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Along that creek--you can see the picture here,
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an extraordinary photograph, actually taken in 1862,
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of four children, two of them wearing
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what are probably Union kepis hats
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and seven Union cavalrymen across the creek,
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as though they're at attention for the photographer.
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It's a remarkable picture of,
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it seems to me, the influence of war on the young.
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But it was along that creek
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on the 21st of July, 1861, a Sunday afternoon,
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that the first collision of amateur armies occurred,
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and the first major battle of the Civil War came about.