Chiefy

After leaving the D.C. area we went straight north to Gettysburg. This battlefield is always worth a visit for me and a guided tour by a ranger is worth a little extra money. Marilyn did it on horseback the first day and joined myself and John on the tour on the second day. What is it about women and horses? My mind is reeling with theories and I'm not sure I should talk about them here. There is a new visitors center too. This was a three day battle on July 1,2, and 3 of 1863. John, our tour guide was very good. As you can see, he is a little guy. I think Marilyn is a little taller and she is only 5'4". It was considered a Union victory but just barely since Lee's army ... read more

A guy could spend a lot of time in Virginia. We moved over to the east yesterday to a different park. It is very nice. We are about 30 miles from Washington DC to the northeast near Annapolis. But yesterday I went solo down to Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville which are just to the north of Richmond. These were both pivotal battles during the Civil War. Fredericksburg was a devastating Union loss in December of 1862. Ambrose Burnside was in command and pretty much incompetent just like all of Lincolns generals until he found U.S. Grant. He sent his army across the Rappahannock River up hill toward the Confederate army that was perched nicely on high ground and behind a stone wall. What a loser. A flanking maneuver would have been better. General Lee could not believe ... read more

It is very difficult to get through Virginia. There is so much history here as well as government stuff. Anyway, the RV park we are at right now is only a few miles from the Bull Run Battlefield. It was the first big battle of the Civil War fought in the summer of 1861. Everyone thought the war would be over in a month. Civilians from nearby towns even took carriage rides with blankets and picnic baskets to watch the battle thinking it might be kinda fun. It was a real wake up call to the whole nation. It would not be over quickly and it would cost many lives. In fact about 620,000 all total over 4 years. This battle started out to be a Federal victory but the tide turned and the Confederates ended ... read more

oops, it looks like I did my blog entries a little out of order. Before we went to Appomattox we went to the Yorktown battle field. This was significant because it was more or less the final battle of the Revolutionary Warand Cornwalis had to surrender to Washington. The earthworks here are still very well defined. In a nutshell Washington out maneuvered Cornwalis and Clinton but there were other factors that worked in his favor. One was the weather in that it got bad and kept Cornwalis from getting his men across the York River to escape and also the French showed up finally and had the port blockaded. I am told that Mel Gibson in the movie "Patriot" had it pretty much all wrong but that is typical of Hollywood now isn't it. ... read more