On our way back from Petersburg, we stopped in Colonial Heights to see General Lee’s headquarters during the siege of Petersburg. Unfortunately, it was closed. But we did get to look around at the grounds.
Violet Bank was a very strategic location for Lee’s headquarters because he could easily shoot up to Richmond to confer with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. While at Violet Bank, Lee learned of the explosion that began the Battle of The Crater on July 30, 1864, and rushed to the front to direct the Confederate counterattack.
Union troops occupied Violet Bank briefly after Lee evacuated Petersburg on April 3rd, 1865.
This is the most famous tree in Colonial Heights. It is native to Virginia, called Magnolia Acuminata, commonly called a Cucumber tree. It is the second largest of it’s type in the world. It was planted in 1718. One legend says that Thomas Shore, the owner of Violet Bank, planted this tree from a slip given to him by Thomas Jefferson.
You can see how big it is by seeing GB and I in front of it. It’s so huge that there are a few visible cables lending a bit of support to the humongous branches. I hope it never has anything happen to it. It’s such an amazing tree!
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June 30th, 2009
Yesterday afternoon the weather was so nice that we decided to go on over to Battlefield Park in Petersburg, VA. We’ve been wanting to take GB for a long time, but circumstances were never quite right. We called up his Uncle David and off we went.
The Confederate Battery 5, located in close proximity to the city of Petersburg, was one of the strongest works on the original confederate defense line. It was captured by the Union army on June 15th 1864.
GB has a thing for large weaponry, so it’s no wonder that he ‘allowed’ me to photograph him in front of a cannon.
He and Uncle David got a Confederate hat and a Union hat and alternated wearing them at different stops on the driving tour.
This humongous cannon is called ‘The Dictator.’ It is a huge mortar that was used to shell Confederate batteries north of the Appomattox River. It could lob a 200 lb. shell about 2 1/2 miles.
This underground area was used to store ammo during battle.
On the tour, this was Confederate Battery 8. It was captured by black U.S. troops and renamed Fort Friend. The fort was resurfaced and served as a supporting artillery position for the duration of the siege of Petersburg.
This is one of the small cabins that were erected to shelter the soldiers during the siege.
GB is standing near actual earthworks and a rebuilt portion of the fort.
One of the Union colonels (can’t remember which) said that even the stupidest private knew that if they came upon extensive formation of earthworks that it would be almost impossible to penetrate. And you can see from the above picture why it would be so hard.
Another ammo shelter.
These ruins are what is left of the slave quarters at Taylor plantation, which is where Major General Burnside watched the battle of the Crater unfold.
From the Crater you can see the ruins peeking through the trees, which I’m sure were not there in 1864.
The plan was for Union engineers to build a tunnel under the Confederate lines, fill it up with black powder and blow open a hole wide enough to allow Union soldiers to capture the city.
Petersburg was an important city for the Union army to capture because five different railways came through Petersburg with supplies for the Confederate capital of Richmond. So if they could shut down the city of Petersburg it would essentially cut Richmond off from it’s supply and force them to flee or surrender.
The mine exploded at 4:45 a.m. creating a crater 170 feet long, 80 feet wide and 30 feet deep. Even with grass growing over top of the tunnel you can still see the effects to the land. Nine Confederate troops were blown into the air with more than 200 soldiers being instantly killed.
Union men rushed toward the gap created by the explosion, but instead of going around the crater they went into it. Additional Union forces poured into the crater until by 8:30 a.m. more than 15,000 men were trapped in the crater’s confines.
The confederate counterattack turned into a free-for-all and more than 4000 Union men were killed or wounded by the time the order was given for evacuation in what General Grant termed a “stupendous failure.”
I came here about 20 years ago when Aquagirl and Jabem were so tiny, and even then you could see a noticeable difference in the land. The crater was very discernible. But today it looks mostly like rolling hills. Erosion is taking it’s toll. When GB’s kids come here someday there may not be any way to tell what happened.
You can see the depth of the crater a bit more from this angle.
All in all, we had such a nice afternoon. And we all learned new things. Surprisingly enough, I never knew *why* they called it ‘the crater’….LOL!
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June 29th, 2009
After listening to some public school moms ranting about how the teachers didn’t teach their kids anything at school, GB came up with this analogy:
The Revolutionary School War
- The typical school system is the British, doing things their way and only their way.
- The homeschooling families are the Americans, who want fairness and quality in education.
- The moms who want the school system to stay the same and don’t want the homeschoolers rocking the boat are the Loyalists.
**GB says that he doesn’t want the British to feel offended by his statements. He made me put this in here. I told him people wouldn’t be offended, but he wants to make sure that people understand that he’s comparing the British of the 1700’s, not the current day British.
I still think he’s cute!
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June 24th, 2009
GB and I went with Gramma and Grampa to Drewry’s Bluff for a picnic. This was our way of celebrating Father’s Day with Grampa since we didn’t see him on the actual day.
It’s a good thing Grampa was with us, too. Because the audio tour for the fort was broken, but Grampa knew the whole story and even educated a few others who decided to stop by. Personally, I think he’d be a great little docent. He and my mom could dress up and tell all the folks the stories. They’d be perfect.
This guy was here to meet us and welcome us to the park.
Anyway….
From the website:
Date: May 15, 1862
Estimated Casualties: 41 total
With the fall of Yorktown, the Confederate ironclad Virginia at Norfolk was scuttled to prevent her capture. This opened the James River to Federal gunboats. On May 15, five gunboats, including the ironclads Monitor and Galena, steamed up the James to test the Richmond defenses. They encountered submerged obstacles and deadly accurate fire from the batteries at Drewry’s Bluff, which inflicted severe damage on the Galena. The Federal Navy was turned back.
According to Grampa, the obstacles in the river were boats and trees that the confederate army sunk earlier in the day to prevent passage. And as you can see from the following picture the sharp curve of the river was the perfect place to set up and wait for them to arrive and ambush them.
This cannon is pointed straight out to the river, just as it was back in 1862. Boys just love clambering all over a cannon, don’t they?
This is what is left of the earthworks that they designed for Fort Darling on top of Drewry’s Bluff.
You can read more in depth about the battle at Drewry’s Bluff at the Richmond National Battlefield site.
And this was just a cool tree that GB liked.
After we ate our picnic we headed over to the bowling alley where GB finally made the move to bowl without bumpers. And I had to bowl lefty because my shoulder is still messed up. Grampa whomped on us as usual, but we all had a great time.
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June 23rd, 2009
Our neighborhood kids have the benefit of a neighborhood Grampa. Mr. Al will take time with each child and play with them and they ALL love him. He’s in charge of all the pool games on Fourth of July, Memorial Day and any other get together that requires water fun.
This is one of his many fun games; he merely holds up a noodle that he has duck-taped together into a circle, and the kids dive through it. If the swim coaches wanted them to do this it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as it is when Mr. Al decides that it would be fun.
Sometimes the older guys want to give it a try….. That’s my dh with one of the little girls holding the noodle.
And sometimes Mr. Al gets inventive with the shape of the target! That’s GB in the water behind Mr. Al. He’d just gone through that tiny loop. All the folks in lawn chairs oohh and aahh over the kids’ attempts. It’s quite fun!
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June 21st, 2009
Having all your kids under one roof again! Aquagirl came home this weekend for Father’s Day and Jabem has been home for a week. So I finally have all my chicks under wing again. I love that.
Jabem had a poker game here the other night and the house was filled with the laughter of six young men having a ball. They even let GB sit in and watch the game; trash talking kept to a minimum, of course….LOL! I made them Jabem’s favorite cake, pistachio, and they almost ate the entire thing in one night! I was worried there would be nothing for Aquagirl when she got here. But they did leave her a nice hefty piece. 
Yesterday morning we got up and went to Kings Dominion. The weather was great, not too hot, and a nice breeze. The crowds were nice and scarce. I keep hoping that people won’t catch on to how nice it is when there are hardly any crowds. We only had to wait for two rides, and they were short waits. The other rides we just walked up and got on. We got there at 12:00 noon and we were finished by 4:30. It was awesome. My feet thanked me.
My hubby is in the red car in the back seat. This is the stunt coaster, which looks pretty tame but is actually not a bad little ride.
And this is my group on the Ricochet. Jabem and I decided to go whet our whistles while they rode this ride.
Here is a closer up shot of the same ride. Don’t they look like they are barely held in to that car?
GB found a nice relaxing spot with the big bear and was quite content off to himself…..
Until he saw that Aquagirl had picked up the camera. The child has just got to get over this aversion to being our subject. We like taking pictures and he’s just gonna have to live with it. And actually, shots like this one just crack me up!
This video is of Jabem. I took it fairly early in the afternoon and he was still sleepy. He likes to sleep really late into the afternoon. Must be nice. But he really enjoys DDRing. So this was a good way to wake that boy up! He used one token and danced for three levels/songs. He got his money’s worth, that’s for sure.
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June 20th, 2009
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