Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!

 

The Sargeant Kirkland monument on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg.

The day after our visit to Washington Diet Coke (you see what I did there?) we travelled south to Fredericksburg, Virginia to see four Civil War battlefields in one day. Within a few short miles of each other, one can visit Fredericksburg (1862), Chancellorsville (1863), The Wilderness (1864) and Spotsylvania Court House (1864).

We left our base in Warrenton, Virginia and headed south on US17 to Fredericksburg, following my paper Rand Macnally map. I'd had enough of Siri sending me in the wrong direction time after time.

Our first stop in the town was at the Visitors' Center where we were able to get the lay of the land and directions for how to get to Marye's Heights. I knew the general direction of the ground but I was having a rough go of finding the correct road that leads to the battlefield visitors' center. Once there, we joined a park ranger tour of the Sunken Road area and snapped some of the pictures shown below.

The Sunken Road and stone wall which was occupied by the Confederates

This was the approach to the Sunken Road on Maryes Heights. In the mid distance you can barely make out a swale (depression) in the ground where advancing Union soldiers were pinned down by Confederate fire. Obviously none of these buildings were present at the time of the battle.

National Park Service ranger giving a tour of the battle at the Sunken Road.

One of the houses remaining from the fighting in the Sunken Road. 
Confederate general Cobb was mortally wounded from a piece of
artillery shrapnel while standing inside this house.

Lelia is taking a close up photo of the bullet holes that are still visible in the house.

While the Union assault on Marye's Heights gets all of the publicity about the battle, the battle of Fredericksburg was won or lost further to the south (right flank of the Confederate line held by Stonewall Jackson) on the high ground around Prospect Hill. 

Interpretive plaque illustrating the attack of Meade's division and its potential break through of the Confederate  line  commanded by Stonewall Jackson.

Some of the Conferate trenches in Jackson's line.

Another interpretive plaque showing the position of Confederate siege artillery at Howison Hill, part of  the Confederate right flank.

Representation of the Confederate battery on Howison Hill. A 30-pound Parrot on the left and a 12-pound howitzer on the right.

Confederate 30-pound Parrot siege cannon. Yikes! This gun is huge.

After viewing the area of Jackson's corps on the heights on the right flank, we ventured down to the open plain below, called the Slaughter Pen Farm area of the battle. Major General Meade's division attacked across this open ground towards Jackson's lines. There was a clump of woods sticking out like a salient, full of muck and mire, such that Jackson did not think that any troops could advance through such terrain. So he had the area lightly defended. Of course, this is precisely the point where Meade's attack broke through the Confederate line. However, Meade was not reinforced by the rest of the corps and so he was not able to solidify his lodgement in the Confederate line. The Confederate counter-attack eventually forced Meade to withdraw back to his starting point.

The Slaughter Pen Farm is a wide open tract of farmland that was preserved by the American Battlefield Trust (formerly called the Civil War Trust). Historian Ed Bearss called 208-acre Slaughter Pen Farm "one of the most significant tracts of land in the war". The ABT was able to raise the $12 million dollars needed to purchase the land and save it from developers, who wanted to build a light industrial park on the land. As you drive south from Fredericksburg on US1 towards Richmond, VA you pass vast tracts of land lost forever to light industrial buildings, schools, residential housing and other buildings. This is what would have happened to the Slaughter Pen Farm had the ABT not stepped in to purchase the land.

The first three pictures, below, provide a panorama of the battlefield, starting from left to right. The wooded area in the background is where the high ground was located - occupied by Jackson's Confederates.

Left view

Center view

Right hand view

The remains of the actual "Slaughter Pen" farm. Modern day barns and silos were razed so that the battlefield would look as it did in December 1862.

The Civil War Trust, Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, and other preservation groups erected plaques that list the names of all of the donors who collectively came up with the necessary funds to purchase the land.

I was one of the donors for this piece, and others, of land saved by the ABT. 

I encourage any of my readers with an interest in the American Civil War and historical land preservation efforts to click on the following link: American Battlefield Trust and just peruse through the web site to see what the organization has done to preserve land and to view current fund raising efforts. You don't have to donate any money, but if you are so inclined, then any amount, small or large is helpful. Even a $5 or $10 donation helps the ABT. Think of it as foregoing one cup of coffee from Starbucks for a week.

Map of the fighting on the Confederate right flank at the Slaughter Pen Farm.
Civil War Preservation Trust map.

NEXT POST: Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvanis C.H.

Shuffling Off to Washington DC

 

Click on all pictures to enlarge

Lelia and I took a break from traipsing ACW battlefields and visited our nation's capital, Washington DC. We also made a side trip to Mount Vernon to visit George Washington's home. More on that later. This was Lelia's first visit to Washington DC and so I got to enjoy seeing the city through her eyes. I hadn't been to the city in quite some time and so I had forgotten how spectacular The Mall looked.

It was a Saturday morning so the inbound traffic wasn't very bad. We were approaching the city from the Virginia side and there comes a moment when the road descends a hill and suddenly the whole city of Washington DC lies there in front of you. Lelia's look of astonishment at her first viewing of the city reminded me a bit of Dorothy seeing the Emerald City of Oz for the first time. Fortunately there were no flying monkeys involved in our travels.

First things first, we found a parking space along The National Mall about half way between the Capital Building and the Washington Monument. The impossible (parking) became possible. The Mall is designed so that the Capital Building, Washington Monument and Lincoln Monument are all in the same line of sight. The Washington Monument is in the middle of the Mall and the Capital and Lincoln Memorial are at opposite ends of the Mall. Thus, if you are in the middle standing at the Washington Monument you can turn and see the Capital Building on one side and then turn the other way and see the Lincoln Memorial.

I am posting pictures of the three buildings as they would line up:

Lelia in front of the Capital Building

The Washington Monument. 

The Lincoln Memorial

I'm serving my country by holding up the Washington Monument
and keeping it from toppling over.

One thing that caught my interest was the large number of food trucks that park in front of the Washington Monument. Food truck choices run the gamat from basic American fare (burgers, dogs and fries), Mexican, Greek, Middle Eastern, Chicken and finally, ICE CREAM! The ice cream trucks are particularly obnoxious because they play this one tune over and over and over and over and over and over and, get the point? I can still hear that tune playing in my head.

Food trucks by the score.

The Jefferson Memorial

The World War Two Memorial. There is a stone slab for each of the 50 states.

The World War Two Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial and the Reflection Pool

OK, I've been saving the best for last: our mile long trek to the Lincoln Memorial. It looked like a long way from our position next to the Washington Memorial and the temperature was very warm. Lelia was game to give it a try and she made it fairly easily.

We starting chatting with one of the park rangers at the giant statue of Abe Lincoln and he told us all about the history of the statue and what the symbolism of various elements represented. This serves as a reminder that when you are visiting any of the US National Park, talk to the park rangers and they will give you a lot of good information and history about the park that you are visiting.

Next stop - Mount Vernon!

Having seen most of the sights along the National Mall, we decided to drive to Mount Vernon, George Washington's house on the Potomac River. The GPS Gremlins were on the prowl again and they did their best to get me lost in some residential housing area nearby. After much gnashing of teeth and a few choice words, I was able to disable Siri and let my car GPS take us to the site.

The front facade of Mount Vernon

Some of the out buildings at Mount Vernon.

George's view of the Potomac River from his back porch.

Stained Glass Windows in the Mt. Vernon visitors center

Lelia say, "good bye, we will see you tomorrow at Fredericksburg

Harper's Ferry PTA

The Engine House where John Brown met his end.
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

Lelia and I left Antietem and took the long road off the beaten track to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The whole town is a "national park" and there is some ground on Bolivar Heights where Stonewall Jackson's Confederate Corps defeated the 11,000 strong Union garrison of Harper's Ferry.

Harper's Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Shenandoah River and the town is surrounded by high hills on all sides. The town is famous for several things: (1) John Brown's Kerfuffle began and ended here, and (2) there was a Federal armory that made firearms for the US Army. At the start of the Civil War, Union troops burned down the armory so that it would not fall into Confederate hands. The North figured that it couldn't hold Harper's Ferry against any Confederate attack. And they were right.

In September 1862, during Lee's invasion of the north, leading to the battle of Antietam, Stonewall Jackson's corp was tasked with capturing the garrison so that there would not be 11,000 Federal troops in the rear of the Confederate invasion of Maryland. Jackson's corps surrounded the town from the heights and that was pretty much the end of the ball game for the Union garrison. Jackson left AP Hill's division at Harper's Ferry while he marched with the rest of his corps to Sharpsburg to join up with the rest of Lee's army.

After the Civil War, the fortunes of the town were in steep decline as the Federal armory was not rebuilt and the age of the locomotive steam engine diminished the importance of commercial river traffic, thereby rendering the town obsolete.

I hadn't been here for at least ten years, likely longer, and the visitors' center had been moved quite a ways out of town over the intervening years. This means that you have to park your car at the visitors center and then take a shuttle bus into the town. The town seemed very crowded for a thursday afternoon. 

Other than the main street, which is on level ground, most of the town is situated on the hillside and the pitch of the streets is very steep. The stores are what I call the tourist trap variety, selling T-shirts and candy at exhorbitant prices. The terrain was tough going for Lelia (she has a physical disability) and the temperature was around 90-degrees Fahrenheit, so it was hard work going up and down the streets. Bring several bottles of water if you visit in the summer.

Here are a few of the pictures of the town that I took.

The Provist Marshal's headquarters. I liked all of the artificts
and the "moment in time" nature of the display.

The Harper's Ferry Ghost, in the mirror, decided to photo bomb my picture of Lelia.

The Engine House is very tiny. It is hard to imagine 18 men, of whom 16 died, holding out inside this building.
I would like to make a model of this building one day.

The inside of the two bays on the middle and right of the previous picture
of the exterior of the building. It's a tight squeeze inside and I tried to imagine 
18 men holed up in here and fighting. Only two survived the attack by the US Army.

The Potomac and Shenandoah rivers converge at Harper's Ferry.

One of the old bridges, probably destroyed during the Civil War.

Here are some pictures of some of the buildings on the main street in town. This is the only level street in Harper's Ferry. Every other street runs up hill at a steep pitch.

Harper's Ferry is an interesting town with an interesting history, but it is not a place that merits spending a lot of time visiting. Nevertheless, if you are visiting Antietam then you might as well spend part of the day visiting nearby Harper's Ferry. And don't forget to bring your sunscreen and water bottle. You will need both.

NEXT: Washington D.C.

Looking For Some Cee-gars At Antietem

 

Burnside's Bridge at Antietem Creek

We left Gettysburg after a two night stay and moved southward towards Sharpsburg, MD to visit the battlefield of Antietam. I am not going to present a potted history of the battle; that can be read Here . Antietem is probably the most complete and protected Civil War battlefield in the USA and because it is a bit off of the beaten track, is never crowded with visitors as compared to Gettysburg. The visitors' center is under construction so the only part open is the well-stocked book shop. I managed to find a treasure or two or five during the shopping phase of our visit.

Antietem National Military Park in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

We spent the night at a fine local Bed and Breakfast place called The Inn At Antietem

Lelia enjoying breakfast at the Inn At Antietam.

The breakfast was awesome (an over used word, but apropos in this case); consisting of Eggs Benedict with asparagus and sausage for the main course, grapefruit with maple syrup/brown sugar carmelized on the surface, and exquisite baked goods such as blueberry scones and mini-pecan squares.

We were well nourished for our tour of the battlefield in the hot sun. Remember to bring a bottle of water when you visit Antietam or any other battlefield. It seems like it has always been around 90-degrees Fahrenheit every time I visit this place.

We started our battlefield visit at the small visitor's center in the park. The facility is undergoing extensive renovation and enlargement so there is no overview film to watch for the first time visitor. A park ranger does give a 30 minute presentation outside the visitors' center and this proved to be very helpful. The visitors center is located on the high ground in what was the center of the Confederate battle line, so there is a very good view of all of the important features in the park. Across from the visitors center is the famous Dunker Church, seen below in the Gardner photograph and in situ present day.

Antietam Visitors Center display.

The Dunker Church at Antietem

After poking our noses into the Dunker Church (not much to see other than some church pews), we got into our car and drove to the north end of the battlefield where General Joe Hooker commenced the battle early in the morning with his I Corps attack through the Miller Cornfield.

The starting point of General Joe Hooker's First Corps attack from the North Woods into the Miller Cornfield

The Miller Wheatfield?
This plot of land is next to the famous cornfield. The East Woods can be seen in the center distance.

Our self drive tour of Antietem started in the northern section where Hooker's I Corps attacked. We made a stop at the famous Miller Corn Field, not much in the way of grown corn this time of year. We moved on to the East Woods and the Mumma Farm where Mansfield'd XII Corps assembled to attack the Confederate center.

Battlefield interpretive marker. American battlefields are well marked in this regard.

The Sunken Road in the Confederate center.

Confederate center looking towards the Sunken Road (located near the tower on the right).

The Sunken Road

The Sunken Road position. Note how the rise in the ground on the other side of the
fences rises and could hide the advance of Union soldiers marching towards this position.

You cannot see the "sink'" in the Sunken Road in this picture. The hollow lies between the two rows of snake rail fencing and runs all the way to the observation tower in the distance. Unfortunately the tower was closed.

This portion of the tour covered everything but the area where Burnside's IX Corps attacked the Confederate left flank at the bridge that now bears his name: Burnside's Bridge. We visited the bridge the next day and then moved on to visit Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

NEXT UP: Harper's Ferry and Washington DC