For many years I have been an avid reader of the history of the American Civil War so it became one of my aims to at least see something about it when I visited the U.S.A. My first visit was in a snowy February some years ago. Titanic had been found in 1985 so in the year or so after the news had hit the worlds press, I wanted (as a media exercise) to visit Woods Hole to see the equipment they had used to find it and meet some of the team. So we flew into Bostons Logan Airport in snow and made our hired car way to the Midtown Hotel for our first two nights. We had drinks in the "Cheers" bar and saw by trolley all the history of Boston in the daytime......   After seeing the film "Glory" I wanted to visit the majestic plaque in bronze by Augustus Saint-Gaudens of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading the 54th Massachusetts out to battle in 1863. This is on Boston Hill opposite the State House above Boston Common and an impressive sight is is.... From one of the local bookshops I purchased (ISBN 0-8203-1459-5)  This is the book of the Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, edited by Russel Duncan.  During our rest periods in the hotel I digested the book hanging on every word This book almost put me in the actual tent of Colonel Shaw, so descriptive is this diary.. We went to our next call which was Niagara Falls to visit friends for a long weekend and you can read about this on another page. We then detoured back across country and were able to see Antietam and Gettysburg but they were deep in snow.  As I stood on the Battlefield at Antietam I had this strange feeling that I had been there before and vowed I would return in better weather. At Gettysburg we could not see much either, so this would be added to a future itinery..........  I MEET GENERAL LEE  What we did when we returned is related on the next page so click here to go there. CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO FIRST PAGE ANOTHER WEBSITE FROM BBHMG 2003 |
