Who can it be knocking at my door?
Go ‘way, don’t come ’round here no more.
…
All I wish is to be alone;
Stay away, don’t you invade my home.
Best off if you hang outside,
Don’t come in – I’ll only run and hide.
Wait a minute. Didn’t I just read an article not that long ago that said that researchers had discovered that 8 hours of sleep wasn’t really necessary and was more of a myth? Why won’t these people make up their minds? This is the problem with science. Really, you can prove whatever you set out to prove, depending on how you look at the data.
Those of you who know me know about my obsession with bears. So, I added a new member….
He came with a slip of paper that told me something so cool that I never knew about.
Many Civil War regiments, both Blue and Gray had animal mascots that they took to war. Pets such as dogs, cats, squirrels, raccoons, and birds were among the animals the soldiers brough along to lift their morale while campaigning. Although rare, a few units even had bears as mascots. One Union regiments, the 12th Wisconsin had a tame bear that marched with them all the way to Missouri. Confederates of General Joe Shelby’s command in Missouri also had a black bear. Perhaps one of th emost interesting bear mascots belonged to the 159th New York Infantry Regiments. While this unit was stationed in Louisiana it acquired a black bear cub. After this the 159th became known as the “Bear Regiment”. One soldier described the bear as a “playful, spiteful, mischievous youngster – the pride of the regiment. He was immediately adopted and given his place at the head of the regiment, in charge of the drum corps. He was soon a great favorite and attracted much attention.” When the regiment returned to Washington the bear had grown and weighed about 200 pounds. He was “decked out” and led the regiment as it marched up Pennsylvania Avenue much to the delight of the children along the way. Although bears that served in the Civil War were not uniformed such as these, we sell them in commeoration of those brave mascots of the Blue and Gray.
Here’s some pictures, for those who are interested…
This is a monument to the 15th Regiment of NJ volunteers which was in Spotsylvannia at a place called The Bloody Angle. The guide told us that this monument was not placed in entirely the right place, but that it was pretty close. The trees you see in the background were where the Union troops were positioned, and where the monuments are is actually where the Confederate troops had dug their trenches. It’s pretty cool to see that there are still mounds where the trenches once were.
That’s my dad outside of the Antietam visitor’s center.
This is a shot from outside the Antietam visitor’s center. The tower that you see in the background is an observation tower overlooking The Sunken Road.
Here’s a shot of a monument erected at Antietam to all of the fallen men from Pennsylvannia. Throughout the battlefield, Pennsylvannia actually placed a monument for each and every regiment from that state that participated in the fighting, and they placed those monuments as close as possible to where those troops were positioned. There were a lot of Pennsylvannia monuments.
This is a picture of the Sunken Road taken from on the road itself. This site probably saw the most casualties out of any site in all of the Civil War. My dad remarked as we walked down the road that it was strange to think that in 1862 there were thousands of bodies lying right where we were standing.
This is a picture of the Burnside Bridge. It wasn’t called the Burnside Bridge at the time of the war, but this was a bridge that General Burnside, then commander of all the Union forces, tried to send his army over in order to cross Antietam Creek. This picture is of the side that the Union troops were on. On the other side is a high cliff, essentially. It’s good, high ground, upon which sat approximately 500 Georgian soldiers. They sat up there and shot down the easy targets that the Union troops presented as they tried to cross this narrow bridge. Those 500 men held off thousands of Union soldiers. Burnside was a moron, and this wasn’t going to be the last time that he seemingly ignored terrain. Unfortunately, they are currently doing some work restoring the bridge, so this was the best picture I could get without the scaffolding, ladders, and orange cones that were present.
I took a few other pictures, but I don’t want to bore you guys too much. This stuff fascinates me, and I was really overwhelmed walking around these sites. I know a lot of people look at these things and go, “Yeah, it’s a field” but to me it’s so much more. It’s fascinating to me to look at the ground and imagine the battle as it happened. If you can do that, these places are truly amazing.
Here’s something interesting to think about….
The way we think about war today is so incredibly different than it was at the time of the Civil War. At Antietam, 23,000 men were killed in one day. At Spotsylvannia, another 20,000 were killed in 2 weeks. Thousands more were dead by the time the war was over.
In Somalia, the United States lost approximately 15 soldiers. 15 soldiers whose job it was to fight, and who expect that during the course of battle they may be killed. The citizens of the United States went into a frenzy because 15 soldiers had been killed.
Kinda interesting, huh?
I’m back a bit early. It’s not that we didn’t have fun or anything like that. We simply did what we went to do. We got to Fredericksburg early Tuesday, looked around, went to all the other battlefields in the area, and by Tuesday evening we were done in that area. We stayed overnight in Fredericksburg, and decided to go to Antietam the next day (today). Having finished with that, we decided there were no other battlefields to go visit, so we made our way back home. But we had a lot of fun, and I’m glad we went. I’ll have pictures and more to say later.
I’m leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for my trip to Fredericksburg with my dad. I’ll be back on Thursday night.
Try to play nice while I’m gone…
It�s the final reel for the VCR: DVDs are pushing videotapes off retailers� shelves
Soon, you will no longer be able to buy movie videos at Circuit City. No more �Hunt for Red October,� no more �Casablanca� – at least not to play on your videocassette recorder. The nation�s second-largest electronics retailer is phasing out sales of videotape movies as the chain makes way for the inevitability of DVD.
Still, it will be a while before they’re practical for recording, and until then, I’ll be holding onto my VCR.
I think that maybe I’m a bad husband. I look around at all these other people I know who are getting married or who are dating people, and they just seem better at it than I am. They seem more caring and more supportive and just, in general, better people.
I realize the simple solution is to say, “Well, you should work on that. You should be more supportive. You should talk more. Blah blah blah.” Yeah, I get that. The problem is that while I realize that I am doing these things, I don’t know WHY I am doing them, and that makes it difficult to recognize when they’re going to happen and to stop them.
Now, I guess it’s possible that I’m comparing myself, who has been married for 4 years, to people who are either newlyweds or people in the early stages of relationships, and that a comparison like that doesn’t work. But, the thing is, I always promised myself that I would never let my relationships become like that. So, I think what it comes down to is simply that I’m a bad husband. That’s unfortunate. I thought I was better than that.