May 22, 2006

Back from West Virginia

We spent the weekend on a Civil War tour of the Kanawha Valley sponsored by Northern Virginia Community College. The weather was great and the scenery was spectacular. The trip is one of a series led by history professor Charles Poland.
Ohio River
Our meeting place was Tu-Endie-Wei State Park in Point Pleasant. This was a 6-hour drive for us because it is all the way across West Virginia on the Ohio River. In the photo above you can see the state of Ohio across the river. The park is located where the Kanawha River meets the Ohio.

The Union Army floated down the Ohio and into the Kanawha in 1861. Their aim was to secure the Kanawha Valley for the U.S. and to go from there into Virginia. Dr. Poland wrote about this campaign is The Glories of War.

The campaign took them into the rugged mountains of southern West Virginia - very hard on the soldiers but spectacular in scenery for us. I'll post some of my favorite scenery from the trip so check back. Also I'll post a photo tour on my Civil War Field Trips website.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The View from Squirrel Ridge features thousands of views of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area. I post frequently so please visit often.

Your comments are appreciated. If you are responding to a post older than a few days, your comment will be held until we have a chance to approve it. Thanks for your patience!

Sorry, anonymous comments cannot be accepted because of the large number of spam comments that come in that way. Also, links that are ads will be deleted.