"Best out-of-the-way/overlooked ACW site" Topic

I'd say Ringgold, Georgia. The house where Grant wintered 1863-64 is still there, being lived in; the occupants watched the battle from their top floor.

The railroad station was half knocked down by artillery, and rebuilt with lighter stone, so you can see the damage. It was an important terminal, where longstreet's corps unloaded to march to Chickamauga.

Then on the other side of Ringgold Gap, with its battlefield marker, is an old stone church which served as a Confederate hospital during the battle and then as a picket post for Union cavalry -- look for the horse teeth marks on the wooden pews used as feed troughs. The church is a little museum, though only open a few days a week.

I have been to so many obscure ACW sites that I've lost track of them. Two I would mention are Fort Mulligan in Petersburg, West Virginia, and Fort Foote near Washington D.C.

Then there's this one -- I think it's been posted on TMP before, but is worth repeating:

link

Carnifex Ferry State Park in West Virginia is very nice, extremely scenic.

That I have been to: Wilson's Creek, MO

Sadly, the TRUE "high-water-mark of the Confederacy" is right across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, PA, just west of Camp Hill, known as the Battle of Sporting Hill. "Sadly" because, despite strong action and financial offers by preservation forces, the land was sold to a developer and now has tract housing on it. Even sadder because there are reportedly several Confederates buried there whose graves have not yet been found. I hope the developer has visits at night from some ragged jean-cloth-clad images from the "recent unpleasantness" to remind him about respecting the dead.

How about the one or two places where cofederates raided the north from out of Canada?

My vote is for either Perryville, KY or Wilson's Creek, MO. Both are in beautiful shape and are protected as state parks. Small crowds and important battlefields, can't be beat. Cheers!

V/R

Billy Yank

I'm glad to hear the votes for Wilson's Creek. I will be going there next week; vacationing at Branson from Maryland. I also intend to visit Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove.

Mark

Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge are both big winners…

"My vote is for either Perryville, KY or Wilson's Creek, MO. Both are in beautiful shape and are protected as state parks."

Wilson's Creek is a National Battlefield. I haven't been there but I heard that it is pristine. I have been to Perryville and that is one of my favorites too.

BF Mark – If you're going to be in that area, don't forget about the Battle of Carthage State Historic Site in Carthage, MO.

Monocacy near Fredrick MD

Fort Donelson doesn't get a great deal of attention, but is partially preserved. Of course the water level is much higher these day, since TVA turned the Tennessee River into Kentucky Lake.

Over the years I have been able to walk the majority of battlefields in the ACW traveling throughout the southeast for work. A few places that were really unique to me are:

Staunton River Bridge – small battle in southside VA near Halifax were a ragtag bunch of home guards and convelasing (sp) held off a Union Cavalry raid in 1864. The first time I visited it, there was no park. I found the old "star" fort and walked around it. Now there is a state battlefield park located there and it is very nice.

Alatoona, GA – Great little battlefield from late 1864 fighting. Very well preserved and marked. Tremendous remains of the fortifications and old railroad cut. A real gem that does not have a lot of visitation.

Picketts Mill, GA – A great state battlefield park north of Atlanta. A great battlefield that remains the way it was in 1864. A great place to stroll the lines and walk the trails (it is all wooded to this day). Can be a little creepy alone though when you get down in the ravine some of the main union attacks were directed through.

There are so many great places. My favorites are generally not heavily visited as I enjoy the solitude of walking and study a battlefield. This is true whether in the states or in Eurpoe.

Doug

Living here in Atlanta, I'd have to also vote for Allatoona and Pickett's Mill. The battles around Atlanta haven't been preserved at all in any realistic fashion. These two stand out and are remarkably well preserved and in great condition.

Mansfield, Louisiana – from the Red River campaign – is one of my favorites. They have a nice park and museum run by the state parks department. At least they did several years ago when I was last in the area. I hear they may be having some budget difficulties now, so I hope it is still kept up.

Shiloh is a major battlefield park, but it is a long way from anywhere else so it probably doesn't get as much traffic as other sites.

I recently visited Wildcat Mountain (Oct 21, 1861) in Laurel County, Kentucky. I followed a narrow winding dirt/gravel road up through the battlefield to where the road crossed the mountain. The battlefield is definitely out of the way and not too changed from the time of the battle--heavily wood with steep-sloped hills on both sides of the road. The road leading up to the site does take a slightly different path up and over the mountain than the old Wilderness Road, but only by yards and the old road is still visible in places. The effect remains very similar. There are several markers that explain the battle and point out the locations of many of the defending Union forces.

Hi

I would say it's Glorieta Pass or Valverde in NM. Glorieta
is just now get set-up as a NP but sadly Valverde is gone.

Fort Pulaski on the approaches to Savannah, GA. Most of the damage to the fort is visible, only work done was to stabilize. Rather shocking when you walk around the outside and first see the damage.

Camp Ford, outside Tyler Texas, is worth a visit: reconstructed POW camp.

Fort Delaware is worth a visit. This huge, stone and brick Third System fort sits on an island in the Delaware River. In recent years there has been a huge amount of work done to restore the fort. They have an original 10" Rodman cannon which they fire several times a day. They have a recostructed prisoner's barracks (Fort Delaware was the site of a huge prison camp during the war.) There are also some of the 1890s Endicott fortifications there including the remains of the 12" disappearing battery.

I'll second Glorieta Pass, NM, as a neat overlooked park. It is part of the Pecos National Park, which includes pueblo ruins. We got a personal tour by a park ranger. As I had just finished a book on the battle it enhanced the interaction with him in pointing out the historic locations.

As a side note, my wife has always joked with friends and family how I find Civil War battlefields to visit whenever we go on vaction. When we decided to visit Pagosa Springs, CO, she said for once she wouldn't have to put up with that. I let her book a place to stay overnight after flying into Albuquerque. When she told me we were staying overnight at Glorieta, NM, she was hit with a BIG surprise. :-)

Mark
PS. Thanks for the suggestion of Carthage, Wolverine.

BF Mark – Let us know how your trip goes. I hope to make the same vacation one of these days.

BF Mark also check out Fort Garland near the Town of Fort Garland Co. It has a nice rebuild and a cool little museeum.

My wife will be with me, and she will tolerate only so many ACW historic site visits. My Wilson's Creek day will be by myself, though, so I will see what I can squeeze in then.

I shall provide a full report about 10 days from now.

BTW, I read the OR reports on Carthage, and it looks like it could be made into an nice introductory scenario for a regimental level set of rules. I have lots of Missouri State Guard painted up for Wilson's Creek, and it would be nice for them to get some more use. It also would give me an excuse to paint up the 3rd Missouri (US) in gray with red stripes.

Mark

As far as out-of-the-way goes, there are none that meet that description more than Fort Jefferson in the Florida Keys! nps.gov/drto/index.htm

For an overlooked site, I think the Battlefield at Chantilly/Ox Hill is one of the most ignored. Unfortunately, the only "best" title it would earn is as the best example of a battlefield that has been destroyed/overrun by development. link

Oops! In my above mention of Ft. Donelson, I meant the Cumberland River and Lake Barkley! Sorry 'bout that. (Fort Henry now lies at the bottom of Kentucky Lake.)

Island #10?

The best out-of-the-way site has to be Camp Allegheny in West Virginia. It is a short distance off of Highway 250 just inside the West Virginia line. The only approach to it is on County Route 3, which goes from the 250 over to Bartow WV. This road is the old Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and, when I last visited 15 odd years ago, was in places still made of wood corduroy. A four wheel drive vehicle is probably a good idea, although I did it in my Honda CRX.

A good description of the site can be found here:

link

As well, go to Bartow WV on Google Maps and follow County Route 3. Google Maps indicates the location of the site. This can then be cross-referenced with Google Earth where the trenches and remains of soldiers' cabins can still be seen in the aerial view.

Another vote for Ft. Donelson. I visited there over 20 years ago while I was stationed at Ft. Campbell,KY, with the 101st. Abn.
Very cool site. Still have the pics.

Bob

I'm back from my trip to the Trans-Mississippi battlefieds: Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prarie Grove. I didn't make it out to Carthage or Fort Garland, but I intend to return to the region again, as I have fallen in love with this part of the Civil War. I took lots of photos, and I will post them to my Flicker page for those interested.

I have to say that the park rangers and historians at all three parks were very friendly and happy to answer my questions. At Prairie Grove, we even got a guided tour of the main fighting ground around the Borden House and Orchard. The Hulston Library at Wilson's Creek is to die for. I've never seen so many ACW books in one place before. There is a link to search titles from their website if you are going to visit and want to plan your research.

Much of Bloody Hill at Wilson's Creek has been restored to its 1861 look. An exception is some of the vegitation near the creek is the habitat of a rare flower, and they are not allowed to trim at this point. My favorite spot was Totten's Battery, just on the military crest of Bloody Hill where Backoff's Southern battery accross the creek could not see it, but it could sweep most of the southern face of Bloody Hill to stop the Southern attackers.

Pea Ridge is also in great condition, with good views of the key fighting points at its stops during the auto tour. However, you have to walk around the fighting points at Elkhorn Tavern, including north along the wire road and east to Clemon's Farm. The vegitation seems more dense than it was in 1861, but you can get sense of how difficult in must have been for the 1st Missouri Brigade to attack out of those ravines.

They only started preserving Prairie Grove as a state park more recently, but Herron's infantry assault on the Confederate eastern position is pretty well interpreted. I hadn't realized that Fagen's left flank rested in a ravine until I took the walking tour. The rebuilt Borden House is currently being restored.

In addition to making corrections to my maps of all three battlefields from simply walking them, I was able to buy some excellent inexpensive maps that further assisted me, and ask questions about the terrain and armament that will help make my scenarios more accurate.

In all, well worth the time in the information gathered and the chance to chat with the park rangers and historians. The western parks do not have the high visitor traffic as in the east, so it is a lot easier to get to know the staff. I really enjoyed that aspect of the visits.

Mark

Perryville is not totally unreachable, but you need to want to go there for sure: a little out of the way!
Another place close by that is getting better every year is Richmond , Kentucky. Much easier to get to, but not as well known to many!

I will second docdennis1968 on improvements at the Richmond, KY battlefied site. The Battle of Richmond Association (BORA) is actively working on improving the site. Recent arrangements with the Bluegrass Army Depot have resulted in major improvements/expansion at the site of the first major engagement on August 30, 1862. More good things are in the works. Phillip Seyfirt (Historic Properties Director) is a great person to talk with both about the battle and what is being done to improve the site.

Perryville is one of those battlefields I've really enjoyed visiting.

Vicksburg could do with a major exercise in deforestation but it does have the USS Cairo. If you're down that way then check out Raymond and Champions Hill.

For an obscure site, how about St. Albans Vermont

vermontcivilwar.org/staraid

Northfield, MN was raided in 1876 by the James/Younger because the bank there was owned by General Benjamin Butler.
It has be claimed that this was the last action of the Civil War.

link

This web site has a great listing of well known as well as little known sites.

link

And one more:

civilwarvirtualtours.com

Some of the ACW Southern forts are under water, not many visitors. Ball's Bluff used to be a great unknown gem, but people know about it now.

BTW – There's a Red Mill B&B on the Po river near Fredericksburg. It's a great place to stay (maybe even haunted), it still has a mill pond. The best part about it – if you ask politley the owner may let you wander through the Confederate trench works on the hills nearby. I was there in 1999 and it was great fun, hopefully she is still around. She's related to Gen Stuart, and very proud of it.