I'm not the world's greatest Civil War historian, but I have done a bit of reading and visited most of the Eastern battlefields more than once, and every November I go to the memorabilia show at Richmond, just to see how much stuff I recognize.
My mother is Georgia Irish, my father Michigan Dutch, with other relatives that go back to the third trip of the Mayflower, or so my uncle says. So I had "kin" on both sides. It doesn't really matter - we're all Americans, and the Civil War is one of the major events that made it that way.
Here I am at Fredericksburg, staring down attacking hordes of savage chipmunks with a 30-pounder Parrott rifle.
The "Parrott rifle" was named for its inventor, Robert P. Parrott, who devised a way of shrinking a band of strong wrought iron around the rear, or "breech", of the rather brittle cast-iron barrel. This provided strength, though Parrott rifles were still notorious for bursting, including both of the 30-pounders used by the Confederates at the Battle of Fredericksburg. "30-pounder" was a designation based on the weight of the solid iron projectile or "bolt" the gun could fire, though hollow exploding shells were more common. The diameter of the bore, or "caliber", was 4.2 inches. The gun barrel alone weighed over two tons, so it was generally used only as a seige gun. The cannon is a "rifle", meaning there are spiral grooves cut on the inside of the barrel, causing projectiles to spin as they were fired. This gave greater range and accuracy. The 30-pounder had a range of 1 to 3 miles.
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On display: Bullets and relics (as soon as I can scan 'em)
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Battlefield photos!
Civil War money!
Flags for wargaming.