Fredricksburg

Its Day 2 of my trip to Virginia. I'm mostly here to visit Civil War battlefields. I'm going to hike and run trails through the battles. I'm by myself because there aren't a lot of people that would think that fun. I think it is a ton of fun, however. They have routes where you can drive a lot of it in your car. I saw some of it that way, but by getting out onto the field itself you really understand what was happening.

Today is four different battles - all big, important ones. Here we go.

Fredricksburg This is one of the best to visit. The North crossed the Rappahonnock River on pontoon bridges they built, and marched through the city. It slopes up from the river to a stone wall the southern troops were behind. For the last part there was no more city - just open pasture up to the wall. The South mowed down the North. The North made several attempts, but it was a bloodbath. No one even reached the wall.

The wall is still there. Some has been rebuilt, but some is just as it was. The city also looks a lot like it was. I jogged down to the river and then jogged back up the hill to see what it was like for the North. It was tiring, but luckily I wasn't being shot at.

Chancellorsville - Lee pulled out of Fredricksburg and went to Chancellorsville. It isn't as good for tourists, because the battle lines kept shifting, so it makes it kind of hard to follow. Right by the visitor center is where Stonewall Jackson was shot. I mean like twenty yards away. He rode up a ways, then came back. He was accidentally shot by his own men. He rode a few yards and then they took him off his horse. All that is marked out.

Wilderness - This was the beginning of the end for the South. Wildnerness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomatox. Grant would fight Lee. Lee would have to retreat, then Grant would chase him and fight him again. One thing I've always read about this battle is that the brush caught fire and there were many of the wounded that couldn't get away from the fire and burned to death. It was easy to see how that could happen.

Spotsylvania - It had a section known as "The Bloody Angle". Not to be morbid, but I really enjoyed seeing that. Both sides lost tons of people in this small area.

At the end I saw the small house where they had taken Jackson and where he died.

This was all about an hour's drive north of Richmond, but all four battles were probably only 20 or 30 miles apart.