Battlefield visits

[dale]

I just took advantage of a gorgeous Virginia day (low seventies) and visited the Malvern Hill battlefield. First, this is the most pristine battlefield that I have ever visited. It is located in a rural, undeveloped area of Virgina. The main through road is closed so there is virtually no traffic. The park service actually owns all of the relevant sections of the battlefield with the exception of two houses, one a farmhouse built upon the site of the 1862 farmhouse and a second modest wood frame house built on the site of the 1862 doctor's house. Both houses fit perfectly into the picture. No obtrusive monuments, no new roads crisscrossing the area. The woods are cleared back to where the Confederates originated their attacks and the gradually sloping wheat fields are present for a mile radius from the top of the ridge line, just like in 1862. The only fixtures on the field other than walking tour markers are a total of 10 Federal cannons placed on the ridge line and one Confederate battery placed on the ridge they tried to occupy. Anyone who truly wishes to experience a real battlefield setting (sorry, Gettysburg) should visit this site. (You can still see the depressions in the woods where the Confederate dead where disinterred to be reburied in Richmond!)

I wanted to see first hand and walk the fields to get the feeling of the battle. The artillery that I had written about in previous posts bears mentioning once again. The Union were able to place 31 pieces across a 875 yard line. This was described as "packed hub to hub". This should give a fair description of how big the foot print of the artillery was. Next, the Confederate batteries were planned to come into the open spaces and to clear the Union positon of its artillery. Nope. The Confederate artillery was blasted completely out of existence in the battle at a range of 1/2 a mile at one position and 950 yards at the other ridge line. (Valiant Pelham was the only artilleriest left from his entire battery on the Confederate ridge line!) How much ordinance can artillery fire? Battery A of the 5th US (Ames battery of 12 pound Napoleons) fired over 1300 projectiles that day! (Once again a plea to the designers not to have artillery flee when they run out of cannister.) One more reiteration that was reinforced today--artillery was extremely effective against infantry at ranges doubling the 200 yard caninster range of TCSM. The thousands of Rebel soldiers charging straight at the Union artillery were never closer than 200 yards before being turned back! (Union infantry timed their charges to move through cannons to engage the Rebel infantry when they got this close.) For those wondering about the final outcome of the battle--Lee lost over 5000 infantry that day to about 3000 Federal losses, yet McClellan still left the field that night. (All pinatas should have McClellan's visage on them.)

[Amish John]

Dale,

Thanks for that report. I've been to a bunch of battlefields, but not yet Malvern Hill. Makes me want to hop in the car and visit it. We know that the NSD designers read all the posts here and consider all serious suggestions for improvements over TC2M and unique features for GB. I'm sure we'll see alot of improvements in all aspects of GB over TC2M.

Regarding the artillery, remember the runaway limbers in TC2M? Also, I've alway wondered about the sound of the guns firing canister in TC2M. I've heard civil war artillery fire blanks (I've had the opportunity to be on a CW gun crew a few times and actually yank the lanyard on a few guns)and live solid shot, but I've never heard in person a gun fire canister so I'm not sure of how close the sound in TC2M is to reality. Maybe someone from NSD knows the background of the canister sound in TC2M.

John

[dale]

The sound of the cannister in TCSM may be spot on accurate. It was just the Pavlovian response that it triggered in me whenever I heard it unexpectantly--it meant one of my units was getting ripped to pieces. It's sort of the same response when I hear a dentist drill--nothing but pain can come from it.

One other thing that I really appreciated about the site preservation at Malvern Hill is that it is such a contrast to so many other Virginia battlefields. With a couple of exceptions most of the battlefields are lost forever to commercial traffic, developers putting up strip malls or residential developments and just plain stupidity on the part of the local zoning authorities. Others have busy roads running right through them (Manassass) or have been obliterated by sprawl (Marye's Heights in Fredricksburg, the Atlanta battlefields). Malvern Hill today celebrated stillness, such a rare trait. By fate I had just read an account from 1862 about the sound of whip o' wills over the night time battlefield and as I walked into the woods from which the Rebels staged a whip o will once again called out. If I was a Civil War ghost, Malvern Hill would be my haunt.

[Armchair General]

Just this last summer I got a chance to go down to Virgina for a week where my aunt lives and she volunteered to take me around to most of the major battlefields around the Richmond Area, Malvern Hill included. She has a friend who has wrote a few books on the Civil War so for one day he was our own personal tour guide and man was that day good. We started around Seven Pines, (not much there except a cemetery) and then we moved on, but getting to my point, I too was breathless at Malvern Hill. It is naked, completely naked of any development and it sent chills down my spine. The only other place during that entire trip where I even came close to matching the emotions I felt at that Hill was standing in the open field at Cold Harbor, and standing behind the stone wall at Fredericksburg. Of all the battlefields I have been to, Malvern Hill has been the most kept to look as it when the battle was fought. Even before going to Virginia I knew McClellan was a nut-case, but actually standing on Malvern Hill I wondered how any one in their right mind could leave such a strong position!

[Joshua l.Chamberlain]

Gettysburg hasn't had a bad change as some of the other places most likely because of Chamberlain.

[louie raider]

Malvern Hill was the last stop of my trip from G'burg last July; it was the best way to end the trip. I had prepared for it by downloading an iPod walking tour and it really enhanced my visit.

nothing like being the only person walking such a well-preserved battlefield like MH, even in the middle of the day you tend to get chills when you realize it's just you... and the ghosts...

[dale]

I prepared for my trip by rereading "To The Gates of Richmond" by Stephen Sears. It is a remarkable commentary on the Peninsula Campaign and it helps to make sense of an fascinating series of battles. I read again the chapter about Malvern Hill while at the battlefield. As is always the case it helps to stride step by step in the same paths that Confederates would have taken to assault the batteries to get a grasp of where they were vulnerable to the artillery fire and why the Union commanders placed their infantry where they did. A five foot undulation in the terrain can absolutely dictate the fields of fire and the subsequent flow of battle. I had several "Ah-ha!" moments while walking through the three and four foot tall grass, while keeping a focus on the Union cannons on the upper slopes. There are about a dozen commentary signs present on the field to guide people along the perimeter of the battle. They are a good starting point. The most significant visual aid that the Park Service has provided is the placement of a battery of 12 pound Napoleons on the Union center to mark Battery A US Fifth Artillery's position and a few rifled 3 inch ordinance guns on the Union right to show the dominating position of the artillery. The placement of the Confederate guns shows the areas that they tried to locate their batteries at and the sad results that followed for them. Both of these positions are notable for the distance away from the Union guns. The Confederate infantry suffered losses from artillery fire from a mile away!

[Armchair General]

Ummm, I understand how recently Chamberlain has been elevated to hero status almost to the point of being a demi-god, and being from Maine I'm around the Chamberlain crave a lot(even went to a summer lesson class debating whether Chamberlain truly was a heroby the standards that we set up. However, I think it may be going a little too far to claim that Gettysburg has remained unchanged just because of him.

[Gfran64]

From what I've read General Daniel Sickles had a lot to do with the national preservation of Gettysburg and the formation of Central park in NYC.

GregB) B)

[Little Powell]

I'm considering stopping by Malvern Hill since it sounds like it's a relatively short stop.

What did you guys use for your audio tour?

I found this site: http://www.civilwartraveler.com/audio/i ... ml#Malvern

Is that what you used?