While things had not gone well for me, for the first part of my journey, not that stopping at Shiloh National Military Park was a good thing, but the real reason that I had gone to Georgia had not gone well. It seemed that there were so many reasons for me not to go. I had lost my job just prior to the trip, and for that I was not so happy. But then I woke up the next morning, not long after 4am. I was not sure what I was going to get out of the trip, but that was the thing, I knew that I had a very limited budget, mostly because I had spent far more money on the events of the evening before.
I was not even sure that I had enough money to get me home, but I knew that the route that I had to go home, it was going to take me right through the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. I wanted to come back ever since I was young and had missed out on the opportunity to come and make a stop and see something that I was not sure that I was ever going to get out of my system.
I had heard so much about the battlefield, but that was the thing, I had never had the understanding of what I was seeing when I went to the first Civil War Battlefield. I had gone to Missouri, to make an appointment, and I had begged my parents, who were reluctant to give in, to take me to see the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, but that was thing, I would love to take the time to go back. But that was the thing, I really wanted to go back a few years back, but there was not enough time to visit more than the one Civil War Battlefield, the one at Pea Ridge, but that was the thing, I really wanted to see as many of these battlefields as I could.
And while I made the drive from Atlanta to the Chattanooga area, I was not sure what I was going to see. There were so many images that I was trying to put together in my head. I had been to this area before, but that was the thing, I knew that there was this desire to go and see things that I had always wanted to see, ever since I had found out that there was a Civil War Battlefield on the top of Lookout Mountain.
It was one of the few times that I wish that I would have had even more time to visit the place. And I knew that I was not going to have a time limit. It was not like I had to be home at any one particular time, but I knew that the time even at that was going to be longer than I wanted it to be. But the drive from Atlanta to Chattanooga, it was not as long as I would have liked, but that was the thing, I was going to take the time to stop there.
It was glorious to go up the side of the mountain, and to stop and watch as the sun was about to rise. I had gotten there at the perfect time. I had no idea what awaited me, but with scenes like this, I had to wonder what it was like the day the men got there to take things to the top of the mountain. I knew that I did not want to be the one who was taking the time to lead the horses, who were pulling the canons to the top of the mountain either. It would have been a tedious process, but I could tell that they would have been very dedicated to getting to the top because then it would be easy to stop anyone who might be coming.
And as I stood there, at the top of the mountain, there was this desire to just stay there. It was not hard to see the beauty of the place, and to be sucked into the world of the Civil War all over again. I was not surprised to think that there were those who were out there who really fought an oncoming army from this location. It was hard to see the beauty of this place crawling with men who were willing to lob canon balls at the men who were coming.
But it had happened here, but that was not where it ended. There had to have been a part of the men who wanted to stop and see the beauty of this place, but there were not too many who got the chance to just sit there and enjoy the scenery.
I heard it said one time, that there were soldiers, who after the war was over, they took their time and they traveled back home after taking the time to see the sights of the war. They went to places they had heard about. Some of them went back to battlefields they had fought on. All of this was something that made me really want to learn about the soldiers who fought at all these places.
I could see why the men went back. Since they had not really had the chance to see the places they had spent time, because they may have marched in one day, and back out the next. It was hard to think that there was not something beautiful to see at each location of battle.
My journey to see Lookout Mountain, it had been a long time in coming, but that was the thing, it was so clear to me, that it had been worth the wait, and it had made the trip that I had taken seem like it was just meant to be. It was hard to believe that the time that I spent on the mountain that day, that it was not just another view, from just another place that I had visited.
I had come here, hoping to think that there were so many reasons not to stop. There were so many reasons to just motor it on home, but that was the thing, I needed to repair the view that I had on so many things. The fact that I had a chair, thrown at me just a few days before, and then I had a date spin so far out of control that I had not had the chance to really feel good. And all that weight was being carried by me, the one thing I really wanted, more than anything else, was one good thing, and I had found it.
Like I said, there were many reasons not to think about the trip, to not hold onto the trip, but that was the thing, I needed to assure myself that there was something that could redeem the trip. Some light inside of me that made me really want to do all that I could to let go.
And as I walked into the park that morning, there were a lot of thoughts entering my mind, but when I saw the way that the sun lit the park, and the beauty that was there, and while I took a moment to sit on a bench in the park, just to look out over the river, I knew that I had not made a mistake. Taking the time to just be there, that was all that I needed.
The camera still in my hand, I knew that there was no place better than this, to mend the places in my heart that needed to reconnect. The day that I stepped into that park, it had been just a few months since I had heard of the passing of a good friend, someone who loved Civil War sites as much as I did, and when I was standing there, I knew that I was in the right place, to once again feel connected.
And while I know that there was not much history here, it is because the story is not yet fully known to me. Lookout Mountain has not been a battle that I know a great deal about, but I can share, that sometimes the true history of the place, is all in how we experience what is going on.
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