Tuesday, September 18, 2007

145th battle anniversary

John Hoptak spells it out quite clearly on his blog:

http://www.48thpennsylvania.blogspot.com/ (or just click on the title of this post)

So I'll just add some pictures and reflection.

It was a remarkable weekend. Early Monday morning lots of people were gathered at the New York monument for the all day hikes.


I had a great orientation talk with about thirty very interested visitors.


The Wildcat band performed in Dunker Church... as well as the Mumma Barn.

I could just hear them as I was driving past on the two hour tour...

It was like leading a parade.


Yesterday evening the ladies of the Sanitary Commission invited my wife Virginia and I to dinner.

This roast was so good with applesauce and mashed potatos.

Linking up with Harry Smeltzer and Brian Downey was a real pleasure (where the heck is Ranger Hoptak during these photo ops?)

It was a most memorable weekend.

Yes, there was lots of fun, music, and pagentry (and pie), but the bottom line is this; over the past four days many thousands of visitors (for the first time) learned of the individual sacrifices that were made on these fields and the legacies of this great battle. This is why we remember their efforts.

I'm very proud to be a small part of this special place.

See you next year,

Ranger Mannie

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wish I could of been there. :-(

Anonymous said...

Hey Mannie,
your camera angle caught the beef roast with a coffee pot behind it,and I did a double take as it did not look like what I was cooking. Gotta laugh, but it looks like an unplucked turkey. On the way home today I was reminded of a souvenir I was supposed to give you and Christie in commemoration of the weekend. A small token I can assure you but we will get it into the mail this week.
Earl saved us a copy of your article and I saw all of the graphics not shown on the website. Good article and a nice issue on Antietam.
Good luck from all of us in the off season and hope to see you next year.

Jim Tuk