Virginia Vacation

We took a week for vacation on the way to our Maryland MMAP project, stopping at

the  towns of Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, with battlefields during the Revolutionary War; and the towns of Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg, battlefields during the “War of Northern Aggression”.

Jamestown had a beautiful setting, being on an island in the James River (the English name for it).  This is now a national park.  

The James Fort was built in 1607.  It was the first permanent English colony in the New World.

A dedication ceremony to commemorate the 300th anniversary in 1907, included the building of the Tercentenary Monument, as well as the Memorial Church.  

Three churches have been built prior to this one on this same site, with foundations still exposed.

The church tower was built in 1600’s.

A lot of excavation has been going on since 1994.  Dr. William Kelso began the project, and is still involved in the current excavation projects.  Little did I know when I took this picture, that this was the man himself!

Some bodies have been found buried in the state house.  It is thought they wanted to hide the number of how many had been killed from the Indians, so they did not know the numbers were dwindling.

A highlight was being able to see two eagle babies, eight weeks old.  You can see their heads together on the left of the 14 year old nest.  We saw them more clearly through a telescope, 

Nearby, Jamestown Settlement, is  a museum of 17th century Virginia.

It included a replica of an Indian village 

and an exact replica of the settlers village

There are also full-sized replicas of the three ships that brought the settlers.

The Susan Constant

Godspeed

and Discovery

Yorktown

We drove through the battlefield of Yorktown, discovering how much the French helped out the new settlers.

We stopped in town, walked along the bordwalk, and stopped to have brunch,

a great crab omelet!

Then visited the Yorktown Victory Center, a Museum of the American Revolution.

They staged a reenactment of the firing of a cannon.

Main Street was quite a walk up from the bay

A memorial was at the end of the main street,

which also had a lot of the original homes, 

as well as this customs house

Williamsburg

The day we visited Williamsburg, it was raining off and on.  But it was still warm, and we had a great time.  We took the tour of the Govenor's palace

It was so ornate!!

and the House of Burgesses

We walked through the town.

 and toured the Goal, the jail along with the home of the jailer.

We also enjoyed some  demonstrations; 

Martha Washington visiting,

General LaFayette delivering the news of British surrender at Yorktown

and former slave, GowanPamphlet, shared his vision for the black Baptist church.

We ended the day by having dinner at the Kings Inn Tavern and enjoyed both the food and the ambiance.

Spotsylvania

Within 17 miles, there are sites of four horrendous battles.  We only had time to see two of the battlefields.

To be at the site of a battlefield where you could really see the contour of the land and imagine the troops on each side, facing each other, is an amazing experience.  This was one of those places.  In the picture it is hard to see the contour.  The hand-to-hand and close fighting along with the Union attacks testing the Confederate line for several days, known as “the Mule Shoe” salient and the Bloody Angle, made this a particularly hard battle. 

It took me by surprise when I read this was a monument in honor of the Union soldiers.

Confederate cemetery  

Fredericksburg

It was also easy to visualize the sunken road and the battle that raged along it.

In the end, the soldiers were human.  This monument honors a young Confederate soldier who gave water to a fallen Union soldier.

The interior of a house along the road still shows bullet holes on the door and wall

The battle here dealt a painful blow to the Union army.  For eight union loses, there was one confederate.

A monument named Union General Meade, known as Meade’s Temple.

Confederate soldiers used the railroad in front of it as cover.

Outside of town, the Chatham Manor is now offices for the National Park Service. 

It was built by Mrs. Robt. E. Lee’s grandparents.  We learned of the history and stories of the families that lived there.

We enjoyed learning and seeing the history of the area. Seeing an area known for its history makes it come alive. 

Our last day of vacation!  We planned nothing outside the rig. It rained off and on, and Paul was able to work on some plumbing issues, get some reading done, and relax a bit, while I spent most of the day on the computer!  We are now in  Maryland ready to start our MMAP project on Monday morning.