Magical Bus Tour

[Tamaroa]

and hightail it to Gettysburg. Aside from my family there are two passions in my life, trying to save that rust bucket the Tamaroa and a close second is a life long fascination with the American Civil War.

Just recently, I discovered that I had a distant confederate ancestor, a cousin on my gg grandfather's side who was killed at gettysburg on the third day. He was a lieutenant in the 37th North Carolina and ironically his name was William Doherty as well. While I do not believe as many do that the battle of Gettysburg was the high water mark of the war, I do believe it signaled the rise of the Union army and the beginning of the decline for the Confederate army. Here is a photo showing the Confederate line in the distant back ground that 12,000 brave Rebel souls started out from. When it was over 30 minutes later, 75% of the men were killed wounded or captured. Only 200 Confederate soldiers broke through the Union lines led by Confederate General Lewis Armistead. Armistead was mortally wounded as he placed his hand on a Union canon.


the distance the troops covered was about a mile. The photo was taken from the point where the Union troops formed up on cemetery Ridge.As noted before, the Confederates were formed in the background and were instructed to fix bayonets and go for the wall without stopping. The white speck in the background is the Lee statute placed where he remained to comfort his troops after their retreat.

I have been studying this war for nigh on 45 years. I still am in awe of these men trying to understand them for what they accomplished on both sides, Blue and Gray. Both sides were Americans, both sides thought they were right and both sides thought they were defending the constitution. as a result 625,000 Americans died.

Bill