American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I have been to so many, I guess Gettysburg was the best to me, with Chickamauga coming in second, it has a great museum. I guess the one that could use work is Antietam, for such an important battle it seemed like it need more. There are many little sites all over that have need of work. I live next to Ft. Donnelson, I live in Clarksville TN. Ft. Donnelson is a small park and not waht it should be considering its early importance. Ft. Henry I am told is under water. The best restored might be Vicksburg, but again I like Gettysburg best.

LT. GEN. Tony Malone
Commander Army of Mississippi
"Do your duty in all things, You can never do more, You should never wish to do less".

I hadn’t really though of all the parks I’ve visited until thinking about this thread… Let’s see, I can recall visiting:

In the Western Theater:
Franklin
Murfeesboro
Chatanooga
Chickamauga
Kennesaw Mountain
Peachtree Creek / Atlanta (mostly just a museum, cyclorama now…)
Charleston area battlefields
Natural Bridge and Olustee, Florida along with the major forts nearby in the state
Bentonville
Perryville
Andersonville (not a battle, but a very well done memorial now if you can get to it – a little out of the way, but is devoted to all POWs, not just the CW Prison)

In the East:
Gettysburg
Sharpsburg
Harpers Ferry
Manassas
Winchester
Front Royal
New Market
Fredricksburg
Spotsylvania
Chancellorsville
The Wilderness
Williamsburg / Yorktown area (but not the actual CW parks around the Peninsula – I’ve driven past but not stopped to visit for lack of time)

I had to list them so I could remember… and also so any readers who disagree can see that I haven’t been to a few of the big places like Vicksburg, Shiloh, Donelson, the Richmond area fields, etc.

My favorite field is Sharpsburg. It might not be the fanciest, but in a way, I think that is appropriate. I’d hate to see Sharpsburg turn into another Gettysburg-esque tourist trap with buildings and giant monuments everywhere. To me, Sharpsburg is the most hallowed ground of the way – moreso than Gettysburg because it hasn’t become a tourist trap – and beyond restoring some of the original woods areas, I’d like to see Sharpsburg stay more or less just the way it stands today. The ground speaks for itself. It is also just a beautiful area of countryside.

Chickamauga might be the best restored and have the best museum center. The interpretive show is great. It’s been a few years since I visited, but if I recall correctly, the show includes a great description of the night periods of the battle, with the auditorium lights off except for muzzle flashes from the walls and surround sound of fires, snapping twigs, gunfire, screams, etc. Very easy to imagine yourself lost in the woods between lines…

For places that need work, any of the major fields located in modern city limits could use much help – like Fredricksburg, Franklin, Murfeesboro, Nashville, Atlanta… et al.

Bentonville, though in the middle of nowhere now, and not as major as some places, has hardly anything on site for a museum, etc and could certainl deserve a little more TLC.

I didn’t get to stay long at Perryville, but I recall it having a nice museum and the field being relatively undisturbed as well. Another pretty area of the country around Perryville with the gentle rolling hills… Us flat-landers from Florida appreciate those sorts of things! [:)]


Regards,
Lt. Col. Alan Lynn
3rd Battery "Jacksonville Greys"
4th Div, II Corps, AoA
God bless <><

Geez, don't know... I've been to just about everything in PA, MD, VA, and WVA between around 1960/1 to present. Plus a few others such as Chattanooga/Chickamauga. Next Feb I'll be checking out Shiloh, Corinth, Donelson & Henry.
Gettysburg being closest and most visited I guess will always be my favorite.
Down in the Petersburg area is a place called Pamplin Park that I think is well done with a lot of effort put into it. They even have a remade set of earthworks with abatis, etc.
Least preserved and maybe least known might be Balls Bluff.

BGen, 2/XIX/AoS

Chickamauga is Excellent (maybe the best)

Shiloh is Excellent

Gettysburg is excellent (but I didn't get to spend but a few hours there. I needed several days)

Stones River is good, it has a new visitor center I haven't seen, so it may need to be upgraded to very good.

Fort Donelson is fair, but well worth a visit.

Fort Henry doesn't exist, except a small piece of the earthwork, too bad. Only the fish get to see it now.

Petersburg forts are good

Franklin's Carter House is well worth a visit

Nashville only has Shy's hill to walk up. A tragedy of time!

Fort Sumter is worth a visit, and the surrounding area

Antietam seemed good, but I was there only for a couple hours and the visitor center was closed.

Harper's Ferry is worth a visit, very cool!

New Market is interesting, but small

I would love to see Vicksburg, but haven't been there yet.

Rich Walker

Yeah I don't qualify for the poll, so Technically I'm not responding to the poll....

Only Battlefield I've been to is the Battle of Corydon site down in Southern Indiana...and it is Abysmal....I'd waited somethign like 3 years to go see it...I finally did...and I was glad I was staying in nearby Wyandotte Woods...because it wouldn't've been worth anything more then a 45 minute drive to see it....There is nothing there...

there's a Field Piece, with a plaque, the basically says, this is a Civil War Era Cannon...and then the Remaining 99% of th ePlaque is the list of names of peopel who gave money to put the cannon in....there is a HUGE Metal plaque that eplains Morgan's Raid through Kentucky and to it's ultimate end in Ohio...and it gives a little bit of information about the Corydon battle, there's an anchor chain from the Steamer that Morgan sank after he crossed..and there are 2 small monumnets..plus a Log cabin for some reason.....they don't even tell you Where at the battlefield the Battle took place...

Lt. Jason Fitch
commanding, 4th Bde
1st Div IX Corps
Army of the Ohio

In spite of the tourist traps, I think Gettysburg is still my favorite battlefield, and with a monument to each Union regiment/battery that
participated. Rather than mention a park that needs restoration, how about some more parks? I tried to find the Valverde battlefield one
time but all I could find was a marker by the road. Rich Mountain in
West Virginia was up a dirt road, and all that was there was a marker for the Hart farm. But they have a nice little park at Carnifex Ferry,
which most people never heard of; also a nice little park at Droop Mt. I
don't know if Vicksburg is the best restored park, but in my mind the work they have done on the Cairo there gave it a big boost IMHO.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA