June 30, 2005

While you're all setting

While you're all setting off fireworks this weekend and savoring beer, hot dogs, and hamburgers, remember that on July 1-3, 1863, Federal and Confederate troops were locked in battle on the Pennsylvania farmlands in Gettysburg.

Gettysburg has been studied and studied, and is defined as the turning point of the Civil War. What if the Southern troops had broken through the Union lines and made it all the way to Washington D.C.? What, then, would our country be like today? Something to consider.

I realize that with our country at war with terrorism and Iraq, most of you couldn't give a rat's rear about something that happened over 100 years ago, but hey, for obvious reasons I look to history a lot in an attempt to understand what's going on now.

But on a lighter note, I've been to Gettysburg so many times that it's like a second home, and anyone who would like to take a tour, and have some great tour guides, let me and Husband know. I'm always up for a trip to G'burg, and if the price is right, Husband and I will get all geared up in our CW era clothes. (But no, you may not look up my hoop skirts!)

Also remember that on July 4, 1863, the seige of Vicksburg ended. The Fourth of July wasn't celebrated in Mississippi for years after that. (h/t to Shelby Foote for that tidbit.)