Originally
Published in the Fall 2003 . . .
Introduction .
For the past three years, Dad & I have embarked
each spring on what has become our annual “Civil
War Ramble.” The idea started as a last-minute
Christmas gift. With precious few days left in the
2000 gift scramble, I found a book that set the
whole thing in motion. It was an excerpt in book
form from Shelby Foote’s Civil War Narrative,
entitled “the Beleaguered City.” The
story traced Grant’s campaign and eventual
siege of the Confederate river bastion at Vicksburg,
Mississippi. It served up the perfect gift idea.
No more golfing accessories. Instead, I’d
give Dad this book with the directive to read it
by April in preparation for an all expenses paid
trip to / and tour of Vicksburg’s National
Military Park. That was our inaugural “Ramble,”
spring of 2001. The spring of 2002 found us retracing
the final black days of Robert E. Lee’s Army
of Northern Virginia across southern Virginia
on the state’s exceptional Civil War Tour:
“Lee’s Retreat.” Remembering Vicksburg
the previous year I made a point to take diligent
notes on the “Retreat” for an article
I had planned for that summer. My notes were detailed,
facts well-researched and focused – so focused
that I forgot to document our journey from Petersburg
to Appomattox. Historical details would only tell
half of the story. And so, armed with notebook and
pen I didn’t make the same mistake in April
of 2003, as we set out to tour and explore the Confederate
victory and Union disaster at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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Behind
the Sunken Road's "stonewall," looking
down Mercer |
