American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Guys, just an informal poll. What major civil war battlefield do you think is the best preserved battlefield (i.e. when you're visiting it's as if it's still 1861-65) and which do you think is the worst preserved (i.e. you can't even tell there once was a battle on the spot you're standing)?

I'll start off by saying, IMO, Shiloh is the best preserved due to it's rural location, no development on the battlefield or anywhere nearby, and most of the original battlefield is inside park limits.

I'd say the worst preserved is Chattanooga. All of Missionary Ridge is covered by buildings and homes for the "view." And the valley floor below where Union troops deployed is urban/suburban sprawl.

BG Boyd Denner,
2nd Division Commanding
II Corps
ANV
"God Bless the Alabamians" Gen. Robert E. Lee - The Wilderness 1864

Hi,

I think the problem with all the major battlefields is that you need paved roads to get around and monuments and markers to understand what happened. Personally, I think I prefer it that way though, because if the markers weren't there it would be hard to tell how the battle unfolded. But I think most of the major battlefields make a real effort to preserve a rural unspoiled flavor as much as possible. Pea Ridge was probably the most unspoiled battlefield when I saw it fifteen years ago.

Atlanta and Nashville would have to rank as the least preserved. If there was anything left of the major battlefields at either place, I never could find it.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA

I haven't been to every battlefield so I must limit my list to those that I know. These eastern battlefields are generally well preserved:

Antietam
Manassas
Spotsylvania
North Anna
Brandy Station
Chancellorsville/Wilderness (to a lessor extent)

And there are some in the Shenandoah Valley that remain intact: Fisher's Hill, McDowell, New Market, and Cedar Creek to a lessor extent.

Now, Gettysburg is a sprawling battlefield with many roads and monuments but it is still pretty much intact and still possible to get a pretty good feel for the ground. Yes, the town has grown but it doesn't impinge too much on the park. At least not like Fredericksburg and others where the city has just eaten up the fields.

BG Ken 'Muddy' Jones
1/1/XXIII Army of Ohio
USA

I have to agree with MG Mihalik, there does need to be some "development" (markers, memorials, roads, visitors centers). With that in mind, I have been very impressed with Gettysburg, Antietam, and Chickimauga. Lookout Mountain is a mix, some well done, but scattered amidst a lot of development. Bentonville has changed very little, too little. There is practically nothing there, just a couple scattered monuments, and a very limited hour visitor center.



Willie Davis
1st LT
3rd Bde, 1st Div
XIX Corps, AoS

I totally agree with Boyd re: Shiloh. When I was there in '94 I was so impressed I toured the field twice (not knowing when or if I would ever make the trip from upstate NY again).

Another one I really like is Antietam. Generally doesn't have the G'Burg crowds and there is no build up infringing on the field.

Areas that I as a little disappointed in were Fredericksburg and Chattanooga. Some spots were good (were Jackson was in F'Burg wasn't bad and Lookout Mt. in Chattanooga is very impressive) but other spots on those fields are pretty much casualties of urban sprawl.

Lt.General Dale Lastowicka
VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah

Nashville only has Shy's Hill somewhat intact, and Franklin only has the Carter House.

So Sad!

Shiloh and Chickamauga are very nice.

Stone River, not bad, but only 10-20% preserved.

Fort Donelson, nice and a great view of the Cumberland River.

Very little of Atlanta Campaign. Maybe only Kennesaw Mountain can be appreciated.

Bull Run is nice

Parts of Petersburg are nice. Even a reconstruction.

Fort Sumter- OK and worth a look see.

Anybody know about Vicksburg?

Fort Henry is under water. (Kentucky Lake)

Antietam is nice

Harper's Ferry is very interesting!

Gettysburg is nice and big!





Lt. Col. Richard Walker
I Corps
Army of the Mississippi
2nd Brigade, 3rd Division
"Defenders of Tennessee"

Hi
Pea Ridge is Great and Wilson Creek is very nice.Pilot Knob State park is well done for a state site.

I visited Vicksburg about 15 years ago and was impressed. Most of the Confederate lines on the east and north side are preserved.


"Anybody know about Vicksburg?"







BG Boyd Denner,
2nd Division Commanding
II Corps
ANV
"God Bless the Alabamians" Gen. Robert E. Lee - The Wilderness 1864

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Boyd</i>
"Anybody know about Vicksburg?"
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Funny you mention it. I am planning to make this trip in a month or so:

http://www.battleofraymond.org/trail/

What do ya'll think? 2 days? 3?

I Querulously Remain,

<center></center><center><font size="3"><b>Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Q. Mullen</b></font id="size3">
<font size="2"><font color="orange">Officer Commanding:</font id="orange">
<font color="limegreen"><b>Mullen's Fenian Cavalry </b>(4th Bde)</font id="limegreen">
<font color="yellow">1st Division/II Corps
Army of Mississippi
Western Theater
CSA</font id="yellow">
<font color="red">ACWGC</font id="red"></font id="size2"></center><font color="limegreen"><i>The West is the best; get here and we'll do the rest</i></font id="limegreen"><b>------General James "Jim" Morrison</b>

I think Vicksburg is on a par with Chickamauga or Shiloh as far as layout, but it has the USS Cairo, one of the river city ironclads, which is something you can find nowhere else.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA

The best in my limited travels east of the Rockies: Antietam.

The National Park Service has maintained a laudably light-handed and especially reverent vigilance of the well preserved battlefield proper. It's quiet stillness, non-commercialized, reverent atmosphere is quite palpable.

Honorable mention should also go to Appomattox Court House (while not exactly a battlefield); it's beautifully preserved, non-commercialized grounds is surprisingly inspirational, whether you be a Southern sympathizer or misguided Northern interloper.

As for the worst . . . without question: The Alamo . . . surely, a much over-hyped, mostly disappointing, and far too commercially consuming of an experience. Find the spot where Davy Crockett and his brave men stood, defending the stockade, and surely shudder to witness what Davy, too, must have espied: a sprawling concrete plaza, facing a slough of downtown multi-story shops, across an otherwise bustling city street of non-stop autos. The otherwise good State of Texas sadly failed early on to take measures to officially recognize it's own original landmark, underfunded and overwhelmed - surrounded! not by an unstoppable mass of under-nourished Mexican soldiers, today, but rather by exceedingly cloying downtown San Antonio commercialism . . . oh, wait, wrong war.

hmmm . . . I must defer "the worst preserved" acw battlefield site to others who have traveled more than I - although I confess I was personally disappointed with the Gettysburg battlefield for reasons not so dissimilar to the kind of over-the-top crass commercialism that has intruded so heavy-handed upon the still forever poor and beleaguered ghosts of the Alamo; this, despite the otherwise truly astonishing "Gettysburg Cyclorama" (by French artist, Philippoteaux) and the many inspired monuments on the grounds proper.

Fd Lt shoeless
Secretary of the Cabinet, CSA (Retired)
1st Tenn Provisional Army



<center><i>From a certain point onward there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached.</i> --F. Kafka</center>

<b>Fort Henry is under water.</b>

Also true of Belmont apparently...

Major General Philip Roubaud
1/XX
Army of the Cumberland
United States of America