Battle Monument, United States Military Academy (click to enlarge)

Here are the ends of the cannon barrels that encircle the Battle Monument at the United States Military Academy.  The interesting thing is the different degree to which each of cannon have weathered.  The cannon are arranged in a circle, so they all receive different levels of sunshine and weather.

Combined, the Union and the Confederacy had 298,781 killed, wounded, captured or missing in these 16 battles.  That is pretty sobering when you consider that is about 1.5 times the strength of today’s Marine Corps.  Imagine the entire Marine Corps lost in less than a four year period….

Battle Monument, United States Military Academy: N41 23 40.94 W73 57 24.61