If you could witness one day in American history, what would it be?

[1srelluc]

You can't participate, you are just a invisible observer.

Battle of Brandy Station.....It was fought on June 9, 1863, around Brandy Station, Virginia, at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Around 20K engaged, mostly cavalry, on a fairly compact and open battlefield, all easily observed from Fleetwood Hill.

It must have been something to see.

Quick and dirty overview

 

[DudleySmith]

Tough one, too many events qualify. I'll go with that inventor Evans who invented that mechanized dredging machine

Completed by June 1805, his new type of steam-engine scow, called the Orukter Amphibolos, or Amphibious Digger, was 30 feet (9 m) long by 12 feet (3.7 m) wide. In its machinery it embodied the chain-of-buckets principle of his automatic flour mill. Equipped with wheels, it ran on land as well as on water, making it the first powered road vehicle to operate in the United States.

Oliver Evans | American inventor

Oliver Evans, (born Sept. 13, 1755, near Newport, Del. [U.S.]—died April 15, 1819, New York, N.Y.), American inventor who pioneered the high-pressure steam engine (U.S. patent, 1790) and created the first continuous production line (1784). Evans was apprenticed to a wheelwright at the age of...

www.britannica.com

2nd would be the artillery battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, I guess.

 

[Polishprince]

The midnight ride of Paul Revere. Must have been thrilling to here Mr. Revere riding through the streets hollering "the British are coming"

 

[elektra]

The ticker tape parade at the end of the pacific war in manhatten,

 

[lg325]

Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Those wealthy well educated men knowing their wealth and lives could end by signing it yet signed it anyway. There was no turning back once their names were on that document. I like post 3 as well that must have gotten the blood rushing through a lot of men back then.

 

[Hellbilly]

Battle of the Little Bighorn - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[1srelluc]

Battle of the Little Bighorn - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

View attachment 710354

Yeah, I'd not mind seeing Custer get his comeuppance after what he did in the Shenandoah Valley.

 

[odanny]

I don't know if you've ever done reenactment's, but it really only works in a period setting that does not have modern amenities, strip malls, passing vehicle traffic, etc., etc. I was lucky enough to take part in one such setting at Rockville, Indiana in a village called Billie Creek. It was the one reenactment that is seared in memory, unlike the others I've done. It was the one that brought about the "period rush", especially after the crowds left and we had to rely on fires at night to see anything and slept in a huge barn.

Civil War Days

www.billiecreekvillage.org

Funny how spectators for First Manassas (Bull Run) were doing that very thing, had their picnic baskets with them and were spread out on high ground to watch the Union Army rout the Confederates, only to scramble away in a panic when that didn't quite happen.

Bull Run

First Manassas (Bull Run) page with maps, photos, history articles, and preservation news

www.battlefields.org

 

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

Wow.

Someone finally asked a REALLY HARD question!! I love it!!
Gawd, I don't know, SO many to choose from!!!

Off the top of my head, I'd say the Moon Landing.

Other ones I'd be interested in:

Watching Einstein in action.
Watching George Washington get sworn in as president.
Peeking in on JFK's life.
Peeking in on Howard Hughes' life.
Peeking in on Marilyn Monroes life.
Watching Mr. Rushmore get worked on.
Finding out how the Chicago fire REALLY started.


I think I'd be happy seeing any part of history, to tell the truth.
That would be exciting all on it's own, just to be witness.

 

[JGalt]

November 22, 1963, in the sixth floor of the Dallas Book Depository, standing behind Lee Harvey Oswald with a camera.

So we could put away all that conspiracy nonsense.

 

[1srelluc]

I don't know if you've ever done reenactment's, but it really only works in a period setting that does not have modern amenities, strip malls, passing vehicle traffic, etc., etc. I was lucky enough to take part in one such setting at Rockville, Indiana in a village called Billie Creek. It was the one reenactment that is seared in memory, unlike the others I've done. It was the one that brought about the "period rush", especially after the crowds left and we had to rely on fires at night to see anything and slept in a huge barn.

Civil War Days

www.billiecreekvillage.org

Funny how spectators for First Manassas (Bull Run) were doing that very thing, had their picnic baskets with them and were spread out on high ground to watch the Union Army rout the Confederates, only to scramble away in a panic when that didn't quite happen.

Bull Run

First Manassas (Bull Run) page with maps, photos, history articles, and preservation news

www.battlefields.org

Mostly living history of the CW period when I was a young man.....The only reenactments I messed with was at the New Market, Virginia Battlefield reenactment because that's where we did much of the living history.

We would attach ourselves to Cutshaw's Battery....A outfit out of Winchester, Virginia that had the use of the City of Winchester's two 12-Pound Napoleons. We had a 24-pound Coehorn mortar built like the Confederate one below.

We depended on the tourists for our "powder fund".....Touching off a 1/4 pound of F black powder at a time got expensive.

Sigh, got married and started a family so that was the end of that, it was both expensive and time consuming to do it right.

 

[JGalt]

Mostly living history of the CW period when I was a young man.....The only reenactments I messed with was at the New Market, Virginia Battlefield reenactment because that's where we did much of the living history.

We would attach ourselves to Cutshaw's Battery....A outfit out of Winchester, Virginia that had the use of the City of Winchester's two 12-Pound Napoleons. We had a 24-pound Coehorn mortar built like the Confederate one below.

We depended on the tourists for our "powder fund".....Touching off a 1/4 pound of F black powder at a time got expensive.

Sigh, got married and started a family so that was the end of that, it was both expensive and time consuming to do it right.

That's pretty interesting. I once found a Civil War era cast-iron 10" siege mortar ball at a garage sale here in town. It was setting in a flower bed next to the old man's house, and I gave $20 for it. The cast iron ball was hollow and had a hole where the fuse would have went. He said there used to be a stack of them down the hill by a foot bridge across a river. He son rolled it up the hill, and it sat in that flower bed for decades.

We used to have some pretty good Civil War reenactments here, but they sorta went south during the pandemic. I was in one a few years before that, dressed in my Confederate outfit, and carrying an authentic Austrian 58 caliber musket that was probably used during the war. One hot summer dressed in itchy hot wool was about all I could stand.

 

[Bezukhov]

The midnight ride of Paul Revere. Must have been thrilling to here Mr. Revere riding through the streets hollering "the British are coming"

Would you settle for what really happened?

 

[progressive hunter]

You can't participate, you are just a invisible observer.

Battle of Brandy Station.....It was fought on June 9, 1863, around Brandy Station, Virginia, at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Around 20K engaged, mostly cavalry, on a fairly compact and open battlefield, all easily observed from Fleetwood Hill.

It must have been something to see.

Quick and dirty overview

continental congress,,,

 

[Natural Citizen]

Probably the Whiskey Rebellion.

Specifically on a day when they were tarring and feathering a tax collector and then making him ride the rail.

So, I guess it would be on September 11, 1791

 

[Bezukhov]

I know, not American history, but I couldn't resist the urge.


I want to hear the first lie. A cave many thousands of years ago:
Cave woman: "Gherk! Does this bear skin make me look fat?"
Cave man: "Uhhh... No."

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Witness in person?

The first moon landing.

 

[Unkotare]

tomorrow

 

[Pellinore]

Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Those wealthy well educated men knowing their wealth and lives could end by signing it yet signed it anyway. There was no turning back once their names were on that document. I like post 3 as well that must have gotten the blood rushing through a lot of men back then.

I was thinking about this, but we're not totally sure which day it actually happened, and it probably spread out over about a month. I'd hate to invest my only 24 hours for a lot of sitting around.

 

[1srelluc]

Pickett's Charge.....If I wasn't shot first trying to get to General Lee to tell him to call it off.