Before and After in the Mojave

This is the Mojave desert about 18 miles west of Mesquite, Nevada:

This is what happens when it gets some rain:

Wednesday Filler: Fremont Cottonwoods

Much of the arid parts of western North America are largely devoid of any wonderful, broad, sweeping, shade-giving trees.  Even the more water-blessed higher elevations and coastal lands have trees that are either shrubby or densely formed coniferous pillars.  Broad-leaved trees just do not occur here in the same degree of immensity and variety that they do in eastern North America or down in the tropical parts of Mexico, with a few exceptions.  California, Baja California, Arizona, and Sonora have multiple species of oaks, some of them evergreen.  In the canyons and watercourses of California are also the delightful shade givers known as California Sycamores (Platanus Racemosa).  Scattered at oases in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts are also the wonderful fan palms, but like the Sycamores, they are often towered over and partially shaded by the true western broad-leaved giants, the Fremont Cottonwood (Populus Fremontii).

These tall Fremonts are growing outside of Zion National Park's visitor center.

Fremonts are a sure sign that water is nearby.  In fact, they pretty much grow nowhere else naturally.  They stabilize otherwise erosion-prone western stream banks, and the heavy shade they provide also keeps those same watercourses cool.  They stand out brilliantly against otherwise arid terrain.

Cyclone Fence Imitates Nature

Well now, this really speaks for itself, does it not?  I was feeling a lack of inspiration, but sometimes the picture is definitely worth a thousand words.

I-15, First Rest Stop in California southbound.

In Remembrance

Remember that while the meat is being grilled and interstates are jammed by returning vacationers, this is a day to recall the passing of so many in the history of the United States.  Even if you don't agree with the purpose of the particular conflict in which they died, they were still people with loved ones, people who loved their country, and often forgotten, people who saw their comrades in arms suffer and die along with them.  Paying a visit to a military cemetery is a very personal way of remembering the fallen.  Walk among the ordered rows of white stones, read the names of people that might have otherwise meant nothing to you, and perhaps be the only one alive still thinking of them today.  You will also find tombs of foreign nationals, including many Canadians and Mexicans, who enlisted in the United States armed forces or served alongside them as allies and wished to be at rest among their friends and fellow soldiers.

This is Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, located on Point Loma.  It overlooks both the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay.  Buried here are souls who died as far back as the Mexican-American war, though the cemetery was not made a national cemetery until 1882.  It is one of the oldest on the west coast.

Sunday Afternoon Post: The Straits of Memorial Day Weekend

Northern Michigan is under a population surge during the long weekend, so it seemed only fitting to pass along a picture of one such popular expanse of water, the Straits of Mackinac.

This viewpoint is looking south towards the lower peninsula of Michigan, with the hills in the background being the edge of the Mio Plateau.

The Impact of the American Civil War on the Neighbors: Part One

As the Union and Confederacy were struggling against one another, the Western world was watching the conflict with very interested eyes.  New military technologies were being used that were shredding apart the old traditions of line warfare, and foreign tacticians got to see this in living example (too bad every one forgot that by the First World War).  Democratic government was also being put to the test, and the American experiment was seriously called into question.  While some foreign powers sided with the Confederacy mainly out of economic benefit, there were no doubt many who wished to see the grand experiment of 1776 fall into disrepair, especially after the crushing of many leftist uprisings in 1848.  Closer to home, though, the worlds of Mexico and Canada had many more reasons to pay attention to what was happening in the divided states.

By the time the southern states started to secede from the Union, Mexico had undergone a civil war of its own, the Reform War.  This was fought over the power that the Roman Catholic Church had over the land, which was quite substantial.  By March of 1861, the liberal faction in the war had won, religious liberty was declared law, and Benito Juarez was elected President, the first full-blooded native North American to be head of state on the continent following European colonization.

Public Domain

Problematically, however, was that neither side of this conflict was entirely righteous.  While religious liberty was promoted and maintained, this would come to mean the start of a full-on war against the Catholic Church and the introduction of semi-dictatorial Marxism to the country, both of which issues would reach a peak in the 1920's.  (More on this later).  Of course, Mexico has since remained largely Catholic and Mexican communism is an entirely different animal from most strains of Marxism, but this sort of political change was enough to agitate the Europeans, and by the next year, France had invaded Mexico, was repelled, and returned in greater force so that Mexico found itself under the leadership of Maximilian I, who took the title "emperor of Mexico" after the French had seized the country in a second invasion of 1863.

In the meantime, Mexico found itself with an increase in commerce from the direction of Texas.  The Confederacy was effectively blockaded by the Union at most of its water ports, and soon sleepy Brownsville found itself the major hub of international trade, as cotton could no longer be shipped out of New Orleans, Mobile, or other ports that used to handle the exchange.  For a while, the border on the Rio Grande actually became a bit amiable again, and the goods were flowing freely.  At the same time, the diversion of American interests into their internal division was probably a very good thing for a Mexico which had been weakened by a civil war of its own, to say nothing of being invaded by the French, a clear violation of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine.

So, what did the American Civil War do for Mexico?  It kept the country independent, even as it was struggling for that right.  By the time the Union had prevailed, the United States did indeed turn its attention southwards, but not as a conqueror.  In 1866, President Andrew Johnson instead sent 50,000 troops to deploy along the Rio Grande, both as a warning to the French to get the heck out, and as a front to supply Juarez's forces.  In 1867, the Mexican people had once again won their freedom, and the American forces made no effort to take advantage of the situation, probably because freedom had just taken on a very fresh and powerful meaning for the re-United States.

On the far side of the land, things played out very differently.  Ever since 1815, an uneasy peace had been maintained between Canadians and Americans.  Commerce and lives had started to flow in both directions across this frontier, but the promise of war was never far away.  Come by next Saturday to see how the American Civil War impacted Canada.

Oak Savannas of Southeastern Michigan: A Reminder of Our Natural Heritage

Taking a much needed break from the Civil War content, and heading back to something a bit more natural, we take a glance at some of the remnants of the savanna landscape which once covered sizable areas of Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario.  Of course, this being the Nearwest, rather than the Midwest, things are far more moist and both the infrequent natural fire regimes and the soils are much more capable of producing full-blown forests.  These were all taken at Island Lake State Recreation Area in Michigan, near Brighton.  Island Lake is a wonderful haven of some of the last remaining "as it was" bit of wildlands in the metro Detroit area.

As you can see, right beside the savanna is a typical mixed deciduous forest full of oaks, hickories, and even a few ashes and maples.  

 Even over the oak savannas, the canopy is exceptionally high and relatively dense.

More into the "thick" of the savanna, we see a semi-open horizon and a rather appealing park-like setting.  We also see a lone Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus), which is at the southern edge of its naturally occurring range, at least in present times.  The White Pines, which normally infrequently poke their way up in  sunny gaps in hardwood forests, have much less competition here, and grow quite well in the well-drained soils and sands.

Such a landscape is a rare find these days.  Even when things revert to nature after being abandoned, plants that humans have brought to the lands here often transform the ecosystem.  Setting aside any arguments over the benefits or curses of the trans-formative hand of humanity on the world, these few natural places we do have left, especially in the central eastern part of the continent, usually tend to stand out when they get stumbled across.  Most people would assume a place like Michigan or New York would be a relatively mundane affair of endless, uniform forest.  Instead, our natural landscape shows a much more intelligent design at work, one of astonishing complexity.  The warm season is upon us, readers!  Go outside and try to find some of the primal beauty of North America.  Get to know your state or province or even county or district and what is so great about it, like the post we have today about mine.

Summer Nights Beckon the Soul to the North

Tonight's low here in southeastern Michigan is going to be 67, which is as good a sign as any that summer is upon this part of the world.  Longing for refuge to the more familiar lands of the North, I came across this delightful video, which I wanted to share here.  Summer draws many in this part of the world northwards, though I find Le Nord to be most beautiful in the winter, when the snow, evergreens, and auroras conspire to make any tropical part of the world jealous owing to lack of color.



The images captured were taken in northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba, which, while not my beloved Laurentian and Algonquin mountains, are lovely lands still largely untouched by human hands, miraculous reflections of the Creator.  The rock you see is among the oldest in the world, having endured well over two billion years of existence.  Enjoy this diversion!

The Battle of Wilson's Creek: The Modern Park

By 1861, Missouri was well on its way into settlement by both immigrants from the eastern and southern United States and abroad.  Farms were commonplace, well-maintained roads connected vital towns and military outposts, and the southwest corner of the state around Springfield was on several main migration routes to destinations further west.  

Even then, the landscape had not been changed so dramatically as to compare with areas further east that had seen settlement since colonial times, and much of the scenery remained pretty natural.  The battle at Wilson's Creek, thus, was not quite the same open-field affair that Manassas had been.  There were farms in the area, and open land did exist in the form of patches of tallgrass prairie and oak savanna...

 

...but by and large southwestern Missouri was forested.  

Southwest Missouri is a wonderful western extension of forest, so much so that it offers a remarkable contrast to the nearby tallgrass prairies of nearby parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.  The area is on the edge of the Ozarks, and plentiful moisture and warm weather reaches into the place from further south, enough so to classify the region as  humid subtropical climatically.  No, this is not the realm of baldcypress trees and evergreen magnolias, but it is definitely a southern affair.  The forests were reasonably thick, the landscape well watered and the ground sometimes muddy.  This was a difficult place to have a battle, and really was only chosen as a mark of convenience with which to block assaults on a retreat.  Thankfully, most of the men fighting were from the area, or at least neighboring states, and knew the terrain and what to expect of the weather.  This was not a situation of green recruits from states bordering Canada falling over in the heat and humidity as had been the case in Virginia.

So, what can one see here?  Not much in the way of monuments and grave markers.  The battles further out to the west of the then-United States were often side-shows in comparison to the carnage of the eastern sites.  All the same, the park service has done a truly remarkable job of preserving the landscape intact, have marked battle positions rather well, and have a visitor center and museum complete with a full-blown, first rate research library that aids research historians not only looking to find out more about the battle, but about the war in general.  The same cannot be said for the sites at Manassas, Gettysburg, or other major sites.  Heck, the same cannot be said for most national park sites.  To be blunt, this might be, pound for pound, the best Civil War park site out there.  The staff was knowledgeable, friendly, and genuinely interested in telling the story of not just this battle, but of the state of Missouri and the war in general.  The place is definitely worth a stop on a Civil War tour, and is pretty much an essential part of any trip focused on the state.

Oh, and yes, you can also see the creek itself.  A creek, to be sure, but a substantial one, and a nice treat to see after crossing so many braided or non-existent streams not too far away in Oklahoma.  

The Battle of Wilson's Creek: The Story

In contrast to the much more organized affair that was the start of war in Virginia, the start of the war west of the Appalachians was an entirely different story, full of nervous anticipation, emotionally-charged contests, and almost guerrilla warfare.  Kentucky was occupied fairly early in the course of the war, which prevented it from siding with the Confederacy, despite it being a slave state.  Missouri initially opted for a sort of neutrality, pledging to remain outside of both the fighting and economic support of either side during the war.  Missouri, however, was a land of residents who declared themselves strongly for both sides of the conflict.

Missouri was founded specifically as a slave state back in 1820 in the start of a pattern of admitting both a slave and a free state to the union to maintain a congressional balance between pro and anti-slavery factions.  The state was then heavily settled by slave-owners who took advantage of the readily-available bottomlands along both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.  Unlike the rest of the slave states, however, Missouri was along the prime western migration corridor, and migrants arriving from the south were soon joined and outnumbered by migrants from both the eastern United States and Europe.  Many of these arrivals had no interest in slavery, and even when they did not finds themselves at odds with the plantation owners, they formed a distinctly different culture from them, with different needs and philosophies of life.  Based on economic differences alone, the new subsistence farmers and the plantation owners were already quite at odds with another.  Then, in 1854, neighboring Kansas was opened up to settlement under the concept of popular sovereignty, and all hell broke loose.  Kansas would be declared a free or slave state based on how many settlers of each made their way into the land.

While the Civil War in general is often considered to be a conflict that pitted brother against brother, the nature of the war in the western states, owing to popular sovereignty and the mess that was "Bleeding Kansas", was one of a very viscous hatred of neighbor against neighbor.  Lawrence, Kansas was almost completely ransacked by raiders from nearby Missouri, who were intent on making sure Kansas would not end up a free state.  Even though it was not under the concept of popular sovereignty, Missouri was no less a hot bed of contention owing to its mixed background of settlement.  The important thing to remember is that this was no mere debate of slavery and freedom, but an ugly conflict involving racism and cultural bigotry.  By the time war began, Kansas was a free state, and Missouri found itself mired in a contest between people who would just as soon shoot one another as they would wait for marching orders.  As was the plan for Kentucky, Missouri was to be seized as soon as possible by Union forces so that Confederate forces would never be given a chance to be mustered.  The locals and the Arkansans had different ideas.

By July of 1861, the Missouri State Guard had received reinforcements from Arkansas, as well as Confederate troops from Louisiana and other places.  Union forces, well aware of the disposition of the enemy, had already seized control of St. Louis and had encamped near Springfield, Missouri by July 13th.  By early August, it became clear that the Union forces under General Nathaniel Lyon were vastly outnumbered by Confederate sympathizers pouring into the region.  Lyon knew he needed to retreat and reinforce his numbers, but he also knew he needed to slow down his pursuers.  In consequence, on August 10th, at 5:00 in the morning, the Battle of Wilson's Creek began.  Tensions were already so high, however, that the Confederate forces, really just made up of ordinary Missouri and Arkansas militia, were more than ready to respond to this assault.  Lyon tried desperately to form lines and advance against the enemy, but they were able to repel most counter-attacks strike for strike.  Eventually, as was the case at Manassas, a relatively green army was not properly prepared to communicate between units, and Union forces became separated from one another, all the more so because they were well out of sight in the complicated landscape of the battlefield.

Despite some success on the part of the Iowa infantry, who were wearing the same colored uniforms as the Louisianans, things did not go well for Union forces.  They were kept in check, never able to make serious advances, and the leadership was getting killed.  Lyon, in fact, became the first Union general to die in the war.  Their spirits sunk, and the objective to take out the pursuing force pretty much moot at this point, the surviving Union forces retreated to Rolla, Missouri.  All the same, just about as many "Confederates" were killed at this point, and their forces were indeed unable to pursue the Union survivors, despite taking the battlefield.  Wilson's Creek thus ended up being a tactical victory for the Union, though in all seriousness, even with later victories in Arkansas, this was at best a Pyrrhic victory.  For nearly the rest of the war, Missouri would be the scene of fierce guerrilla warfare, and the state suffered some of the most severe losses of any land in the United States.

The battle itself, in fact, was far from an orderly affair.  Traditional line warfare simply did not happen here, and the smaller skirmishes going on throughout the battlefield were extremely bloody in comparison to Manassas.  Here, men not only shot to kill, but to maim, and combatants quickly broke down into savage hand to hand combat, complete with an even more savage fight coming from their mouths.  The men, you see, were not exactly regular troops or even conscripts, but locals, locals who needed little provocation or orders to attack their neighbors.  Such venomous hatred, combined with a familiarity of the rough landscape, and an August day that could not be more hot or humid, well, it made things very disgusting.  The film shown at the visitor center of the present day national battlefield documents this well, but is mild in comparison to what things must have really been like.  The battle remains a sacred event in the lives of Missourians, a reminder of just how much the state has suffered through.  As such, the capitol building in Jefferson City features a very large mural of the battle, a piece of art which is very difficult to look at with a passing glare once one knows exactly what it depicts.

In Memory of Clara Barton

The Civil War posts will continue for the next few days, but I felt like taking a break covering them to share something special.



This was just released by the United States ambassador to Armenia, John A. Heffern.  Clara Barton was instrumental in saving countless lives during the Civil War.  She never turned down someone in need of assistance, no matter their race, religion, or even side in a conflict.  She and the American Red Cross have done truly spectacular relief efforts ever since, working both at home and abroad to help the world recover from natural and man-made disasters.

They are always in need of donations, especially blood.

The First Battle of Manassas: The Modern Park

Manassas National Battlefield Park encompasses much of where the fighting action took place during the First Battle of Manassas.  As is the case in most eastern parks, it is surrounded by private land, but has managed to keep most of the atmosphere of the field intact.  The park is fairly easy to move about in, and most prominent sites of the battle are recognizable.  As in the last post, the comments for each photo are below the individual pictures.

 Like many Civil War NPS sites, Manassas contains a variety of markers and monuments to denote what took place at various points of interest.  This particular monument marks the passing of General Bee, who gave the famous remark about Stonewall Jackson that inspired the Confederates to get a second wind and turn the tide of the battle.  Pictured in the introductory post, a statue of Jackson doing just what this monument says stands nearby.

 The park visitor center lies on Henry Hill, where the most critical fighting took place, and where Judith Henry was killed inside her house, the first civilian casualty of the war.  The wooden house pictured here was built on the same location as her destroyed home, and is representative of a fairly ordinary house of the time.  The hill does provide a rather nice view, and in the distance one can make out the Bull Run Mountains, as well as faint views of the more distant Blue Ridge Mountains, which from one of the sides of the Shenandoah Valley, where Johnston's reinforcements were coming from.

 In many Civil War parks, cannons are often everywhere, usually denoting artillery emplacements.  Behind the lines of guns can be seen a fairly typical example of Piedmont forest, this particular one thick with Virginia Pine (Pinus Virginiana) and a mixture of different hardwood trees ranging from oaks and hickories to maples and American Sweetgums (Liquidambar Styrciflua).  In pre-settlement times, the area would have been heavily forested.  Like much of the rural areas east of the Appalachians, the nature of the soils and  depletion of soil quality by poor crop management of cotton and tobacco plantings meant that the landscape was not largely open farm.  In some cases, depleted land was abandoned as settlers moved on, leaving fields interspersed by forests such as this one.

 The dense canopies tend to block out much of the sun, as is the case for many mature eastern forests, and many places show signs of deer browsing, wherein the foliage is nicely trimmed on a single level.  In places where local roads did not prove up to the task of transporting the Union marchers, the men would have made their way through these woods.  While they do seem shady and inviting, I can tell you from personal experience that the heat and humidity did not make the experience much more pleasant than it would have been in full sun.  While they do share many species in common, the forests of Piedmont Virginia and Minnesota and New York do not share environmental blessings.  Here, hot means hot and sticky, even in the shade.

 In fact, you can pretty much see the humidity rather well.  I know I have used this picture before, but it does a good job of illustrating the nature of the landscape around the battlefield.  Here we see a wonderful assortment of trees that show just how much variety a transitional landscape like the Piedmont can bring to the local biomass.  In addition to the Virginia Pines, we also see some Shortleaf Pines (Pinus Enchinata) making a nice burst from the canopy.  Friendly forests to the Virginians, dangerous hiding places to the Union forces.

 One of the surviving buildings in the park is the Stone House, which was used as a stop on the Warrenton Turnpike (now U.S. 29) which ran alongside it.  At the time of the battle, the house belonged to Henry P. Matthew, a Virginian farmer.  As it was located near the site of some heavy fighting, easily defensible due to its stone walls, and on the roads back to Union territory, the house saw use as a hospital.  Well over 1,000 men were wounded nearby and treated in the house and on the grounds.  It contains period furnishings and is actually pretty well insulated against the summer weather.

 Not far down the road alongside the house is the actual namesake feature of Bull Run, a small stream which eventually ends up in the Potomac.  Bull Run is crossed by the Stone Bridge, which saw some of the earliest fighting in the battle, where Tyler's flanking met with serious resistance.  The bridge was destroyed during the battle, and the current bridge is a recreation made during the late 19th century.  As you can see, Bull Run is not very broad or deep, and is crossed by other bridges in the area, as well as many fords.  Still, it provided enough of an obstacle to assist the Confederates in maintaining their early lines, until they were forced to retreat by Sherman's surprise attack.  The run is rather healthy, and has many fish in it.

So, what we have mostly seen are shots from the heart of the battlefield, mostly around Henry Hill.

Courtesy of Hal Jespersen, Civil War mapmaker extraordinaire.  

Identified features are Henry Hill, Bull Run, the Stone House, and the surrounding lands, which remain roughly in the same condition that they were in for the actual battle, perhaps slightly less forested then.  The park is definitely worth a visit if one is going to be in nearby Washington for a few days, a destination for those interested in history, nature, or both.

The First Battle of Manassas: Re-enacted

Internet problems kept these from going out yesterday, but fear not, the pictures taken at the 150th anniversary of the battle are here!  These are not really in any particular order of significance.  Comments of individual pictures are made below each one.

For much of the history of warfare, when armies met on the battlefield under organized conditions, they would often fight in formations and packed into boxes, shapes like diamonds and rectangles, and for the most part, at least since the advent of firearms, lines.  Even as technology improved and a hit from a gun pretty much meant you were going down, line warfare continued to be important.  Some wished for disputes, even those settled in war, to be engaged in with a sort of gentility, not wishing to see men mindlessly hacking away at each other on a battlefield.  More likely, tacticians wanted to control the situation and use formations to the best of their advantage so as to not have to resort to total war to achieve objectives.  Even if some of the enemy would survive, so would much of your side.

By the time of the Civil War, military technology had advanced to the point where this was no longer feasible.  First Manassas featured guns and artillery that could shred an opposing force apart with much more ease and rapidity than before, and those watching certainly got the clue.  Much of the rest of the war was a turning away from open-field line combat, and major battles instead focused on achieving objectives, like capturing ground for better artillery emplacements.

 Here we see some Marines.  For the most part, Manassas was fought by conscripts in the army on both sides.

 The red shirts were not actually uniforms.  Apparently they were common dress during the period for farmers, of whom most of the conscripts would have been drawn from.  Here we see some New Yorkers, along with many from Minnesota.  The actual composition of the armies could have included men from just about anywhere, as the railroad system allowed an ease of transit to the area from as far away as Minnesota and Iowa.  The Confederates used trains to their advantage in getting their men into the fighting, which allowed them to fight relatively fresh from not having to march, and got reinforcements into the fray rather quickly, even from the distant Shenandoah Valley.  The Union forces, on the other hand, did have to march under unpleasant conditions, despite having been mustered from far more vast distances through use of the railroads.  True to form, the men pictured sweated it out in full period dress.

 More of the brave Minnesotans.

 Here we see some Confederates engaging the Union lines at what is supposed to be Turkey Hill.  Obviously, it would be hard to stage a real re-enactment over the total area of the sites.  The only downside to this was the power lines in the background killing the realism.  Also of note, while some Confederates do have grey on, things were not yet color coded by this point in the war.  Men wore what they had available, which included Confederate officers wearing their blue uniforms with Union insignia removed.

 Slightly after Sherman makes a nice attack to turn the tide, the Union forces seem to be gaining the upper hand.  The battlefield is already looking a bit chaotic, with smoke everywhere and lines starting to waver a bit.

 Here we see the sons of South Carolina making a retreat.

 This just looked too impressive not to put up.  12 cannons shot in perfect sync!

 Stonewall Jackson (not pictured) is at this point standing under fire, earning his name.  Some of the officers and men take notice of this and also hold their ground.  A call goes out to rally behind the Virginians, and the retreat that South Carolina was making all of a sudden turns into some pretty decent volleys.  South Carolina really does have a nice flag, what with a Sabal Palmetto on it and all, which is probably why I took this shot in the first place.  Pictured further right is the original Confederate flag, which was in use until May of 1863, when it became replaced by the more familiar stars and bars.

Also at the battle were a number of "tourists" from nearby Washington.  Many were expecting a trouncing of the Confederate forces, and came to watch the battle as if it were a joke.  When things got a bit rough by the afternoon, many of these picnickers and tourists made a run for it, which was probably also the point at which the generals knew that the war was going to take longer than people figured.  The camera might be modern, but the action was pretty spot on.  People brought opera glasses with them to catch a better view of the carnage.  At the re-enactment, there were also women following the lines who tended to the wounded men.  Clara Barton and her teams were on hand to assist the wounded, in some cases even under fire.

All in all, a pretty impressive event.  Nearly all of the battles of the Civil War are going to be covered this way, apparently.

The First Battle of Manassas: The Story

Once the lines had been drawn in the sand, many people throughout the watching world were expecting the division between the Union and Confederacy to come to a point of blows on the battlefield.  The Union, after all, could not abide by secessionists, and its integrity had to be defended.  Fort Sumter had already been lost, and restless politicians in Washington were eager to show that the Union would no longer bear such insults.  While some people did imagine that the war would swiftly be won by the superior war machine of the industrialized northern states, the myth that the war would be over within days is largely a modern creation; the Confederates went far enough to break off, and would surely put up a fight.  One such realist in this regard was the Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell.

McDowell was very much concerned that his relative lack of experience, as well as that of his men, would not make victory a sure thing.  While he had seen action in the Mexican-American war, that was an entirely different conflict.  Military technology and tactics had already advanced significantly in the years since his time in active combat, and many of his men were fairly inexperienced themselves.  On top of this, they were true northerners, some from as far away as Minnesota and upstate New York, and were marching under 100 degree heat, complicated further by Virginian humidity.  Even without the 25 mile march to the battle, the fighting alone would take a feat of endurance under such conditions.  I was "fortunate" to experience these exact conditions there this past summer.  Believe me, even driving to the battlefield in an air-conditioned car with a nice cold bottle of water in hand did not make the experience any easier when I was walking the place.  And yes, northern Virginia has a plethora of mosquitoes as well.  All in all, not fun conditions to go fight in.

Anyway, McDowell was eventually harassed enough to make his move, and on July 16th, 1861, under a brutal sub-tropical sun, he set off.  He had at his command the largest army ever assembled on North American soil at that time, 35,000 men.  His plan was to force the Confederates back from the rail junction at Manassas to the Rappahannock River, which pretty much parallels the Potomac for much of its length.  At the same time, under the command of Beauregard, the Confederate army was waiting at the junction with just over 21,000 men.

Courtesy of awesome map maker Hal Jespersen!  His website can be found here.

As noted, McDowell's men were inexperienced in two very important regards.  The heat was getting to them, and they were used to working under the large scale synchronization that the General was going to need to execute his strategy of flanking the enemy from various positions all at once.  Even with a bit of rest at nearby Centreville, the army was not in communication with its various parts, and was pretty much worn down a bit by the time it made it to the fight.  When they did engage the Confederates on the 21st, they were exhausted, scattered, and most assuredly did not have a home field advantage.  On top of this, Beauregard was about to get a huge amount of reinforcements from a second army coming from the distant Shenandoah Valley, who definitely had a home field advantage, and were not tired from a long march, having arrived by rail instead.  McDowell had not been expecting them, thinking that Major General Patterson would be able to subdue or at least stop an army half the strength of his back in the distant valley.

This is not to say that all was not an immediate loss on the part of the Union.  McDowell had some rather capable men under his command, notably Michigan's then colonel William T. Sherman, who made a nice enough surprise assault to mess up the Confederate lines a bit by mid-day.  Things then started to get really collected around Henry Hill, where the headquarters of the modern National Park site stands today.  While not particularly fierce, the Union lines were driving pretty steady into the Confederates in the early afternoon, until their army decided to pull out a Sherman of their own, Stonewall Jackson, who earned his nickname at this very battle by pretty much not flinching an inch even while under fire at Henry Hill.  I can only imagine what a sight that must have been, because even just seeing it re-enacted was, well, cool as hell.  His heroic/reckless action has since been captured in sculpture over the site of the very deed.

The Confederates certainly noticed; the army learned from the example, as well as from the determination of the Virginians in general, and made a huge solid wall against the Union lines.  Essentially, at this point, they were not nearly as worn out as the Union army, they were fighting for their own soil, and they had the best morale officers in the world in the persons of the Confederate leadership.  By the end of the day, it became clear that this was no show, and that the war would take a bit longer than many figured.

Tomorrow: Pictures from the Re-enactment on July 21st, 2011!

Saturday: Pictures of the battlefield as it exists today, and a general overview of its ecosystem.

Wednesday "Filler": Arlington

In keeping with the Civil War theme of the week, here is a random shot from Arlington National Cemetery, which was started during the Civil War on land confiscated from none other than Robert E. Lee.  It can be easy to forget just how close his lands were to Washington, and how vulnerable the capital was to Confederate assault.  Ever since the the war, however, it has been a quiet and peaceful place where many who have served in the military have since come to find rest.

It is a very special place to visit, and is worth even a quick tour while taking in other Civil War related sites.  After all, history can be easy to become distanced from.  A tombstone on the other hand...

What Has Happened Leading to May 15, 1862

On December 20th, 1860, in response to Abraham Lincoln being elected President of the United States, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.  On the 24th, the state adopted a declaration to explain and defend its choice, claiming that the states had rights to declare whether or not slavery could be legal, paradoxically adding that the northern states did not have the right to ignore their obligations to the federal government to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.  Seven other states followed the action of South Carolina, seceding before Abraham Lincoln could even take office.  On February 4, 1861, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas (the deep south and primary cotton growing country) formed the Confederate States of America, despite the fact that the federal government had not abolished slavery nor taken any definitive steps toward doing so.  Southern congressmen from these states resigned their seats and returned to their home states during this time.

Two months later, these states were joined by Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and a rather reluctant Virginia, where the sons and daughters of that state were not exactly eager to break from a venture that they had in many ways founded; some of the greatest founding fathers were Virginians, and Jamestown was indeed the first colony of the old 13.  Robert E. Lee, among other Virginians, had to make a very hard decision to resign his commission from the United States army.  Eventually, he, like others, could simply not fight against his home state.  As we can see, the sides were not exactly so staunchly divided against one another from the start, and as has been claimed that this was a war of brother against brother, well, it certainly was.  Many people, in both the Union and Confederacy, did not want to end the debate in bloodshed.  This is not to say that all was conflicted in other places.  South Carolina was adamantly opposed to the Union, and the border states were bloody messes as well.

Maryland featured anti-Union riots in Baltimore.  Tennessee's eastern mountain lands were hotbeds of anti-confederate sentiments.  Missouri featured some very bloody, ugly struggles between factions interested in taking one side or another, having already been the source of much of the violence which spread over into Kansas in the preceding years.   During this early time of hostilities, any concept of border was very, very contested in such areas.  On April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was attacked by Confederate forces under General Beauregard, and the war truly began.  Armories and forts were seized, and battle plans were drawn up.  The Union response was heavy deployment of troops in Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and a grand mustering of the navy.  The plan was to surround the Confederacy by eliminating Confederate holdings in the west, blockading Confederate ports, and dividing the place in half by taking the Mississippi river.

The light blue marks were the major ports of the Confederacy: Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans (I also included the lesser port of Houston).  The arrows were major early advances of Union forces, most notably to protect the capital by controlling northern Virginia, assaulting the Confederate capital at Richmond, and beginning the great western campaigns by controlling the Tennessee river valley in Kentucky, as well as moving along the Mississippi and making a march against Confederate forces in Missouri.  By this point in 1862, the Confederacy had successfully defended Virginia, but was really losing ground west of the Appalachians as the very capable Ulysses S. Grant was claiming hard earned victory upon hard earned victory in the march towards Vicksburg.  Despite his success, northern opinion was against him, distanced from the battles and unable to comprehend his tactical mindset.  Grant knew the war would not be won in one grand battle, and his opinions were confirmed on April 7, 1862, when he was able to turn an apparent upset of the previous day into a Confederate retreat, at the cost of nearly 4,000 lives.  Soon after, Memphis and New Orleans were captured.

Further west, in far more personal conflicts, Missouri and Arkansas saw the aftermath of "Bleeding Kansas" find deadly expression in the battles of Wilson's Creek (August 10, 1861) and Pea Ridge (March 6-8 1862).  Far more destruction and loss of life was happening beyond these battles, however, as small fights were breaking out almost everywhere a man could fire a rifle from behind a tree.  Though not nearly as great in scale as the carnage in the eastern killing fields, what happened in these states was far more savage and brutal.  What began as a fight between brother and brother became forgotten in the smoke, blood, and death.  A visit to any of the Civil War sites of Missouri is a sobering experience, to say the least.  Beyond this tragedy, the far west was being fought over in much smaller skirmishes, though the Battle of Glorietta Pass (March 26-28 1862) near Santa Fe did involve thousands of men.  

In all, the months to come would feature the worst battles of the war, but by May of 1862, the determination and strategy of the Union became very real to the Confederates.  What had started as a battle of politics was now beginning to be a bit more up close and personal.

This Week on American Voyages...

...we will be exploring what has been happening in the American Civil War until this week in May, 1862.  I have a great deal of photos taken at the re-enactment for the first battle of Manassas, but have thus far been negligent in putting them up.  Chronologically, we are already well into the events of the conflict, and while the great pushes into northern territory by Lee and associates have not yet taken place, more than a few messy battles have already happened.  For those who like to go beyond the blog and actually experience some events for themselves, the National Park Service has a wonderful website set up here.  They also have this wonderful trailer which they show at most of their battlefields:

They did a very good job on this thing.  To be honest, I get a little emotional every time I see it.

To preview the week ahead, I will be covering personal experiences at two battlefields that have thus been fought at in the 150th commemoration, First Manassas, fought in northern Virginia in 1861, and Wilson's Creek, fought in southwest Missouri, also in 1861.  I will also be providing a general overview of the progress of the campaigns of both sides thus far, along with an overview of what climactic and ecological conditions were like for the marchers.  Finally, I will take a look at what was going on over on the sidelines in Canada and Mexico during these periods, including the relations those nations had with each side of the conflict.

Over all these posts, I will be looking at things with an eye of reverence; this war was a very sacred event in the history of humanity, owing to what it was truly fought over.

Sunday Afternoon Post: Restoring the Prairie

Very little virgin prairie of any form exists in North America anymore, and even recovering stretches are mostly found in remnants belonging to government lands.  This is a shame, because restoring prairie is a wonderful way to help bring depleted soil back from the brink, and it tends to look far better than whatever sort of a mess tends to get poorly managed in fallow fields.  Among the initiatives taken to restore our grassy heritage are measures in place to let highway medians return to tallgrass and wildflowers.

This is one such strip in Illinois, about thirty miles north of Springfield on I-55.  Much of I-55 in Illinois has medians and margins that consist of restored tallgrass prairie, and in some cases neighboring property owners have permitted the restoration to spread into their land.  In other places, such as this one, the tallgrass intermingles with the oak-hickory forests just as it would have in pre-development times, engaged in a never ending struggle for dominance between grass and tree.