Post Gettysburg Hangover

Friends,

Let me preface this post by saying two things.  I apologize for the late hour.  Second, I haven't had an adult beverage in so long that I can no longer remember the last time.  I do, however, remember what a hangover feels like.......and thus we have the subject of today's post.

Were any of you, like me, pleased with the amount of media coverage that the 150th Gettysburg event received.  It almost seemed as though, for a few days at least, the Civil War mattered.  We even had an article in the Houston Chronicle about it.  (Or the Houston Pravda as I call it!)  For an all too brief moment, the eyes of many folks in the nation were transfixed by the events in a far away town in Pennsylvania.  In a way that is somewhat reminiscent of when the battle was fought if you think about it.

But now all that has past.  I spent three days in July pondering the significance of those days in my own life.  I then spent the next day pondering the significance of the fall of Vicksburg.  I guess it was such an emotional "high" for me that I am feeling sort of let down lately.  I don't really know how to describe other than it is sort of like a Gettysburg hangover.  In a way it feels like I always felt during my reenactor days when the event ended and I realized that I had to return to the 20th Century.  Remember the line in the movie Patton when George C. Scott says "God how I hate the 20th Century."  I can surely understand his sentiment.

Am I alone in feeling this way or are any of you suffering from a post Gettysburg hangover?  I'm going to the 150th of Sabine Pass in about 5 weeks, so that will be a certain cure.

And the funniest 150th quote belongs to a colleague of mine, an educated person with a college degree, who when asked by me what he knew about Gettysburg responded with "Wasn't that Custer and the Indians?"

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who works with folks who wouldn't know Stonewall Jackson if he jumped up and kicked them in the bottom end.  (Or threw lemons at them)

EDIT: Also, dear readers, I'll hit 6000 views with this post!  And all that in three months.  THANK YOU!

The Confederate Thermopylae

Friends,

September 8th marks the 150th Anniversary of another Civil War event.  It won't get as much coverage as Gettysburg.  In fact, outside of the local area, it won't get any coverage at all.  There will be a reenactment there September 6-8.  However, few will probably notice.  The event doesn't even get covered in a lot of history books about the war as it is, so it should be no surprise that it won't even register and the national radar.

What happened that day in the mosquito infested swamps of Sabine Pass, Texas was as improbable as it was memorable.  44 Irishmen under the command of their fellow countryman, Dick Dowling, turned back a 5,000 man invasion force by sinking two Federal gunboats and killing or capturing 200 sailors without suffering a single casualty in return.  Talk about the luck of the Irish!  Their commander, a bar owner in Houston prior to the war, had the men place stakes in the channel to mark the distances so that when the Federal gunboats arrived, they opened fire with deadly accuracy.

As a side note, the veterans of the Battle of Sabine Pass each received a medal, hung on a green ribbon (of course!) which had the date of the battle engraved on one side and the other side had the letters "D.G." for Davis Guards and either a Maltese Cross or a CSA Flag.  You can see a picture of one here.  It is thought to be the only medal authorized by the Confederate Congress during the duration of the war.

I grew up just a couple of miles from this battlefield.  It is a State Historical Site today, though hurricanes have wreaked havoc with it over the years.  If you would like further reading on the matter, I would suggest you check out Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae by Ed Cotham which you can find here.  It is an excellent introduction to this little known battle.

On a side note, I attended my first reenactment as a spectator here in 1985.  Later, I attended my first event as a participant here.  As many of you know, I have severe back problems now.  However, I will be attending the reenactment this year as my last hurrah.  There will be no more reenactments in my future and I think it fitting that I go out the same way I came in......at Sabine Pass.  I'll be portraying a Regimental Surgeon.  So if you are in the area on September 7, stop by and check it out.  You can even meet Mrs. Civil War Addict and I.  Click here for more information.  Hope to see you there!

Dick Dowling of County Galway. Source.

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict.

Beyond Gettysburg

Friends,

Typically Civil War Addicts have been to some pretty cool sites off the beaten path.  That is the subject of today's post.  Not satisfied with merely visiting the same sites as all of the other tourists, Civil War Addicts seek out new places to see.  I have been to many Civil War battlefields in my day.  Some of the best ones are not National Battlefield Parks, but rather State Parks or State Historic sites.  And I've been to some interesting non battlefield places too.  Here is but a small sampling.

Port Hudson, Louisiana, Nov. 2009

Original Centenary College site, Jackson, Louisiana

And there are several others with no pictures readily available.  They include Sabine Pass, New Market, Perryville, Prairie Grove, and the Myrtles Plantation.  Though if I had to pick one non-national park as my favorite site, it would have to be New Market, Virginia.  I haven't been there since I was a teenager, but I've never forgotten it.  So assuming it hasn't changed in the past 20 years, it still holds that honor.

So I leave you with this question, dear readers.  What is your favorite non-national park site?  (It can be either a battlefield or non-battlefield site.)

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict.

(Photo credits go to my wife.  They can be used with proper attribution to this page.)

EDIT:  I can't believe that I forgot to mention that last week I hit the FOUR THOUSAND view mark!  Not bad for the first two and a half months.  Thank all of you so much.  Let's see how fast we can hit five thousand!  (And no, that doesn't count my own views.)

My First Battlefield Visit

I believe the year was 1986.  My parents took my brother and I to watch the reenactment of the Battle of Sabine Pass.  Since I grew up in the exotic town of Port Arthur, Texas, it was a very short drive out there.  I had no idea that I had grown up just a few miles from the site of one of the most improbable victories in the annals of military history.  (Okay, so I may be exaggerating a little.)

I remember watching the recreated battle and being amazed by the sound of the artillery and rifles.  They even had a mock ironclad (the USS Clifton, I believe) offshore firing at the Confederates.  Afterwards, we walked through the camp and I got to talk to some of the participants and also get some pictures taken.

Fast forward to 1997.  I participated in my first reenactment.  I was now reenacting the Battle of Sabine Pass just as I had seen done 11 years earlier.  What a thrill!  I have been reenacting off and on ever since, though sadly not as much as I would like.

Anytime someone questions the money I've spent on Civil War gear, or books, or trips, or movies, or anything else related to that, I look back to the September day in 1986 and blame my parents for taking me out there in the first place!

I am Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict.