Fredericksburg Battlefield

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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 what he was seeing because it was such a dumb thing to do. "it is good that war is so terrible, for we should grow too fond of it" he said from the heights. Now Chancellorsville in May of the next year was where the Confederate army lost Stonewall Jackson and that was very significant because without him, things did not go as well for the south. Oddly enough he was shot by his own men in a very rare night attack attempt. They had to amputate his left arm and he died a few days later of pneumonia. General Lee said that Jackson has lost his left arm but I have lost my right referring to how much Jackson was needed. So, we will spend the 4th of July weekend here playing tennis and take a break from the sight seeing. We head north toward Gettysburg on Monday.

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