August 20, 1864 I acknowledge that today’s letter covers the exact same material as that of August 19, 1864 :) However, this letter was written by Mark to his whole family, not Roe, so it has slightly different information. Also, it is far shorter and less-detailed than the one he sent the day before. He just gives a quick overview of the Second Battle of Dalton’s main components. I decided to still do a post on it though and talk about Tunnel Hill, something mentioned in both letters. In his letter, Abbott says that his regiment rode the rails as far as Tunnel Hill, where it was then deemed inadvisable to continue by train, as it was only seven miles from their destination of Dalton. They ended up walking the rest of the way but I decided that we’d stay at Tunnel Hill and learn a bit about its connection to the war. Tunnel Hill saw quite a bit of action during the war. It’s probably most famous for what has been named “The Great Locomotive Chase” in 1862. Quite a bit happened during this event, so I’ll do my best to write a summary. Otherwise, follow the hyperlink to get a more thorough telling of the tale! The basic gist of the Great Locomotive Chase is that a man named James J. Andrews, along with a group of Union spies, stole a train called the General that was stopped at a Confederate Camp while its passengers and crew were eating at a nearby hotel. The goal of this group was “to travel up to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in an attempt to cause as much damage as possible to the Western & Atlantic Railroad by destroying telegraph wires and as much of the railroad itself along their path.” Though they were successful in cutting some wires and uprooting sections of the railroad track, the spies were ultimately caught before reaching Chattanooga. This was a fun bit of trivia that I hadn’t heard before! I actually had a pretty hard time finding specific information about battles that occurred at this site. It definitely is near some of the battles Abbott participated in, such as the Battle of Chickamauga discussed in this letter and the previous one. What I did find is that the city of Tunnel Hill does a “Battle of Tunnel Hill Civil War Reenactment” every year the weekend after Labor Day. The event includes events such as a daily battle reenactment, tours of the railroad tunnel itself and chances to interact with the reenactor. If you want to learn more about this annual event, google “Tunnel Hill” and you’ll find information on the event! This link, for example, takes you to information for 2013’s reenactment: http://www.tennesseerivervalleygeotourism.org/content/battle-of-tunnel-hill-civil-war-reenactment/ten39C7A3101E5721F10. Works Cited: East Tennessee River Valley Geotourism MapGuide. “Festival Event: Battle of Tunnel Hill Civil War Reenactment.” National Geographic Society. http://www.tennesseerivervalleygeotourism.org/content/battle-of-tunnel-hill-civil-war-reenactment/ten39C7A3101E5721F10 (accessed March 10, 2014). The Southern Museum (In Association with the Smithsonian Institution). “The General Locomotive and the Great Locomotive Chase.” http://www.southernmuseum.org/exhibits/the-general/ (accessed March 7, 2014). Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DCP_0909WandA.JPG
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AuthorTessa Wakefield, student intern at the Concordia College Archives, assembled these blog entries in 2013-2014 for the Isaac Mark Abbott Civil War Letters Collection. The posts summarize the content of the letters, interpret Abbott's experiences and place them in the larger context of the Civil War. Archives
March 2014
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