A Map for Trevilians Tour Page

I posted a map for my Trevilian Station to Piedmont Civil War Field Trip page. It shows the main places mentioned: Richmond, Louisa, Trevilian Station, Piedmont, Staunton...

The map is not to scale; it is a sketch based on a "real" map. I drew it in Photoshop, which fortunately lets me type in text so that you don't have to read my shaky handwriting.

I also added text to that page and to the intro page for "Into the Shenandoah 1864."

In early June 1864, Grant was on Richmond's doorstep, but his failed assault at Cold Harbor convinced him that he needed another strategy in order to capture Richmond. He planned to pressure Lee from many directions, including interrupting the supply of food from the Shenandoah Valley. He also wanted to force Lee to divert troops away from the Richmond area.

In May, Union troops under Franz Sigel had tried to secure the Shenandoah Valley but had been defeated at New Market. Sigel was replaced by General David Hunter, who defeated "Grumble" Jones at Piedmont on June 5-6. On June 7, Grant (still at Cold Harbor), sent his cavalry under Sheridan to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad at Trevilian Station.

Lee's Quarters, Fortress Monroe

Sometimes we forget that Robert E. Lee had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army before resigning when Virginia seceded from the United States. At Fort Monroe there's a marker for his quarters. I've read that because he knew how strong the fort was, he never ordered an attack on it during the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee, future Confederate General, was stationed at Fort Monroe 1831-1834 as a lieutenant of engineers. He had almost complete charge of construction and put the finishing touches on the fort. Lee's first child was born here in 1832.

See also Lee's 26 Years as an Officer in the Corps of Engineers.

Jeff Davis at Fort Monroe

Here we see the cell where Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was held after the Civil War. He was suspected of being involved in the assassination of Lincoln but there was no evidence and eventually he was freed without being charged.

I've seen a website that claims he died there and came back as a ghost, but he lived for many years after being released from Fort Monroe and died at the age of 81. Also, although the room seems a bit dank, all the rooms in the casemate seem that way and they were used as living quarters for officers and their families, so the room was not considered substandard at the time. It's actually a fairly large room.

• 1905 Article on Davis's imprisonment
• Biography of Jeff Davis
• My photo of Davis's grave in Richmond
  

Fort Monroe Changes

The military base at Fort Monroe is scheduled to close in 2011. The Commonwealth of Virginia will regain the land and is working on plans to preserve recreational opportunities while considering commercial opportunities. See the APVA press release and the Daily Press story. for details.

On this sign, the fort is drawn in at the lower left. The other white areas (except for the legend at the top left) represent water. The ships on the right represent the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack), which battled near there in 1862.

"Camp Hamilton - On Sacred Soil"

This Civil War Trails marker is near Fort Monroe at Phoebus, VA (now part of Hampton). It tells us that "Here stood the U.S. Army's first camp on Virginia soil after secession, built in May 1861. Only the Veteran's Cemetery on County Street remains of the entrenched camp."

The camp was established to strengthen Fort Monroe, which was still held by the Union, and remained a Union base throughout the war.

The Visit to Holy Cross Abbey

These are a few pictures of our class at the monastery near Berryville. We were studying the Battle of Cool Spring (mentioned previously).

After Dr. Poland described the battle, we took a break and visited the abbey's shop, which carries a book about the battle as well as religious books, fruitcakes, and truffles.

Red Bud Run

Those who were on the Third Winchester Field Trip may recall that troops had to cross Red Bud Run. Click the arrow to see how it looks today.

Website progress

I've posted draft pages of the Trevilians Station and Piedmont Battlefield Tour on my Civil War Field Trips website. The pictures and format are there.  Take a look!

Lecture at Snickers Gap

At Snickers Gap a major road (now Route 7) crosses the Blue Ridge in Virginia. In the picture we're on the old winding road up the hill from Bluemont. We were there tracing Jubal Early's retreat from Maryland in July 1864. He had managed to cause distress in Washington D.C. by attacking Fort Stevens, but had been forced to retreat. Also his army had failed to reach Point Lookout, where Confederate prisoner's were held.

Our class has never been to either Fort Stevens or Point Lookout. They are far from the other sites that we visit chronologically for 1864. I've been to Point Lookout while on vacation; it's a beautiful peninsula on the Chesapeake. One of these days I should find my photos from that trip.

Monocacy Visitor Center

On our trip to Monocacy, we visited the new Visitor Center. Built to look like a large barn, it's modern and pleasant inside. It was not immediately apparent that there was a museum upstairs, but definitely it's worth going up to see it. They've done a lot of interpretation with their artifacts.

I've seen small museums full of artifacts with little explanation of what their significance is. This one is the opposite - more information than items, lots of pictures, maps that light up, stories, a full-size model of a farmhouse room with sound effects of the battle. Both adults and children will enjoy these exhibits.

The Upstairs Patio at the Monocacy Visitor Center Overlooks the Battlefield

See the article on the Monocacy Battlefield Visitor Center in AIArchitect.

Historic Farms of Monocacy

I hadn't been to the Monocacy Battlefield in about a decade. There's more to see than there was before. It's still a pretty place to visit.

The Best Farm

The farm owned by the Best family was also part of the 1862 Maryland Campaign. Lee's "lost order No. 191" was found on this farm by Union soldiers. The Worthington Farm (left) has a trail to the Monocacy River where Confederate troops crossed in 1964. They set up artillery in the front yard, and every time the gun fired, the farmyard rooster would crow. The Worthington family took shelter in the cellar during the battle. (For close-up and text of Worthington marker, click here.)

The Thomas Farm

Read the markers "Thick of Battle" and "Thomas Farm". Not shown here is another nearby marker called "Federal Retreat."

General Lew Wallace (who later wrote Ben-Hur) gave the order to retreat. However, his troops had delayed the Confederates long enough that Federal reinforcements could reach Washington DC and protect it against Early's forces.

A Book on the 1864 Valley Campaign

I finished reading Struggle for the Shenandoah, a paperback collection of essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign. In addition to an introduction and a review of literature on the topic, the book contains:

• The Shenandoah Valley in 1864 by Gary W. Gallagher
• Jubal A. Early and Confederate Leadership by Jeffry D. Wert
• Union Leadership in the 1864 Valley Campaign by A. Wilson Greene
• "The Cause of All My Disasters": Jubal A. Early and the Undisciplined Valley Cavalry by Robert K. Krick
• "I Resolved to Play a Bold Game": John S. Mosby as a Factor in the 1864 Valley Campaign by Dennis E. Frye

See my review on Amazon of Struggle for the Shenandoah: Essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign by Gary W. Gallagher. I gave it five stars.

Leesburg to Maryland

On our second field trip of the season, we met at a shopping center in Leesburg and went to Monocacy and Kernstown. Here's our professor introducing Jubal Early's 1864 venture into Maryland.


Early planned to demand a ransom of $200,000 from Hagerstown, MD. He sent cavalry under McCausland, who misunderstood the amount and collected $20,000 instead, plus a large amount of much-needed clothing.

Published: The Piedmont Marker

The Civil War Trails marker that I photographed at New Hope was not yet in the Historical Marker Database so I submitted it along with photos of the surrounding area and my best guess at the GPS coordinates. Their Civil War markers editor pinpointed the location and published the page as Battle of Piedmont Marker.

The photo below shows a farm across the road from the marker.

View of Piedmont Battlefield

Piedmont Battlefield Marker

We didn't stop at this marker along Battlefield Road on this field trip. I assume that's because the traffic zips by dangerously fast, and there's no place to park except on the side of the road.

Text of the marker: Piedmont Battlefield

Here on June 5, 1864, was fought the Battle of Piedmont for the possession of Staunton.

Union Forces under Gen. David Hunter 12,015 men and suffered a loss of 130 killed and 650 wounded. Confederate forces numbering 5,600 men under Gen. W.E.Jones defeated with loss 460 killed, 1450 wounded and 1,000 prisoners. Gen Jones was killed near this spot.

Below is a [zoomed and cropped] view of one of the farms behind the marker.

From one battlefield to another...

It's a long drive from Gordonsville to the Piedmont Battlefield and I got separated from the group. I wasn't worried because I have been to the Mt. Meridian/ Piedmont area a number of times. I had agreed to let Lachwan follow me (he was concerned about getting lost in the countryside) so I drove a little slowly in order to keep his car in my rearview window.

But when we reached the battle area, our group was nowhere in sight. I checked out all the tour stops that were on the handout, but saw no one until the last stop, where Arch pulled up. He had left the group at Gordonsville and taken a different route to avoid waiting for that train to leave, having gotten directions from the lady who took off her dress in the parking lot.

There was a time when I would have felt a bit lost, but that was in the first 12 years or so of taken these trips, before we (and especially our leader) carried cell phones. (Come to think of it, for the first few years we didn't even have handouts listing the tour stops. But I only got lost once, and that was late in the day in Newport News.)

I called Dr. Poland's car phone and Betty answered. She said they had stopped at a gas station and were now behind us at Mt. Meridian. We backtracked and rejoined the group.

As you can see, the scenery was beautiful. Piedmont Battlefield is not a park; it is spread out over farmland, country roads, and a few small towns. I recall that the first time I saw it, I was impressed by the lovely rural scenery. At that time I lived in the city. Now I live in the country surrounded by places of similar beauty. Come to the Shenandoah Valley and see what I mean!

Piedmont: Sign at New Hope

In March, I stopped in New Hope to take a few pictures of the Piedmont Battlefield. This is a fairly new Civil War Trails sign in front of the community center on Battlefield Road in New Hope.

Here's how the marker starts out:

Battle of Piedmont
Final Action at New Hope

The Battle of Piedmont, fought on June 5, 1864 between Union Gen. David Hunter and Confederate Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones. ended here. It began more than a mile northeast when the 12,000-man strong Federal army, whose mission was to scour the Shenandoah Valley of Confederates and then destroy the rail center at Charlottesville, encountered Jones's combined force of 6,000 infantry and cavalry. The third Union assault uphill against Jones's fortified line ended in Confederate disaster when Jones was killed while trying to rally his men during a Union flank attack.

Picture of the Exchange Hotel

Exchange Hotel, Gordonsville

When our class finally got in our cars to leave the Exchange Hotel, a train pulled up and stopped, blocking the road. We all sat and waited.

Finally, the train started to move. However, it was a very long train and took about ten minutes to clear the crossing. Finally, it left and we drove out to US 33, which took us westward across the Blue Ridge to Elkins, where we turned south to study the battle of Piedmont.

"Decisive Confederate Victory" at Trevilians

This marker is in the town of Louisa, Virginia. We didn't stop here on the Trevilian Station tour. I grabbed this photo on a trip from Basye to Montross three years ago. We were trying the US 33 route - definitely not the fastest way to cross the state - and I spotted the Civil War Trails arrow and decided to stop. 

The subtitle on the sign is "The Largest All-Cavalry Battle of the Western Hemisphere." I'm not sure about that claim; Brandy Station was the largest cavalry battle of the war. I suppose the word "all" makes a difference, but if we are nit-picking, let's remember that the cavalry at Trevilians mostly fought dismounted. Perhaps some expert will comment and clarify the semantics on the differing signs (posted by the same organization).

The marker goes on to say that "Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton's victory over Gen. Philip H. Sheridan at Trevilian Station on June 11-12, 1864, prevented Sheridan from joining Gen. David Hunter and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad at Charlottesville." You can read the rest at Historical Marker Database.

Tour at the Exchange Hotel

Our tour guides at the Exchange Hotel shared a wealth of information. We stayed longer than our teacher had planned, but eventually hunger called us and we went outside for a picnic lunch.

Upstairs the museum has rooms set up as a military hospital, which it was used for during the Civil War. This time I didn't spend much time in the surgery exhibit. I recalled being sickened by it when I was there years ago (which is a bit embarrassing since my great-grandfather was a doctor during the Civil War).

Interesting link: C&O Railroad: Gordonsville