Over the years I have designated a number of High Holy Days. Those are days that I feel a need to be in a certain place or to do a specific thing and work and reality won’t be permitted to get in the way. The list includes: March 17, September 17, the third Thursday in November, December 10 and December 13. Sadly, in recent years December 13 has fallen by the wayside, and this year I didn’t even commemorate September 17 in my usual way, but in the old days today was a road trip to Fredericksburg.
Like Antietam, Shiloh, and Franklin, Fredericksburg was never given the attention it deserved. Fredericksburg is the largest land battle in the Western Hemisphere, the only battle of the Civil War to be fought directly in and through a town, one of the most lopsided defeats of the war and a battle filled with heights of heroism, lows of frustration and infinite missed opportunities.