The great undertaking… 1/23

History buffs… how many of you have read the 3 volume set of Shelby Foote’s "The Civil War"?
Eight to ten years ago Ken Burns created a TV special on PBS, the Civil War, using Mr. Foote’s writing as gospel. It put things into proper light. So all these Americans were killing one another not by the hundreds, nor thousands but hundreds of thousands. And for what? Ya, I know slavery, states rights or as a southerner would say…get off my front yard.

Now, I am just finishing volume one. Let me tell you, Mr. Foote has a mouth full to say. I just got past the part about Antietem. This hit home as two years ago Rosebud and I were in Washington DC and drove home via the by-ways not the interstates. We were following the Potomac northward into Maryland. We came over a rise and there was the Antietem Civil War Battleground.

For some reason when authors and the media use the word casualties they should use the word deaths and when they use the word battleground they really mean cemetery. We stopped and walked the grounds. There was a diorama showing the highlights of Lee’s and McClellen’s moves. The lawns were cut and a few old cannon were in position. Then for effect they had some split rail fencing. But the heart of the matter really had to be looked for, the thousands of small grave markers.

Back then the majority of the guys didn’t know what the war was about only that the guys on the other side wore a different color uniform. And it’s the same today depending on where you are sitting, which side of the isle are you sitting on? or which religious symbol you carry. (Economics & Religion is the curse of mankind) in the 1200’s it was the crusades and in the 1860’s the Civil War. Now tour country is faced with a great undertakings. Mine is trying to finish volume one. Maybe in my next life time both will be concluded.

Today’s thought, " People who wear contact lenses should not have shag carpeting nor have to read fine print."