Yesterday and today I had been reading aloud to Harry an explanation of the battle. Surprisingly he actually enjoyed it and we thought we were both reasonably informed when we walked into the National Park visitor’s center.
The terrain at Chickamauga as well as mistakes made by both sides led to confusion on the battlefield. That sense of confusion was real to us as we tired to understand what actually happened there. The film and exhibits further enlightened us and by the time we started to explore the battlefield we even knew the names of the major players and we had a good idea of their plans and strategies. It was a bright, sunny day with a bit of a nip in the air, which made it all the more enjoyable. After exploring the battlefield we went back to the visitor’s center where there was one exhibit board that used lights to show the movement of troops while the voice over explained what was happening. That finally helped us to make sense of it all.
At the end of the day as we headed to our hotel – the roadsides were covered with wild daffodils in bloom. Take heart folks back home who are enduring yet another snowstorm: please take comfort in the fact that spring is slowly coming up the east coast.
Tomorrow, we get to look at part of the historical artifacts from the Manhattan Project at the American Museum of Science and Energy.