Battlefield America!

Starting Point: May 28, Stafford/Quantico, VA

Today: May 29, Fort Lee/Hopewell, VA

Miles: 131-ish

I got to spend the whole day with my husband! And we didn't HAVE to do anything, except get him to Ft. Lee at some point that day - a mere 1.25 hour drive. That is... until I got to plan the route!

We decided we needed to visit all of the National Battlefield Parks between Quantico and Hopewell - which if we were in California or say Oklahoma would be easy.... but we are in the heart of Civil War country so there were 3 of them - and all of them huge, with multiple parts separated by miles and miles and miles!

We started off at Chatham Manor, an amazing home with a crazy history, sitting atop a hill overlooking the river and Fredericksburg.

From there we went to the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center. Here we walked along a trail and saw Sunken Road, Stone Wall, the Innis House and the cemetery.

The Stonewall Jackson Shrine was next. I had driven past it the day before, on my way to Chad's graduation and he told me "oh yeah! That's where Jackson's amputated arm is!" Boy, was I disappointed when we got there! His arm was no where to be found! The place wasn't even open! Come to find out this is where all the rest of Jackson died... of phenomena... oh well...

After the shrine letdown we went over to the Richmond National Battlefield Park. We found this cool battlefield out in the middle of nowhere, Malvern Hill, but no visitor center or information. So we went off in search of Fort Harrison Visitor Center... which alas was closed... so we just headed further south.

Our last stop was Petersburg National Battlefield Park - and this place was awesome. We started at Fort Harrison where we saw earthworks on a scale you can't imagine without seeing! Also, this is home to "the Dictator" a massive cannon that shot 225lb shells!

Then we went on the driving tour, where we took a short walk.... a walk that was supposed to be a 10 minute, half mile... but turned into a 35 minute lost mile and a half... weeeeeeee.... Luckily it was a beautiful day and the scenery was wonderful - we even saw a snake and a few cardinals.

Our very last stop of the day was at the Crater. This was the place where the Federals dug and exploded a mine deep under the Confederate line! You can still see the crater and the mine opening from the event! This was a great quote from the interpretive sign:
“It is agreed that the thing was a perfect success, except that it did not succeed.”
- Major Charles F. Adams, Jr., USA

All in all we had a pretty good day full of history. Nothing like turning a 1.25 hour drive into a 8 hour day!