The American Civil War... 150 Years Later

 
We are Civil War nerds.  Plain and simple.  So we love living in the south. Because there is so much history in just an hour and a half radius of home! We go to Civil War Battlefields for Mother's Day and Father's Day.  Our children wear blue and gray caps on our journeys. And we are okay with that :-)

 

 So to finish up our Civil War Study, we took a trip to Stone's River Battlefield.  I love that the National Parks now have Junior Ranger programs.  It is nice to have specific things for my kids to look for, to read about, and to focus on as we travel from place to place. 

 

 

And at the end of it all, they even swear you in as a Junior Ranger, give you badges and patches and certificates... Just what  makes the heart of young boys happy!

 

But, an extra perk is the fact that the Ranger gave us some information... about a 150 year celebration at Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia.  So, as all good church goers would do, (cough, cough) we skipped out on church this last week and took a little drive...

And we discovered a great day of living history.  We watched Spencer Repeating Rifles get fired across an actual battlefield, an explanation of Wilder's mounted infantry, and got to talk to other people who are just as crazy... okay, maybe a little MORE... about the Civil War.

 

The MAJOR highlight of the day?? Watching a 12-pound howitzer being shot... not only once, but twice... once again across an actual battlefield. 

It was an epic day!

  


Where else can you clean a cannon?  With a crazy bearded guy?  :-)