Brandy Station Battlefield

While most folks will be getting a three-day weekend, John gets four days off because it was his week to work Sunday through Thursday.  For four days he decided it would be worth it to come back to Washington, D.C.  We've taken a room outside of D.C. in Reston, Virginia and will catch the Metro into the city tomorrow morning.

On our way up, John has decided he wants to drop in on the Brandy Station Battlefield.  On one of our other wanderings around Virginia he saw a highway sign for Brandy Station, but traffic wasn't conducive to his slamming on the brakes and making a hard left.  Besides, he says I was sound asleep.  (I do that a lot when I'm not driving.  A doctor once said years ago that I have a vigilance problem.  He suggested that if I was ever on a cattle drive I should probably pass on being a night rider.  Does that give you even the tiniest clue as to how old I am???)

So we are heading for the Brandy Station Battlefield only to discover that there really wasn't a battle there.  Brandy Station is the name of the train station at the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Brandy.

The battle mostly happened on Fleetwood Hill about a quarter-mile away.

Just a few days from now, 150 years ago, almost 10,000 Rebel cavalrymen and their mounts under the command of General J.E.B. Stuart gathered here to protect the quietly arriving foot soldiers of General Robert E. Lee on their way to Gettysburg.  Stuart was somewhat of a showoff showman and wanted to put on a display of his cavalry for Lee.  (Notice the spelling of that word, c-a-v-a-l-r-y.  So-o-o many people mispronounce that word, and it just makes me nuts.  It is not cal-vary; it's cav-alry.) (Now that I've gotten THAT off my chest...)

First, close your eyes and visualize 10,000 horses all in one place at one time!!  Even MY imagination isn't that big!!  10,000 horses, 10,000 riders, add in Lee's infantry - that's a lotta livin', breathin', poopin' lives!  (Yes, poopin!)

So, Stuart wants to rehearse his little show.  He marches his 10,000 horses and men down the pike, turns them around and has them run full tilt across one poor farmers corn field back toward Brandy Station.  Not satisfied with what he saw, he marches them BACK down the road and orders them to run hell-bent-for-leather back across that cornfield yelling as only those Southern rebel-boys could yell.  By the time all of that is accomplished his men and their mounts are hot, tired and dehydrated, but Lee himself wasn't due at Brandy Station until the next day, so no big deal.

Surprise!  Here comes Lee right now!  So Stuart starts to send his men back down the road to return for a THIRD time at a dead run.  Lee, being the wiser of the two men, calls a time out and helps Stuart see the better part of wisdom.  So as to not completely undermine his General, Lee suggests to Stuart that he might want to have them calmly parade for Lee to review.  Even so, Stuart's shenanigans just might be the reason the Confederacy didn't outright win the battle that surprised them the very next day...  (The poor ol' farmer's corn field lost for sure.)

Union Major General Joseph Hooker knew the Rebs were in the Culpeper County area, but Hooker didn't know that Lee's infantry had joined them.  Hooker thought the Rebel cavalry was intent on raiding Union supply lines.  Seems to me that Stuart should have had scouts out patrolling the area instead of thrashing around corn fields, because ol' J.E.B. didn't know the Union was anywhere near!

Guess what Hooker's force consisted of?  (I know, I know:  you shouldn't end a sentence in a preposition...)  Guess what Hooker's force consisted of?  Remember what I asked you to imagine a few minutes ago?  How staggering a number that was?  Now try this:  Double it!  That's right.  Hooker had about 10,000 horses and riders, too, and 3,000 infantry.  (How on EARTH two armies of cavalry don't know that they were on opposite sides of a lil' bitty hill I will never understand...)

What resulted the next day, June 9, 1863, was the largest predominantly cavalry battle ever to take place in the Western Hemisphere!  The battle actually took place, principally, on Fleetwood Hill, but it seems there was also sporadic fighting at Beverly Ford, Kelly's Ford, St. James Church, Stevensburg, and Yew Ridge.

Hooker's men had quietly crossed the Rappahanock River and surprised the fool out of Stuart and Lee.  It became the first battle of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Posting

When I write up a new post, I try to be informative, positive, encouraging, funny...  Sometimes I don't feel any of those things, though.  No one wants to hear a whiner or a sob story, and I don't want to put my troubles onto someone else.  But, you know, after I find all those good things to say and hit the "Publish" button, I feel pretty good.  There's a lesson there...

Visitors To Our Lil' Farmhouse

It's never boring around here.  Every 15 - 20 minutes I'm up checking the windows all around the house to see who's come a callin'.

The "beard" tells me he's a Tom turkey

This is a Canadian Goose - with a Plover apparently (but not really :) sitting on his back.
 

 No beard, so she's a hen

These white-tailed deer are always hanging around - but not as much as the last time we contracted here because a neighbor cleared some land and they don't have as much cover.

 Who knew chipmunks lived here?  Not the landowner!  She's lived here most of her life and never seen one before.

Bob White Quail

Ever watchful ground hog.  We call him Danville Danny.

Tis a Black-capped Chickadee and a male Goldfinch.

This is a female and a male Goldfinch.

The deer are certainly more skittish this year than in the past - but they still come a callin'.

Zouaves

Zouaves.  Specifically Duryee's Zouaves.  From the 5th New York volunteer infantry.

No, not that old fat lady on the left!  The fancy dressed dude in the middle.  HE'S the Zouave.

(Funny how on the inside I appear to still have dark hair left, but out in the sun it all looks so white!)

My goodness, I NEVER know where history will lead me!  I've read about the Zouave's since I was a teenager and vaguely knew what they were about.  But, as usual:  surprise, surprise, surprise!

Seems America's Zouaves all began in Chicago.  It's a great story!  Ferocious shock troops, Zouave's originated with the French North African legions of Morocco and Algiers in the 1830's.  They evolved from a fiercely independent Kabyli tribe living in the rocky hills of Algeria and Morocco.

Back in the day, the French Zouave were more famous than the French Foreign Legion. By the 1850's, Napoleon had four regiments of Zouave - one assigned to his Imperial Guard!  They were all Frenchmen by then - no more Africans.  In 1855, they won immortal renown for their efforts and sacrifice in taking the earthworks of the fortress city of Sebastopol, a port on the Crimean peninsula in the Ukraine.  More than 500 Zouaves fell at Mamelon Vert taking the city by bayonet!

There was a young U.S. Army captain, George B. McClellan, who observed the colorful and exotic fighters in 1855, praised the Zouaves as "The finest light infantry that Europe can produce ... the beau-ideal of a soldier."  Hmmm.

Zouaves of the Imperial Guard earned ten crosses of the Legion of Honor and fifty Military Medals in 1859 as France duked it out with Austria over control of northern Italy.  There was even a woman who received a medal - the first ever in France.

In the 1860's France sent them over to Mexico.  Seems America was a bit distracted by a certain Civil War, and France thought they just might make some inroads into Mexico...

In 1857, Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, born in New York but now living in Chicago, happened to meet Charles Devilliers, a former member of the French Zouave. Ellsworth was beginning to make a name for himself in the Illinois state militia, and he began to ponder the advantages of putting together a Zouave unit of his own.

After a brief stint at studying law in a certain Springfield lawyers office (one Abraham Lincoln!) and establishing a life-long friendship with Lincoln, he began putting together his cadets.  He hand-picked his men and, among other things, required them to be "morally upright," abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, and then subjected them to a strict regimen of physical training.  By 1860 his U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago were being hailed as the finest militia unit in the Midwest.  He decided to put them to the test!  He created a drill competition, set out on a six-week tour that took him to twenty cities, and, when all was said and done, his Cadets knocked their socks off!

Newspapers described Ellsworth as "the most talked-of man in the country."  The New York Times noted "Their bronzed features, sharp outlines, light, wiry forms, muscular developments and spirited, active movements, give them an appearance of dashing ferocity." The Herald hailed the Zouaves' "dashing confidence and elasticity, which we do not see in any of our own companies... Every movement of the company was so splendidly precise, that a new sensation indeed was experienced." 
More importantly, Ellsworth and his men caused tons of imitators to set up their own Zouave units.

After riding with Lincoln on his inaugural train to Washington, D.C., Ellsworth went on to New York City and created a Zouave unit there.  He had the bright idea of recruiting from New York fire departments, believing those men would already be in peak physical condition.  Well, that was true, but they were a bit rough around the edges compared to Ellsworth's former cadets.  Apparently it was like trying to herd cats - wild alley cats!  Lincoln's Secretary, John Hay, described the Zouaves as "a jolly, gay set of blackguards," who "were in a pretty complete state of don't care a damn, modified by an affectionate and respectful deference to their Colonel."

The 11th New York Infantry was formed, however, and through his friendship with Lincoln, they were included in the Union's first invasion of Virginia.

On the early morning of May 24, 1861, Ellsworth and his men were searching for the Alexandria Virginia telegraph office (I guess to take down their lines of communication) when he saw a huge Secessionist banner fluttering atop a 30-foot pole on the roof of the Marshall House hotel.  He decided a game of Capture the Flag was in order, climbed to the roof, and hauled the flag down.  As they were headed back down the stairs (I always told our sons that going up was the easy part...) the innkeeper blocked their path, and shot Ellsworth through the heart. 

Ellsworth became the first Union martyr of the Civil War.  Lincoln was crushed and ordered that Ellsworth's body lie in state at the White House.  "Avenge Ellsworth!" became a battle-cry and even more Zouave units were created, one of the finest being the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryee's Zouaves."

Second Manassas

A year has passed, the winter of course spent in "winter quarters" with little or no fighting by either side.  General George McClellan is now heading up the Union forces. In April, 1862, McClellan heads south of Washington, D.C. and east of Richmond, Virginia to launch an attack on the Confederate capital.  He's pretty successful, getting to within spittin' distance, until Confederate General Joe Johnston is wounded, and Robert E. Lee takes his place at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia.

I think Lee must have invented the ol' football cheer of "Push 'em back, push 'em back, way back," because that's what he did to poor ol' McClellan's Army of the Potomac.  Those Rebels crossed the Chickahominy River and pushed them all the way back to the James River!

Now, in the meantime, Union General John Pope is gathering up his forces around the Manassas area in northern Virginia.  He's calling his guys the Army of Virginia.  (Can they manage to confuse posterity any more?  Army of Virginia, Army of Northern Virginia, First Battle of Manassas, First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Manassas...) 

As Pope is getting organized, Lee realizes McClellan is probably of little immediate threat to Richmond and sends ol' Stonewall Jackson hightailin' it back up toward the Manassas area to counter Pope.  Then Lee discovers McClellan's army is tryin' to do a sneak-back-up-the-river move to link up with Pope, so Lee gathers up General James Longstreet and they head up north to support Stonewall.

Once up there, Lee sends Stonewall on a mad dash end run around Pope's right flank, and they capture Pope's supply base at Manassas Junction.  (I told you those railroads were important.) Those Rebels have a super good time scarfin' down all that rich Yankee food and re-supplying themselves with anything and everything they need, then they burn everything else.  ('T-would do no good for it to fall back into Yankee hands, ya' know.)  There was a lot of burning of things back then, huh?

It's now August 28th, 1862.  The Yankee's are marching up the Warrenton Turnpike.  To get you reoriented, at First Manassas the combatants had to cross the Warrenton Turnpike to go from Bull Run to Henry Hill.  They were catty-wampus from each other about a mile or so.

The Warrenton Turnpike was completed in 1828 and was one of the best hard-surfaced roads in Virginia.  (Hmm.  I wonder what was meant by "hard-surfaced" back in 1828??)  If you were to stick to the road instead of taking off across the fields as the crow flies, you would have crossed the stone bridge over Bull Run, gone up to the Stone House where the Warrenton intersected the Sudley-Manassas and turned left to get up to Henry's Hill as the home was known.

It's still standing today thanks to the fact that "...the man who kept it was one of those two-faced farmers.  Secessionist at heart, but always loyal to the winning side," as a British traveler put it in 1865. 

If you look just a little above my head to the right of the door you will see a cannonball embedded in the mortar between the stones.  I studied it a bit and wondered aloud why there was no fracturing of the rocks around the impact point.  The volunteer watching over the house sheepishly said that that was manually added after the war by a later proprietor trying to capitalize on the battles that took place around here.  (The internet is not the only thing one shouldn't trust...)

Looking out the front windows you have a terrific view of the Henry's hill across the Turnpike.

Why didn't the armies do battle around the Stone House?  Geography.  It's not on high ground - and whoever holds the high ground usually wins the war.  That's not to say it was completely exempt.  During the battles a red flag flew from here indicating the Stone House was a refuge for the wounded. Some even left their initials on the upstairs floorboards - and they are still there today!

But back to the Second Battle of Manassas...

On August 28th serious, fierce fighting took place farther down the Turnpike from the Stone House at the Brawner's farm.  In just two hours, more than 7,000 casualties occurred.   Over the next two days fighting raged up and down the Warrenton Turnpike. Over those three days, 3,300 men were killed.  The Rebels won the day and were at the peak of their power to succeed.  Lee's maneuvering has been called "bold and brilliant."  His leadership here opened the door for a Rebel invasion of the north (Gettysburg in July of 1863) and an opportunity for the South to make overtures to European nations to recognize them as a new nation.

First Manassas

Yup.  There were two battles at Manassas, a year apart.  Now, Manassas is what the Rebels called the battles because they named their battles after towns.  The Union called them the battles of Bull Run because the Yankees named their battles after rivers.

Why Manassas?  Well, geography mainly.  Manassas was halfway between D.C. and the Confederate capital of Richmond.  That, and the railroad junction there making it possible to supply troops was a must-have for both sides.

In April, 1861, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  That produced 90-day wonders volunteering to get a little glory.  Why 90 days?  Why, that's all the time BOTH sides thought it would take to whip the other side!  Au contrair, mon ami!

Union General McDowell spent the first couple of months drilling and parading these guys around Washington.  Spit 'n polish, chest out, shoulders back, head up!  That's the kind of military man McDowell was.  It's now July, and time to move his troops out.  It was party time, and I mean that that was how everyone felt about this first battle only twenty-five miles from D.C.  The volunteers moseyed down the road stopping to pick blackberries and fill their canteens with fresh, cool water from lazy streams by the roadside.  But they were fixin' (as we say in Texas) to run slap-dab (as we say in Texas) into 22,000 not-so-lazy Rebels!

The civilians (and Congressmen) from Washington thought this was a grand time for a picnic while they watched those Southerners get what was coming to them, so they got all decked out in their pretty picnic clothes, packed fine baskets of yummy morsels, and joined the troops on the road.  (I have to say, the Southern ladies weren't so gauche.)

The first shots were fired at the Stone Bridge crossing of the Bull Run. ("Run" means river.)

But it was only McDowell trying to pull a diversionary tactic, and Rebel Colonel Nathan Evans very quickly figured that out.  (No dummy was he!)  So he left a few dudes at the Stone Bridge, and lit out for a blocking action on Matthews Hill.

Splitting his forces didn't give him a lot of firepower, but soon a couple of brigades joined in the effort.  Still, not enough!  Retreat!  Retreat to Henry's Hill! 

(Imagine a passel of rebels rushing up the hill behind the Henry house.)  These Rebs find Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson and his troops already there.  “There stands Jackson like a stone wall!  Rally behind the Virginians!” shouts the retreating General Barnard Bee.  Jackson will forever after be known as "Stonewall" Jackson. 

Union General McDowell grinds his army to a halt and takes time to reorganize rather than pressing the issue.  This gives the Rebels a chance to reorganize, too, though.  The rest of the afternoon the two armies play King of the Mountain.

About 4 p.m., fresh Confederate troops show up, and those 90-day wonders of McDowell's run out of steam.  They start a tidy little retreat back to D.C., but it turns into something more like hightailing it - along with those hoity-toidy civilians that came to the picnic. 

Over 60,000 men engaged in this little turf war, almost 5,000 remained - forever...  McDowell was a good officer, but he wasn't a very good general.  Abraham Lincoln fired McDowell and replaced him with General George McClellan.  Now the war would begin in earnest.

Skyline Drive

I'm suffering from allergies just now.  I don't feel real energized, so we've decided to take the lazy way today and drive for our entertainment.

Skyline Drive is 105 miles of possible wildlife viewing:  white-tailed deer, black bear, raccoons, opossum, skunk, birds, red and gray fox, beaver, river otter, mink, weasel, woodchuck, rabbit, squirrel and chipmunks and as many as 200 species of local and migratory birds.  There are overlooks and turnouts and facilities you can stop at, pull out binoculars, and look to your hearts content!  There are waterfalls large and small, too.

Skyline Drive meanders through the peaks of Shenandoah National Park, which  has one of the densest populations of black bears documented within the U.S.  They pretty well stay in the hollows and meadows of the park though.

There is very little traffic on Skyline Drive because it has very little access from adjacent roadways, and it's pretty much a highway to nowhere.  If you are a bicyclist it is absolutely perfect, and if you're a mountain biker you can take the easy, smooth, high-road for awhile and then link back up with the Appalachian Trail for more rustic scenery.

Granpa's thrilled that he's finding Dogwood trees scattered frequently throughout the roadside.  His hometown has a Dogwood celebration and parade every year, but because of all our travels he's missed it for several years in a row.  Up here on the Skyline it is just now warming up enough for the Dogwoods to bloom.  The Dogwood, of course, is both a tree and a flower, and it is the state tree of Virginia, but we love it in Texas, too.

This is the kind of view you get looking left or looking right for mile after mile after mile.  They are absolutely splendid!  In the fall, you have this panorama of greens and yellows and reds in blazing glory, through the blue haze, crowned with wonderful white clouds.

The land acquisition and road construction for Shenandoah National Park and Skyline are stories in themselves.  There is still hard feeling about some of the land-taking, and the Visitor's Centers address this in an open and honest manner.  Be sure you stop and mosey through the history they present.  It's good stuff.

Mary's Rock Tunnel (I like that name!) is maybe one of the most notable features of the road - but it, too, has its controversy.  It took three months to blast through the 600 feet of solid granite rock and 1,000 pounds of dynamite a day.  But was it an engineering necessity?  or just for show?  Regardless, almost before the last roar of dynamite drifted away cars began to pass through this tunnel.

Blue Ridge Mountains, Skyline Drive and the Appalachian Trail

Skyline Drive is closed during the winter due to the elevation resulting in frequent snow and ice.  Some of the Blue Ridge peaks of the Appalachian chain of mountains are about 5,000 feet above sea level.  They are no Rocky Mountains, but they are certainly tall enough! 

Can you imagine being Daniel Boone and being the very first white man to walk through these mountains?  He was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, moved with his folks to North Carolina when he was 15, and in 1769 discovered a path to the west through the Appalachian's where the now-states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia converge.  These woods and mountains were full of black bear back then, and there are still quite a few in them now.  (Our little farmhouse is just east of these mountains and remember we saw a black bear in our own "back yard" about 100 yards from the house.)

The Appalachian's run from the Canadian border in Maine down into Alabama.  Part of these mountains have Skyline Drive and to the south it's called the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Appalachian Trail runs along the very tippy-top of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 1,200 miles!  It's parallel to the road so you can stop and hike a bit of it if you want.  (ALWAYS take water and trail snacks.)  If you wanted to you can hike the whole 1,200 miles and tent camp.  Now there's an adventure I'd like to take if I weren't old and fat!  Then again, if I did it I probably wouldn't be fat anymore!

Lying Fallow

When we got back to Danville, Virginia this time the fields around our little farmhouse were lying fallow.  A couple of weeks later they were plowed as you see them here.

I love plowed fields.    The smell is marvelous after a rain or in the warming sunshine.  They are acres of hope.  I say hope, because farmers are the biggest gamblers there are.  They hope for enough rain - but not too much.  They hope for sunshine - but not too much.  They hope for a long growing season - maybe long enough for a bumper crop.  They hope for the market price to be right when they finally harvest.  It's all a gamble.  Farmers are brave men and women.


Next, along came parade of vehicles and a tractor.

What is that he's pulling behind the tractor?  Whatever it is, it's a new one on me...

Okay.  I guess what I'm seeing are baby tobacco plants being hand fed into those "cups," and I'm assuming they are then mechanically planted into the ground, then the wheels tuck the soil safely around the roots.  Who even thinks of these things?  How does one make a metal monster that will handle fragile roots, stems and leaves leaving behind neatly packed rows of crops? 








I'm sure they use this same type of equipment to plant a myriad of crops that are started in hot houses.  Isn't technology amazing?  I love it.  My grandfather would love it, for sure!!

Adieu, Mr. President

This is a way cool piece of artwork.  I think it shows how honorable a man George Washington was.  I think that's what's missing in the world today - the importance of a personal sense of honor.  Now everyone seems to abide by the "as long as I don't get caught" sense of honor.  "It's my intentions, not my actions, that count."  Godlessness causes that because if you believe in God you know that He is omnipotent and omnipresent.  If you believe in God, you know you're "caught" before you even do it - which goes a long way to keeping you from doing it.

Well, that's my sermon for the day...

I'll end this with "A Brief Chronology" of the Washington timeline:

1674  John Washington, great-grandfather of George, is granted land on the upper Potomac, between Little Hunting Creek and Dogue Run, which will become the Mount Vernon homesite.

1726  Augustine Washington, father of George, acquires Little Hunting Creek Plantation from his sister Mildred.

1732   George, first child of Augustine and Mary (Ball) Washington, is born at Pope's Creek Plantation on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

1735-38  and 1741  Augustine Washington is in residence at Little Hunting Creek Plantation with his young family.

1742  Augustine Washington dies.  Lawrence Washington, George's elder half brother, marries and settles at the plantation changing its name to Mount Vernon in honor of his commanding officer, Admiral Edward Vernon.

1752  Lawrence Washington dies at Mount Vernon

1754  George acquires Mount Vernon by leases from Lawrence's widow

1759  George marries Martha Dandridge Custis, widow of Daniel Parke Custis, and they settle at Mount Vernon with her two young children, John Parke and Martha Parke Custis.

1775  Washington is appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental forces.  Except for brief stops at Mount Vernon on his way to and from Yorktown in 1781, he will not be at Mount Vernon again for eight years.

1781  John Parke Custis dies; George and Martha raise her two youngest grandchildren, Eleanor Parke and George Washington Parke Custis, as their own.

1783  George resigns his military commission to Congress and retires to Mount Vernon

1787  George  presides over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

1789-97 George Washington serves as first President of the United States of America.  During this time he visits Mount Vernon 15 times.  (Remember, there was no Washington, D.C. at this time.  The government was based in New York and.)

1799 George dies and is entombed at Mount Vernon in the old family vault (Old Tomb)

1802 Martha dies and is entombed beside her husband in the old family vault (Old Tomb).  Mount Vernon passes to George's nephew, Bushrod Washington.

1829  Bushrod Washington dies, leaving Mount Vernon to his nephew, John Augustine Washington.

1831  Honoring George's Last Will and Testament, the New Tomb is constructed.  Washington, his wife Martha, and other relatives buried in the Old Tomb are re-interred in the New Tomb.

1858  The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association receives its charter from Virginia and purchases Mount Vernon from John A. Washington, Jr. 


(By the way, none of your comments appear on the blog until I have reviewed them, so if you want to contact me but NOT have it published, just say so in your comment.)

Farmhouse Flowers

For Mother's Day I thought I would share Granpa's photos of flowers around our lil' farmhouse here in Virginia.

River Cruise

Well, Granpa has been wanting for YEARS to take a cruise.  Remember, "I don't fly, and I don't float?"   Well, for Granpa, I'm willing to give this idea a shot:  A Potomac River cruise.

I've always heard that river cruises won't make you seasick because there are no "rolling" waves.  Well, this water does look pretty calm and smooth.  "Granpa, if I get seasick I will try not to say I told you so... "
The river gave almost 100% of the access to Mount Vernon is the 1700's.  Not only did it receive travelers, but the Washington's made a living transporting goods from their land by river.  Washington's fishing vessels also tied up here.  In the year 1772 alone his fisheries harvested 1.3 MILLION herring and more than 11,000 shad from the Potomac, providing food and income to the people of Mount Vernon.  The wharf was rebuilt in 1880 and restored in 1991.  It was dedicated that year by none other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain!
While we're waiting at George Washington's Mount Vernon dock, the port master points out an Osprey sitting on a nest full of eggs. That's pretty cool.

Boy, she looks like she'd take a bite out of anyone even thinking of touching her eggs - and if she doesn't, her ever-watchful partner would!

Well, back to the cruise...  Our ships name is "Miss Christin" and that portends well because one of our daughters-in-law is named "Kristin."  Close enough!  She's a calm lady, so maybe this cruise will be, too.

This is the view one might have seen in 1790 (without the white tents to the side.  There must have been a party planned - or maybe these are left over from "National Treasure - Book of Secrets.")  The cruise IS going smoothly so far.  Maybe there is something to the smooth river cruise concept...

Why, looky here, just around the corner from Mount Vernon to our left is -- Washington, D.C. and, surprise! the Washington Monument!

To the right is Fort Washington.

Neither of these things, of course, were here during George's time.  The fort wasn't built until 1809, and the Washington Monument's construction didn't begin until 1848.

I'm doing fine on this lil' cruise thing - except for being cold in the breeze, but then I'm most always cold.  I've heard the old saying, "Cold hands, warm heart," but what if you're whole body is cold?  Oh-h-h-h.  THAT's why Granpa wanted to cruise:  so I'd hug up to him!!

Just Folks at Mount Vernon

 

Back to Front

This side of Mount Vernon faces west (the camera is looking south.)  In the summer it would be a marvelous place to start the day, and, with the open air arched passageways on either side, the river breezes would pretty much keep it comfortable all day long.  It would really be quite something to live here even now!

This riverside view I suspect is what most people see and consider to be the front.  I suppose it depends on whether you arrive by land or by "sea."  And, yes, ocean-going vessels could come this far upriver because it is still tidal waters (meaning the level of the river rises and falls daily with the ocean tides.)  The high piazza provides shade for the second floor windows and encourages excellent breezes from the river to flow through both upstairs and downstairs passages.  The shutters downstairs are solid wood (for safety and to block winter winds off of the Potomac), but Washington had louvered wooden blinds to provide privacy yet allow ventilation during summer months.  These things and the draft caused by the cupola would have this place cool as a cucumber!

Anyone traveling north to south or south to north were welcomed at Mount Vernon for overnight stays or several nights at a time.  It's said that 2/3rds of the time Mount Vernon housed guests - total strangers a lot of the time.  Can you IMAGINE!?!

In the photo, on the left, notice the gentleman in the powder blue knee-length coat.  He's a costumed interpreter behaving and speaking totally in character.  Any questions asked will be answered as though it was still the late 1700's.  How fun!