Click2History - Unforgettable Sights - America's Civil War - Chapter 2

</head> <body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>AMERICA'S CIVIL WAR</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 2 - A CHANGING LANDSCAPE</font></b></p> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">At the start of the War Between the States - when cows grazed near the <b> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil127.jpg">White House</a></b> and daisies surrounded the <b> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil128.jpg">Smithsonian</a></b> - opposing ideals split the country in two. Seemingly irreconcilable differences caused fathers and sons to leave home "to fight," never to return again. In many cases, family members had no idea how their loved ones died - or where they were buried.</p> <p>Did either side think the war would be over quickly? Despite the typical early enthusiasm to "fight for the right" of one’s convictions, the war dragged on. By its end, the country and her people had been devastated - <i>especially</i> in the South.</p> <p>While many Americans have heard of the places made famous by the Civil War, few have actually "been there." Thanks to U.S. Archives, it is possible to "meet" the people involved, "visit" the scenes of conflict and examine the evidence of what actually happened in America's first highly photographed war.</p> <ul><li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/2/04-0174a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Harpers Ferry</b></a> - the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/hafe/jbfort.htm" target="_blank"><b>place</b></a> where <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/43/16/43-1539a.gif" target="_blank"><b>John Brown</b></a> (the abolitionist) led his notorious October 16, 1859 <a href="http://www.iath.virginia.edu/jbrown/battle2.gif" target="_blank"><b>raid</b></a> on the federal <a href="http://165.83.219.72/hafe/detail.cfm?Image_No=hf%2D0027" target="_blank"><b>arsenal</b></a> - seems an unlikely place for what some say was the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown/peopleevents/pande01.html" target="_blank"><b>spark</b></a> that <a href="http://www.johnbrown.org/" target="_blank"><b>set off</b></a> the Civil War.<br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/5/2/05-0159a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Yorktown</b></a> was a beautiful, seaside Virginia town in the spring of 1862. But the town was <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/43/16/43-1531a.gif" target="_blank"><b>changing</b></a> from an idyllic peacetime setting to a <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/2/04-0160a.gif" target="_blank"><b>place of war</b></a>.<br><br> <li>The picturesque <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/2/04-0167a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Antietam Bridge</b></a> (near <a href="http://mahogany.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/National_parks/Anti_loc95.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Sharpsburg</b></a>, Maryland) became the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/1/04-0013a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>scene</b></a> of the bloodiest <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/1/04-0014a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>battle</b></a> of the war when General <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/15/07-1469a.gif" target="_blank"><b>George McClellan’s</b></a> Union troops <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/8/2/08-0115a.gif" target="_blank"><b>fought</b></a> General <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/5/15/05-1404a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Robert E. Lee’s</b></a> Confederate troops during September, 1862. The slaughter was so appalling, President Lincoln <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/6/25/06-2427a.gif" target="_blank"><b>visited</b></a> the battlefield and soon thereafter <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/30/19-2919a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>issued</b></a> his <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/30/19-2915a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Emancipation</b></a> <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/30/19-2916a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Proclamation</b></a>.<br><br> <li>Cold Harbor, Virginia was transformed from a <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/34/24/34-2343a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>battlefield</b></a> (where General Ulysses S. <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/5/2/05-0119a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Grant</b></a> commanded Union forces in June, 1864) to a <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/3/04-0241a.gif" target="_blank"><b>macabre</b></a> place of death (in April, 1865).<br><br> <li>Richmond, Virginia - capital of the Confederate States of America and location of its "<a href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil119.jpg" target="_blank"><b>White House</b></a>" - underwent a vast transformation from <a href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil116.jpg" target="_blank"><b>bustling</b></a> harbor town to <a href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil117.jpg" target="_blank"><b>devastated</b></a> city. Its Navy Yard, once a place of prominence, was reduced to <a href="http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/civil049.jpg" target="_blank"><b>rubble</b></a> by December, 1864.<br></ul> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="civil_war_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="civil_war_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>