Three days of history

The past three days were a whirlwind of visits to historical sights.

The first two days were entirely devoted to visiting the Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Wilderness and Chancellorsville battlefields.  Although a few pictures were taken at Spotsylvania (and posted), a small camera can’t capture the look and feel of the battlefields.

It was eye-opening to view the lay of the land, see where the troops were deployed, where they maneuvered and where they attacked.   We frequently followed walking trails laid out by the Park Service that mostly paralleled miles of trenches and earthworks.  We could only imagine what it was like to have tens of thousands of troops camped on these hills and engaged in desperate battles.  Walking over the same ground gives you an idea of the scale of the events and makes it very personal.  I will think of these battle sites often and use the experience to help keep things in perspective.

On the third day we wanted to limit our travel so we visited Thomas Jefferson’s estate at Monticello, which was our second visit to the site.  Before taking the tour of the home and grounds, we spent time at the Visitor Center to enjoy excellent background material on Thomas Jefferson and the estate.  Especially interesting were the many artifacts.  Although the tour of the house and grounds was a repeat, we enjoyed it and took our time walking though the gardens and around the house.