rake60
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,756
- Reaction score
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My youngest boy was home for Christmas.
Today we took him back to Washington D.C. where he is teaching and doing his
graduate work at George Washington University. He decided it would be best for
him to drive from Breezewood PA to D.C. because he knew the route better than me.
I've made that trip many times in the past. As a passenger with some snow on the
ground, I saw things that I have never noticed before. You are driving through some
of the most hallowed grounds of the American Civil War battlefields. I'm a history buff,
especially military and steam power history. I saw narrow flats in the hill sides that were
obviously abandoned rail beds running to and through the major conflict areas.
Places like Antietam, Fredericksburg and the C & O Canal areas. I have walked all of
those areas in the past and I have seen many of the corroded green Civil War cannons
that are buried muzzle down to mark the spot where a General had died standing
erect in modern day corn fields.
Seeing that was pretty cool for a military history buff.
Seeing the overgrown rail beds exposed by the snow was a new insight.
1861 to 1865 was the prime time of steam power in the United States.
I could imagine the supply trains of both sides trying to move along those rails with the
best stealth available to them. The tracks don't move.
Ah, I see a plume of black smoke followed by a cloud of white steam coming this way.
Perhaps we should react to that...
I've walked the battle fields. Now I want to walk those rail beds!
I know there is steam era history there waiting to be rediscovered.
My metal detector is at the back door begging to go along!
Rick
Today we took him back to Washington D.C. where he is teaching and doing his
graduate work at George Washington University. He decided it would be best for
him to drive from Breezewood PA to D.C. because he knew the route better than me.
I've made that trip many times in the past. As a passenger with some snow on the
ground, I saw things that I have never noticed before. You are driving through some
of the most hallowed grounds of the American Civil War battlefields. I'm a history buff,
especially military and steam power history. I saw narrow flats in the hill sides that were
obviously abandoned rail beds running to and through the major conflict areas.
Places like Antietam, Fredericksburg and the C & O Canal areas. I have walked all of
those areas in the past and I have seen many of the corroded green Civil War cannons
that are buried muzzle down to mark the spot where a General had died standing
erect in modern day corn fields.
Seeing that was pretty cool for a military history buff.
Seeing the overgrown rail beds exposed by the snow was a new insight.
1861 to 1865 was the prime time of steam power in the United States.
I could imagine the supply trains of both sides trying to move along those rails with the
best stealth available to them. The tracks don't move.
Ah, I see a plume of black smoke followed by a cloud of white steam coming this way.
Perhaps we should react to that...
I've walked the battle fields. Now I want to walk those rail beds!
I know there is steam era history there waiting to be rediscovered.
My metal detector is at the back door begging to go along!
Rick
