Why ?

Pickett's Charge, Gettysburg - High Tide for The Confederacy

In 1984 I visited Gettysburg, on the way to a family reunion, simply for something to do.  In my mind the The Civil War was just a great unpleasentness that our southern neighbours had about 119 years ago and this would be just a one day sideshow not unlike Disney World.  I was not prepared for the magnitude of the battle and the Civil War itself.  It was a tragedy of epic proportions with larger then life personalities (both good and bad) and issues of nationhood and morality.  It was also the first modern war and it was astounding that the lessons it taught were so completely ignored by the European powers 46 years later.  In 1991 Ken Burn's epic series further reinforced my interest.  However family priorities came first and my interest in the Civil War had to be put on the back burner and restricted to reading excepts from Shelby Foote's trilogy, "The Civil War: A Narrative".  In 2010 with retirement looming, my wife and I bought a vacation home property in the Orlando Area  (The Retreat By The Lake)  By traveling regularly between Ottawa and Orlando the opportunity has now presented itself to visit the sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia where most of the eastern fighting took place. This blog is meant to capture and share my personal experiences over the next few years as I visit civil war sites and become more knowledgeable about this event which shaped and continues to shape the destinies of both the USA and Canada.  The blog has been named Civil War Traveler out of respect to General Robert E Lee whose horse was named "Traveler".