continued… At this point, the museum focused on the three branches of the Army — calvary, artillery and infantry — and the logistics involved in moving the army for battles.
There was a lot of information about the specific weapons each of the different branches used and why those were chosen for that branch.
The infantry’s job was to take and hold ground — essentially to run into the enemy lines for direct combat to physically push them backwards and thus win that ground. The two sides fired on one another at point blank range and often engaged in hand to hand combat. The artillery units supported the infantry units in attack and defense and tried to destroy the enemy’s artillery — they were the ones who manned the cannons, which were fired from a distance. The calvary were on horses and primarily acted as scouts and screeners, finding the enemy, reporting their locations, and preventing the other side’s Calvary from doing the same. Infrequently, the calvary raided supply lines, cut communications, burned bridges and railroads, and charged full tilt into the enemy’s calvary.
continued… By February 1861, six more states had seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In March 1861, still using the model set by the founding father’s during the Revolution, they ratified a new Constitution for the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis as their first president. Like all other governments, they issued currency, bonds and postage stamps.
As we’d learned at the USS Constellation, about 1/4 of the Union navy’s fleet resigned to join the Confederacy, leaving the navy woefully understaffed. We didn’t see a sign that gave statistics of exactly how many military personnel joined the Confederacy in total; the sign we saw said “…hundreds of …US Officers resigned their commissions to join the Confederacy…” One of them was Robert E. Lee, who was recognized as a top military leader who had served with distinction in the Mexican-American War.
The Civil War began about 0430 on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries opened on Fort Sumpter. The fort guarded the entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, making it a strategic location. Both the new Confederate States of America and the United States of America claimed the fort. By the time the battle started, negotiations had already dragged on for months. For the Union, abandoning Sumter would be an admission of weakness, but they knew if they reinforced it, they’d risk war. Lincoln decided to resupply the fort without bringing in any more weapons or troops. The new Confederacy viewed even this as too much, and President Davis gave the order to take the fort. The battle lasted for 34 hours and the Confederates won.
In April and May 1861, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina seceded from the US and joined the new Confederate States of America. People in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland tried to get their states to secede, but failed to rally enough support.
This was the original Confederate States of America flag, adopted in 1861.Continue reading →
continued…Much to Keith’s horror, once we got back to Highway 30, Eric and Christi decided to go back to Gettysburg to see if the museum was open. After our mega museum tour this summer, Eric and Christi had promised Keith we could take a break from museums, so he was mad that they’d broken their promise. But Eric and Christi felt like it would be a crime to literally drive through Gettysburg and not stop at a museum about an event that was so important to our country’s history.
As we neared the Military Park, we saw there was a line of cars entering, so we figured it must be open. Parking was free.
Tickets to the museum were $14.75 per person for ages 13 and up. The “Film, Cyclorama and Museum Experience package” was an additional $6 per person. We had no idea what the Cyclorama was, but we were told it was cool and worth the extra money. They also gave us a AAA discount, which helped offset the extra cost.
Saturday, October 25 — We decided to take a drive to see the leaves change color. Eric found an app that said that as of this morning, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania was the closest place that had the best ratio of colorful leaves. What was interesting was that last night, it gave us a different town, so clearly, it’s being updated frequently.
Chambersburg was 2-hours northeast of us. The drive up in an of itself was pretty. This was what the highway looked like most of the way.
Traffic did seriously slow down outside of Baltimore, but it picked up again as soon as we passed Baltimore. We could see Baltimore from the highway, and we had nostalgia about the month that we’d spent there. Eventually, we left the highway for Highway 97, which was a two-lane road that ran through a rural area that looked to be mostly agricultural.
This week has been fun. On Saturday, Sauvage came over in the afternoon. It was very rocky and uncomfortable. On Sunday, we went out to breakfast and then went to a grocery store. After that we went to a corn maze with some old friends of Mom’s. It was super duper b o r i n g .
Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi, Sauvage est venu sur le bateau pendant l’après-midi. Il y avait beaucoup de roulis et c’était très inconfortable. Dimanche, nous sommes allés manger dehors pour le petit dejeuner puis nous avons fait les courses. Après ça nous sommes allés a un labyrinthe de plans de maïs avec un ami de maman. C’était extrêmement ennuyant.
