"The Numbers...."

One night, shortly after moving here, Sam was flipping through the channels and a Civil War Documentary caught his eye. He ended up watching the last several weeks of the documentary and was so excited when he found them on Amazon Prime. That's when I joined in on the fun. We had talked about wanting to go on a vacation somewhere cool since everything is relatively close to Charlotte, but after watching these documentaries, Sam got some travel plans made up for a week long Civil War tour starting in Atlanta and ending where the war had ended, in Appomattox Court House, VA.  Due to time and funds available (...we spent half of our vacation budget on food storage) we decided to cut the trip in half and just head North, saving the Southern half of the trip until once my account refills. 

Snacks and bags were packed and due to both fortunate and unfortunate circumstances (and thanks to Sam's aunt), we were able to add a trip to our day and leave on Wednesday instead of Thursday. It was great. We needed to get away. 

The drive was amazing and may have put any other fall drive that I have been on to shame. Our first stop was Appomattox Court House, VA where General Lee formally surrendered to General Grant. The original house was taken down in the early 1900's so that it could be rebuilt in Washington DC, but we were able to walk through a replica with original furniture, enjoy the rebuilt town, and the museum that held the original table that was used for the occasion. 

The drive was long the first day, so our next stop was for dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Charlottesville, VA and made plans to move there as soon as we could. The next morning we got up early and drove through Sharpsburg, MD to get to our next destination- Antietam. I loved Antietam. Easily one of my top picks of the trip.           

We walked around and were amazed at the beautiful scenery and the sites that were before us and were in awe that at this site, was the bloodiest day in the Civil War. Again, I loved Antietam. 

We were exhausted by the time we got all the way up to Gettysburg which would explain the 5 hour energy and the gas station hot chocolate with 5 Almond Joy creamers (hooray for cold season)...

But the museum and visitors center was packed with people and some pretty amazing exhibits.

We opted to take a CD driving tour around the park (....not recommended). The park is huge and I was really missing the grid system. We knew that the final sight that we had to see in the area was where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address, and ended up running  walking very quickly through the National Cemetery so that we could reach the monument before the sun went down. 

Fredericksburg was one of those places that made what happened during the Civil War a real thing- thousands of men were killed trying to reach this wall while the Confederate Army shot down on the men from Marye's Heights, just feet away.

We decided to keep on our journey to the surrounding sites instead of going straight to Manassas and as mentioned on my instagram, I have a Civil War Crush on Ulysses S. Grant. Don't ask why, but I do. I told Sam that he should get me a $50, place of picture of Grant next to my bed, and now I'm thinking that we should've just built our first home where Grant had his Headquarters. Just a thought.

At the Chancellorsville Battlefield, we had the opportunity to see where Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own men...

And visited Cafe Rio that night. It was divine and I still regret not taking a pork burrito back to the hotel to eat for breakfast. 

Saturday morning we started out at Manassas and although the battle field was huge, some things were closed so we took our pictures with cannons, the giant Stonewall Jackson statue, checked out the visitors center and were on our way to DC! Let's just take a second to talk about how we stayed the night at a Hyatt Hotel and we were the ONLY people at breakfast in our pajamas. Who eats breakfast in business casual? Not this girl... or her husband.

Arlington National Cemetery was quite the experience. We were able to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, check out the Kennedy graves (... I accidentally yelled while we were there. Oops), and took a hike up to General Lee's house.

         

We were able to justify going to Arlington National Cemetery because of this treasure. General Lee's House, or the Arlington House.

        

My absolute favorite place during our trip was the Lincoln Memorial. I could've stayed there all day. Even with the chaos of the people there was a spirit to be felt there. Abraham Lincoln, without a doubt in my mind, was inspired to do everything that he did and our country was blessed for it. Read his second inaugural speech lately? I suggest you do it. 

That night we headed for Richmond where we had a full day of sites to see. One of my other favorite sites was the Confederate White House. As old as it may be, this house is in great condition and has many of the original pieces. The history here is amazing seeing it first hand and understanding the lives lived by Jefferson Davis and his family added to the trip. 

The last stop on our trip was the Battlefields around Richmond. We didn't actually get to see any of them due to the fact that we should've just spent all week there. The driving tour consisted of 80 miles and seeing that it took us about 2 hours to do 4 miles, we would've been there all day long, actually all year long. However, we did take some time to see the Tredegar Iron Works, the birthplace of the majority of the cannons and guns in the war.

Our last stop was Petersburg.One of the most horrific battles took place here as the Union army tried to blow a hole in the Confederate army's lines by digging tunnels under the ground, filling them with gunpowder and blowing it up. Unfortunately, the Union found itself in mass chaos and lost the battle. This gun was one of my favorite things from the visitors center museum. If you look very closely, you might be able to see the bullet that is still in the chamber of the gun, which is still in full cock- ready to shoot. When the explosion occurred, this soldier was ready to fight, but the rest of the gun was bent and destroyed before it could be  shot.

Last, but not least, the copper head. As we were walking down a path to view "The Dictator" I thought that we had stumbled into a little baby garden snake. Nope. We discovered after Sam had kicked it (in shorts and sandals) and it had coiled up, giving him the death look, that it was not a friendly garden snake. This mean sucker was a baby Copperhead and would not take his eyes off of Sam. I am grateful for the passer by who recognized what kind of a snake it was and hit him away with a branch. Oops. 

 If only I had time to write about the details of the trip from the hotels with no shower doors to making sandwiches in the car, from our new magnet collection additions to staying up late talking about what we had seen that day, it was a fantastic trip. We were grateful for the opportunity that we had to get away and for the things learned, the peace that was felt, and the fact that gas was $1.00 cheaper per gallon than we had planned for. Shout out to Ken Burns and his 1990 Civil War Documentary.