannot recommend this site too much. You will enjoy it.
I lived down that-away before I read about Morgan, one of my heros. Would love to visit some day. Thanks for this description.
 
I'm not laughing, but it's not a Civil War battlefield....

That said, I agree with everything you say. As a longtime student of tactics, I find Morgan's design and execution of the defense in depth tactic to be nothing short of brilliant.

Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee adopted and executed the same strategy at the Battle of Averasboro on March 16, 1865, also to great success--even down to having three separate, distinct lines, just as Morgan had at Cowpens. With 8500 men, he held off Sherman's 30,000 for an entire day and then escaped that night to fight another day.

View attachment 356868
Morgan is a forgotten hero of this country.
 
Gettysburg and Antietam, because they are closest to me and I've visited the most -- Gettysburg over 30 times and Antietam about 10 times. I've spent a lot of time trying to truly understand both while walking the fields.

I visited Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania. Really enjoyed Chancellorsville and the visit sparked an interest in the Wilderness that I may tackle sometime.

A true bucket list wish -- I really want to visit Shiloh and Chickamauga. Unfortunately work will prevent me from taking part of the Shiloh muster this year.
Fifty or sixty years ago I read my first book on Shiloh. It was supposed to be the (at the time) definitive work on the battle. When I finished I was truly disgusted at how badly written it was and how little I could visualize the events after reading the book.

Thirty or forty years later I actually visited the battlefield and had to mentally apologize to the author because the area is so jumbled that even after taking the tour twice it was almost impossible to visualize where you were on any part of the field in relation to any other part.

I still laugh at myself when the tour guide began talking about the sunken lane. I asked him "where is it" and he told me I was standing in the middle of it. Having been to Antietam the year before and seeing their Sunken Lane (where you could hide London double decker buses all along it course) and the one at Shiloh where my toenails could not have taken shelter in it's depth.

Not to mention when he pointed out the Bloody pond turned scarlet from all the blood spilt there, I am pretty certain that I have had rare steaks that oozed enough blood to turn the puddle I was looking at red.
 
About 10 years ago my company asked me to drive a ryder truck containing our display from Augusta Ga to Baltimore for a convention the were a part of. They gave me 2 days to drive up, 2 drive back, put me up in a hotel for the 3 days of the convention, fed me and once I unloaded the display, I could use the truck as my personal vehicle. Given that it only takes a day up and back, that gave me 5 days to explore. I did this 3 years running.

One of the great things about CW battlefields is that so many of them are twofers. I managed to make it to 1st & 2nd Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg (which are only 50 miles apart--kinda like one field) Fredericksburg which is kinda part of Chancellorsville which is part of the Wilderness, on to Cold Harbor which abuts the 7 day Battlefields and lastly the Battle of the Crater (wow) and on my way home a quick stop at Bentonville.

At the time I was working up to 10 hrs a day walking constantly, lifting up to 1000 lbs total a shift, very rarely took both of my breaks and usually worked through lunch. Instead I got to work sitting down and the only thing I had to lift was my drink to take a sip. I was constantly looking toward the clouds afraid that I might see an angel coming to get me because obviously I had died and gone to heaven.

If you put a gun to me head, I don't know if you could make me choose between Gettysburg and Antietam.

I'm hoping later this summer or early fall to take a leisurely drive from Augusta Ga to San Fran. I haven't finalized my itinerary yet but I'm thinking Stones River, Perryville, Franklin, Nashville, Vicksburg, Brices Crossroads and/or Tupelo
 
Interesting thread...

I think I'd have to say my favorite battlefield is the one in Cane Hill, Arkansas. (Cane Hill area, and the town called "Boonesboro" during the war.)

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There's no "battlefield park" there, and most of the existing structures from the time of the battle are long gone, but Historic Cane Hill, has done an amazing job restoring and preserving the 1870's-early 1900's buildings, that replaced the ones that were burned by Union troops and so forth during the war. (except for the "Methodist Manse" that was used as General Blunt's HQ after the battle, and its been beautifully restored), The Battle of Cane Hill is an almost forgotten battle, the opening one of the Prairie Grove Campaign, and the battlefield is much like it was during the war.

No monuments dotting the countryside, just mountainous farmland as it was during the CW. Unfortunately in my experience the organization Historic Cane Hill doesn't seem to have any interest in their CW history, just the lack of it that came after the war, nevertheless the battlefield is pristine compared to many others with the exception of a modern house or two. The twenty-mile running battle covered my favorite type of terrain, and story of the battle is an amazing one.

The commanding Union General using a Henry Rifle to down Confederate troops and in the thick of the fighting, 2.25in Tredegar Mountain Rifles from Virginia blasting away, (and after a Union shell destroyed the carriage on one the troops manning it carrying the tube away to safety), Union Indian Troops looting the local college of its books and an "electrical toy", the battle is an amazing small engagement, and its battlefield protected by its own terrain, and it being almost completely forgotten and the lack of interest has made it my favorite battlefield.

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I highly recommend any CW buff visiting the battlefield in this restored "ghost town" of sorts. Also their walking trail covers the entire battlefield area in the town itself, where it began to where it moved on past the town. Heck of a hike.
 
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