Reflections

What did it all mean?  After countless cannons, insect bites, hush puppies and miles, we reached the road home.  We spent a month immersed in American history and culture, from Pre-Columbian to late-Obama.  We met memorable people: the Texas Highway Patrol Officer, the only liberal in Texas, the cake angel, several state park employees.  They were all very friendly and helpful and were fascinated by Jeremy's English accent.

The Civil War was a watershed event in American History.  Someone profoundly observed that the war made us a nation.  It changed the phrase "the United States are . . ." to "the United States is . . .".  We saw the problems of the Revolutionary war and 13 colonies each working for it's own purposes.  We read about the fundamental issue between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson: should the U.S. have a strong central government or be a loose confederation of semi-autonomous states? And other narratives such as the Lost Cause, Emancipation and Reconstruction and even WW II and Vietnam crept in and American History became a patchwork quilt.

We are two aging baby-boomer pacifists that love history. War is human history and I don't see a contradiction.  History is Rembrandt as well as William T. Sherman.

Casualities in the Civil War totaled 620,000.  About 400,000 deaths were due to disease.  Bad water and poor sanitation were largely responsible.

Technology had advanced far ahead of battlefield tactics.  The rifled musket and cannon were far more accurate than smoothbore weapons.  But soldiers were still ordered to make shoulder to shoulder frontal charges against established positions.

Trench warfare was something new in the Civil War and would be used again in WW I almost 50 years later.

Finally, I want to remember my Great-grandfather Peter Jordahl.  Peter grew up in Lake Park, Minnesota and according to family legend, ran away from home to join the army.  I don't know any dates but he did join the 10th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  He apparently was a musician, a drummer-boy.  The 10th Minnesota first saw action in Dakota Territory and then headed south and were involved in the battles in Tupelo, Mississippi, Nashville, Tennessee and Mobile, Alabama.  The image below is Peter in uniform.