Virginia is for Battlefields

We began the day at the National Park that includes the Civil War battlefields named Fredricksburg, Spotsylvania, Chancelorsville and the Wilderness. We spent most of our time at Fredericksburg, the site of a slaughter of Union troops...a very sad story. There were moments that celebrated the positive though, as was the case with this statue, dedicated to a Confederate soldier who gave water to wounded Confederate and Union soldiers at the risk of his own life.

Below is the "Sunken Road", where Confederate soldiers took up an almost inpenetrable position as part of the Union slaughter.

At the park for the Wilderness battlefield, we saw the burial plot for Stonewall Jackson's amputated arm. The rest of Stonewall Jackson, who died soon after he lost his arm, is buried elsewhere.

After the battlefields, we headed towards the Charlottesville area to visit Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. It was an interesting place, not only in the buildings, but also in the elaborate gardens.

Here are Anne, Erik and Rebecca on the back steps, which was the entry point for our tour.

Before leaving the property, we paid a visit to Jefferson's grave.

After Monticello, we took a short drive to our hotel and after checking in, went out for a quick dinner. Erik is splashing around in the pool at this very moment. We'll be heading off to bed soon and then we'll get up early to head towards Appomattox Court House.

We're at the 1025 mile mark of the trip, low because we spent so much time in the Baltimore/D.C. area, riding trains and such. The mileage will be picking up from this point on.