A journey to the US Civil War trail

(Part I) 

During the long summer school break family tours take place in the country or abroad. Between May and June, before school opening I decided to join my daughter Sara and her family on a tour of the US East Coast. My grandchildren Maxine, Manolo and Claire, of high school and intermediate grade school age, are already well acquainted with History and Geography. Meeting again with family and friends was the added attraction, especially since Sara was planning a reunion with the Benners, the Troupes and the Bishops, her three adopted Rotary exchange families in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, where she attended senior high school.

My son-in-law Jon de Guzman drove us through 2000 miles of US freeway through Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland to visit Civil War sites. Renting the latest model Chevy Suburban SUV we consumed 86.95 gallons of gasoline costing $2.50 per gallon (23 mpg). Philippine gasoline is purchased by liters at P50. A gallon is equivalent to 3.785 liters.

American revolution prequel to the US  civil war

Most of us Filipinos do not realize that America was a colony under Britain just as the Philippines was under Spain. While it took 300 years for the Philippines to rid itself of Spanish rule, the US revolutionary wars to overthrow the tyranny of England lasted 67 years. European immigrants (British, Germans, Dutch, etc.), starting with the Mayflower pilgrims’ voyage of 1620 to Massachusetts, fled to America for freedom from political oppression.

The sentiments of the British colonials “Long Live the King” did not last long when they were forced to fund the English Redcoats, pay various taxes and buy only English goods. The First Intercontinental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775 pressed for independence from England. The American Continental Army, headed by George Washington, triumphed over King George’s troops in the Battle of Valley Forge (1777-1778). In the height of winter, starvation, disease, malnutrition and exposure killed more than 2,500 American soldiers. 

Presiding over the 1787 convention that drafted the US Constitution, Washington was elected the first US President in 1789. He came to be known as the “Father of the Country,” both during his lifetime and to this day. The capital of the United States of America, Washington D.C., was named after him.

Colonial town of Williamsburg (1699-1780) during the lifetime of Patriots

Williamsburg was the thriving capital of Virginia when the dream of American freedom and independence was taking shape and the colony was a rich and powerful land. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political, cultural and educational center of what was then the largest, most populous, and most influential of the North American mainland colonies. It was here that the fundamental concepts of the republic – responsible leadership, a sense of public service, self-government and individual liberty – were nurtured under the leadership of patriots such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and Peyton Randolph.

In 1926 the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Bruton Parish Church, shared his dream of preserving the city’s historic buildings with philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the restoration began. Rockefeller gave the project his personal leadership until his death in 1960. He funded the preservation of more than 80 of the city’s original structures including the Capitol, Courthouse, Episcopalian Church, Governor’s Palace, Magazine and Guardhouse, public hospital, taverns and trade shops, and added extensive facilities to accommodate the visiting public. We were able to enjoy large-scale street theatre events and multiple vignettes, casting us into the midst of the American Revolution with the local colonials in full costumes.

Bloody Civil War battles of Antietam and Manassas

A century later, during the fascinating era in American history – when families and nation were bitterly divided against themselves – the entirely new battlefield of the Civil War erupted. America may have gained independence from England but this time this war divided America herself when brother fought against brother in the Northern and Southern States. The Southern States insisted on keeping slaves, while the Northern States sought their emancipation.

We drove five hours from Beavertown, Pennsylvania to Williamsburg, the old colonial capital of Virginia (now Richmond), going through Route I-95 S cutting through the Civil War Trail. The Civil War was fought from 1861-65 in the nation’s backyards, and many of those backyards are between Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia.

On this trip we crossed battlefields where over 100,000 Americans perished and were buried, foe next to foe. Amidst rolling farmlands, sunny hills and deep forests are two historical battle sites marked by the Antietam National Battlefield and the Manassas Battlefield Park. Confederate General Robert Lee tried to capitalize on Southern sympathies in Maryland and fought the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, marking the bloodiest day in American history. In the park’s cemetery many of the Union gravestones bear the names of Irish and German immigrants who died in a country they had only recently adopted.

President Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address, July 1863

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th US President from March 1861 until his assassination a few days after his re-election by anti-abolitionist John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, paved the way to the abolition of slavery, strengthened the federal government and modernized the economy.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought on July 1-3,1863, was a turning point in the Civil War. The Union victory there ended General Robert E. Lee’s second invasion of the North, but at the cost of 45,000 casualties. The inauguration of the burial ground of the fallen was the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal “Gettysburg Address.” Suffering defeat after crushing defeat from that point on, Lee was eventually forced to surrender his army to US General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

(Part II – From the Mayflower to the American Declaration of Independence)