They say you are a green troop, a rookie if you will, until your baptism by fire. “See the elephant” and you will truly be inducted into the great armies of the world. My first glimpse at this elephant was when I was about 7 or 8 years old.
My aunt moved to Virginia from Rhode Island when I was about that age. Being very close to my parents, we would visit her in Virginia pretty regularly over the summers. Just about every summer from age 7 until at least age 14 was spent in Virginia with my cousin who was but a couple years younger than I. So what exactly do you do with a couple of rowdy boys over a hot Virginia summer to keep them from tearing down the house around your ears? The answer to this question lay in a quiet rural town called New Market. Some of my first child hood memories involve me and my cousin running in front of those canons.
Now, I don’t know how many of you have been to Virginia, but the ground is almost invariably red from all the clay in the ground. Of course, being only 7 or so when I first noticed this, I had to ask my mom why. “The ground is red from the blood of all the soldiers who died here.” Wow.. way to go Mom. Is there anything that would peek a little boy’s interest more than soldiers, and blood? Even if there is, it was enough for me. Shortly after that I received my first Civil War book, Golden Book of the Civil War. Ever since that day it was books, books, more books, followed by kidnapping my parents and making them take me on all sorts of Civil War battlefield tours. Hours of boredom for them and my poor sister who had no interest in history whatsoever!
So here I am 20 years later, slightly more educated, and I still believe the ground is red from all the blood. I have also narrowed my “expertise” to the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of 1862 and 1864, and the Wilderness campaign of 1864, where the unstoppable force meet the immovable object for the first time. Having lived in Virginia for about 6 or 7 years (Front Royal and Winchester) made it very easy to stay focused on the Eastern Theater. As such, I am sorry to say my experience with the Western Theater at this point is sadly lacking, but I still have plenty of time to concentrate on that!
Ray B
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