Now that Gettysburg hotels sell out for the July battle
anniversary by December, and the Virginia peninsula might as
well be rezoned as a historical theme park, it’s worth looking
back to a time when plenty of American history wasn’t the stuff
of vacation plans. There was no permanent monument at Yorktown
until the battle’s centennial in 1881, and nearby lodging for
its dedication was so sparse that visitors to the commemoration
were housed in tents. How things have changed—and this
fascinating study is ideal reading for the ongoing
sesquicentennial of the Civil War and bicentennial of the War of
1812. It offers a close examination of just how overgrown fields
and crumbling fortresses came to be reclaimed as objects worthy
of preservation and visitation. The tale of how a protean form
of the American battlefield came about has several phases, some
relating directly to a sheer drive for historical remembrance,
and many bearing a considerably peripheral relation to the
conflicts themselves. In the end, though,