RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - We are preparing the coach for our 5-hr drive tomorrow from Advance NC to Kosmo Village RV Park in Glen Allen, Virginia (near Richmond). The park is nothing to rave about, but it was convenient to Richmond and other areas we wanted to visit. Spring in all its glory is here! Fresh, sweet scents swirl through the air, overtaking our senses and energizing us as few seasons do. The brisk air is invigorating as we take our daily walks. James River Plantations - Since weather predictions said we would have sunny skies, we drove on I-295 and took Exit 22A to visit the James River Plantations in Charles City County, between Williamsburg and Richmond. Both Williamsburg and Richmond were colonial capitals and part of an early westward expansion of English speaking America. Charles City has remained a rural oasis with extensive timberlands, tidal waters and thousands of acres of richly cultivated farmland. There are a number of colonial plantations southwest of Richmond along the James River. We toured the Shirley and stopped by the Berkeley. Each are built high on the northern bank of the James River and unique, but similar. Each is still an operational plantation, growing wheat, corn, and soybeans. In Colonial times, the James River was the primary means of transportation for people and goods. As in any English estate, the outbuildings are laid out symmetrically. The Shirley Plantation is the only known plantation that has eleven generations of one family who to this day continue to own, operate and work the land. It is Virginia’s first plantation (1613) and the oldest family-owned business (1638) in the country. The Georgian-style was employed by Virginia’s plantation elite along the banks of the James River and its tributaries. During its long history and under the leadership of one family, Shirley Plantation has survived the Indian Uprising, Bacon's Rebellion, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Great Depression. Shirley Plantation is the most intact 18th century estate in Virginia". Several features such as the "Flying Staircase" and the Queen Anne Forecourt are the only remaining examples in America of this architectural style. The entire building was from materials made on the property, nothing was shipped in. There have been many fires, but the main buildings are still standing, some through renovation. Some of the buildings such as the kitchens were intentionally built away from the main living quarters in case of fire in the kitchen not everything would go up in flames. Although the buildings were built of red bricks, the interior walls and floors were made of wood covered with wallpaper and carpeting, of course furniture was wood. The temperature of a house fire was so hot the bricks would explode and melt. Fires were common and frequent with all of the candles, gaslights and fireplaces. A large plantation had 100 to 150 slaves to maintain the property. Root cellars, stored food supplies. The icehouses had a 35ft deep hole where they made and stored winter ice that lasted until fall. The working plantation consists of fields of tobacco, wheat, corn, and soybeans. There is an entrance fee to the grounds and it includes a 45-minute tour of the first floor of the Great House. Presently there is relatively little known about slavery at Shirley in the late 1600s and 1700s. Slaves were very likely important in aspects of the construction of Shirley’s famous buildings starting in 1723. By 1787, records tell us that there were 134 slaves residing on the property. Most of this number would have labored in the fields, while others were engaged in the functions and upkeep of the house and associated buildings. One foggy morning during the Civil War the plantation awoke to find many wounded Union troops camped out on their lawn. The women of the Confederate plantation went out and helped the wounded as best they could. This good deed was reported to the Union general and he sent an official letter of protection to the plantation and posted Union troops to guard and protect the residence.

Shirley Plantation - Kitchen - One of eight original colonial outbuildings. ORIGINAL SMOKE HOUSE and a Willow Oak - 350 years OLD on James River We also stopped by 1726 Berkeley Plantation. It is the birthplace of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a U.S. President, Benjamin Harrison, Charles City VA On Saturday, although rain was expected today, we decided to visit the Museum of the Confederacy. The museum is located directly downtown Richmond in the historic Court End neighborhood, about two blocks from the historic State Capitol and Capitol Square.

The museum concentrates its efforts on the South's side of the Civil War. It is home to the world's most comprehensive collections of artifacts, manuscripts and photographs from the Confederacy, including 1,500 decorative objects, 550 flags, 300 edged weapons, 177 firearms, 3,000 military accoutrements, 25 sculptures and 1,000 military buttons. The 200th Anniversary of Jefferson Davis is 2008, the President of the Confederate States of America. He was born in Kentucky in 1808. The youngest of ten children, he was educated at West Point and served in the U.S. Military, fought in the Mexican War, was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from Mississippi, and served as Secretary of War for President Franklin Pierce. On February 9, 1861, Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America and served until the end of the war in 1865. Davis died in 1889 in New Orleans and his body was moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond in 1893. We took a guided tour (a few steps away) of the Confederate White House, a mansion occupied by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family, It is now a National Historic Landmark and has 11 period rooms decorated with Victorian furniture and textiles. The house was built in 1818. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside for the preservation of the numerous antique furnishings. Inside the foyer has two original statues; one called Comedy and one called Tragedy. The Washington Post has written that the White House of the Confederacy “is a meticulously restored neoclassical masterpiece that, in terms of quality, historical associations and authenticity, probably is second only to Mount Vernon among restorations of historic American dwellings.” This was the Executive Mansion of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865. The official residence of President Jefferson Davis, his wife Varina and their children, the house was also the social, political and military center of the Confederacy. The mansion has been restored to the splendor of its mid-nineteenth century phase, with over half of the original furnishings from its wartime role as the Confederate White House, supplemented by a rich collection of period fabrics and furnishings. The low handrails, low furniture, and short beds are a testament to period fashion, not period height. However, on average, individuals were approximately one inch shorter during the period compared to modern times. A more substantial trait was that an individual of the mid-1800’s weighed less than our modern generations. The first floor was reserved for formal state affairs, with the exception of a small, private library. The second floor was the family’s private living quarters. Davis’s stern devotion to work and unpredictable health, frequent bouts of debilitating illness with malaria forced him to conduct much of his military and state business in his private office in the Executive Mansion. Military advisors, members of his cabinet, other political aides and petitioners were often met in the White House. Despite the stress and business of war and state going on so close about them, the Davises maintained a warm family life. Many Southern generals including Lee and Jackson visited this house many times. The neighbors complained about the 10-year-old son firing his miniature, but real cannon at targets in the back yard. Too much noise and an occasional stray cannon ball were the complaints, but Davis refused to stop the “fun”. On May 10, 1865, Davis was captured in Georgia with his family and members of his cabinet and staff by Union cavalry. Indicted for treason, Davis was held in Federal custody for two years in Fort Monroe, Virginia. Though a trial was never held and Davis never convicted, he lost his US citizenship when he refused to ask for a pardon. Barred from politics and unable to reoccupy “Brierfield”, he pursued a short and unsuccessful career as the president of a life insurance company. Jefferson Davis never returned to his former executive mansion, but he did return to Richmond -- to the federal courthouse building where his own executive office had been during the war -- in 1867 following his release from imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

The Capitol of Virginia was built from 1785-92; the two wings added 1904-06 is the first public building in the New World to be built in the Classical Revival style of architecture designed by Thomas Jefferson, with assistance from French architect Charles-Louis Clerisseau. The Virginia Capitol houses the oldest legislative body in the United States. In May 2007, the Capitol completed a sweeping renovation -- from the foundation to the roof, the legislative chambers to hearing rooms, the plumbing to the security system. It ranks as the second oldest working Capitol in the United States, having been in continuous use since 1788. No Union troops, other than prisoners, reached Richmond until after the Confederate government evacuated the city on April 2, 1865. The Confederate government hired slaves from the Richmond vicinity and employed them in the construction of fortifications protecting the capital city Richmond - VIRGINIA & the Civil War - The 1864 Campaign of the Civil War was the bloodiest march in American history. Two of the greatest armies this country has ever fielded slugged it out for more than a month in the spring and early summer of 1864. They battled across 100-miles of central Virginia, leaving tens of thousands of dead and wounded in their wake.

We drove into the town of Richmond to explore both past and present, of our nation's most celebrated tribute to the Confederacy: Monument Avenue. The symbolic language embodied within the boulevard's public statuary has secured the avenue's significance as both a memorial and "a state of mind”. A century after its first monument was unveiled, the avenue continues to evoke pride in the southern cause, commemorate the fortitude of heroic men, and spark controversy as Southerners' "idea of the Old South" clashes with the idea of a national "American" identity. One of America's most beautiful boulevards, tree-lined Monument Avenue is the only street in the United States that is a National Historic Landmark. It runs through the heart of Richmond's historic Fan District and was originally built as an extension of Franklin Street (already an established neighborhood) toward the Lee Monument. The avenue eventually became a sought after neighborhood and continued west over many years following the placement of new monuments along the street. The type and style of architecture seen in the homes, churches and apartment buildings that line the avenue range from English Tudor, Colonial, Georgian, Spanish, Jacobean, Beaux Arts to Italianate. The avenue stretches into Henrico County and ends at Horsepen Road running five miles in length. Monument Avenue has a wide, two-lane street on both sides of the generous

median, going east and west.

Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873): "Pathfinder Of Sea" Psalms 8 is considered the father of oceanography. We are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents. His book on oceanography is still considered a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities. Maury used the Bible as a guide to scientific discovery. If only more would use the Bible as a guide in their personal lives!

GENERAL “STONEWALL JACKSON” aka Thomas Jonathan Jackson - No war has produced a military celebrity more remarkable, nor one whose fame will be more enduring.

Jefferson Davis, the first and only President of the Confederacy, was an orator, statesman and politician including positions as a United States Congressman, Senator, and Secretary of War. He was an ardent defender of the rights of the South and the institution of slavery. Davis died on December 6, 1889 and was buried in New Orleans, Louisiana. His body was moved to Richmond in 1893; Davis' monument was dedicated on June 3, 1907. His monument is lined with a row of thirteen Doric columns, representing eleven seceding states and the two states that sent representatives to the Confederate Congress, with a central pedestaled figure of Davis.

Monument to the Army of Confederate States - From Sumter to Appomattox - Four Years of Unflinching Struggle against Overwhelming Odds. We drove on to see Tredegar Iron Works. The Richmond National Park Service's main visitor’s center is located at 470 Tredegar Street on the James River in downtown Richmond Virginia. Its main purpose is to assist visitors wishing to go to the 1862 and 1864 Civil War battlefields located around Richmond. "Tredegar" is a Welsh name brought here by the original owner. It is pronounced "Tre-dee-gar" over there, but it is pronounced "tred-e-gar" over here.

Tredegar Iron Works made the iron plating for the first Confederate ironclad warship, the CSS Virginia which fought in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. Tredegar is also credited with the production of approximately 1,100 artillery pieces during the war which was about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery between the war years of 1861-1865. Tredegar also produced giant rail-mounted siege cannon during the conflict. Tredegar Iron Works is one of few Civil War-era buildings that survived the burning of Richmond. Although we didn’t have the time to visit the battlefields, there are many historical treasures inside the museum at Tredegar Iron Works.

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