Petersburg and Hopewell, Virginia

After Don had his last Kung Fu fight with Alex and CJ, (in which they stuffed foam rubber packing material from a Christmas package under their shirts) I snapped a picture of the whole family and we bid goodbye to Colin, Leslie, and the kids in Richmond.

Alex and CJ try to give themselves the advantage over Grandpa with foam padding under their shirts.

Colin, Leslie, Alex and CJ Chapman

Bittersweet Goodbyes.

The weatherman was talking about an ice storm coming up from the south, directly in our path. Since we had no desire to drive icy roads, we went only about an hour and spent a couple days in Petersburg, Virginia.



There is a lot of Civil War history in the Petersburg area, so it was a good place to wait things out. It was also a very educational stop.

Petersburg is the location of the longest siege of the Civil War, lasting for 10 months. The Northern army knew if it could take Petersburg, Richmond would quickly fall and the war would be over. They did not expect it to take more than a few days.

However, as one lady in Petersburg told us, the North did not bargain on how stubborn Petersburg folks were.

It was a bloody battle that killed many local residents in their own homes and yards due to close range shelling. As the battle drug on, the North cut off the five railroads that come into Petersburg, eliminating the ability of the Confederate troops and local residents to get supplies.

As time went on, they told us that pigeons disappeared off the streets, then dogs and cats, finally the rats. People were starving and needed to resort to whatever means available to stay alive.

When Petersburg did finally fall, the North quickly took Richmond and then Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox and the four-year long war that had killed 600,000 soldiers was finally over. (See blog posting, “Appomattox Court House, Virginia.”)

When we were in Old Town Petersburg, we visited the Siege Museum that was in the old Commodities and Exchange Building. The building itself was around 150 years old. We watched a movie there about the Siege that was quite informative.

We also toured the Petersburg Battlefield on a driving tour. It always amazing to me to see the battlefields and realize that during this war, the fighting very often was virtually hand-to-hand in very close quarters.

Barricades in preparation of hand-to-hand combat.

One of the most interesting and rather strange things that happened on the Petersburg Battlefield, was called The Crater.




The North came up with a plan to tunnel under the Confederates battleline with a tunnel, fill it with explosives, and then blow it up. After all, a lot of soldiers had been miners and were familiar with digging tunnels and explosives, so it should work well, right?

So they dug this long tunnel and prepared to fill it with explosives.




However, political correctness came into play even then as it does today. The soldiers with expertise in this type of work were black. What if the plan didn’t work and people got hurt? "It wouldn’t look good if all the casualties were all black, would it?"




So they had the white soldiers, without any experience blowing things up, finish the project. Did no one see the folly of this plan??? Apparently not.

Depression in ground are where there were air vents in the lengthy tunnel.

Crater where the tunnel exploded.

Well, blow, it did…to smithereens, actually, killing and wounding a large number of troops, some Confederates, but mostly the Federal troops. The Northern army was in such shock, they just stood and stared at the scene, which gave the Confederates time to regroup and attack again.




We also drove through Blanford Cemetery, which holds many graves from the Civil War period as well as current burials. It is a very large cemetery.

Blanford Cemetery, graves of Civil War era deceased.

The next day we visited Grant's Headquarters in Hopewell, Virginia, a short distance from Petersburg. It overlooks the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers. The property has a house that was occupied by Grant’s chief officer while Grant occupied a very small cabin nearby.

Grant's Chief Officer's House

River View from the House.

Grant's Cabin

It was a damp and foggy day when we were there, hence the foggy-looking pictures. Grant’s cabin is pretty much like it was when he and his family lived there, basically small and sparse.

This and the following pictures are of the inside of Grant's cabin.

Grant's Desk

View from the cabin window of the river.

This is a duplicate of the design Grant had on the window shades.

How often would we see this today, where the number one officer in something as significant as the Civil War would live in a small, very modest dwelling and give the large house to his “assistant?” Hmmm!

The River approaching the property.

Presidential Homes

Well, we have been “off the grid” for a while and I haven’t been blogging, due to illness and 'busy-ness'…at least that is my excuse. However, after spending a month with Colin, Leslie and the grandkids, everyone is well again, Don and I are back on the road and I am back on the computer.

When we were in Richmond we had a wonderful Christmas with the kids and then everyone started dropping like flies with whatever was going around…twice for most folks. Was once not enough? I certainly thought so!

We wanted to do some fun things with the kids when they were out of school, but due to The Plague, or whatever it was that we had, that plan just wasn’t possible. As a result we took them out of school for a day and visited Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home, a couple hours away from Richmond.




The adults in the house all agreed that they would probably learn more history on that one day than they would in school, so off we went. Please do not call their teachers and rat us out!



A chilly day at Mt. Vernon for Grandpa and the kids.

Alex and CJ meet George and Martha.

Mt. Vernon is a wonderful place to visit. There are enormous grounds you can walk around on that I’m sure are unbelieveably beautiful in spring or summer. And, of course, there is the tour of Mt. Vernon itself, the large home that George and Martha and their children lived in.


In addition to several out buildings, kitchen, smoke house and many others, the Washington’s are also buried on the grounds.



Mt. Vernon

Potomoc River from the front porch of Mt. Vernon.

Relax on the porch and gaze at the scenery at Mt. Vernon.

Kitchen and Smoke House at Mt. Vernon.

Path to the cemetery at Mt. Vernon.

Tomb of George and Martha Washington.

In recent years they have built a beautiful museum that is amazing. There are life-sized reproductions in addition to wonderful pictures, of people involved in various activities surrounding the life and times of Washington.


There is also a full display on the subject of George Washington’s teeth. Mr. Washington had severe dental problems that he battled his whole life, and he did have rather primitive set of false teeth, but no, his teeth were NOT made of wood.

One of the things that I always regret when going to the homes of historic figures or museums such as this one, is the prohibition on taking pictures, especially of the really interesting stuff. I really wanted to show you George’s teeth. Sorry, but as usual, they said, “No pictures of the teeth!”

George Washington had a keen interest in exotic animals and so arranged to have a camel brought to Mt. Vernon at Christmas time. Now as part of the current Christmas celebrations, one is brought there every Christmas to carry on the tradition. “Aladdin” found Alex and CJ of great interest and checked them out rather closely.

"Aladdin"

"How about a little Christmas kiss, Sweetie?"

One of the activities at Mt. Vernon at Christmas is the demonstration of making of chocolate the way Martha Washington and her slaves would have done it long ago…an extremely labor-intensive process.




On this particular day, they then took the finished product and made it into hot chocolate although it was not as strong as if Martha would have made it back in the day. It was also slightly sweeter, but not by much. They passed out small samples for all of us to try.

Alex and CJ, who normally love hot chocolate, thought they were being poisoned, as it was much stronger than they were used to and barely sweet at all, certainly not what their mom makes for them.




I wish I had a picture of their faces when they tasted it! Needless to say, they did not finish the tiny little cup of hot chocolate they were given and did not ask for seconds.

If you ever get a chance to visit Mt. Vernon, it is worth every minute you can spend there. The house itself sits on a hill overlooking the Potomac River, a beautiful setting. Add to that an immense amount of American history, and …well, I just hope sometime you can go and spend an entire day there!

After the kids went back to school, Don and I decided to visit some of the other President’s homes since we “were in the neighborhood.”




The state of Virginia produced a total of eight Presidents early in the life of our nation. Some of them were virtually neighbors and friends.

The next Presidential home we visited was that of James Madison, called Montpelier. It is near Charlottesville, Virginia and is a huge and very beautiful estate. Most of these men were quite wealthy and large landholders at the time that they became President.




Most of them also owned a lot of slaves to work the estate and amazingly, most often they also died penniless.

Montpelier

Long pathways lead to the house.

Bronze statue of the Madison's under the trees on the lawn.

The guide we had at James Madison’s home was a delight. He was extremely knowledgeable and an avid history buff. We, and a few other folks touring with us, hung on his every word and asked him a lot of questions because he made it so very interesting.


James Madison and family members were also buried on the property.

Grave of President Madison.

Next on the list was the home of James Monroe. He lived only two miles from Thomas Jefferson and they were good friends.


However, unlike Jefferson and Madison, James Monroe was not a very wealthy man nor did he have an large or opulent estate, but lived in a rather small and simple farmhouse. He had a few slaves, but he didn’t need many to maintain his more modest property.

The James Monroe home.

James Monroe statue on the grounds of the home.

Back of the home.

Bust of James Monroe in the garden.

While Don and I were still raving to each other about the wonderful tour guide we had had at the home of James Madison, the guide at the Monroe house was as bad as the Madison guide was good.




That was a disappointment, of course. Although we learned a lot that we didn’t know about Monroe, we knew that much more information was available, but our guide was rather sleepy and seemed poorly informed herself.

Outbuildings on the property

The following day we went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home.


This is another one of those amazingly huge and beautiful estates, and again this time we had a great tour guide. We had actually visited here several years ago, but being the old folks we are, we really didn’t remember much about it, so were glad to see it all again and be reminded.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Home.

Rear of Monticello.

Jefferson’s estate was so large that he had some 300 slaves. He had a vegetable garden that was 1,000 feet long. It takes a lot to feed that many people and of course, there were many dignitaries and guests that they must entertain and feed as well.

The One Thousand Foot Gardens.

There were long hallways under the house where there were kitchens, "bathrooms" (of sorts), wine and beer storage rooms and other rooms necessary to the running of the estate.

Wings on both sides of the house covers long hallways that run the length of the house and both wings.

Inside the tunnels under the house.

There is also a sizeable cemetery on the estate where not only is Thomas Jefferson and his immediate family buried there, but a large number of extended family members. Some of his descendents still alive today are eligible to be buried there when they pass away.

Jefferson Cemetery

After leaving Monticello, there is an old historic tavern very near by, Mackie Tavern, where we stopped for a lunch of Southern style food.


Mackie Tavern was a fun place because it is where the travelers and our founding fathers would stop when passing through, spend the night, eat and drink. All the servers were in period dress and would come by and bring you seconds on anything you wanted. It was a bit different than lunch at McDonald's with the grandkids.

Mackie Tavern