Fredericksburg, Etc.

We left Raleigh at 8:00 this morning and headed for DC. We planned to spend the afternoon exploring the separate pieces of the Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville Civil War battlefields. The material I read recommends that you start at the Fredericksburg Visitor's Center and make your way west and south. However, that would be totally opposite of the direction we are driving. So, we stopped first at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Shrine, which is the house where he died.

Here we are outside, reading about the event.


The house was actually the farm office and is the only surviving building on the property. They brought Stonewall here after his arm was amputated because it was very close to a railroad line, and they wanted to move him to Richmond. However, the rail service was disrupted when they got here, and by the time it was restored, Jackson was too ill with pneumonia to be moved.


This is the actual bed where Jackson died. It, the blanket on the end of the bed, and the clock in the room are original to the property.


Next, we drove through the town of Spotsylvania Court House, reading signs along the battlefield route. There isn't much really to get out and see there.

We stopped at the Chancellorsville Visitor's Center next, where Greg took these pictures.




Greg was going to take Landon's picture under this flag next, but as Landon walked over to the flag, Greg said, "Good. I'll have something to blackmail you with if you ever run for political office." Landon changed his mind. LOL!

Finally, we headed toward Fredericksburg. By this time, Carys was sleeping, so I sat in the van with her while the others went into the Visitor's Center.






We ate dinner at Fuddrucker's in Fredericksburg. Greg and I had eaten at one in Columbia, SC, years ago before we had any children. We thought they'd like it, and we were right.

I'm typing this from our hotel room in Arlington, VA. We're excited about the week to come. We have one small problem here. The parking for the hotel is a parking garage with a 7' clearance. We have a high-top conversion van that requires 8' clearance. The desk clerk said there is parking on the street behind the hotel. That works fine for now as parking is free beginning at 6 pm Saturday until 7 am Monday. Then, you have to put money in every 4 hours. I don't know how we'll do that when we're not there! There are 3 spots in the front for check-in parking, so Greg will be discussing this with the general manager Monday morning.