Snowfall Memories

Valentine's Snow - February 12, 2010

Since it doesn't look like we're going to see any snow here in Virginia for Christmas, we decided to pull out some old Texas snow pictures.  (Yes, it does snow in Texas.)  These are some photos of our home in 2010. 

It was just beginning to snow.

Yes, we leave our Christmas lights up as long as possible.  Good thing this year, huh?

This is shot from a high spot behind the house.  I'm so glad the Lord came up with evergreen trees; they make winter time a little less "brown."

Back to the front yard, this is our hitchin' rail for the horses. 

This is some of our stock and our Austrailian shepherd, Junior.  The horse is a Thoroughbred named July, and the donkey is Mordacai.  He's known as a "Jesus" donkey because looking down on him the coloring shows a dark line of hair across his shoulders and down his back.  Mordacai is the FUNNIEST animal and an absolute sweetheart.

Here we are in the forest (WE call it a forest - our neighbor laughs and says that in Texas it's known as a "stand of trees."  Hey!  We are both born and raised true Texans!  WE call it a forest.)  Anyway, here we are in the forest next to the puddle.  We call it a puddle because it's a pond that doesn't hold water so very well.  Our sons are in the process of digging us a REAL pond on the other side of the land.

This is the swingin' tree that our grandkids, young and old, love to hang out under in the summertime.

John calls this area "the park."  It's one of his favorite places in our front yard because it makes him feel like he's, well, in a park.

The sun is going down, the snow has almost stopped, so John had to give up on his picture taking.  I feel better about Christmas now.  Hope you do to!  May God bless and keep you this Christmas season!

The Packages Are Ready

The tree, albeit a tiny tree, is all decorated ( a lil' heavy on the tinsel for me, but John had a good time!) the packages wrapped, the meal planned -

now, where's the snow?  John keeps checking the Weather Channel, but it's not gonna change the facts:  it ain't gonna be a white Christmas in Virginia this year.  :-(

Those are the trappings for Christmas.  And I DO mean "trappings."  Do you ever feel "trapped" at Christmas?  Are you caught up in gift GIVING, but forgetting to RECEIVE the gift of eternal forgiveness and salvation?

Whatever your Christmas traditions have been, if you forgot Christ you missed Christmas completely.  I'm so sorry.  It's not too late to find Him, though - certainly a whole lot easier than finding that special gift for a loved one, and everyone can afford Him.  In fact, you can afford to give Him to ALL your family, friends, and acquaintances!  Are you certain your loved one knows Him?  Now THAT would be a very special gift to give:  the knowledge of the saving love of Jesus.  You don't even have to find a store that sells Him - 'cause He can't be bought!  Settle back and read the Christmas story - and I don't mean " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas."  God will do the rest...

BTW, did you know there are free Bible apps for iPhones?  No more excuses for not reading the Bible; its available anytime, anywhere. 

Merry Christmas, folks, from our home to yours!

Solar Flares, EMP's, and 2012 Doomsday Scenarios

Ok, ok, ok.  Don't even go there!  I'm not a Doomsdayer - but I may be a Day Dreamer.  I'm fascinated by "what if" scenarios.  Join me for a cup of tea and a chocolate bar whilst I contemplate this.

What if the perfect-solar-storm-in-2012 theory produces a giant EMP (electromagnetic pulse)? 
Are we forever knocked back to the 1800's? 
Do satellites fall from the sky? 
Do all of the electronic gadgets everyone buys for Christmas become useless paperweights for eternity? 
Do airplanes plummet to earth? 
Do newer car with computerized engines stop dead in their tracks?  (Probably not a good time to own an electric car, huh?)
Should I go buy a '57 Chevy or a '64 Mustang? (That sounds good, EMP or no EMP!) 
Or should I tootle up to Amish country and buy one of those buggies we saw? (That sounds good, too, and we have just the horse to pull it back in Texas!)

A teeny-tiny bit of Googling answers some of my questions.

Yes, a solar storm will produce an EMP, but it would have to be the PERFECT solar storm. 
The spot on the sun where the solar flare happens would have to be aimed directly at earth.
It would have to be a MONSTER event.
EARTH would have to be rotated so that our magnetic field was perfectly aligned with the solar event.

Okay, so let's say all of that is lined up and "it" happens.

In the very, very first place, we'd have about three days to see this puppy comin' - lots of time to prepare.

Believe it or not, our GOVERNMENT (or NASA) has actually thought about this and has contingency plans:  Our satellites would be put into "safe" mode so electronics wouldn't burn out, ergo they won't just drop from the sky.  (Well, they wouldn't "drop" anyway.  Their orbits would deteriorate and eventually they'd come down.  But even that won't happen if they're put in a "safe" mode.)

I suppose if we put all of our electronic Christmas presents somewhere EMP's can't reach - or simply turn them off or pluck out their batteries maybe? - they would be fine to pull out in a few days and reconnect with those satellites.

Airlines have also got contingency plans in place:  they will either not fly, or re-route their flights away from the solar zap.

Our computerized car engines?  Maybe just pull the battery out of it, too?  (The Amish buggy still sounds good, though :-) 

What about America's power grid?  Well, that is a problem.  It definitely would get zapped.  America has three separate power grids:  one covering 39 eastern states, one covering 11 western states, and one just for Texas (I suppose Hawaii has one of it's own, too.)  Probably all the transformers and transmission lines would be fried.  About the only thing electric companies could do is prepare by stockpiling transformers and power lines.  Obviously big cities would be the first to get re-wired.  Maybe if it's winter, the northern states become a priority; if it's summer, the southern states.  Electric cars wouldn't get recharged for awhile!

I'm thinkin' things would get interesting - but not life-shattering.  Guess I'll go back to wrapping Granpa's Christmas gift...

Power-less

I'm rockin' right along with a normal day, peekin' out the windows for critters, checkin' emails, makin' beds... (That's a "have to" with me.  If I make the bed the whole room seems to be clean - even tho' it isn't :-()

Suddenly I realize that there is dead silence in the house - no refrigerator hum, no ceiling fan lazily drawing warm air down from the ceiling, nothing.  I verify that there are no LED lights on the myriad of electronic equipment we have covering the surfaces of every room (chargers, printers, MyFy, laptop, tea-cup warmer...)

Yup.  The electricity is out.  It's a sunny day, but the chill will inevitably set in if the power doesn't come on pretty soon.

Well, would you looky there.  Two deer.  Right up beside the house.

I had put out more deer corn this morning - and watched FLOCKS of bluejay, a few cardinals, dove, and the occassional red-headed woodpecker come steal away the kernels.

Apparently there were some crumbs left, because the two small deer (I bet they're the spotted fawns we saw when we first came here) that hang around most often were working their way to that spot.  And they weren't even shy about it.

I caught him with his mouth open.

Just as John started to leave this morning there were these two AND a buck out here.  It was not quite bright dawn yet and both cameras refused to focus in the dim morning light - especially through windows and screens.  John tried to catch a photo as he stepped out the door before they high-tailed it, but the camera was still being contrary and he got sort of a blur.  If you study it, bite your lip, and squint, you can see the antlers.

ANYWAY... back to the loss of electricity.  After an hour the chill had seeped through my clothing.  I had sent John a text about the power outage, and updated him with the frost-bite (just kidding).  He reminded me that his fleece-lined hoodie was here, so I put it on over mine - and slipped his househoes on over mine.  (He's a size 14 shoe, and I'm a size 6.)  NOW things were gettin' toast-y!

During the power outage I snapped something like 45 photos.  Picture taking helped keep my mind off the Rudolph-nose I was getting.  I even took a picture of ME all bundled up - but that I'm not sharing with the universe. 

After two hours I was getting a bit hungry.  Trust me - nothing cold sounded good, and there was no way to heat it.  Now, if we were home in Texas where all of our tent-camping gear is, I would have had all kinds of options for cookin' up something yummy.  But alas, it's there, and I'm here.

I tried reading, but laying down all snuggled into coats and blankets made me want to drift off to sleep - or was that hypothermia setting in?  Nah.  It wasn't THAT cold! 

At just over two hours I hear humming.  Mmm-hmm.  That sweet hum of electricity!  Look out world, I'm headed for the microwave!

The Wilderness Campaign

I am really dreading telling you about this episode of the Civil War.  Of all I have read and seen about military battles, from a commander's point of view this has got to be the most heartbreaking.  It's no wonder Ulysses S. Grant wept through the night.


December, 1862 was the first Battle of Fredericksburg and the Sunken Road with Lee vs. Burnside.
April into May, 1863 was the second Battle of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville with Lee vs. Hooker

From there, Lee chased the Union army up to Pennsylvania and Gettysburg and faced Grant.  Gettysburg, July, 1863, ended all hopes Lee might have had for a successful invasion of the north. The Union lost 23,000 men and the South lost 28,000 in just three days of fighting, and it all came about over a shipment of shoes both sides wanted for their troops!  However, after the battle, instead of retreating as all previous Union generals had done (much to the dismay of Lincoln), Grant followed Lee into Virginia.

Back then, most military units (certainly in the north) would "den up" for the winter.  That's why there seems to be one-year gaps in battle timelines.

In May, 1864 Lee is back in the Fredericksburg area at a place known as The Wilderness.  The year before, some of the Chancellorville battles spilled over into this wilderness area.  As the troops began arriving here now they discover that the winter snowmelt and spring rains had uncovered bones and skulls of soldiers that had been killed back then.  Not a very welcoming sight - but what battlegrounds are, new or "used."

This will be the first time Lee faces Grant since Gettysburg; this will truly be the beginning of the end for the south.

The thickets of trees, briars and bramble that tangled The Wilderness were such that combatants couldn't see more than 15 paces in front of themselves.  From one minute to the next they couldn't see their unit flags and didn't know if their comrades were advancing or retreating.  At one point a yank and a reb showed up at a Union camp, both slightly wounded.  They had gotten completely lost, lost their weapons and all of their gear, and their inability to see more than a few feet because of the thickets caused them to have to join forces.  Who's ever side they came upon first, one would join and the other would surrender!  (Geography and conditions on the ground certainly do make a difference.)


Grant is said to have been completely inscrutable to those around him.  Neither by word, or action, or countenance could one tell what he thought after receiving good news or bad.  Lee didn't have to see him;  Lee inherently knew what Grant would do.  Lee had faced every leader of the Army of the Potomac since the beginning of war without any "R & R."  Battle after battle, year after year, Lee stood faithful to Virginia.  Publicly, he seemed to never show tiredness and certainly never showed weakness.  His experience taught him what Grant would do. 

The fighting on May 5th and 6th cost Grant 17,000 men.  The night of the 6th, Grant learned that the tangled undergrowth had caught fire from the battles that raged within.  He lay in his tent that night, hearing the cries of wounded men in the inferno, unable to get themselves out and unable to be reached by those around them.  Grant may have been inscrutable, but he wept that night, openly and unashamedly, as he heard those sounds of horror as wounded men from both sides were burned alive.  Absolutely dreadful!

I'm about ready to move on to something other than the Civil War to chat with you about.  Wars and rumors of war will always abound.  Studying them helps us hopefully to avoid them, but if they must be fought, studying old wars might teach us the tactics necessary to minimize death and maximize results.  And I agree with Lee:  It is well that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it.

Out The Kitchen Window

Some of the animals we see out of our kitchen window:

I know this is a bit cloudy looking, but focus for a second.  It's not THAT bad.  They don't have double- pane windows here; they have double WINDOWS and a window screen.  Doesn't make for good picture taking, but we've never seen birds as skittish as these Virginia birds.  Out the window is about as good as I can manage.  The view out the living room window is better because there's no screen.

This, of course, is a he-Cardinal.

And this is the she-Cardinal.  Men are always such show-offs!  But she really is pretty if you'll look closely.

These guys must be lookin' at the same thing!

Ah, ha!  They're lookin' at that BEAR!

Who happens to be in the same field as these deer! (He would be in the bottom right-hand corner...)

But animals aren't the only beautiful things about Virginia.  I love the cattails in the center of the photo.

The view from Skyline Drive is really pretty:

And this chilly sunset probably looks good to our Texas family:

The Vortex Expands

Ok.  The first battle at Fredericksburg was December, 1862, Lee against Burnside

The next battle was five months later, April 27 - May 6, 1863, Lee against Hooker.  It was actually a dual attack at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.  I suppose it's referred to only as Chancellorsville so as not to confuse folks with the first battle.

Union General Sedgwick DID take the stone wall on Sunken Road at Fredericksburg this time - only to have it taken back by the rebels pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, 10 miles west, Lee discovered Hooker's main force trying to advance in the area around Chancellorsville.  Now, just because a name ends in "ville" doesn't mean it's a village.  Chancellorsville was actually nothing more than a huge home at a crossroad.

Those Southern ladies stood on their balcony throwing verbal misery at Hooker and the Union army that was taking over their home.  Ultimately, the house would burn down and those same ladies would be begging those same Union soldiers to save them - and they did.

Everyone was jubilant about Hooker's plan - so much so that Lincoln tried to moderate feelings by saying, "The hen is the wisest of all creation animals - she doesn't cackle until after she's laid her egg."

Lee realized Hooker's weak spot was his right flank.  So, Lee sent one of his favorite general's, "Stonewall" Jackson, meandering in the dark (but very, very quickly in the dark) down 12 miles of skinny backroads to strike at that Achille's heel.  (Does everyone know why it's called an Achille's heel?  Check your mythology.)


In the dark, Jackson came upon some other Confederates and was shot by friendly fire.  His arm was amputated and buried there (a shrine was built over the spot ) (eeew), and Jackson died shortly thereafter from pneumonia from the injury and surgery.  Lee won a great victory because of Jackson's late night ride, but lost a great general in the process.

These back to back victories propelled Lee to the North in June to a little town called Gettysburg...

Drafts and Posts

Hmmm.  I wrote "Lee's Hill" as a draft a couple of days ago, and then wrote and posted "Advertising" and "Ben and Jerry's."  Today, when I posted "Lee's Hill" it shows up BELOW the other two.  Goofy!

So, I hope those of you who receive an email every time I post noticed the newest post even though it was drafted a couple of days ago.  Confused?  Me, too.

Advertising

I'm blogging anyway; why not check out the AdSense thingy and see if I can make a buck?  Who knows, I might make enough to replace this ancient eight year old laptop...

It's terribly confusing, and I just don't know if it's gonna be worth the headaches.  Oh, well.  Why not.

So, step by step I've eased (no, wrong word - there has been NOTHING easy about trudging and fighting my way thorough this nightmare maze of how-to!)  So, again, step by cautious step I've made it far enough to actually get ads on the blog.

Today, SURPRISE, AdSense has placed an ad on our blog from J&R!!  John has been buying his camera equipment and electronics from J&R for 30 years - since way before the internet.  He used to subscribe to all kinds of tech magazines - again, before COMPUTERS!  and he buys mostly from J&R.

I feel much more comfortable about the AdSense thing now ... but I still can't figure out half of way they are trying to teach me on the "simple" how-to's  Must be a geek writing for them.  They need a blogger doing the writing, someone who doesn't talk tech.

But I'm so proud to have J&R on our blog!  Thanks, AdSense!

Now, if I could just figure out how to tell them where to send my check ...

My First Ever Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream

Hey!  We're from Texas.  We have Blue Bell Ice Cream; who needs Ben and Jerry's?

I can tell you that the selection of ice cream on Kauai was terrible.  That's strange.  You'd think in the tropics any and all brands of ice cream would be a big seller!  I was so looking forward to getting back for some great ice cream.  Unfortunately, we were only in Texas a week, never had a chance to get to the store, and there is no Blue Bell in Virginia.

All of this is probably good for my diet/waist/behind/befront/behemoth.

So, while in Fredericksburg overnight, John went to get us something for supper.  He pulled into a Wendy's and it was no longer a Wendy's.  He went for pizza and the line was a mile long.  By this time I had sent him a text asking that he stop at a drugstore and get some eyedrops.  He passed an freezer on the way to the checkout with the eyedrops and saw Ben and Jerry's.

Yup.  He picked up a pint of Strawberry Cheesecake - for a terribly high price - and that was our supper.  No spoons to be had, but I had bought a package of four metal forks (4 for a dollar - not classy, but better than plastic) a few weeks ago for a to-go meal we'd bought on one of our trips.  After washing them up I wrapped them in a ziplock baggie and put them in the pocket of the car.  John went to the car and got them, and we ate our Ben and Jerry's with forks.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.  Now I am a Ben and Jerry's fan, too!  (John bought it, so he can't complain about my behindy thing - but the price of Ben and Jerry's should keep it under control...)  But I still love Blue Bell best.

Lee's Hill

Back across the Rappahannock River on even higher ground that Marye's Heights at a place once known as Telegraph Hill, we find Robert E. Lee's headquarters.  Not much here but a three-sided shed with interpretive boards.  The view of the whole battle area is spectacular - especially after some of Lee's men chopped down a few trees.  Wish I had my binoculars with me.

This is where Lee stood when he said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it," as he watched the slaughter at the Sunken Road. He was probably talking with his fellow generals when he said it.

Top left is "Jeb" Stuart, below him is "Stonewall" Jackson.  The other two "attended" Lee throughout the battle, Lee's "Old War Horse" James Longstreet and William Pendleton.  Before the war, Pendleton was an Episcopal minister.  After the war, Robert E. Lee attended Pendleton's church in Lexington.

Stuart and Jackson were killed in action during the Civil War; Longstreet was one of a very few generals to live into the 20th century, dying in 1904.

Lee was very nearly killed here - twice!  Once, a cannon firing it's thirty-ninth time blew up right beside Lee, and another time a Union shell landed in the earthworks next to Lee.

The interpretive sign right in front of me (yes, that's me in the top photo) shows the whole battle as seen from Lee's headquarters:

Notice top center the circle with a "v" underneath it.  That represents where a Union hot-air observation balloon was located!  I think that is really cool.  Below and to the left is Chatham Manor, the dark lines crossing the Rappahannock represent pontoon bridges, and you can easily see the open space marked by the arrow that Union troops had to cross in an attempt to take the Sunken Road.

Chatham Manor

So, you cross the Rappahannock River bridge (remembering that it certainly wasn't THIS high back in 1862!) beside the Old Stone Warehouse, and look to your left for Chatham Manor.

This enormous home (even by today's standards) was built by William Fitzhugh in the same time frame as the Stone Warehouse - started in 1768 and finished in 1771.

William and Ann Randolph Fitzhugh

(This is free: At about the same time, Austrian Marie Antoinette married the guy who was to become King Louis XVI.  The resulting French Revolution followed the American Revolution.)

The home is something like 180 feet long, containing only ten rooms, possibly because it is only one room deep (all the better to circulate air on a hot summers evening.)

After the American Revolution, Major Churchill Jones, a former officer in the Continental Army, purchased the plantation in 1806 for $20,000.  By the time the Civil War came to Chatham Manor this structure was almost 100 years old.  It was now owned by the Lacy's:

Interesting how the Fitzhugh's portraits are in color and the Lacy's are black and white.  That's because the Fitzhughs' was painted and the Lacys' was photographed!  (I figured that out all by myself!)


No battle was fought here in 1862, but it served as Union headquarters for Burnside and as a hospital for his troops during Union attempts to capture Fredericksburg.  The Lacy family was turned out and the home used in whatever manner the Union army wanted - up to and including using some of the rooms as stables for officer's horses.  Between the blood of soldiers and the poo of horses I would say some SERIOUS damage was done to the floors of this home!

I wonder if they knew that one of those rooms was used by George Washington himself as a bedroom?! and later Thomas Jefferson.  Oh, yeah.  Abraham Lincoln slept here, too.  No, really!  It is the only home in which three United States presidents slept (excluding the White House - but not even George Washington slept there.)

It stands to reason that Washington was a visitor here because he grew up just down the road on Ferry Farm.  Let's see if you can follow this:  Washington's step-grandson and adopted heir, George Washington Parke Custis, married Fitzhugh's daughter, Molly.  THEIR daughter married Robert E. Lee!  Seems it was a very small world back then.

Do you know who Clara Barton is?  The founder of the American Red Cross.  She worked and slept here during the Union occupation, as did a "Dr. Quinn" kinda woman, and American poet laureate Walt Whitman whose brother was wounded at Fredericksburg.  I'm thinkin' I remember Lafayette was here also, which is believable since he and Washington were good buddies.

The trees around the home today are enormously tall and one has to wonder if any were around during the Civil War.  A lot of them are oak trees, and they do live a long, long time.  I was surprised to find, however, this sign:

Catalpa trees here during the Civil War

Poor feller LOOKS like he's been there since the Civil War!  But I truly, truly did not know that Catalpa trees lived that long.  I love Catalpa trees; they grow really fast (nearly a foot a year), have HUGE heart-shaped leaves and almost hydrangea-size flowers in the spring, and they get worms in the summer that make the BEST fish-bait!  But live 150 years?  Now, THAT is cool to know!

Back to the First Battle of Fredericksburg

So, the Union army under Burnside has massed on the north side of the Rappahannock River (sans pontoon boats for the bridge), and Lee is massing what troops he has on the south side.  Lee tells all 6,000 residents of Fredericksburg to evacuate immediately (not realizing he has 17 days before the bridge attempt) and to evacuate essentially with just the shirts on their backs.

The Confederates confiscate all animals for military use meaning the people of Fredericksburg must walk out.  Women can be seen carrying a Bible and toothbrush in one hand and a chicken and bag of flour in the other.  Children have maybe only their favorite toy.  It's mid-December, folks, and there's snow on the ground.  How far can these people go on foot in the snow?  How long will they be gone?  What will they come back to?

There are SO many books on the military battles of the Civil War (and all wars!), but how many are written on the trials people get caught up in during war?  Hmmm.  Guess my favorite one that comes to mind is the movie,  "Shenandoah" with Jimmy Stewart.  I know, "Gone With the Wind."  I suppose similar stories abound in Europe after World Wars I and II, but I don't know of them.  And I'm finding the Fredericksburg exodus almost a footnote - nothing about what they did for 2-3 weeks for shelter.  Food had to have been a REAL problem because Lee's army ate everything in its path on their way TO Fredericksburg.

When the families left, the armies moved into the town and made like urban warfare - house to house, alley to alley.  Both sides looted as they moved (just a souvenir here and there), but they also tossed furniture and pianos and artwork out into the streets and set them afire.  (Why?) 

You can see the town behind the Union army now.  That's pretty much fine with Lee.  He's drawn the Union into his trap.  (It's a shame the Sunken Road wasn't next to the river and the town way back.)  So for a couple of days the battle rages, but eventually Burnside's men (what's left of them) are pushed back across the river, and the people are allowed back into town.

It has been completely trashed, torched, bombed out and torn down - courtesy of BOTH armies.  The folks left with nothing and came back to even less.  War may be noble, but it ain't pretty. 

At least the Stone Warehouse is still standing.  It was almost 100 years old when the Civil War came a callin', and here we are 150 years past that, and it's still here.  Remarkable.  (Ever think about that word?  Means "worthy of being, or likely to be, noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary."  There's another word to think on:  extraordinary.  Extra-ordinary)  Yup, the Stone Warehouse is remarkably extraordinary!

The Old Stone Warehouse

It's one block off of main street in old downtown Fredericksburg.  We had decided to to walk out onto the bridge over the Rappahannock to see if there would be a good photo op:

Not bad.  Lest you look at this and say, "What was so hard about building a pontoon bridge over this puddle," the land you see on the left is actually an island.  The widest part of the river is on the other side.  Yeah, definitely a call for LOTS of pontoons...

On the way back I notice a cool lookin' building on the left:

Notice, from the back, it's three stories high plus the attic.  When I got perfectly even with the back wall I could see it was bowed out considerably, but it looked solid enough.  However, look at it from the front - it's one story high.

This I've got to figure out, so we go inside.  What a treasure we find!

The story goes, this was built around 1770 as a warehouse.  It's right on the river which makes off-loading supplies super easy.  It is not only built of stone, but the roof is made of slate shingles - essentially ROCK shingles - so it is going to be next to impossible to burn - good plan for a warehouse, but also a good way to survive a war.  Ah, but what about a direct hit from cannon?  Check this out:

You can see where a cannonball came in through the attic, dropped through the wood flooring of each story, all the way down to the brick basement floor and blew a hole in the bricks - but that's all it did! 

You can see from the basement photo that they've been excavating layers of mud that was brought in through many floods in the past 240 years.  (There's a clue here to the number of stories front and back.) The artifacts that they recovered are upstairs in display cases.  Nothing phenomenal, but pretty cool nonetheless.

(Remember, you can click on the picture, and it should enlarge.)  

The top photo of artifacts shows a solid 16-pound cannonball like the one that came through the attic, and it shows an exploded shell filled with shrapnel (marble-size pieces of iron) intended to, well, do what shrapnel does!  (Did you know shrapnel got its name from its inventor, Henry Shrapnel?  He was a British artillery officer and invented the exploding cannonball in 1784.  Ah, the trivia I impart...)  So, anyway, the Rappahannock River continues to give up artifacts to this day - because there is so very much TO give up.

Back to the mystery of one-story vs. four stories...  It seems that every time the river floods and washes out the bridge, the city of Fredericksburg builds the new bridge higher.  Well, every time the bridge got higher, the city had to raise the road just as high, thus covering up all but the highest level of the front of the warehouse.  What was the third floor is now the first floor!

This is what I would call a very "raw" tourist stop - and one of my favorite kind.  It's only open May through mid-December because the guy who finally convinced the city to lease it to him is a "snowbird."  (He goes south for the winter.)

One thing that he did have that I have never seen before is known as an 1899 "Black Eagle" silver-certificate dollar.  It's also called a "horse blanket" because it's 25% larger than our bills today. That's what caught my eye - it's size.

I'm having computer trouble today and can't manage to flip this photo, but you can see the "black eagle."  The owner had a price tag of $195.00 - but an Internet search shows one in pristine condition going for $30,000 !!  If I had the $195 to spare I would have bought it because it is the most unique piece of currency I've seen since the $20 gold piece.  If this computer keeps acting up I'm gonna buy something a lot more useful than old currency and put THIS thing in an artifact case somewhere!

The Vortex of the Civil War

Wow!  Over a period of 18 months, within a radius of 17 square miles, (how do you do a radius squared?) there were four MAJOR battles fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia resulting in over 100,000 deaths.  The immense amount of fighting here is why this area has become known as the "vortex of the Civil War."

Robert E. Lee famously said, "It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it." 
Amen and amen!

A vortex is something that tends to suck things to the center of the circle.  Because of Fredericksburg's location halfway between the capital of the Union and the capital of the Confederacy, Fredericksburg repeatedly drew war to itself.  When all was said and done, it took the people and city over 100 years to recover from the devastation - and they were guilty of simple geography.

On December 11, 1862 it started.  The Union Army of the Potomac under General Burnside accomplished a pontoon bridge crossing of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg.  It would have been a military coup except for the fact that the pontoon boats that they were going to use to create the bridge were two weeks late, allowing Lee's Confederates time to reinforce.  As the Union engineers attempted to build the bridge, Mississippi sharp-shooters began to pick off the troops.  Burnside finally decided that they needed to send a few troops over by boat to clear out the sharp-shooters so the engineers could complete the bridge.  This would result in the establishment of the first beachead under fire in American history.  By the end of the day, they had managed to cross and take the city, but at a terrible loss of men.

December 13th, Burnside's plan was to continue his diversion in Fredericksburg in order to allow the other end of his battle plan under "Stonewall" Jackson a better chance of success - in essence, sacrificing those fighting in Fredericksburg.  He had no idea what the magnitude of that sacrifice would be.  By the end of the day, after the Union forces attempted FORTEEN different assaults by eighteen brigades on what was to become known as the Sunken Road and Marye's Heights, 17,000 Union and 5,000 Confederate soldiers would lay dead or dying.  Some "diversion."  That's over 1,000 men an hour.

Union troops were attempting to move the Confederates completely out of Fredericksburg.  The Confederates took positions here on the left of the Sunken Road as John so ably demonstrates:

For 900 hundred yards in front of John, the length of nine football fields, there are open fields - no buildings, no trees, nothing.  The Union soldiers are told to approach the Sunken Road in three waves in hopes each successive wave would reach closer and closer to the Confederates and ultimately be able to breach their line.  Marching shoulder to shoulder, the men attempted this plan FOURTEEN separate times throughout the day, and the very best they were able to do was reach within 50 yards of the wall.  (What's that old addage?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity?  THIS was insanity!  Oh, no.  It was a diversion.)

Do you know what's even crazier than that?  A whole lot of the Confederates that were killed were killed by friendly fire!  That's right, the Rebs up the hill behind John were shooting down in the direction of Union troops but ended up shooting their own.  Three times the men in the Sunken Road sent messengers up the hill to Marye's Heights telling them to adjust their fire, and ultimately to stop firing altogether, but it never did much good.

Are these things the definition of "fog of war"...

Check out all of the white bullet chinks on Brompton, the home at the top of Marye's Heights:

And the bullet holes still visible on the INTERIOR of the Innis house down on the Sunken Road:

Sorry for the quality of this photo; it was taken through a dusty window with the glare of the setting sun behind me reflecting on the glass.  It was a pretty little house:

But there are bullet holes in the siding around the doorway and other places on this side - from the Confederates up on the Heights.  The Union army was approaching from the OTHER side of the house.

The location of this house on the Sunken Road is easily seen on the very first of this series of pictures.

On December 15th, Burnside, because of the loss of so many troops, began to pull his troops back across the Rappahannock.  All of the blood, sweat, tears, death and destruction for NOTHING.  No ground gained.  No closer to the end of the war.  Tell me again why mankind does this ?

Oh, no! I'm getting a lump of coal!

So, John had us out the door in a heartbeat this morning.  I hardly had time to grab a cup of tea to go.  He said not to worry, we'll stop for a sausage biscuit.

We're tootlin' down the highway, and I see a Dunkin Donuts.  I haven't had Dunkin' Donuts in years!  John quickly pulls in and while he goes next door to Bojangles for the sausage biscuits, I go into the convenience store for the donuts.

At the counter, as I pay, I'm telling the clerk how long it's been since I caved to Dunkin.  "It's okay to be bad once in while," she says.  And I say, "I suppose if you've been good for years..."

We're back in the car, turning Miss GPS back on, settling the cups in their holders, seat belts on, radio on for Christmas cheer... John backs out, I'm unwrapping the biscuits, looking forward to the sinful donuts...

And it hits me!  It's Christmas and I have just publicly confessed to BEING BAD!

Tomorrow

Well, we had contemplated going back to Gettysburg for a three day weekend, but we ultimately decided it would require a hotel room and meals out, so we've opted for going to a new Civil War location: Fredericksburg, Virginia.  It was (is) 50 miles south of Washington, D.C. and 50 miles north of Richmond, Virginia (then the capital of the Confederate States of America).  That would be a very strategic location for either the Union or the rebels!  The Fredericksburg battle actually took place December 11-15 in 1862 , so our timing is pretty good!

There are several battlefields in the area:

Click on the map and it will enlarge.

And so, at the crack of dawn tomorrow we will be off to this area.  There are museums, etc., on everything from the Indians to the Civil War to daily life in the 1700's and during the Civil War, even a temporary exhibit honoring the tenth anniversary of 9-11.  It will be a long and busy day - and, who knows, we may even spend the night!


Wait'll you hear how Grant "wept" over what took place in the Wilderness Battlefield.  John was reading about it just last weekend in his Borders-going-out-of-business-on-sale Civil War book.

Count Down!

Nope, not a countdown to Christmas; it's a countdown to our moving on from Danville. 

About a month out from the end of a contract we start putting feelers out for a new assignment.  Usually it takes at least a few days - especially this time of year - before we get any feedback.  We've requested a location that would take us closer to Flagstaff, Arizona where John wants to get some CEU's come March.  He needs them to renew his Registry next year.

By the end of the day, we were notified of a possible opportunity and to expect a phone interview some time in the next few days.  John may interview for three or four locations before he decides which one he wants to accept.  We've asked for at least a few days to touch base in Texas, but if it conflicts with the facilities timeframe we can just go straight to the new gig from here.

I'll start cooking meals based on what's in the freezer and buying minimum quantities of things, especially refrigerated foods.  It's amazing how long two people can eat off of a freezer full of food.  The pantry leftovers and staples (flour, sugar, cornmeal, etc.) will pack up into totes easily.  Clothes into suitcases, bathroom essentials into a tote, electronics into a tote and we are good to go!

We will have been here five months.  We've seen a ton of things - including groundhogs, deer, and a BEAR!  Hopefully we'll see a beautiful snowfall before we leave. It usually snows a time or two in Texas each winter, but last year we were in Hawaii, so it' been awhile since we've seen it.

Snow or no, we'll be moving on.  Hope you don't mind if I take you with us!

Reader Comments About Our Christmas Wish

I heard from an old friend after he read the "Christmas Wish" posting.  He's a songwriter, and wrote and recorded a Country song last year about Christmas.  He said it wasn't a merry Christmas song.  You can listen to it and give both of us some feedback.  Click on the last song on the list.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~oldator/demos.html

I considered not sharing his song with you - didn't want to burst the ol' Christmas joy.  But then I realized that there are some of us that won't have that fairy tale ending to Christmas, and this just might help someone through those sad times.

There are verses in Chapter 3 of the Bible book, Ecclesiastes:

There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven -- 

A time to give birth and a time to die; 

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

A time to kill and a time to heal;

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up as lost;

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak.

A time to love (people) and a time to hate (sin);

A time to war and a time for peace.

This is a pretty comprehensive list of compare-and-contrast good times versus bad times.  I believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, that He is omnipotent and omnipresent. Therefore, I believe that God knows our needs in our good times and our bad, before, during, and after they happen.  

Sometimes people are with you, but ALWAYS God is there.  It is your choice to acknowledge Him or to ignore Him, but He IS there.  The best way I have ever found to communicate to people that, in times of trouble for sure, they are not alone, is through the reading of this poem:

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,

other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from

anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,

"You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life

there have only been one

set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most,

you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,

"The times when you have

seen only one set of footprints,

is when I carried you."

Mary Stevenson

Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, from original 1936 text, All rights reserved

As a Christian - and I don't say that lightly - as someone who believes Jesus was not just a teacher, but that He indeed was, is, and ever will be, the Son of God, that He was the last, ultimate blood sacrifice for my sins - and yours if you believe in Him - and that after His crucifixion, He defeated death for all eternity, walked on earth, was seen by and talked with hundreds before ascending into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God ... As a Christian, I KNOW that God has carried me through many trials - and continues to do so every day.  There is eternal hope in His plan of salvation.  In times of trouble I have a peace that surpasses understanding, peace that comes from knowing that God is the one in control (because sometimes I'M certainly not in control of the circumstances that are assailing me!) 

So, if your Christmas is full of heartache this year, please, CHOOSE to know, to believe that God cares, that God loves you and all of those around you.  Seek out a congregation of people who know the Hope of Jesus Christ, (not every church does!) open your heart to Him and them (though you might not bare your soul to the people - only Christ, or maybe the pastor) open your heart and let Christ touch your soul.  Let the healing begin.

God sent His only son to you, for you.  Celebrate His birth, His free Christmas gift to you.

Remember the Frosted Flakes and calculator.  If you open your heart to others, ten hearts will open to you.  That's as good a place as any to begin healing!