The Legacy of Our Civil War Heroes
Our heroes help us define ourselves as individuals. By learning about them and their personal histories, we also learn something about ourselves. What might we aspire to achieve in our lives that will help us become better persons—not only for the sake of bettering ourselves, but the lives of those whom we hold dear? For each of us holds within ourselves the capability to become a hero or heroine. When we strive for what is noble, we cannot help but to live a part of that nobility in our lives. In doing so, we become living examples of what we perhaps admire in our own heroes.
Sad to say, though some of
these places have been preserved, acres upon acres of
historic sites have already been lost to development, and
more sites faces the same fate of endangerment. What Our historical heroes are only alive to us as long as we care to remember that they existed. If we cherish their lives and ideals, and embrace the legacies they left us—their deeds and presence at the places they once inhabited—we owe it to them and ourselves to preserve their memory. When we lose an historic building or a battlefield to modern development, we lose a part of our heritage, a part of ourselves, forever. But when we preserve these places of our heroes’ past, their memory and inspiration continues to live on through future generations. - "1st Dragoon"
Top right:
Union hero Joshua L. Chamberlain.
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When I think about our Civil War heroes, I think
about their contributions to our nation and how they have
made a difference in our lives today. If not for their
valorous deeds in the face of adversity—their
commitment to fighting for the cause in which they
fervently believed—we would have fewer role models
by which we can shape our lives. 
In the process of studying the lives of our
Civil War heroes, one often becomes curious about the
places where these admirable people lived or through
which they passed, because environments significantly
influence lives. To visit the home of a Civil War hero or
to tread upon the same soil on which he fought brings
alive the story of that soldier's life. We realize that 
this
is not just a face and name from a history book, or an
ancestor from a distant time. This was a person like you
and me who walked from room to room in a house; who
camped on the grounds of a battlefield that is now a part
of The National Park Service. With each passing breeze
these places still resound with the words of the mighty
and the brave; their very energy still permeates the
landscape upon which they struggled—upon which many
had been wounded or slain. Thus visiting the places from
their lives significantly enhances our education and
understanding of our Civil War heroes.
can we do to save a building or a battlefield?
We can be alert to what is going on in our own community
or to those areas that concern us. There are
organizations on the Web that help preserve historic
structures and battlefields, such as the 
