Petersburg

More battlefields. Yay. My visiting of battlefields is kind of in chronological order. The Union chased/pushed the Confederates to the south. Grant fought Lee in northern Virginia. Unlike previous generals, Grant wouldn't retreat. The north had so many more men, Grant figured he would just wear him down.

The were the four battlefield battles I saw a couple days ago. Then I went to one called North Anna today. Its not a real well known one, but it was fun. It had four miles worth of trails that I ran on. Even if there wasn't any history there, I like running on the trails. Its the only way I can think of that I enjoy getting back to nature. Overall, I don't like nature, but running on the trails is fun. I would stop every once in a while to read a historic sign. I only saw one other person the whole time.

Then I went toward Petersburg where Lee just hunkered down for about 9 months and Grant hunkered down with him. I happened to notice my namesake, Libby Prison, on a map. I knew it didn't exist anymore, so its location usually isn't marked on maps. I had to ask for some directions, but then I found it. They had a marker and they had rebuilt one wall just to give an idea of its size. It was in Richmond, right on the banks of the James River.

Petersburg turned out to not be my favorite city. Getting lost didn't help. One person working at a site seemed lazy and incompetent. The city just isn't very pretty. Sorry, Petersburg. I did get to the The Crater. The Union guys had an idea to dig a tunnel under the Confederate lines and blow a hole in it. That did work and the North rushed in, but then got stuck in the crater and got massacred.

On that fun note I ended my day and went to Waffle Hut. One day left of my Virginia adventure.