At times I thought this day would never get here (usually when I was climbing 70 steps to someone’s top floor), and yet today we go home! It has definitely been an exciting trip full of sweat, loads of laughter, a few tears, many aching muscles, lots of fun, interesting sights, and an occasional bit of road trip aggravation (especially on the way to the airport!).
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| Dr. Greer being our guide. Unlike other guides, we do not seem to intimidate him! |
We started the morning off headed to the Battle of Fredericksburg, where our own Dr. Greer became our guide to get us started. The Battle of Fredericksburg was one of four battles fought within a 17 mile radius.
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| Fredericksburg Museum |
It was a “resounding Confederate victory that left the fields around Fredericksburg blanketed with Union dead and wounded”. Led by Robert E. Lee, the Confederates held off Ambrose Burnside’s Union troops. The fighting took place in an area occupied by farmers, tradesmen, merchants, and families. These battles destroyed the land, homes, and countryside. The Battle of Fredericksburg fueled the debate of war and the “wisdom of emancipation”.
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| Sunken Road and bullet riddled interior wall |
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| Manassas Battlefield |
Our next stop was Manassas, also known as Bull Run. Northerners named battles after creeks and rivers, and Southerners named them after towns. Of all the battlefields we have been to, this one seems to have some of the most unusual of happenings. There were two significant battles at Manassas that shaped much of the war, but there were two happenings that make this battlefield most interesting (at least to me)!
- After 10 hours of battle, both sides realized this was not going to be neither an easy fight nor a short war. Interestingly as the Union troops led by Gen. Irvin McDowell passed through Washington, the citizens and congressmen with wine and picnic baskets followed them to the battlefield to watch, as if this was going to be a social entertainment for their pleasure. Then at the end of the battle when the same soldiers were trying to retreat they were slowed down due to the jammed roadway of the picnic groups heading back to Washington.
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| http://poemsfromthebattlefield.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/535/ |
- As help arrived to backup Col. Nathan Evans’ small group of men, a troop led by Bernard Bee was among them. You may have never heard of this gentleman, but he made a statement that changed the name and face of someone. He said, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians”. Do you have to guess what was so famous in what he said? That was how “Stonewall” Jackson got his nickname!
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