In the limited time available between home and Richmond, I was able to plan my route such that I could grab easy caches in a few new Maryland counties between Baltimore and Washington, and the do a bunch of virtuals and a webcam on the way to Richmond and in the city itself. First stop south of Washington was in Fredericksburg, where I visited a virtual cache at the top of the hill where Lee's command post was. At the site there are a few interpretive markers, and a couple of guns, including a nice large Parrott rifle.
Several miles south of Fredericksburg is the Stonewall Jackson death house shrine. This is the house which Jackson was brought to after being accidently shot by his own troops during the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. Jackson seemed to be recovering for a while, but then deteriorated and eventually succumbed to his wounds. It was a very moving thing to see the actual room and the actual bed in which he spoke his famous last words and then died.
"Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."
General George E Pickett's grave, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond VA. This cemetery has Jefferson Davis' grave, as well as other Confederate graves and markers beyond counting. An especially moving one for me was a grave of unidentified soldiers from the nearby Battle of Seven Pines. Pickett is best known as the namesake of Pickett's charge on the third day at Gettysburg (a charge better and more fairly described as the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge... but whatever...). For a lifelong Pennsylvanian, the amount and intensity of Confederate heritage in Richmond was a very interesting thing to see.
By the time the day was done, I had found 4 more caches in Maryland and my first 8 caches in Virginia. The Virginia caches included a webcam on the campus of VCU in Richmond. Webcams are extremely rare in my area, and pretty rare overall, so it was nice to be able to do that one while I was there (thanks to Ellen for the remote photo capture).
Your photo on Pickett's Grave at "Hollywood" Cemetary at Richmond is valuable as there is still much controversy as to "Pickett's Legacy" on the Civil War & his old Mexican American War Commarades, Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet that needs further historical research to know the truth. I am now working on a educational music video game called "Waldenthree Twin at Riverbend" where the game players will make a ""Geotaching" stop like you did at Richmond, VA before moving on to the destination of mythical "Waldenthree" near "Scottstown" ( modeled New Bern, NC) that Pickett's last millitary encounter for Confederacy.
ReplyDelete