Mid-Atlantic Civil Struggle Trails
“The Civil Struggle outlined us as what we’re and it opened us to being what we grew to become, good and unhealthy issues. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.”
—Shelby Foote, The Civil Struggle: A Narrative
Between 1861 and 1865, Civil Struggle battles raged throughout the U.S. A number of the most bitterly contested territory, nonetheless, was inside a day’s journey from the nation’s capital. Factors of curiosity on this neighborhood mirror the depth of our nationwide rupture, when the way forward for the USA was in peril. Bruce Learn, my spouse Karen, and I are primarily based in historic Leesburg, VA, about 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., for this Shamrock Tour®.
Antietam—A Very Bloody Wednesday in Maryland
Pockets of armed battle over slavery started a number of years earlier than South Carolina seceded from the Union and later attacked Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Radical abolitionist John Brown rented the deceased Dr. Kennedy’s farmhouse in rural Maryland to collect co-conspirators and plan their assault on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA (at present’s West Virginia).
Brown deliberate to forcibly seize weaponry from the Federal arsenal and distribute it to slaves, triggering an armed rebellion. However few slaves thought it a good suggestion to start out a taking pictures warfare with the U.S. army, and so most declined the provide. Colonel Robert E. Lee and an organization of U.S. Marines have been dispatched to place down the assault. Brown was wounded and 10 of his males have been killed. The 59-year-old abolitionist was discovered responsible at his trial in November 1859 and went to the gallows in December. His execution was attended by a number of future Confederates, equivalent to Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and actor John Wilkes Sales space. Earlier than execution, Brown made an ominous prediction …
