I went to Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry with the group, many miles in the comfort of our chartered bus. After a visit to the new museum we toured the sites of the first, second, and third days--July 1-3, 1863--and their commemoration in stone. The beautiful scenery and celebratory monuments insulate the visitor from the awfulness of the carnage--35,000 casualties and 7,000 battlefield deaths. Few sites preserve the past as does Gettysburg. From the number of markers and monuments it appears that from the time of the first shot all knew the import of the moment. It is too beautiful.
We spent late afternoon visiting Harpers Ferry where three states intersect at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Across the footbridge I inspected the remains of the C&O canal and thought of William C. Critchlow, my ancestor who built canals until the disabling accident that set him to reading the Bible and led him west to Zion. Wild grasses fill the vacant stone trough and weeds climb up the rock walls. Trees and bushes sprout from the stone piers, remnants of the bridge that was destroyed nearly 150 years ago. Time passes slowly in Harpers Ferry, at Gettysburg it almost stands still.
I really enjoyed this post, esp. seeing these places through the eyes of a historian. I hope you have time next spring to go up to the Great Falls on the upper Potomac, where there is more evidence of the canals. We enjoyed the falls and the walk through the woods to get to them.
ReplyDeleteYour Gettysbury sounds infinitely better than our trip there. The battlefields in these states are an interesting monument to those that died there, as well as the Civil War. It was also interesting to read this on the 10 year anniversary of our own wars, far across the sea.
E.