See You In The Field

Yesterday morning  my friend, Woody Ragan, and I were at the The City of Raleigh Museum, in our Federal uniforms, where we had been invited to present a  program for children who had just read " Emma and the Civil Warrior ". In attendance were about half a dozen enthusiastic children and their supportive parents. Our role was to try to give them a little background on the causes of the Civil War, perform a "show and tell" of our uniforms, weapons and equipment and then take a walk down the street to the North Carolina State Capitol , where we both volunteer as docents, and point out some of the places mentioned in the story. Why did we have a Civil War? I have been studying this period of history for over a quarter of a century and have only concluded that there is NO simple answer. Having experience leading tours and speaking in public on this topic, I am well aware of the "simple" answer that comes to most peoples minds...Slavery. I do not deny that

  Copyright (C) 2013 by Frederick Walton, Historian of the 6th  North Carolina State Troops Confederate Graves to Raleigh's Oakwood Confederate Cemetery As we begin the Labor day weekend, the Sesequntinial anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg has already been relegated to the far recesses of our minds. Only two short months ago the climax of years of planning and anticipation exploded in, not one, but two reenactments that received national attention for two weeks around the July 1-3 anniversary. But that is ancient history now.  And yet, 150 years ago, the battle was far from over in late August and early September. It wasn’t until July 22, 1863 that the first casualty reports for the 6th North Carolina were published in the “ Raleigh State Journal ”(1). Can you imagine being a worried parent, spouse or sibling, waiting to hear if your loved one was killed or wounded, or worse yet, captured, during the horrible battles that took place in far off Pennsylvania? Among the 178 name