Civil War

Many school children have had to memorize Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but few adults know much about the events that inspired it, or the wellspring of emotion it provoked.That's because few -- other than historians -- have really examined the causes of the Civil War or thought deeply about its power in the making of the American character."The Civil War," an 11-hour PBS documentary aired last week, probably changed that. The producer, Ken Burns, calls it an American "Illiad." It's a good analogy, for sons and daughters of Hellene have long used that ancient epic to explain the essence of their hopes and dreams to others.

In creating its new historical program, "Roads to Gettysburg," Carroll County's tourism office is employing a variation on the saying, "All roads lead to Rome." With the help of volunteers, the office has created a guide and brochure for a driving tour that retraces the route of thousands of Confederate and Union troops through Carroll to Gettysburg, Pa.Route 97 may not be the Appian Way, but the guide reveals that many of the county's roads were indeed well traveled by soldiers and played a significant role in the prelude to that epic Civil War battle.

WE ARE DRAWN to the Civil War because it is the 20th century as coming attraction. For all its horror, the struggle took no longer to complete than a bachelor's degree. The diploma was awarded, the fever was survived. Foreign wars are compared to blows from without; civil wars are fevers. Fevers have their own narrative integrity: A crisis arrives, the patient endures it or succumbs.Despite a seemingly fatal temperature, our strapping young republic lived. Its industrial strength redoubled, it made the quantum lunge at prosperity and unity.

Los Angeles. -- When Khallid Abdul Muhammad, the fiery Nation of Islam speaker known for his attacks on Jews, Catholics and whites, was shot recently in Riverside, California, critics remarked on the irony that his assailant was a fellow black man. But for those young black Americans who turn out in droves to hear him, that fact only underscored the urgency of his message, a message aimed exclusively at black Americans.Mr. Muhammad calls himself a ''truth terrorist'' and his choice of military imagery is not accidental.

HAGERSTOWN -- The nation's largest Civil War battlefield preservation group will relocate its headquarters from history-rich Fredericksburg, Va., to downtown Hagerstown by early next year.Hagerstown, a former railroad hub with lesser-known ties to the Civil War, edged out Winchester, Va., the other finalist for the nonprofit group's headquarters, because of a "superb" package of economic and other incentives, said Thomas W. Richards, board chairman of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites Inc.The move places the 10,000-member, nonprofit association in reach of about 2.2 million people who visit Antietam, in nearby Sharpsburg, Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

A 175-mile-long corridor that runs through Western Maryland -- and includes the nation's greatest concentration of Civil War battlefields -- has been named one of the most "endangered" places in America. The National Trust for Historic Preservation included the "Journey Through Hallowed Ground" corridor in its just-released 2005 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The trust compiles a list each year to call attention to historic buildings and places that need to be saved from pending threats, such as demolition and suburban sprawl.

Some facts and oddities about the Civil War* Two percent of the country's population, 620,000 people, died in the war, two out of three from disease, not injuries. That is nearly equal to the total number of Americans lost in all other wars the country has fought.* In two days at Shiloh, there were more casualties than in all previous American wars combined.* The number of Union soldiers killed, missing or wounded at Antietam -- 12,401 -- was double the casualties of D-Day. With a total of 23,000 casualties, Antietam was the war's bloodiest day.* The first national paper currency was issued during the Civil War.* A Confederate private named Henry Stanley was captured at Shiloh, survived the war and eventually went to Africa where he found Dr. Livingston.

Space is still available for the all-day conference on "Maryland andthe Civil War," from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 20 at the Joint Hearing Room of the Legislative Service Building in Annapolis.The conference, sponsored by the Maryland State Archives, will assess the state of knowledge about Maryland and the Civil War and will feature such experts on the subject as Ross Kimmel, William L. Brown, James Walker and Brian Pohanka. Pohanka was a consultant to the film "Glory."Registration for the conference is $25 -- $20 for students -- which includes a box lunch and attendance at a reception following the program in the honor of Phebe R. Jacobsen, a senior archivist who recently retired.