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Published: September 19th 2012
Diorama at Fredericksburg
This shows how the city fared after the battleSaturday morning and it was time to leave DC. It was nice to stay in the one spot for a while, but the south was calling. I headed into Virginia. I hit some heavy traffic as I left the expressway to get fuel (or gas as they call it here) but overall it was a pretty smooth run to my first destination – Fredericksburg.
Once again, I was diverting from the Revolutionary War into the Civil War. In the area around Fredericksburg there were 4 major battles fought during the Civil War, so I had decided to spend the day looking around. My first stop was the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitors Centre. Again, the battlefield is a national park, and the visitors centre featured a small museum and a short film narrated by James Earl Jones. I had a look around the museum before the film began, but didn’t get to see it all. The film, though, set the scene nicely and gave me a good idea of why the battle happened, and what it involved. Fredericksburg was supposed to be a Union victory so that Lincoln could make the Emancipation Proclamation (freeing the slaves in the south), but
The Sunken Road
The Confederates used the stone wall as a defense against the Union forces. They never reached the wall. it was not to be (he did make the proclamation, but had to do so without the victory that would give it extra force). Stonewall Jackson had blocked the main Union thrust on the Confederate right flank, and what was supposed to be a diversionary attack on their left flank descended into a slaughter as the Union forces attacked a well-defended position.
With the film over, there was a ranger named Chuck outside to give a small talk and tour of the battlefield. Chuck gave a really interesting tour which even involved having all of us marching in two lines between the sites. It was a pretty poor attempt at marching though. The battlefield today mostly consists of Robert E. Lee’s position on “the sunken road” behind a stone wall, from which his troops unleashed hell on the Union troops attacking from the town of Fredericksburg. The Union positions were in the town itself, so are not part of the park.
At the end of the tour, Chuck told us about what was happening at the other sites near Fredericksburg. I decided to head over to the only other site with a visitors centre,
House on Fredericksburg battlefield
This house was one of the only pieces of cover for the Union forces Chancellorsville. Despite the name, Chancellorsville is not a town, but the name of a farm where the battle was fought. The battle is famous for two reasons. First, it is considered by some to be Robert E. Lee’s finest battle (he was the loser at Gettysburg). Second, it is where Lee’s right-hand man Stonewall Jackson was shot before dying some days later.
The visitors centre is situated in the middle of a beautiful bit of forest, which is similar to how the battlefield was at the time. It was this cover that helped Lee’s smaller army beat the larger Union army. I arrived just before there was another ranger talk/tour. So I had a quick look around before I saw the ranger head out. I followed her out to the starting place. As it turned out, I was the only one interested in the tour, so it was just Beth and me. Which was really good, actually, because the tour ended up being just a really informative conversation.
The tour didn’t go far, because all of the major sites aren’t really a short walk from the visitors centre. The only one that we did
visit was the site where Stonewall Jackson was shot. The poor bugger had been scouting ahead of the Confederate lines and was shot by his own men as he returned. He died some days later of pneumonia, but Beth said that his injury (which included having his left arm amputated) probably meant his body wasn’t able to fight the illness. All in all, it was an informative and enjoyable talk. When we were finished, I headed inside the visitors centre to look around the rest of the museum and watch the short film they had.
When I was done, it was time to drive down to Williamsburg where I was going to spend the next three nights. It was almost 2 hours away, and even though it was expressway the whole way, it was a really nice drive through wooded terrain. I found my hotel and discovered that right next door was a Hooters restaurant. I decided to have dinner there because I’d not been to one before, and it was the only restaurant I could see near the hotel. It was pretty tasty, and the view wasn’t bad either.
I was staying at
Diorama of Stonewall Jackson being shot
Unfortunately, I didn't have the inside lens on the camera, so it's quite dark. Williamsburg for three nights because there are two very important historical sites near the town, and Williamsburg itself has plenty of history. But I was here to visit both Jamestown (the first permanent English settlement in North America) and Yorktown (the final battle of the Revolutionary War) which essentially represent the beginning and the end of British colonial rule in the U.S. And they are about 20 miles apart – probably less as the crow flies.
I wasn’t sure which one to visit first, so I asked the lady at the hotel if one was better to visit on Sunday or Monday and she didn’t know. She recommended I ask at the Williamsburg visitors centre. So my first destination on Sunday morning was there. I asked there, but they were pretty sketchy on both sites, being more focussed on Williamsburg. So I figured I’d head out to Yorktown because that was the one I most wanted to see. At Yorktown in 1781, a British army was expecting reinforcement by sea when they were besieged by a joint American-French army. The siege was completed by the French fleet forcing the British flee to turn back to New York.
This ended hostilities in the Revolutionary War, but the peace treaty wasn’t signed until two years later, in Paris.
The drive out to Yorktown was short, but absolutely stunning. The road is not like a proper road, but is surfaced with… I’m not sure what you call it, but it is concrete filled with pebbles, or at least with pebbles on the surface. And the road (technically, it was a parkway) winds through a beautiful landscape of forest and waterways. Unfortunately, you can only stop at designated spots so I was limited in my photo-taking.
In short order, I arrived at Yorktown battlefield visitors centre. As it turned out, I had definitely made the right decision. Sunday was the one day a month that they have live cannon firing. And shortly after I arrived, one was about to happen. But first, there was time to check out the obligatory movie, which was also interesting. Then I joined a lot of other people to listen to a volunteer in period costume give us a talk before leading us out to the 18-pounder (18 pounds refers to the ball that is fired, not the cannon, which
was more like 3,000 pounds). Outside there were some more volunteers that were dressed in the uniform of Continental Army artillerymen. They fired the cannon twice, with some talking in between by the first guy, and then we were able to go and have a closer look and talk to the crew. I didn’t talk to them but I hung around and listened while some others asked questions. As it turns out, they are not ever allowed to fire projectiles yet somehow know that it makes a different sound, and they actually featured briefly in the movie “Gettysburg”.
After that I had a quick look around the British defences and through the museum, before purchasing the audio tour CD and heading out to drive around. The CD tour was quite well done, although unlike the one up at Saratoga, the CD expected you to pause while driving between some of the stops. For some reason, the CD player in my car has no pause button so I had to make do with turning the stereo off. But the tour took in the French and American positions, the British redoubts taken by the allies, the Moore house where
Boom!
The 18-pounder being fired at Yorktown the British surrender was negotiated and the field that became known as Surrender Field when the British marched out and surrendered their arms there.
It was a nice mix of history and scenery. I was tempted to go on the longer drive (without the audio tour) to visit the site of the French and American encampments, but I was running out of day and I wanted to check out the Yorktown Victory Centre. The centre is not part of the National Park, but is apparently funded by the state of Virginia. I drove over there and when I bought tickets, the lady said that as I was a late arrival (half-past three) I could come back tomorrow. As it turned out, I didn’t find I needed any more time. The centred included an example of a colonial farm, a museum with a film, and an example of a military encampment. It was interesting and quite well done, but I didn’t feel I needed more time when I left at closing time.
So on Monday it was Jamestown. I wasn’t as interested in Jamestown as I was in Yorktown, so I was late in leaving
the hotel because I wanted to finish a good book I was reading. But I headed out and the drive was almost as scenic as the one to Yorktown. As I got close to Jamestown, the scenery featured a few swampy areas, which are in fact one of the reasons why the colony there struggled (and why the local Native Americans didn’t live there). I headed into the visitors centre and did the usual drill – looked around the museum while waiting for the ranger tour/talk. This time I would have to wait until the end to go and watch the film.
The ranger that gave our tour was great. She said she was hyped up on coffee and I don’t think she was lying. The 30 minute tour went for an hour because she had so much to say. At times she was a bit all over the place with her tales, but they were entertaining and she clearly loved her job. Jamestown was first settled by the English in 1607 (they weren’t “British” yet) and was home to one of the famous Disney tales – Pocahontas. The reality wasn’t really a fairy tale as she
travelled to England where she promptly died of some disease. But I guess there was one before that point, when she married one of the English settlers.
Most interesting to me was that Jamestown continues to be an active archaeological site. So far they have found something like a million and a half pieces, and discovered the location of the original fort built by the settlers, and they expect there is a lot more to find. After looking around the reconstructed fort and archaeology pits, I headed over to the museum that holds some of the best finds from the site. It was quite interesting.
I finished up at Jamestown by having a sandwich in the café, watching the film in the visitors centre and having a drive around the island (Jamestown is sort of a peninsula/island in the James River). I decided I had seen enough and headed back to the hotel to write up my next blog entry.
However, it was not to be. When I tried to boot up my laptop, it would not do so. I left it to do a system repair while I enjoyed a
burger over at Hooters (Monday night is Burger night!) and when I returned, it was still not going anywhere. Just what I needed. Somewhat fortunately, I didn’t really feel like doing much the next day so I decided to go laptop shopping.
So today (Tuesday) I checked out of my hotel in Williamsburg and headed over to Best Buy to see what I could see. I ended up picking up the lightest laptop they had – a Toshiba Ultrabook Protégé with a solid state drive. It’s lighter than my old laptop, despite having a bigger screen. From there I headed to the post office to send home some of the souvenirs I have bought, had some lunch and then drove into Richmond where I would be staying the night. The drive was not as pleasant as it was on Saturday because it absolutely bucketed down. The rain was so heavy I had trouble seeing the cars in front of me at times. But I arrived at the hotel at half-past two and was able to check in and spent the afternoon setting up my new laptop. I also gave my Dad a ring.
Tomorrow
The Moore House
Where the British surrender was negotiated I embark upon the big drive south through North and South Carolina, Georgia and into Florida. In just a week’s time, the road trip will be over and it will be on to Vegas!
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Jenny
non-member comment
You're not wrong about the scenery being stunning! Love the pic at Yorktown near the American Supply Depot, beautiful. It would be so tempting to just take pics of scenery all the time. At least you are getting good tour guides on your tours....makes the visit really doesn't it. Very ironic that both you and Dad have bought lap tops on your overseas trips!