Day 3 at Gettysburg

I just finished "Killing Angels" and was left with an empty feeling much like when I visited Mt. Saint Helen's after she erupted. There was no life anywhere and everything was this morbid gray color. Although Sharra writes in such a descriptive way that I felt like I was right there on the battle field, I can not imagine either how it looked after the battle or the feelings involved in the battle. I look forward to actually being at the battle site and experiencing what it is like today.

Limited War????

The last paragraph of Chapter 15 hit me really hard. "The failure of McClellan's Peninsula campaign was not alone a military failure; it represented also the downfall of the limited war for limited ends that McClellan favored. From now on the North would fight not to preserve the old Union but to destroy it and build a new one on the ashes." Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but it has become so evident to me that we need to study our own history so as to not make the same mistakes. "Limited war for limited ends" seems to be the mantra of our current foreign policy. It may be that I remember Vietnam, but at what point do we say this has never worked in the past why should it work now. Lincoln is an interesting man and this war created something about him that would never have been otherwise. Perhaps, if there had been no Civil War, we would remember Lincoln the same way we remember James Buchanan.

Two Perspectives

So, I am reading "The Killer Angels" and what I am most impressed by is the author's ability to show both sides of the story. I am constantly telling my fifth graders there is more than one side to every story. The Civil War is an interesting time period to learn more about for me because each side has a distinct point of view. The Civil War is something in history that definately has more than one perspective but I can't remember learning anything except the North won and it ended slavery.

Michael Shaara - Amazing Author

Men, of so many different characteristics and personalities are all molded into South vs. North and North vs. South. Men, all real, are alive, at least for now. Their purposes are set. Their courses are defined. Their lives will be changed as will the future. Michael Shaara has made them come alive in his book.
This future is now ours. I want to help my students realize that what we have today comes because of what others have done. I want them to know that they too can make a difference.
Children, of so many different characteristics and personalities are all molded into my 5th grade class!

Battle Cry of Freedom

I just started reading the "Battle Cry of Freedom." I am facinated by the economic thinking of the time. I was not aware that the idea of having "banks" was so unfriendly. We accept banking as apart of our everyday lives. The percentage of citizens who owned most of the wealth in this country was very low. I would like to know how it would compare to todays percentages. The modernization and technical advances of the period changed the whole face of America. Our craftsmen were slowly disappearing. I lived in Ohio for several years and always wondered why they called Ohio the buckeye state. Now I know that is was named after those who settled in the area who ran farms that developed into a corn-hog-whiskey economy. I also found it interesting that most people did not like working for the business owners. They felt like they had lost some of their freedoms by having to be subject to low wages, and long hours. A lot of change happened as a result of the Industrial Revolution. With the bad also came the idea that a man with an education could become more than he was. The shift of manufacturing from household to shop or factory altered the function of many families from units of production to units of consumption. This economic transition took both men and women out of the home. It started the notion of separate "spheres" for men and women. This might have started some of the male "chauvinist" ideas. There was also break down of the two party system in the 1850's that led to the Republican party are we know it today. I am finding out that there were many factors that contributed to the thinking and some of the problems in the 1850's that slowly brought about the Civil War. Claudia Olson

An Ah Ha Moment

I am currently reading Battle Cry of Freedom--which I have found totally fascinating. (I loaded it and Killer Angels on my I-pod--it took just under 4 gigs). As you begin reading it do a little comparing and contrasting. If you took today's congress and executive branch and just changed the names from those of the 1850's there are some amazing parallels. It seems all we talk about is bi-partisanship and everyone out for their own interests. We are currently re-working those years just prior to the Civil War--are we destined to repeat it? ("Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana) There is a bill before our own state legislature, Joint Resolution--State Sovereignty and Tenth Amendment: Chief sponsor: Howard A. Stephenson--which follows the footsteps of 11 other states who have passed "Sovereignty" laws and resolutions. Whether you believe the Civil War was fought over "states rights" or "slavery" history is repeating itself. Just a thought. Then as an afterthought, think about what the U.S. Congress was able to achieve when all the "Southern Democrats" left and

Killer Angels

I am finding this novel to be very absorbing. The author has succeeded in creating in my mind a visual imagery of the terrain (via the inserted maps chronologically set) and his use of verbage. I am totally enthralled. Also, the author has captured not only a vivid characterization of each of the role players, but has also identified the individual politics that existed on both sides. As I continue to read, I further expect to see the "vision" of what happened. While I have read several versions of the Battle of Gettysburg, this is the first to really bring it alive for me. I readily admit that part of the reason it comes alive for me from this author may be that I am at a stage of my life experience which enables me to more fully appreciate its significance.