Additionally, the Civil War is marked by “Civil War Trails” in Virginia. True, it is a connection of battlefields and skirmish sites, but usually it does have information providing some of the context, and linking the trail follower to other sites. Providing contextual information and linking visitors to other sites they might be interested in is much more then a pile of cannon balls. I concede that a large number of Civil War sites are battlefield related, but at least agree that their are Civil War sites that focus on aspects other then the battles, and that even these battlefields provide some good contextual information for the visitors.

I ask this as a honest question: What is it with the Civil War and battlefields? Why are battlefields the overwhelming and nearly the only physical spaces that we use for remembering the war?

The answer might seem obvious–because it was a war, stupid. But this is not the way we memorialize other wars. The Revolution is marked by battlefields, yes, but also by the Freedom Trail in Boston, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and the preserved homes of many of the leading patriots. But with the Civil War it is one pile of cannon balls after another.