A Trip to Fredericksburg

A friend and I headed down to Fredericksburg on Saturday. It was a bright, warm sunny day. Our plan was to tour some of the battlefield, have lunch in town and head back to DC. We ended up stumbling onto something very interesting. The Brompton House and gorunds which is normally closed to the public was open on Saturday. Not only that there were park rangers to give talks about the house. There were:

... featured talks on the Battle of Marye's Heights, the use of the historic home as a hospital for Union troops and war damage done there, visitors said they came away with a whole new appreciation for history.

Like I said we just stumble on to this. Well actually, a park ranger asked, when we started the Sunken Road walking tour, if we were here for the Brompton tour we said no. He then told us about the tour and how Brompton House was normally closed to the public. We quickly got instructions on where to go for the tour.























This was one of the park rangers. He talked about how the grounds of the house was used as a hospital.























Above is the map of the Sunken Road Walking Trail. Below shows part of the stone wall part of the Confederate position during the battle.

The Brompton House

The white looking pock marks are actually damage from the battle. There are still actual bullet holes from the battle. If you look at the last picture you'll see how the house looked not long after the war.

Color Around Fredericksburg

Not all of the trees had lost their leaves. Here are a couple of examples of some of the incredible colors that were still around to see.

The Brompton Oak

Here are a few pictures of the Brompton oak tree. The last couple of pictures were taken of the wounded around the same oak tree in 1864. That was 164 years ago. And in the pictures from 1864 the tree doesn't exactly look small. My guess is that is somewhere around 200 years old.

When the battles of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville were fought the grounds of the house were used as a hospital. The wounded were brought here and treated and then waited to be transported to Washington.

Fredericksburg National Cemetery

This is the grounds of the National Cemetery at Fredericksburg. There are some 15,000 soldiers buried there. The identities of around 3,000 are known.

Squirrel in a Tree

This guy was busy having a snack as we walked around.

The Last from Fredericksburg

While walking around the town looking for a place to eat lunch, we happened upon this wonderful place. Buy one pound of fudge and get half a pound for free. Who could pass up an offer like that?

I have a third of a pound of chocolate peanut butter, a third of chocolate mint and a third of pumpkin. All very very good.



















Had a very enjoyable lunch. Then we headed back toward DC. We stopped off at Potomac Mills. Saw Morning Glory. It was pretty good in parts. But there was one too many story threads going on in the movie.

As for Potomac Mills, I don't think I have to go back any time soon. I the walkways in the mall there are way too many kiosks. That makes it hard to walk around when there a lot of people in the mall.

However, I'd have to say this was one incredibly enjoyable Saturday.