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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
A150V_120916_001.JPG: The Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial van
A150V_120916_037.JPG: Loss:
"We are a ruined people."
-- JW Waller, October 18, 1865
Virginia wagered its young men, its treasure, and its very existence on the promise of a new nation. After losing that gamble, the Commonwealth faced decades of struggle and recovery. A slave labor system was abolished with profound economic and social implications for all Virginians.
The war left many of Virginia's residents impoverished and bitter. Huge sections of the Commonwealth lay ravaged -- the landscapes destroyed by vast army camps, farms and woodlots scarred by miles of trenches dug by soldiers.
A150V_120916_091.JPG: Freedom:
Tens of thousands of slaves did not wait for the Emancipation Proclamation or war's end to break the bonds of slavery. Instead, they set out on a last, climactic journey to freedom. By 1865, more than 60 percent of Virginia's male slaves between the ages of 18 and 45 had fled to freedom.
The Civil War ultimately brought freedom to 400,000 enslaved Virginians and marked the end of a system of labor and social control that had existed for 240 years.
Slave John Washington spotted the Union army near Fredericksburg in 1862 and wrote the following:
"I could not begin to express my new born hopes for I felt already like I was certain of my freedom now."
Did You Know? The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in December 1865, abolished slavery in the United States.
A150V_120916_096.JPG: Soldiers:
About 6,000 African Americans from Virginia -- most of them former slaves -- joined the Union army. On September 29, 1864, fourteen African American soldiers won the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of New Market Heights, near Richmond. Seven months later, African American troops led the Union advance into the Confederate capital of Richmond, hailed as liberators by Richmond slaves.
A150V_120916_108.JPG: C-SPAN truck
A150V_120916_137.JPG: Transformations: Pennsylvanians and the Civil War:
The Civil War between the Union (North) and Confederacy (South) was the deadliest war in American history. It restored the union, abolished slavery and increased the power of the federal government.
Only one major battle took place in Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvanians in every country were transformed by the War and effected its outcome.
Pennsylvanians experienced the War personally, responding in different ways: they were inspired to action; they offered courageous aid; they waited anxiously; and when it was over, they remembered how it had changed their lives.
A150V_120916_164.JPG: Pennsylvanians Responded to the War:
When the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter in April 1861 and the Civil War began, Pennsylvanians reacted. Throughout the War, their responses were as diverse as the population itself:
Fifteen percent of the state's population -- including thousands of African Americans and recent immigrants from Ireland, Germany and other countries -- served in the Union military.
Some women went to war as battlefield nurses and camp aids. Others, disguised as men, enlisted in the military.
Drummer boys as young as seven years old marched with their regiments into battle.
When the Union resorted to a draft, many Pennsylvanians resisted.
While most Pennsylvanians supported the Union cause, political positions, religious beliefs and racism fueled some opposition to the War.
Several thousands Pennsylvanians chose to join Confederate forces in fighting against the Union.
A150V_120916_186.JPG: Pennsylvanians Waited During the War:
Pennsylvanians on the home front experienced impatience, boredom, anxiety and fear as they waited out the four long years of war. Although wartime brought dramatic activity, waiting was also a substantial part of everyone's experience.
Troops on the front waited for orders -- sometimes for days -- to learn when they would meet the enemy. During downtime, men passed the time writing letters and looking forward to responses and news of life back home.
After working and waiting for an end to slavery, African Americans offered their services to the Union military. They had to wait until 1863, halfway through the War, before being officially permitted to enlist.
Families worried and waited for letters from their loved ones in distance places. The men wrote from the front encouraging them to continue living their lives.
If captured by the enemy, prisoners of war were forced to live in horrific conditions, not knowing when they would be freed.
Thousands of men stricken by disease or wounded in battle convalesced in hospitals, uncertain about their recovery.
Pennsylvanians, particularly those near the southern border, nervously waited to find out if rumors of Confederate invasion would prove to be true.
A150V_120916_203.JPG: Pennsylvanians Commemorated the War:
Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865, but the Civil War remained in Pennsylvanians' memories. Their lives were transformed, and they sought ways to commemorate the sacrifices made:
More than 33,000 Pennsylvanians died for the Union, and thousands more were physically and mentally scarred. Communities across the state created memorials in their honor.
In 1865, to acknowledge the often-overlooked contributions of African Americans to the Union victory, a group of mostly African American women in Harrisburg organized a Grand Review of the U.S. Colored Troops.
Shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvanians acted to establish Soldiers' National Cemetery and preserve portions of the battlefield.
The U.S. government created the Medal of Honor during the Civil War to recognize distinguished military service. One hundred eighty-seven Pennsylvanians received the Medal for their actions in the War.
Veterans formed lasting associations such as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and attended frequent reunions to remember and reenact their experiences. Civil War reenacting remains popular to this day.
Relic collecting began as soon as battles ended, and families preserved personal items in memory of wartime experiences. People visited and continue to visit battlefields for contemplation and commemoration.
Since the end of the Civil War, the ways in which is was remembered have changed, and continue to evolve, 150 years later.
A150V_120916_238.JPG: The Pennsylvania truck was very wide. Notice the hinges on the floor on the right and left. The sides of the truck folded in to form a truck that was only one-third as wide as when it was open.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (MD -- Antietam Natl Battlefield -- Event: ) directly related to this one:
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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