Pictures from visit to Civil War battlefields

Above, the five of us gathered in front of the Tennessee memorial to soldiers from the Volunteer state... These and almost all of the Confederate state memorials were along Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg, where the South held their positions through much of the three day battle. It was near here where the rebels began their ill-fated charge, called Pickett's Charge, across the landscape on the third day, losing half of their men in the charge and sealing victory for the Union.

Here are the four of us gathered around the monument to the 20th Maine, who were led by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain - a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine. Chamberlain and his men were almost out of ammunition and saved the day for the Union by employing a seldom used bayonet charge to subdue a much larger Confederate force. Chamberlain was played by Jeff Daniels in the movie about this battle titled, strangely enough "Gettysburg", based on the book "Killer Angels."

Below are Mark and my dad, by a cannon that was used in the battle of Gettysburg, near a monument that was erected to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle, when some 1,200 surviving veterans of the war, all in their 90's, came for the dedication of the monument. President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke - the year was 1938.

Ok, so it wasn't all somber... this is the four brothers enjoying some conviviality at TGI Friday's, conveniently located across the parking lot from our hotel in Gettysburg... This was Monday night - the day that we arrived in G'sburg...

From left, conveniently, though not intentionally in birth order, Steve, Mark, John and Tom