Tracking Down History

Russ and I have clearly been bitten by the Civil War bug. We get up as early as 6 am, I load my backpack, we grab hats and water and off we go, driving for miles to battlefields--some well known and some obscure. We take all the ranger tours at the parks, grilling them about the details of the battles and the personalities of the combatants. (Luckily the rangers are passionate about history and happy to have people who want to know more.) Hours later we return home--hot, tired, and sunburned--heads full of new information.  Russ has an advantage over me since he's been in the military and understands the weapons they used and the thinking behind the battle strategies. I muddle along, just trying to keep it all straight.

And then there's The Passport. Not the passport you get from the State Department but the National Park Service passport. Every time we enter a Visitors Center at a national park or historic site I stamp my passport. It's become a quest, with my Passport tucked into my backpack or purse no matter where we go. It sounds pretty nerdy but I'm not the only one--there are usually others lined up to stamp their books too. At this point, I've got a pretty impressive set of stamps, at least in the Mid-Atlantic Region. I'm surprised cities don't use the passport concept  which seems like an ideal way to increase tourism since it really gets people into exploring different attractions. 

Russ  by a cannon at the Gaines Mill Battlefield

Gettysburg is at one extreme of  battlefields--sophisticated visitors complex with an extensive and wonderful museum, restaurant, and large bookstore. At the other extreme are the battlefields that are basically unmarked or don't exist at all. As we drive towards a battlefield we're never quite sure what we'll find at our destination.  Two of the smaller battlefield parks we visited near Richmond were Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill, which were part of the Seven Days Campaign.

View of the house at Gaines Mill

At Gaines Mill we learned that like many others, the woman who owned the house  left before the battle and never returned to her home again. Most of the battles took place on farmland and in many instances, by the end of the battle any structures,  including the houses, were destroyed and the land was virtually unusable--pocked by artillery and littered with the most dreadful toll of death, perhaps even makeshift graves. The battle at Gaines Mill was Robert E. Lee's first victory of the Civil War but the number of casualties--15,500 dead, missing, wounded--was among the highest of the war. 

Confederates tried and failed to advance across this field

We had one of those great serendipity experiences when we visited the Malvern Hill battlefield.   It didn't look very promising when we drove up, just an older building in a small national cemetery. However when we went inside (to get my passport stamped!) we met Jason, the park ranger, who was as friendly as he was knowledgeable. As he gave us a history of the battle it was clear how passionate he was about history.  Malvern Hill is another of those battlefields where one side, in this case the Confederates, tried unsuccessfully to traverse a long stretch of open field--two miles in this case--without the benefit of any cover from Union fire.

Me with Jason

We ran into Jason again on the actual battlefield only this time our conversation included a young British guy who was starting a bike ride across the U.S.! Wow, we thought we were doing good to squeeze all our belongings into a 40' motorhome and here he had everything he needed strapped to his bike . It was his first time doing anything like this. He'd never even been to the U.S. before and now he was biking across the country to San Francisco. We had a great time comparing political notes on our two countries and hearing his take on Americans. When I imagine riding across country I think of well-traveled roads but it felt like we were literally in the middle of nowhere so it seemed odd to see him peddle off on a quiet little back road. Later that day a slow, steady rain starting falling causing us to hope that he had found shelter for what was the beginning of his long journey.

Taking off on his first day across America