Backtrack to Dam 5

I couldn’t resist…

Dam 5 offers one of those rare opportunities to expand on Cyrus’ story, though, at best, it’s an indirect weave into the overall story.

But before I start, I have to say, its incredibly cool to live blog on the move. You see, I’m sitting on the stone ledge above the roaring falls created by the modern dam. Same general location as the original Dam 5, but a modern one now. Wish I could pipe-in the sound of the falls for you to enjoy while reading. Anyway…

Yet another location on the canal where I’m sure Cyrus passed some days as a boatman, but I wonder how Stonewall Jackson’s efforts to destroy the dam weighed on the minds of he and his family, who lived just down the towpath to the west, at Four Locks. Let’s see… dam destroyed… occupation as a canal boatman compromised. I’m also thinking about how the sound of the artillery bombardment in the crisp winter air might unnerve the family… and how thoughts (if my people were Unionists like many others in this neighborhood) that Confederates might cross kindled the imagination.

On a side note, it just so happens that I had ancestors on the other side of the river here… in gray, under Stonewall… and causing the unnerving.

So, I think I’ll wrap things up here. More or less, it’s a moving summary of some high points of Cyrus’ life along the canal. I’ll tweak the posts, add hyperlinks, and perhaps a little more commentary to this string in posts later this week.

* all photos shown here were taken at Dam 5

** Looks like I had some company along the way… no, not ghosts… but site visitors. Visitor count jumped to 78 yesterday, and 187 by the end of today. Glad some wanted to come along…

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Posted in: American Civil War, Ancestral tidbits, Digital History, historical memory, Visualizing History