NEW MARKET - CEDAR CREEK - KERNSTOWN - WINCHESTER

New Market Battlefield

Day 2 of the Civil War Tour began at a fairly decent time. Nothing like waking up at 6am yesterday. We were leaving the hotel for the New Market battlefield at 9am today. I was able to wake up in enough time to shower, pack my bags up, and burn two slices of toast for breakfast. It was just a short 30 second drive to the New Market battlefield this morning. Since we had seen most of the museum and exhibits yesterday while we visited the battlefield, we just sat outside of the museum theatre and had our morning lecture while overlooking the battlefield. It was quite beautiful to see the field and be able to picture the battle unfolding as we were being told about it. After the morning lecture, we then set off to walk the battlefield on foot, just as the Confederate soldiers had, as they confronted the Union soldiers during the battle.

New Market Battlefield

We followed the lines that they made and eventually made it to the other side of the battlefield where they had met the Union soldiers and drove them away. At the top of this ridge you were able to see all of New Market. It was an amazing view of the surrounding valley. One of the reasons why the Battle of New Market was such an important key in the Valley Campaign of 1864 was that the town was located in between Massanutten Mountain and the Shenandoah River. There was no way to pass that town if the opposing side were able to occupy it. After reaching the top of the ridge,  made our way along a little trail to a spot that overlooked the Shenandoah River. The ridge was significantly raised on this side we were overlooking, so you could see for miles across the valley on the other side of the Shenandoah. After taking a brief rest from walking around the battlefield here at the river, we then continued back to the museum, and our van, to continue to the next stop on our Civil War Tour.

Cedar Creek

Our next stop was located in Middletown, VA. The Battle of Cedar Creek. We came to the visitors center and bookstore which overlooked the battlefield where the confederate army had launched a surprise attack on the union. We had our lecture for the battle there at the visitors center and then we made our way down to Cedar Creek for a few minutes. After leaving the creek, we proceeded to drive around all the roads that matched the movement of the Confederate army as the approached the Union during the surprise attack at Cedar Creek. Before we could do that, we had to make sure we got lost first. So it took us about 30 minutes to even begin our route of the Confederate army. Once we made it back to the Cedar Creek Battlefield Visitors Center, our professor decided to take us to a plantation.

Belle Grove Plantation. It was built in 1797 and was home to Major Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Conway Madison, sister of President James Madison. We were given a tour by one of the volunteers who worked there. She explained how the Battle of Cedar Creek had surrounded the plantation, and how the plantation was used at the Headquarters for Sheridan and the Confederate army. It was a very beautiful mansion and it was interesting to learn about the things that took place in and around the house. The plantation was almost fully self-sustaining in the way that they were able to have their own meat supply and vegetable supply and even their own blacksmith. Although most of the furniture that had occupied the house back in 1797 and during the civil war time period was gone, they had worked hard to restore the rooms back to looking the way they would have looked.

Belle Grove Plantation

After leaving the plantation, we headed to Kernstown. We stopped for a late lunch at a little pizza place. It was definitely a Godsend. The pizza and wings were amazing and getting some time off of my legs was almost equally amazing. After lunch we were headed to the site of the Battle of Kernstown. Here we were given the afternoon lecture and of course I was interested in it because this was the first battle that Stonewall Jackson had been known to lose. However, outnumbered, Jackson wasn't in this battle to win it, he was just there to occupy the Union's time and keep them away from Richmond. Jackson was an incredible leader for sure. I definitely get my interest for him after my Pop-Pop, Jackson was one of his favorite Civil War Generals. After leaving the battlefield site, it was time to drive around and follow the route of the soldiers during the battle at Kernstown. Wasn't much to see, just a Christmas tree farm. I doubt that was there back in the day.

Off we drove to Winchester for the evening. The plans for the night were to go to Old Town Winchester market area and hang out, look at the shops, and just have some fun. My professor didn't really take into consideration that it was a Tuesday and just about everything had closed for the evening. We went into one of the few stores that were actually open, which was a running store. As I was looking at some of the running gear, the man who seemed to own the shop asked about the Brooks that I was wearing and we continued on to talking about how I had done the Blue Ridge Marathon. It was pretty cool to talk to someone who knew about it. I walked away feeling well respected by him, it's nice to meet nice people. After leaving the running store, there were only a few more places that remained open, and those were the pubs of course. So some of the guys and I hung out there for most of the evening.  It was pretty cool to have that experience in a place that felt like pubs really belonged.

After seeing all that Old Town Winchester we were off on the road once again. Our next stop would be Gettysburg. Hello Pennsylvania. Hello Abe Lincoln.

Old Town Winchester