Lecture on Chimborazo Hill

Prof. Poland lectures at an overlook, Chimborazo Park.

This year's series of NVCC field trips started at Chimborazo Park in Richmond. We were studying Civil War hospitals and prisons and Chimborazo was the site of a large Confederate hospital complex. Other stops that day were the Confederate White House, Belle Isle, and Hollywood Cemetery.

It was a lovely day for a tour and even though Richmond is a long day from home, I enjoyed going there again. It's a pleasant city to visit if you know where to go.

 Links:  

• Cultural Landscape: Chimborazo Park  
• Touring the Capital of the Confederacy on my CW Field Trip site
• Charles Poland Receives Award

Powhatan Stone At Chimborazo Park

Richmond, Virginia

This marker is affixed to a large stone in Chimborazo Park. It refers to a belief that a Powhatan Indian village once stood beside the James River in present-day Richmond, giving its name to a colonial-era residence in 1726.

Powhatan Stone

An old Indian stone removed from and now overlooking “Powhatan Seat” a royal residence of King Powhatan when Captain John Smith and his fellow “Adventurers” made the first permanent English settlement in this country at Jamestown, Virginia 1607.

“Powhatan Seat” was the residence from 1726-1865 of the ancestors of Peter H. Mayo by whose daughters this stone was presented to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

Views Looking Down from Chimborazo Hill

Link: Jamestown to the Falls

Chimborazo Hospital Complex, Richmond

A staff member in the museum at Chimborazo Park described the organization and structures at Chimborazo Hospital during the Civil War. Note the diorama showing various buildings of the hospital complex. They were built to allow fresh air and sunlight to penetrate each ward.

The military hospitals on both sides of the war had to be well-planned in order to serve the large number of patients that they received. Most patients were admitted due to illness rather than wounds because the incidence of contagion was tremendous in the large camps where soldiers were housed.

The sign behind the speaker explains that the hospital systems of the Civil War years became models for the American hospital system that we have today.

Visitor Center at Chimborazo Park

Our Richmond tour began at Chimborazo Medical Museum and Visitors Center, also headquarters for Richmond National Battlefield Park. The museum is definitely worth a visit, as is the pleasant surrounding park.

The interpretative sign provides a brief history of Chimborazo Hospital. It starts out:

On this 40-acre plateau the Confederates built Chimborazo Hospital, one of the largest and best-known Civil War military hospitals: 78,000 sick and wounded Confederate soldiers passed through the hospital from 1861-1865. Chimborazo’s neat rows of buildings enhanced ventilation and served as a model for many postwar hospitals. None of Chimborazo's 150 wooden structures exists today.

Link: Chimborazo Hospital, NPS Page

Jeff Davis's White House

Photography is not allowed in the Confederate White House in Richmond. This picture shows some of my classmates outside with the Museum of the Confederacy in the background.

The White House of the Confederacy is an interesting place to visit. You don't have to be a fan of Jeff Davis to enjoy it! The decor is authentically Victorian, not to modern tastes but historically significant. I love seeing the faux finishes, some of which look cool and some as tacky as Contact paper.

Visit Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery

Chapel At the Entrance: Buy a Map Here

Map on Sign Next to Parking Lot

I've been to Hollywood Cemetery several times on field trips. You can tour it by yourself but you'll want to buy a map because the roads can be confusing. I imagine you could drive in circles for hours.

The cemetery covers 135 acres of rolling hills. Famous people buried there include presidents Monroe and Tyler and 25 Confederate generals.

Hollywood Cemetery Website

Sneden Civil War Illustrations are Online

The Virginia Historical Society has put the illustrations of Robert Knox Sneden online and it is an incredible collection. Most Civil War researchers are already familiar with Sneden's work; this collection will make it more accessible.

Personally I own two books based on Sneden's richly-illustrated diaries: Eye Of The Storm : A Civil War Odyssey and Images from the Storm. (Links provided will take Amazon's book descriptions.)

Va. Historical Soc. Guide to Sneden Diaries

Our Class Tours Hollywood Cemetery

Frank and I have both been to Richmond with Dr. Poland's Civil War class before, and I'd even done that tour twice before that, once with his NVCC class and once with a UVA Graduate class that he taught on 19th Century Virginia. The tour this year (on Friday) had a different emphasis: Civil War Hospitals and Prisons. Richmond is a place where you can learn about both since it has Chimborazo Park (hospital site) and Belle Isle (prison site). Since much of the Civil War is about tragedy and death, Dr. Poland's tours often include a cemetery visit. Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery is rich in Civil War history, and is also beautifully designed as a garden-like hillside park. Named after holly trees, it opened in 1849.

Confederate Memorial

See our 2001 Richmond Tour on my Field Trips Website.

	Dr. Poland mentioned that some say the iron dog once stood in Richmond but was moved to the cemetery to keep it from being melted down to make cannons during the Civil War. It stands over a child's grave. Funny thing about that dog: The Wikipedia entry about Hollywood Cemetery links to my 2001 photo of the dog in a footnote.
Dr. Poland at J.E.B. Stuart Memorial

Jeff Davis Monument

A Triple Tragedy for the Longstreets, 1861

Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond

The final stop on our Richmond tour was the grave site of three of General Longstreet's children who died of scarlet fever. They died within a week of each other, leaving their parents and an older brother to grieve.

This is an example of how devastating contagious diseases could be during the Civil War years. People did not yet know that germs spread illness and thus antiseptics were not understood and antibiotics were not yet available

A Cat, A Dog, and a Mouse

Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA

Only the Cat is Real.

This laid-back cat was lounging near the cemetery entrance.

The cast-iron dog watches over a child's grave.

The toy mouse can be seen on the headstone above. (Look closely.)

How Do I Complain to Google?

I've looked at Google's Support pages and I can't figure out how to report a problem. Here's the situation and maybe someone can help me.

I searched for images of Mt. Zion Cemetery in Aldie, VA. Several of my photos came up among dozens of others, which is fine. I'm happy to have people find my pictures. BUT three-quarters of the way down the page of search results I see one of my photos credited to another site. That site turns out to be another search engine of some sort called Explow.com. Why is Google presenting results from another search engine anyway?

Thumbnails of my photos should link to my site (in this case www.CivilWarFieldTrips.com/stuart/), not someone else's. Someone tell me how to fix this!

By the way, our Civil War class returns to Mt. Zion Church tomorrow morning for the start of a field trip. And on Sunday we are going to the Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD.

Benny at the Lake

Ben seems to like our new yard.

Canada Geese with Goslings

At the Fish Hatchery in Waterlick, VA

Wisteria

Irises in Millwood

Mother's Day 2012

I've posted various photographs of my mother over the years. Here's a group shot from a couple of decades ago. Mom is sitting in front with Dad standing behind her. I was on the left and Lynn stood in the middle.

Inside the Burwell Morgan Mill

This mill in Millwood, Virginia, was established in 1785. The old machinery on the lower level of the mill still works and grain is ground there on Saturdays in the summer.

Link: Clarke County Historical Association

Burwell Morgan Mill

There are a few days left to see this season's art show at the Burwell Morgan Mill in Millwood, VA. Also running this weekend: the plant sale at the state arboretum nearby. I took these photos of the mill a year ago.

Earlier Post: The Mill in Millwood.

Recalled: Our Dogs' Favorite Food

Recalls seem to happen all the time so I shouldn't have been surprised when some Natural Balance pet foods were recalled. I checked the pull date on the one bag we had and it was not one that was recalled. But this morning I used it up, and when I went to Petco to buy more, there were no bags of Sweet Potato and Venison on the shelf. I asked a clerk and found out the store had pulled all the recalled varieties regardless of pull dates. This was bad news! Benny is sensitive to changes in his diet, and Flash needs a food that does not contain chicken. (Like my late-great dog Guppy, he tends to have seizures if he eats chicken.) The store manager tried to help me find another venison-flavored food, but the ones we checked contained some chicken as an ingredient, often as poultry fat. I wound up going back to the half-bare Natural Balance shelf and buying the Sweet Potato and Fish formula.

I fed it to them tonight and Benny seemed to have some digestive upsets with the change, barking and pacing until we took him out for two extra potty breaks. He should adjust within a couple of days.

I should mention that NO Natural Balance foods have been found to actually contain salmonella. They were recalled as a precaution because some were made in the same plant as the Diamond Pet Food that tested positive for salmonella.

The Long Process of Moving Drags On

We still haven't unpacked everything. I've put off the unpacking of my "office" until last because there's no room to move around in there. We'll have to pull all the boxes out of the room, assemble some bookcases and arrange the furniture before we can even start unpacking.

And there's still a truck-load of stuff at our old house that we need to box up and bring over. It never ends!

Lavender Petals

Ear Drops for Benny

Ben C. Spaniel tends to get ear infections, and they can be hard to treat. Last summer his vet finally found a medication that works well, and it cured the problem in July. Last week, after a long hiatus, his right ear was inflamed again. (It's always the same ear.) I clean his ears every morning so the infection had just started but the ear was red inside and oozing a bit. I called the vet and picked up some Posatex right away. I applied some that night and by the next morning the redness was noticeably less. He's continued to improve but we have an appointment to take him to the vet tomorrow for routine vaccinations and she will examine his ears to make sure they are okay.

 Related Post: Benny at the Vets

Spring, Muhlenburg Street

Recently I drove to Woodstock (VA) with Frank and waited while he went to a settlement on a house he had listed in Basye. This nearby flowering tree caught my eye. Behind it is the Woodstock Christian Church.

Field Trips: Civil War Prisons and Hospitals

This year's Civil War tour conducted by Charles Poland will begin on May 18. Here's a course description from the NVCC website.

	HIS 298-036N: Civil War Prisons and Hospitals- Belle Isle, Point Lookout, Libby, Chimborozo and more, Three day field trip, May 18, 19, 20, 2012. For more information contact Dr. Poland: cpoland@nvcc.edu Three day field trip: May 18 - 20, 2012.
Richmond Viewed From Belle Isle	See my Richmond Trip Pictures from 2001

Turning Point in Virginia Exhibit

It's always a pleasure to visit the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Currently they have an exhibit on the Civil War in the Valley and how it changed lives.

The museum is in Winchester not far from the hospital.

Views from the House

These are views from the living room and dining room of our house in Bryce Resort. They have a lovely view of Great North Mountain.

I Like A Pretty View!

Frank has been a real estate investor since long before I met him. One of my contributions is encouraging him to buy homes that have a view!

The house we are trying to sell in Bryce Resort has a mountain view, which I absolutely love! Here we're looking at that view in winter, complete with a visiting squirrel.

We've moved to the Lake House, which also has a view of a mountain, with the added attraction of a lake (below). I found it in the real estate listings a couple of years ago and insisted that we go see it because I know he likes spending time by the water.

We also own a waterfront home in the Northern Neck. I found that one in real estate listings too. Originally we planned to live there full time but it turned out to be too isolated for my tastes. Right now it's rented out.

View from Egret Court, Montross, VA