I must confess, I am not up on the Civil War. History class was more years ago than I care to remember. The Civil War was primarily and infantryman's war where 91% of all casualties were caused by small arms fire rather than from artillery fire. They used lead bullets that did not have metal jackets. The lead bullets would cause devastating damage to anything they hit because they would flatten out on impact creating a much larger area of damage. One of these bullets could take off a limb and often did. The type of guns used were musket rifles. These guns had groves inside the barrels that would cause the bullet to spin making it much more accurate at hitting its target.
This picture is of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. It was dedicated in 1938 by FDR as a symbol of the country's unity and peace under one flag. Two hundred thousand people attended the dedication including eighteen hundred Civil War veterans. The average age of the veterans was 95. This dedication would be the last of the Civil War reunions.
There were two types of cannons used in the war: the rifle cannon and the smooth bore cannon. The rifle cannon had a black barrel and the smooth bore had a green barrel. The rifle cannon had a range of 1-2 miles and could fire a variety of shells. For long range, solid shot, shell and K-shot were the munitions of choice. The K-shot and shell were hollow and designed to explode in the air reining shrapnel down on its enemies. It acted like a giant shot gun. Some of the monuments along the route included the state monuments to NC, MS and PA. I also took a picture from the high ground looking out over the battle fields. It is all so peaceful now, but it must have been hell back then. Gettysburg was the most bloody battle of the Civil War with the most loss of life in the shortest period of time, only 3 days.
North Carolina
Mississippi
Battlefield
The PA Memorial is the larges monument in Gettysburg.
Tomorrow, I hope to do my sightseeing downtown.
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