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Hey, this is Mike. I hope your summer is going really well. Welcome to our Best

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of Summer series, where we will be posting some of our favorite past episodes

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of the Love Times 2 podcast, as we prepare for the big launch of our brand new season in September.

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You don't wanna miss a single episode, so be sure to subscribe to this podcast

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on whatever platform you're listening to.

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Music.

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Welcome to the official podcast of the Love Times 2 Project.

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Change the culture and the politics will follow.

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Hey, welcome to a very special edition of the Love Times 2 Podcast.

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We are on a mission, a big time mission, to make the world a better place for

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every mom and every baby. And along the way, we're looking for God to do some really, really amazing things.

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So welcome to the podcast. I hope this becomes one of your favorites, and I hope that you're sharing this

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within your social networks as well. But today, this is unlike any other podcast episode that we've done because

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we're celebrating Independence Day.

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Well, you know, we commonly now just kind of refer to it as the 4th of July,

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but it's Independence Day. And I really think that's something worth celebrating.

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So, you know, just as a reminder, today is, it's not just about fireworks and

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picnics and a day off work. All of that's cool. I mean, there's nothing, I love all of those,

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but it's about honoring the Declaration of Independence, which includes these words. Here it comes.

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We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,

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that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that

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among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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That is some pretty awesome stuff. So if you're wondering why I'm so excited

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about Independence Day, this is it.

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And to celebrate, I thought that what I'd do is share with you my top favorite Civil War sites.

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How's that for a change of pace? You probably didn't see that coming.

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I mean, I know you may have been expecting, I don't know, maybe a lengthy dissertation

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on the history of Independence Day.

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And you know, actually, that would be a very cool thing to do, but not today.

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Today, we're going to be talking about a time in American history when we were

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are grappling with another human rights issue that undermined these great words

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in the Declaration of Independence, undermined the entire context that all men are created equal.

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Now, before I get started, have you noticed how popular top 10 lists are?

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I've seen them from, I don't know, for just about anything in the world,

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from the top 10 vacation spots to top 10 small towns to visit to top 10 roller coasters in the world.

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I enjoy the top 10 list because they really boil everything down to just one

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concise, easy package to understand.

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Now, if you combine the top 10 list with history, now you're talking some pretty

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serious language and you've got my attention. That's where we're going to go today, jumping into the spirit of Independence Day.

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Here are my top 10 Civil War sites to visit.

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And just to say right up front, yes, I've been to every one of these.

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So just in case you're wondering if, hey, Mike's just sitting there making it

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up and, you know, I pulled it up on Wikipedia to show which of these sites to go to.

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Nope, I've actually been to every one of these sites, most of them multiple

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times, because I think they're so significant.

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So it's my pleasure to share these with you today. And maybe,

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I don't know, maybe this is feel for thought for you to think about possible road trips this summer.

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Hey, that sounds great. So anyways, here we go. Top 10 Civil War sites to visit,

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according to Mike. Okay. Number one, Gettysburg.

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Okay. This didn't surprise anyone who knows me, but Gettysburg is the number

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one site that every American I believe should visit. Really, I'm serious about that.

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When you understand what happened to Gettysburg, when you understand how important

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it was, how pivotal it was to the entire Civil War effort.

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It's just a it's an amazing place to go and it's really one

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of the few civil war battlefields that you can go

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to and actually visualize almost the entire battlefield just the way that it's

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laid out and so forth and that's significant because some of the battlefields

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for example the wilderness there's not much left of it anymore the last time

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i stopped at the wilderness marker i think there were maybe just a few acres

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of a field that's left of that and everything else is being developed.

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Gettysburg does a nice job in really protecting the integrity of the battlefield.

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So when you think Gettysburg, you think, you know, little round top,

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High Watermark, Peach Orchard, Wheatfield, Devil's Den.

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I mean, nothing more really needs to be said. It's a powerful place to go.

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So I encourage you to go to Gettysburg. And if you can, go July 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, because those are the anniversary

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dates of the actual battle. And that's just a powerful time to be there. And you can visualize what it was

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like during that time of year when this clash occurred at the town of Gettysburg.

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Now, number two, Fredericksburg. The Battle of Fredericksburg in Fredericksburg,

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Virginia was a significant battle in the war as well.

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In fact, there were two battles there, major battles there.

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And when I think of Fredericksburg, I think of Maury's Heights,

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just this place of the battlefield, the focal point most people think about,

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in which Union troops were faced with Lee's entrenched artillery up these heights

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that just became a killing field. I mean, when you stand there and you realize that these guys were ordered repeatedly

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to charge up these heights, knowing that there was probably very little possibility

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they would survive, it's just amazing.

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So when you go there, you see the stone wall, you see the statue to the angel

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of Fredericksburg, so much history there, and what a powerful,

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history-rich, I guess I should say, area of Virginia. you.

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So Fredericksburg is my number two. Number three, Ford's Theater.

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Wow. I mean, the setting that some call the last act of the war,

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not quite, but it is just a powerful place to go.

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I mean, of course, this is where President Lincoln was assassinated.

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The Park Service does a wonderful job in maintaining the historical integrity of Ford's Theater.

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You can visit the theater in a ranger-led tour. You can see important artifacts there.

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You can cross the street to the Peterson house where they carried President

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Lincoln and where he eventually died and visit all of that.

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And it's just a powerful way to spend a morning or an afternoon in Washington.

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So if you're taking the family, if you're going by yourself to a road trip.

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Or maybe with some friends to DC, it's well worth your time.

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Take in Ford's Theater. It's a powerful place to go.

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Number four is Antietam. Of course, Antietam in Maryland is the place where

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you may have heard it commonly referred to as the bloodiest single day of the war.

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Antietam was just a horrible slaughter. I mean, what a horrible slaughter that

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happened there. And there's just so much, so much to take in.

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And when you understand again what actually happened, and with all of these

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sites, what I really encourage folks to do is to read about the sites before you go there.

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Because when you arrive at a place like Antietam, if you really don't know what

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happened there, you see the sunken lane, the bloody lane where really just the

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dead were just piled up like cordwood.

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You really don't have a context for it unless you know what happened there.

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Otherwise, you're just looking at a depression in the ground and not really

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knowing, you know, what even happened there. Now, being from Indiana, Antietam has special significance to me because it's

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a place where so many Indiana boys charged to the cornfield,

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and that was the last charge that they ever made.

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I mean, it was just a powerful, that cornfield, you read historical accounts

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of it, and it was cut down to within an inch of the ground as if a reaper had just come through.

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It was just a horrible slaughter there, but Antietam is a powerful place to

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visit. it. Number five is Andersonville, the infamous Civil War prisoner camp in southern Georgia.

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And I'm not sure how many people actually visit Andersonville because it's off the beaten path.

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I mean, not horribly so, but it's probably an hour off the I-75 corridor.

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And for most people from at least the Midwest and the North and so forth,

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if you're traveling through Georgia, I mean, apologies to Georgia,

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but mainly you're traveling through Georgia to get to Florida on vacation.

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I mean, that's just what people do. You road trip for spring break or summer

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vacation or a trip to Magic Kingdom or wherever you're going.

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But, you know, Georgia is something you have to drive through to get to Florida.

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And a lot of great stuff about Georgia. So hope no one takes offense by that,

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but it's just reality. And the Andersonville camp is probably,

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again, an hour off the I-75 corridor.

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So it can be conveniently planned into a road trip if you are heading, say, to Florida.

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It very easily can be worked into your trip to go to Andersonville.

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And, you know, Andersonville, there were so many thousands of troops that were

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starved, that were exposed to the elements with no clothing in many cases,

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that were forced to drink water, that was polluted with sewage and so forth.

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Just a horrible place that became the symbol of brutality and prisoner of war

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camps during the Civil War. Did they really understand the misery of what happened at Andersonville?

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You really need a visit in mid-July or August when the Georgia heat is at its strongest.

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And when you go there and you realize these guys are just packed like animals into this field, wow.

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I mean, it just gives you a feel for what type of misery they had to endure there.

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Number five is Grant's statue at the steps of the Capitol building.

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I mean, this is just, to me, one of the most powerful and significant statues

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of General Grant of any historical figure in the United States that you're going to find.

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In fact, if you take the time, which I've done on numerous occasions,

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just to sit and study Grant's statue as it looks across the mall towards the

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Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, what you'll see is just this grit and resolve of General Grant that is just

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captured in this statue. You see the slouch hat, you see the collar pulled up.

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It's not trying to be one of these glorious statues of some type of holier-than-thou type of leader.

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What you see is the statue of a general who knew how to fight and a president

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of this country that had grit and resolve.

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So it's a very powerful, if you're visiting the Capitol building,

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if you're in DC, if you're on the mall, make sure you take the time to see Grant's

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statue. I guarantee you it'll be well worth it for you.

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Number seven is the Shenandoah Valley. And that's a general statement anywhere

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in the the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. It is just full of history.

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I mean, it's just an amazing place. It's beautiful.

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The corridor, the interstate corridor that runs through there,

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it seems like there's history at almost every single exit.

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And you see these old Virginia farmhouses and so forth.

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Just so much happened in the Shenandoah Valley and that entire region.

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You know, it's just, you can spend a lot of time there. Let's put it that way.

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So the Shenandoah Valley is well worth traveling through for the beauty and

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for the historical significance. Now, number eight is Bull Run or Manassas,

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whichever one you want to call it. Bull Run or Manassas is where I consider the war really lost its innocence right

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off the bat, because there were two major battles fought there.

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But the first one, the first Battle of Bull Run,

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was the battle that, you know, it was the battle that sort of eliminated these

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rose-colored glasses that this was going to be a very short battle, the war,

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or this was going to be sort of just like a fisticuffs match on the playground

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or something like that, that one side would win and then everybody would quit and go home.

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You know, it was even a spectator sport to some folks that just came from the

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Capitol to see, you know, what a good old fight would look like sort of thing.

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What the world learned, what the United States learned at that point was that

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Bull Run exposed the horrors of war.

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It exposed what it looks like to see men die by the thousands and just the carnage

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that occurs as a result of that.

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So Bull Run, Manassas, it is the place where the war lost its innocence.

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And just as a footnote to that, I just recently saw that the battlefield has

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uncovered burial pits of aborted limbs accidentally. They don't encourage and

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don't allow digging on site, but I think they were retrenching something there at the battlefield.

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So it was an accidental discovery, but they found bones that were just shattered

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in so many different places. And it was just a horrific reminder of the carnage that took place there.

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Number nine is Fort Donelson. Now, some of you have never heard of Fort Donelson.

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It's down in the, I think technically it's in Dover, Tennessee.

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It's right down in Tennessee, Kentucky border by the land between the lakes,

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southern end of that. But Fort Donaldson is where Ulysses S.

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Grant earned his reputation as a fighter, and it's actually where he earned

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his nickname, Unconditional Surrender Grant.

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And you can go there. There's a national cemetery there. You can stand in some

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of the rifle pits that still remain. You can stand in some of the gun turrets where cannon had been placed to guard the river.

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And so you can visualize very clearly when you're there how this this battle

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went down But of particular note of fort donaldson is that this is where grant

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proved that he would fight and now last on the list, but.

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Very important to the point I want to make with this whole discussion is Appomattox.

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Appomattox Courthouse, it's the place where it all ended, where the surrender happened.

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Rifles were stacked up, men openly cried, and the killing began to grind to a halt.

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Now, historians will know that even though the surrender of Lee to Grant happened,

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there were still armies in the field, so there was still quite a bit that still

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needed to happen to bring all of the killing, all of the fighting,

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all of the Civil War to an end. quite a bit that still needed to happen.

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I mean, armies in the field at that time had no idea what was happening in Appomattox,

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and they were still fighting. And I don't know, many of you may know this, there were actually more than a

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few people that were advocating that the South go into more or less guerrilla warfare mode,

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that the armies just would sort of be absorbed into the countryside and just

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conduct guerrilla raids from that point forward,

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which would have made the war go on to a horrific degree for a much longer period of time.

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But the Appomattox Courthouse is someplace that is very powerful to visit.

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Now, it's very curious to me that, at least from my experience,

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Appomattox Courthouse, as important as it is, seems to be among the least visited

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Civil War sites that are out there. And I don't know, it's always kind of, I've always kind of wondered about that.

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Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just my experience of when I've been there.

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And it's not in the easiest location or it's not hard to get to let's put it

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that way But it's not you know, it's not like next to a tourist attraction type of deal. So, you know in.

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1865. I don't think they were really looking at picking a spot that would be

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convenient to an interstate so that people could visit it down the road.

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So it is what it is. And you have to drive and you have to get into the Virginia

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countryside if you want to visit Appomattox.

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But it's just a powerful place to go. The farmhouse where Lee surrendered to Grant is still there.

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And you can just really absorb so much history when you're there.

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So with all of that said, Appomattox is so key to all of this,

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because it reminds me that in a great human rights struggle in our past,

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that ultimately there was victory.

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And when I think of just this work to extend love to every mom and every baby,

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born and unborn, it's an ongoing effort, something that just seems like it grinds out longer and longer.

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But I just like to remind myself, I want to remind you, Victory is coming slowly,

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steadily, relentlessly. Victory is coming in this human rights issue and discussion.

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And just as Appomattox marks a new day for our nation,

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there will one day be a place where the work to protect and extend protection

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to every mom and every baby will finally and mercifully conclude with liberty and justice for all.

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Hey, never forget that that victory is coming. and never forget that when you

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change the culture, the politics will follow. Hey, happy Independence Day, America.

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Hope you're safe. Have a great day. Music.

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Thanks for listening to the official podcast of the Love Times Two Project.

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Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.

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And never forget, change the culture and the politics will follow.

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Music.

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Music.