TRAVEL ON A BUS through Georgia with descendants of Confederate soldiers and you’re bound to learn more about humankind than almost anywhere else. Who wouldn’t savor a two-day road trip featuring close-quarters sweatiness, bad jokes, and the potential for combustible debate? And, oh no, the bus doesn’t have a bathroom?!
But for history’s sake, this native Pennsylvanian couldn’t turn down an invitation to tour battlefields and historic sites in the Peach State with the General Barton & Stovall History/Heritage Association—an organization whose members are dedicated to preserving the memory of their ancestors in the 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and 52nd Georgia regiments.
Under generals Seth Barton and then Marcellus Stovall, the five regiments served in a brigade that saw some of the fiercest fighting in the Western Theater, from Vicksburg, Miss., and Atlanta to Nashville and Bentonville, N.C. At the organization’s congress, held annually since 2002 (except 2020 because of COVID), descendants visit battlefields and historic sites, often walking ground their ancestors did during the
