![]() "Thank you for the incredible reenactment, it was very realistic." After the reenactment was finished as well as their tour, they approached the main desk and stated: A group of Asian visitors came to the battlefield for a tour and were surprised to see a highly-realistic battle-reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg. There was a story about July 2nd at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I'm not a Ghost person but when this topic came up I immediately thought of Kenneally's words in this novel. "As though he was seeking someone who could tell him what had happened in his final moments." - or words to that effect. The 'Ghost' angle being that Kenneally goes on to describe how the young man's mother sees her son wandering around her home for many years to come. In that one awful moment, Kenneally describes the awesome 'rending' of the young man's body as he is literally torn to pieces by the impact. Suddenly, he emerges from smoke just as the Union artillerymen fire off 'canister' into the Confederates' midst. ![]() If I had the book to hand, I would key in the relevant paragraphs but the story describes the young man's reaction to his first wound and his relief that it is not fatal. In the superb narrative, Kenneally describes the 'madness' of the charge and the young man's final moments. If anyone has read 'Confederates', Thomas Kenneally's absolutely BRILLIANT novel, they will perhaps remember a scene in which a young Rebel soldier is charging Union Guns at Sharpsburg. Have these things only happened to those who are aware the significance of such locations, such as those who go on the Jack the Ripper trail in London where others go about their business? I hope I have an open mind on the subject, but the rationalist in me points to psychosomatic phenomena? I particularly remember a small cluster of Belgian graves from WW1 containing men who were approximately my own age, and their (the graves') imagery stayed with me, although that could simply be because their graves were different from British their counterparts. Southampton (and finally used as a forces mental hospital before it was demolished in the '60s), but upon rationalising the experience - not shared by others with me, who seemed to have little awareness of the location - I felt that it could be my own thoughts acting upon an informed empathy of their past situation particularly with regard to their stay at their hospital suffering no doubt from horrendous wounds. I recall having a similar feeling when going around the graves of the old military hospital at Netley, Nr. Don't mean to be the proverbial wet blanket, but it could be a case of association.
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