The Observation Deck

Preparing for a weekend campout at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland this weekend, Boy Scout Troop 115 of Lakewood hosted Civil War reenactor Jeff Stover last night.

There are a few pictures HERE if interested.

Joe, those are great pictures. How about a short story to go with them for the paper? Deadline is Friday, I believe. Suzanne

Thanks Suzanne. I can write code but I'm not very good at writing stories...

Jeeze Joe

Why does 115 get to do all the neat stuff NOW?

Jeff

Antietam? Oh, I guess you mean Sharpsburg.

(Yes, I've gone native.)

Joe McClain wrote:Antietam? Oh, I guess you mean Sharpsburg.

(Yes, I've gone native.)

Not sure what you mean. The brochures I read and the info I read shows Antietam National Battlefield. Not Sharpsburg.

Yeah, like the question of whether another battle was called "Pittsburg Landing", or-as called by Yankees; "Shiloh"?

For those unaware, "The War That No One Agrees About The Name" often had two names for one event. The South had one name for an event, and the North, another.

For years, there were Southern and Northern History books.

I'll bet there still are.

As one having ancestors from both sides, and growing up in both Northern and Southern cultures, I'll tell you that there were numerous interesting discussions brought forth that continue to this day.

The South will probably tell you that the "War For Southern Independence" was no way about slavery. State's Rights and economic independence was the reason there was a call to arms, according to the South. The North will indeed probably cite slavery, and unlawful rebellion as their reasons to go to war.

To this day, there are at times hard feelings.

There are families, my own included, that suffered on both sides from that war, and they have long memories....

Remember the Monitor and the Merrimac battle; the first between two ironclad ships? Down South, they called it the battle of the Monitor and the Virginia. Why? The USS Merrimac had been burned to her waterline and captured by the South, who renamed her the CSS Virginia.

After the war, I seem to recall that the position of the US government was that the Merrimac had been a United States vessel taken and re-named unlawfully by rebels. Therefore she was never re-named; legally, that is.

So the North calls that clash of arms, that of the Monitor and Merrimac- The South? Monitor and Virginia.

Even today, I expect that few down South would call this war "The Civil War". The big questions may have been resolved, but there remain lots of little stories...memories...feelings...

It is a great time in history to study! As I indicated, I have ancestral "kin" who fought on both sides.

Exciting stuff, to me at least!

Gary

On an old Firesign Theatre album, the name given was "the War of Nothern Aggression Against the Peaceful Agrarian South"

Jeff