Civil War History

Today, we decided to see some of the Civil War battlefields. We started with the battlefield at Fredericksburg. This was the scene of a lopsided victory for General Lee and the Confederate forces. After walking parts of the battlefield, it was easy to see why. Lee’s army was dug in behind the stone wall you can see in the picture. In addition, they had artillery set up on the hill behind them (off the right hand side of the picture). The Union army tried to dislodge the Confederates by charging across about a quarter mile of open field (off the left hand side of the picture)—I guess General Burnside, the man in charge of the Union army at the time, decided it would be a good day to let the Confederate army use his own men for target practice. The house in the picture is one of the few surviving houses from the time of the battle. You can still see many of the holes the musket-balls made in its exterior and interior walls.

After spending about an hour and a half at Fredericksburg, we headed off to the battlefield at Chancellorsville. Again, this was the sight of a victory for the Confederates. However, the victory came at a cost. Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops. After having one of his arms amputated, he contracted pneumonia and died about a week later. It started raining shortly after we got to the battlefield, but we were able to see many of the sights from inside the car. There were signs at roadside turnouts, and we could see many of the earthworks through the trees.

After visiting the two battlefields, we headed north, hoping to do some wine-tasting at one of Virginia’s vineyards. Our first stop, Piedmont Vineyards and Winery, was closed. The picture below was taken while we were on our way to another vineyard nearby. (No, I wasn’t actually driving while taking the picture.) We don’t usually make a practice of having L in the front seat with us; however, L was getting restless in the backseat and our next stop was only a few miles away. L has traveled amazingly well over the past few days. Hopefully, he won’t have re-occuring nightmares of being strapped in a carseat.

We had more luck on our second stop. The people at Chrysalis Vineyards were open for business. We tasted some of their wines and ended up buying a few bottles. The pictures below were taken while we were driving the Virginia back roads looking for the vineyards.