The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

On the Day (Actually 4 Days After) I Turn 60-- Part 2

Those Civil War gifts as a kid were mostly in the form of books and on two occasions I scored real big with the Blue and Gray toy sets. As a sixth grader, I started buying HO Scale Civil War soldiers which were much less expensive, about one cent each. I raised quite a large army between my 50 cents allowance, snow shoveling, and collecting 2 cent returnable bottles.

In high school, I took every history class I could, and would go through the library looking for Civil War stuff, especially anything dealing with Fort Fisher. I also went to the Palatine Library.

Like I said, at college, I was not just there for knowledge. I never had more fun than I did there. The Civil War was put on the back burner.

While I was at the University of Georgia, I was fortunate enough to take a class with Emory Thomas, one of the foremost historians of the war. I'll never forget the sandboxes where he would recreate battles. The Battle of the Crater was especially great as he blew up firecrackers right there in class. Now, that's realism to the extreme.

Still Not Finished. --Old B-R'er

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