Home Sweet Home

We got home last night and I was wiped out. Ten days, nine nights, over 2000 miles...quite a trip.

The results:

*Miles Driven: 2189

* Battlefields seen (11) - Appomattox, Gettysburg, Antietam, Harpers Ferry, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, Fort Sumter.


*Museums (13) - 8 battlefields (nothing for Harpers Ferry, The Wilderness or Spotsylvania), VMI, Lee's Chapel, John Brown Museum, Museum of the Confederacy, H.L. Hunley.

*Baseball games (2) - Braves/Nationals and Flying Squirrels/Fisher Cats

*Rounds of golf (2) - Warrior's Path & The General's Ridge

*Hotels (5) - Lynchburg VA, Frederick MD, Manassas VA, Richmond VA, Charleston SC



Lessons Learned:

*Every Virginia town thinks it is "Historic."

*New York monuments are always the biggest.

*Rick Ankiel will turn on an inside fastball if he's looking for it.

*So will Dan Uggla.

*If people recommend the Hangover Hashbrowns, you should order them.

*Everything in the Gettysburg gift shop is cheaper at any other battlefield.

*Always ask about an educator's discount.

*The rewards of being a Priority Club member change from Holiday Inn to Holiday Inn.

*Great battlefields: Gettysburg, Fort Sumter

*Good battlefield: Antietam, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Petersburg

*Okay battlefield: Chancellorsville

*Nothing: Harpers Ferry, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania

Civil War Trip Tidbits:

Abner Doubleday (who did NOT invent baseball) fired the first shot for the Union out of Fort Sumter. He also took over for John Reynolds after he was shot at Gettysburg.

John Burns was a War of 1812 vet who demanded to fight at Gettysburg for the Union. And he did.

Pickett's Charge took the Confederates 26 minutes, but it only took me 17.

There are nine steps to firing a rifled musket. I have video proof of it.

Marye's Heights = Marie, not Mary (and Heth is Heath).

Pontoon bridges - I know how they were built now.

Prostitutes were not named after "Fightin' Joe" Hooker, but there were a lot of whores around his camp.

Global warming is a theory. So is evolution.

The largest surrender of an American army in the Civil War? Harpers Ferry.

During the 5 hour morning fighting of May 3 at Chancellorsville, there was a causality every second.

Meade wasn't actually replaced after Gettysburg; it just seemed that way because Grant went with that army.

A "salient" is a fancy military name for bulge.

The "Bloody Angle" at Spotsylvania featured 20+ hours of hand-to-hand fighting in the rain. Geez.

Jackson's "foot cavalry" averaged over a half marathon/day for 48 days during the Valley Campaign.

During Civil War times, infants & toddlers wore dresses until they were five for toiletry reasons. You could tell the difference from the part of the hair (boys on the side; girls down the center).



Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

CC