Civil War

A little bit different then my usual but we went on a trip to Tennessee to see my cousin and uncle in 2010 and it was the first time I had been that far east. Other then that I had only traveled the states that touch the pacific or ones that touch those states.  We spent 3 weeks traveling and went to 16 states.

Being from Oregon I must admit I never thought much about the Civil war except how sad it was and how in the world could families fight each other.  I watched the movie Shenandoah about 4 times and cried my heart out every time. What a sad time in our history.  I have friends that are really into the history of the Civil War but until I went to Tennessee that is about all I knew.

Being an Emergency Medical Tech on the ambulance and in the Emergency room of our local hospital anything medical always interests me.  All the injuries that occurred during the Civil War and this is the tools they had to work with.  Talk about a PTSD, I can't even imagine how hard it was to try and treat people with only these tools at your disposal and they did not have the pain killers etc. we use today either.  Sometimes the people they were treating were friends and family which always adds extra stress to them.  I mean most of these are tools you can find in your shop.

I have to think about my dad too as he had his hands cut off in an accident at a mill and they sewed them back on but part of his finger died and they had to take it off and he was amazed that not only was he awake as they did a local on his arm they used a chisel and hammer like he had in his shop.  They did the same thing in these days except they did not have a local IV to put the arm to sleep. Our ancestors were tough people.

I also learned that you can go from New York to New Orleans by water. That really almost makes the eastern USA an Island.  You can go from the Atlantic ocean to New York and down the river system to New Orleans.  I found that amazing and I don't ever remember learning that in school.

Also can you just imagine what a cannon ball would do to a body. You would not have to remove the leg it would blow it clear to the next county.  We had a small canon once that did like a 1/2" ball and it was deadly about ripping things apart.  They could protect the whole river from this location.

  A monument that was located at the park.  I so wished I would have had more time after going here to go to other places in Kentucky and Tennessee and the rest of the south and see some of our original history of this nation.  I sometimes think that people today do not appreciate how hard our ancestors had  populating this country and the wars they had to fight. It was not an easy life but I think people liked each other better as they had to depend on each other to survive.

The are some of the cabins that the soldiers lived in, sometimes many soldiers lived in one cabin. The roofs have had to be redone but most of it is still original.  Inside was heated by the little fireplace and my understanding they also cooked on that fire.  We complain about how small our houses are and cold, the wind had to blow through there.  I have been in some log cabins in Alaska though that were pretty warm as long as you did not open the door or put any type of separation up to keep the wood stove heat from circulating. The problem with a fireplace is that it also sucks some of the hot air up and does not heat anywhere near as good as a wood stove does.

 The upper and lower river had nothing to do with elevations but if it was running upstream or downstream.

We were back there for Thanksgiving I can just imagine how pretty this area is in spring and when the fall leaves are colored all pretty.  The sure said it right when they said the rolling hills of Tennessee.  One of the hardest things for me was once we were past the Rocky mountains it was pretty flat everywhere but beautiful in its own way.  I was surprised as everyone said I would be bored once I crossed the Rockies but being from the west I found it fascinating in its simple way and the trees and the way the Missouri was like a snake you crossed over off and on all day long and it was going a different direction I think every time we crossed it until we got closer to the Mississippi. I can't wait to find the other photos somewhere as I work through my old photos. I loved the Black Hills of the Dakotas too.  So much to see and so much to imagine.  I could see the pictures in my mind of what the settlers must have been thinking when they saw it for the first time. It was really fun coming back and thinking about what the people were thinking when they came west and saw the mountains.

So many things came to my mind on this trip. It was very stimulating for me to see places I had read about and found that many times what was in my mind was nothing like I saw. The pictures you see are of the tourist spots and so different then getting off the freeway and going the back roads. I had more of a history lesson then I ever got in school by far.

Even the photos of Mt. Rushmore I did not think was like it was when we saw it. It was more impressive in the photos and always looked a lot bigger then it did in person but I am so glad we saw It.

After this little short album of photos I saw I can't wait to find the rest of our trips here and there. I will tell you that none of these states have anything on Oregon even if they are beautiful I was still glad to be home in Oregon. I am very proud of our state.