Skywatch, Cedar Creek Battlefield

Middletown, VA

This is one of the first sections of Cedar Creek Battlefield that was preserved, and the core area where the annual reenactment will take place this weekend. The Heater House is on the far right. 

Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation

Key Observation Post

Signal Knob

This Civil War Trails interpretive sign overlooks the North Fork in Strasburg Town Park. It describes the significance of Signal Knob during campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, and even tells you where to go if you want to hike up to the peak (knob). 

I find it interesting that they could communicate with distant signal stations using signal flags, lanterns, and telescopes. A Confederate General described the view in 1864: “What a splendid sight was before me....The vision was limited by the Blue Ridge on the right, the Alleghenies on the left...like a narrow ditch the Shenandoah wound its way through the plain at the foot of the mountain toward the Blue Ridge....The Valley Pike like a white ribbon lay along the center, the country roads looked like foot-paths, the woods looked like little parks, and the fields looked like little gardens....”

You can read the rest of the sign on Historical Marker Database. I have posted pictures of Signal Knob many times, especially when I lived where I had a view of it from the other side. 

Here’s how it looks from the entrance to the Town Park. 

Signal Knob is at the northern end of the Massanutten Range. 

The Fall of Turner Ashby

This memorial to Confederate officer Turner Ashby is on Chestnut Ridge in Harrisonburg, where Ashby was mortally wounded in 1862. The site is currently monitored by security cameras because the monument was defaced a few years ago. 

This monument was dedicated in 1898 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, long after the war was over. 

Although I have posted photos of this site in the past, I recently learned something about Turner Ashby that lowers my opinion of him, which wasn’t particularly positive in the first place. (He not only fought against his country, he also had flawed judgment as an officer. Stonewall Jackson had strongly criticized him for poor performance at the first Battle of Kernstown. But the most shameful story about him comes from before the Civil War.)

In 1856, Ashby led a vigilante mob in an attack on attorney John C. Underwood, after Underwood spoke against slavery at the Republican convention! Wow!

Turner Ashby’s name has been back in Virginia news lately because Ashby-Lee Elementary School is a subject of a controversial court case brought by the NAACP and a few students in Shenandoah County. The case and the backlash has really brought out a divide between citizens who believe that public  facilities should not be named for Confederate “heroes” and people who oppose progressive changes. I find the defense of racism to be disturbing, but I also remember when Virginia textbooks taught older generations a fake version of history, painting the Old South in a positive light. 

Back to Chestnut Ridge, there are several plaques and markers in this small park, and the sign erected by Civil War Trails provides the most detail. Even that one is open to question, because it may not have been “a Union bullet” that felled him. Forensics indicated that he was hit by friendly fire coming from his own troops. Keep in mind that a battle is full of dust as well as smoke, so vision can be obscured.

The Life of Turner Ashby

Marker for Jon C. Underwood

Ranger with a Fiddle

 Middletown, VA

Today I went to a talk on “Music and the Civil War” at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. In addition to the discussion, there was music so the audience could hear actual songs that the soldiers sang. This ranger’s fiddle playing and singing was accompanied by Ranger Chris playing rhythm on”bones,” which were two pieces of hickory. He was skilled at clacking them like castanets. 

Coming soon: The 110th Birthday of our National Park Service on August 25. Admission is free on that day. Actually, admission to the Cedar Creek Battlefield is always free, except for tours of the Belle Grove Manor House. Nearby Shenandoah National Park usually charges per vehicle, so a free day is a great benefit for visitors who don’t have an annual pass.

A View of Mount Carmel Cemetery

This cemetery stands on a hill overlooking Middletown, VA.

It was the site of Civil War clash in October 1864, during the Battle of Cedar Creek. At that time, this was the Middletown Cemetery. It became Mount Carmel Cemetery in 1896. An interpretive sign provides a summary of the action here:

The Middletown Cemetery, on a knoll west of the village, was the only point where Union officers believed they could establish a strong position and attempt to slow the Confederate advance. They hoped to halt the momentum that had propelled the Southern troops since the beginning of their surprise attack. From this high ground General George Getty's division, approximately 2,500 strong, repulsed two Confederate assaults. Frustrated, General Jubal Early massed nearly 30 cannon near the Heater House and along Valley Pike (ahead of you and to the left). 

The 30-minute cannonade, along with a third Confederate attack that threatened to turn the Union right, finally forced Getty to order a withdrawal.

Link: National Park Service page with illustrations.

New Market Picnic and Silver Lake Mill

Today Peggy and I met Lynn for a picnic lunch. There’s a sign about the Civil War Battle of New Market because this was the place where Confederate General Breckinridge launched the first attack of the battle.

After a leisurely lunch and conversation, I drove Peggy to Silver Lake in Dayton.

The Virginia Quilt Museum is there, and I wanted to see the exhibit, "250 Quilts Commemorating the Commonwealth of Virginia." These are contemporary quilts, and they are fabulous!

Colorful Sights, Hupps Hill

This afternoon I ran an errand in Strasburg and Charlie came along. I decided to stop by the Visitor Center on Hupps Hill to take a picture of the redbud grove. But first, I spotted a painting on the back of a trash enclosure.

Monday Murals

Three years ago, I photographed the front of this box. Since then, it has been exposed to exhaust fumes and dirt from the parking lot, which is just a few yards away.

Some painted critters have appeared, a big caterpillar and a brilliant snail.

Charlie and I walked to the redbud trees. There’s an interpretive trail that goes in front of them. Charlie stopped to investigate the signs.

Here’s a close-up of the sign on the left. You can view the older sign, How Strata Shaped Strategy. on HMDB. It is one in a series telling about the caves here and the role that Hupps Hill played in the Cavil War.

Signal Knob is visible in the distance. I also took a picture of the flowering pear tree in front of the visitor center. 

New Exhibit, New Season at Belle Grove

 Middletown, VA

Saturday was opening day for Belle Grove Plantation after a winter break. I’ve been there many times, but I wanted to see the new quilts on display. These were stitched at community events and venues as part of a project to honor the memories of the enslaved workers who kept Belle Grove flourishing from 1783 to 1851.

Names of 270 people are on the quilts, organized by family groups. Their names were discovered through years of research using local records, news articles, and other sources. 

In the next room is an archaeology exhibit called “Unearthing Enslaved Lives.”  I’ve been following the research here for quite a few years. Historians, archaeologists, and students have done an impressive of reconstructing stories that were almost lost to time.

The property is on the Cedar Creek Civil War battlefield.

Cedar Creek from Bowman Mill Road

 Near Strasburg

I took Bowman Mill Road last week for a change of scenery. It’s a winding country road, so it takes longer. It crosses Cedar Creek on a  low-water bridge. 

The first time I saw that bridge was decades ago on a Civil War field trip. A Confederate army crossed here in 1864 when they carried out an early morning attack on a Federal encampment near Middletown.

Water / Reflections / B&W

Theme: Double

Two Trees on Chestnut Ridge

Today’s theme for City Daily Photo is “Double.” These trees stand above the parking lot on Turner Ashby Lane, Harrisonburg  I stopped there for a few minutes after an appointment on Friday. 

There is a small park there, a forested memorial to Turner Ashby, a confederate general who was killed there in 1862.

Shadow Shot / Mosaic

The Miller House on Cougill Road

 Middletown, VA

I put the name of the road in the title of the post because Miller House is a common place name, plus I have forgotten the name of the road several times when I was trying to find this historic site. It is mentioned in written accounts of the Battle of Cedar Creek (1864). This property is on the corner of Mineral Road and faces a railroad track.

The property was recently acquired by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which will preserve it and possibly open it for tours. 

I’ve written about this place before (see the 2009 post about it). The ruins that are close to the road are sometimes referred to as a mill, but they are actually the ruins of a smaller house that was styled similar to the one that still stands. I photographed the smaller house in 1997, and it was still standing, but just barely. I suspect it predated the larger house, but I don’t know when they were built. 

I saw a photo of a lovely painting by artist John Chumley of the smaller house. I’ve seen an exhibit of Chumley’s work (see this post). He died in 1984.

I’ll spare you my rant about how the park service and others keep calling the ruins a mill when it was actually a brick house. Instead, allow me to complain about the update I just downloaded today on my iPad, OS 26.2. Things look different and I’m getting too stubborn to deal with changes all the time! The Photos app doesn’t have the parallax correction in the same way and I’m going to have to view a video to find out how to straighten lines. This probably doesn’t matter to most people, but I tend to take some photos a bit lopsided with my cell phone, partly because I’m trying to walk the dog and take a picture at the same time. So then I straighten them out on the iPad. I may have become picky when I was taking photo classes years ago, and we used medium format and leveled the camera with a bubble like a carpenter uses. It seems extreme now, but I learned a lot from that experience.

On the plus side, the Photos app now has a place to click to open the picture in “Extensions,” and one of them is SKRWT, which I downloaded some time ago. I can modify receding lines in that and then go right back to Photos. I like the ease of Apple’s Photos app, especially since I no longer subscribe to Photoshop. I don’t like paying for subscriptions. They add up, and my income doesn’t go up because I’m retired. Or maybe that’s an excuse and I’m just cheap!

A Stop at the Brawner Farm

Manassas, VA

A few weeks ago, I want to Herndon to buy some groceries that I can’t find here in the valley. On the way back, I varied my route because that something I like to do. Even though I grew up in Northern Virginia, I haven’t seen it all.

I found that I was driving next to Manassas National Battlefield Park. I decided to make a quick side trip to one of the sites in the park. When I pulled into the parking lot, it felt very familiar. I have been here before on a field trip, although that was long ago and some changes have been made. 

This sign tells of the beginning of the Battle of Second Manassas. The first Battle of Manassas had taken place nearby in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War. It sometimes called the Battle of Bull Run.

Late on the afternoon of August 28 [1862], Brig. Gen. Rufus King's division proceeded east towards Centreville. They marched in search of the elusive "Stonewall" Jackson, who was operating behind Union lines with half the Confederate army. As the head of the column passed the village of Groveton, Confederate artillery emerged from the woods and fired upon the unsuspecting Federals. Union troops turned to fight a fierce twilight battle near the Brawner Farm that began the three day battle of Second Manassas.

I did not attempt to walk the interpretive trail. I’m still having knee problems and back problems, plus there could be traffic ahead, and I had to get home by five to pick up Charlie at daycare.

New Market in Letters

This postcard-style mural was recently completed in the town of New Market. The letters show local scenes, beginning with the golf course and ending with Endless Caverns 

The artist is Brooke Barrick-Helsley. She was mentored by Studio Sasquatch.

 I photographed it on a rainy day. Here are a few scenes nearby.

New Market Battlefield looked dreary in the rain, which is appropriate because the 1864 Battle took place on a day so wet that some soldiers lost their shoes in the mud.

Mosaics / Murals