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Folks,
Among the well wishers, happy love notes, "wish I'd signed up for this event months ago," and that sort of email and phone traffic this morning, there is a way for you to participate even if you didn't register and aren't going to be at Glendale or Malvern Hill this weekend. Yes, this is another request for donations. Kevin posted this epsistle on the Participant & Curious Onlooker listserver this morning, and it is well worth quoting here:
From what the CWPT tells us, this land is approximately half paid off, and from this event, the indirect donations (that we are aware of) made it over the $10,000 mark a few months ago, largely thanks to an interested Richmonder who gave most generously, and the direct donations are creeping up slowly, but surely. Frankly, I don't think the total of indirect and direct donations will quite reach the $15,000 mark, but the money is all green, and CWPT spends it on battlefield land, and believe me when I say I'm just as excited about their efforts at Champion Hill, Parker's Crossroads, and The Slaughter Pen, as I am about Glendale. We need to get Glendale and The Slaughter Pen paid off, so that debt can be gone, and good work can continue elsewhere. With the advent of public utilities in this area a while back, much of the nice, flat, small grain rotation, fields could have easily be planted in the final crop -- houses.
Before someone says this is just another tango between Sorebacks and Keystoners, keep in mind some Yellowhammers, Coonarses, um, er, Pelicans, Hoosiers, Empire Staters, Razorbacks, Jerseymen, Mainers, Palmetto Eaters, Floridians, Georgians, Mississippians, Granite State Men, Minnesotans, Tar Heels, Wolverines, Volunteers, and even some shoe leather slappers and machinists from the Old Bay State were also there. A few US Regulars dropped by the festivities, too, but you have to look closely for them.
There is a new house dropped smack in the middle of the 2nd NJ Brigade area, and that just pains me to look at that vinyl clad intrusion every time I pass it. Ugh.
So, this is a good time to send a little something directly to the fundraising portion of this event via Paypal to Ley74@erols.com, or straight to the CWPT, if you so choose.
Yep, another shameless plug for battlefield preservation.
Among the well wishers, happy love notes, "wish I'd signed up for this event months ago," and that sort of email and phone traffic this morning, there is a way for you to participate even if you didn't register and aren't going to be at Glendale or Malvern Hill this weekend. Yes, this is another request for donations. Kevin posted this epsistle on the Participant & Curious Onlooker listserver this morning, and it is well worth quoting here:
Y’know, it’s not often we get to portray the battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill. Overall, these were two extremely vicious, bloody battles that most of us know relatively little about. They were the second and third most costly battles of the Seven Days, with about 10,000 casualties each at Glendale and Malvern Hill. Take those two together and they are about as bloody as more famous fights like Antietam, Second Bull Run, Shiloh, and even almost as costly as Stones River. 20,000 men lost in a couple days is a significant battle, and yet to most Civil War buffs the battles of Glendale/Frayser’s Farm and Malvern Hill are just “a couple of names in the Seven Days”.
Of course, the bloodiest fight in the Seven Days was Battle No. 3, Gaines’s Mill (First Cold Harbor / Turkey Hill) with about 15,000 casualties in one day. The fighting at Glendale and Malvern Hill was just as brutal, just as vicious, and just as nasty for the men involved. Glendale was simply a stand up fight that involved a surprising amount of hand-to-hand combat. My ancestor was in the Army of the Potomac’s Third Corps, in Kearny’s Division (sadly, where they fought is a bit outside the bounds of the CWPT site) and his personal account is of hand-to-hand fighting at Glendale where some of his men (he was a captain commanding an infantry company) even took some type of enemy flag—I think it was a guide flag—in hand-to-hand combat at Glendale around a farmhouse.
Malvern Hill is probably more famous, if only because it was the final battle of the Seven Days and because of the (so we think today) forlorn hope of Lee’s legion’s flinging themselves, Pickett’s Charge-like, against the Union line and it’s fine artillery in hopeless, vain, and bloody attempt to halt Little Mac’s army before it was even more under the protection of Union gunboats on the James River (they already were at Malvern Hill—huge naval shells screamed overhead into the Rebel lines during the battle). The reality was more complex, and Malvern Hill too saw a good deal of hard, hand-to-hand combat. One of my favorite units, the Irish Brigade (well, half of it, the 69th NY and 88th NY; the 63rd NY and 29th MA avoided the really rough parts at this one) fought hand-to-hand in near-darkness at Malvern Hill against Louisianans. The stout hearts of the Union defenders managed to prevail against the equally determined Confederate lines at Malvern Hill in the climax of the Seven Days.
These battles deserve to be remembered, and through this event we not only do just that, but also help the CWPT highlight its work in acquiring the Glendale battlefield for posterity. The valor of the men of both sides who struggled on these fields deserves to be remembered.
I love reenacting on the original ground when I have a lot more to learn about the battles that I’m helping to portray. My knowledge of Glendale and Malvern Hill isn’t what I hope it will be someday, and this event has me excited to learn more about these two, nearly-forgotten, but nevertheless epic battles.
Of course, the bloodiest fight in the Seven Days was Battle No. 3, Gaines’s Mill (First Cold Harbor / Turkey Hill) with about 15,000 casualties in one day. The fighting at Glendale and Malvern Hill was just as brutal, just as vicious, and just as nasty for the men involved. Glendale was simply a stand up fight that involved a surprising amount of hand-to-hand combat. My ancestor was in the Army of the Potomac’s Third Corps, in Kearny’s Division (sadly, where they fought is a bit outside the bounds of the CWPT site) and his personal account is of hand-to-hand fighting at Glendale where some of his men (he was a captain commanding an infantry company) even took some type of enemy flag—I think it was a guide flag—in hand-to-hand combat at Glendale around a farmhouse.
Malvern Hill is probably more famous, if only because it was the final battle of the Seven Days and because of the (so we think today) forlorn hope of Lee’s legion’s flinging themselves, Pickett’s Charge-like, against the Union line and it’s fine artillery in hopeless, vain, and bloody attempt to halt Little Mac’s army before it was even more under the protection of Union gunboats on the James River (they already were at Malvern Hill—huge naval shells screamed overhead into the Rebel lines during the battle). The reality was more complex, and Malvern Hill too saw a good deal of hard, hand-to-hand combat. One of my favorite units, the Irish Brigade (well, half of it, the 69th NY and 88th NY; the 63rd NY and 29th MA avoided the really rough parts at this one) fought hand-to-hand in near-darkness at Malvern Hill against Louisianans. The stout hearts of the Union defenders managed to prevail against the equally determined Confederate lines at Malvern Hill in the climax of the Seven Days.
These battles deserve to be remembered, and through this event we not only do just that, but also help the CWPT highlight its work in acquiring the Glendale battlefield for posterity. The valor of the men of both sides who struggled on these fields deserves to be remembered.
I love reenacting on the original ground when I have a lot more to learn about the battles that I’m helping to portray. My knowledge of Glendale and Malvern Hill isn’t what I hope it will be someday, and this event has me excited to learn more about these two, nearly-forgotten, but nevertheless epic battles.
Before someone says this is just another tango between Sorebacks and Keystoners, keep in mind some Yellowhammers, Coonarses, um, er, Pelicans, Hoosiers, Empire Staters, Razorbacks, Jerseymen, Mainers, Palmetto Eaters, Floridians, Georgians, Mississippians, Granite State Men, Minnesotans, Tar Heels, Wolverines, Volunteers, and even some shoe leather slappers and machinists from the Old Bay State were also there. A few US Regulars dropped by the festivities, too, but you have to look closely for them.
There is a new house dropped smack in the middle of the 2nd NJ Brigade area, and that just pains me to look at that vinyl clad intrusion every time I pass it. Ugh.
So, this is a good time to send a little something directly to the fundraising portion of this event via Paypal to Ley74@erols.com, or straight to the CWPT, if you so choose.
Yep, another shameless plug for battlefield preservation.
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