DAY 3

**First of all, I highly recommend the book we have used on this journey. It is called "Kids Love to Travel and we have the Virginia version. It is broken into states and down by areas of the state. It is then in alpha order. It has been a GREAT resource. It is written by a great homeschooling family that RV fulltime.**

If you would like to start at the beginning, you can click on Day 1, Day 2.

Today we got up and tried to get out a little early, but weren't able to get out as early. We got breakfast, and went to Petersburg Battlefield.

Petersburg was great! The Ranger there was a history buff, and was quizzing the boys about all kinds of different facts and filling them with more facts. It was great as a mom and a teacher of my children, to see all these things that we have taught them to come out. The ranger was impressed that the children knew many of the questions. We spent hours there. The ranger made them junior rangers twice (forgetting that they had already done it). I had bought a passport booklet and got it stamped there. We got to see many relics from there and the kids were able to dress up also. Also for all of my homeschool mom friends, the guy back there, gave me many items. He gave me a teachers book on Petersburg, Lee retreat guides for each boy and junior ranger books for each boy, all for free. The cost was $5/car.



(Ranger speaking with the boys. He is a History "buff" and proudly took on the role as teacher to student. He also asked the boys lots and lots of questions, in which they knew 98% of the answers)

(they had clothes you could dress up with. Luke is NOT in a dress. He is in a mens shirt but that was the only thing left for him to wear after his brothers got the other items).

(I HAD to get a picture of this. Notice the last name of this piece of wood. It is Vaughn!)








We also saw an outline of a farm at Petersburg. It was the outline of the foundation of a house. Both General Grant and President Abraham Lincoln had a meeting in the house that was there. Right now there is just the outline of the foundation. There is also an indention in the ground. What was it for? A root cellar.

(the boys are standing inside the foundation of the house)

We also found out that a week ago the Pamplin Civil War Museum had closed in Petersburg.

We went from there to a Confederate Hospital location in downtown Richmond. It was cool to see the items there. It is in a house that was built in 1909 but the property is the same property as the hospital. There were 100 buildings that housed 40 soldiers each.





Then from there we drove by St. John's Church. It is the church where George Washington was and Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty, Give Me Death"
speech. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in but I did get a picture of it :o)



We then went from there to downtown Richmond. We went to the Museum of the Confederacy and First White House. *Note that was NOT in the book* Parking downtown is FREE on the weekends! Oh what fun it was, especially for my Lee and Stonewall lover. They had many many artifacts. On Stonewall, they had his gun, napsack, war Maxims, hankerchief that was used to wipe blood off of him after he was shot, a notebook that was his and his aide had it, sword, binoculars, and Commemorative metals. His aide was shot and killed and it shows the bullet. There were many others that I have pictures of. There was just SO much.

These are items from Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson:









(These are medals of honor Stonewall earned during his service in the Mexican/American War)

(This notebook was Stonewalls, but it was being carried by his aide. Gunfire had broken out (when Stonewall was shot), and notice the bullet hole in the middle of the notebook)

(This hankerchief was used to wipe the blood off of Stonewall, after he was shot. There are blood stains on it).

On Lee, there was many many items. *Note: his uniform is on a traveling exhibit called Grant and Lee and wasn't there* Traveller's saddle, his hat, boots, gun holster, bed, bedding, dishes, desk, binoculars, and many others.

(picture of Lee when we first walked into the building and museum).

(All of Lee's belongings from the Civil War.)

(His bed, bedding, hat, holster, napsack and even boots!)

(Luke was REALLY excited about this one! It is Traveller's bridle!)

(This is an enormous painting of the last meeting between Lee and Stonewall! It is HUGE!)

There were so many other interesting items from the confederacy and it is impossible to list them all. One thing that was striking was seeing a small bible from one of the soldiers. It had a bullet hole through it. Our oldest son, 15, said "I guess this brings new meaning to clinging to your Bible and religion!"

(White house of the Confederacy, where the Davis' lived for 4 years of the Civil War (after briefly being in Montgomery, AL).

(White house of the Confederacy, where the Davis' lived for 4 years of the Civil War (after briefly being in Montgomery, AL).

(Coat was Jefferson Davis')

Next we went to the White House of the Confederacy. We had already been to the First one, which is located down in Montgomery, AL, when we lived there. That was just beautiful. It was connecting with the Davis Family. Also to know that then the average house was sold for $500 and this one sold for $43,000 was amazing too. The artifacts, artwork and stories were great. Well worth the money.

**Note this next one is NOT in the book but is a must do** While we stopped, we stopped at a Barnes and Noble. While there, the girls had told us of a restaurant AND had told us of something else. Downtown Richmond is an area called Monument Avenue. There are 6 statues, but the ones that we paid particular attention to was JEB Stuart, Robert E. Lee on Traveller (by far the largest monument), Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson on Little Sorrel. They are on a street and are on "roundabouts". So we had to get out and take pictures and see them. They are free and GREAT!

(J.E.B. Stuart)

(Robert E. Lee and Traveller, by far the largest monument)

(Robert E. Lee and Traveller, by far the largest monument. Notice Luke at the botttom. That is how large it is.)

(Robert E. Lee and Traveller, by far the largest monument)

(Jefferson Davis. Surprisingly one of the smallest monuments)

(Stonewall Jackson and Little Sorrel).

(Stonewall Jackson and Little Sorrel).

We then left and went to the Richmond Battlefield Park. We only went to the National Battlefield Park. It was GREAT! You can see the ruins from where it was burned down, there was a great statue of Lincoln with his son, Tad, playing cards from John Wilkes Booth. We really enjoyed the outside. The industrial part of it.
We only had around 30 minutes, there, so we fit in as much as we can.









Tomorrow, we are leaving Richmond, to head to Falls Church, outside of DC. We will try to hit Mannasas, Fredricksburg and Charlotsville. We are packing alot in but it is so much fun!

Till tomorrow!