October 23
Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania
One the 23rd and 24th, we were in an area that saw several major battles spread out over several years. This part of Virginia is the bloodiest landscape in America, having seen over 100,000 casualties in an area of about 30 miles. So much happened here that I couldn’t begin to comment on it. However, the National Park Service website has a lot of good information for the Civil War buff at this site.
Up at 8, out by 9:30. I wanted to get away from the big urban mess that we were on the edge of as quickly as possible. I mapped out a serpentine route that had nothing to do with getting anywhere fast. We gassed up and took Ball’s Ford and Bethlehem roads to get to 28, which we took south to Remington, turning on to 651, paralleling the Rappahannock river. We blew past the bridge at Kelly’s Ford, but I thought better of that, so we turned around in a church parking lot, crossed the river, and continued down the south side. These were some great roads! They wound through woods and farms, rolled over gentle hills, and were covered with leaves. In many places the roads were so narrow that they didn’t even have centerlines. There were lots of bicyclists out, a sure sign that you are on some of the most scenic roads in any given area…bicyclists have good taste in roads. I missed an intended turn, but didn’t really care, so I just kept on riding, with Eric blissfully ignorant of the fact that I had only a vague idea of where we were.
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At the intersection of 610 and 3, we were at the site of Chancellorsville, which was never really a town, just an inn at a crossroads. Short jog to the west brought us to the Visitors Center, where a ranger was giving a talk about the battle. This field is special for a couple of reasons. It was here that the normally aggressive Union General “Fighting Joe” Hooker lost confidence in himself and got clobbered by a much smaller force under Lee. It was here that Stonewall Jackson made a long, fast march to flank the Union forces, through woods that were considered impenetrable, surprised the Northerners, and had a great victory. And it was here, on the evening of that same day, May 2 1863, Jackson was wounded by friendly fire while scouting his lines in the dark. He would lose his arm to the wound at 2 AM the next morning, and Lee would say “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm.” Lee’s words proved to be an omen. Six days later, Jackson died of pneumonia, his wife and infant daughter at his side. His last words: “Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees”. |
We watched a short movie and toured the museum, and were beginning to get hungry. There was nothing in the immediate area, so we headed west towards the Wilderness battlefield to find some food. We stopped at a sub place, but they were really disorganized, so we went next door to Eric’s most despised eatery. McDonalds. I was overjoyed! I love McDonalds.
After a delicious lunch (cue Eric gagging in the background), we headed up 687 to the Wilderness site, and saw sites such as Saunders Field, Ewell’s Trenches, and the site of the Widow Tapp’s house. From there we went back to the site of Chancellors Inn, and on to the intersection where Lee and Jackson had camped on the night of May 1, 1863, the night before Jackson was shot, and the last time that Lee would ever see Jackson alive. Here they planned Jackson’s long flanking march for the next day. We then rode the route followed by Jackson’s troops the next day, which had been a narrow little lane in 1863, and some of which was a small gravel road today.
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Ewell's trenches at the Wilderness. |
Path of Jackson's flanking march. |
From there we hit 613 down to Spotsylvania, where the Confederate army built a huge line of entrenchments around the top of a little knoll, with fields in front of them that the Union forces had to cross. Here the fighting was ferocious. Men were engaged in hand to hand combat in the rain for 20 hours, firing their muskets, then jabbing their bayonets through the chinks in the wooden barricade on top of the trenches, or clubbing each other to death with their gunstocks. Small arms fire was so heavy that it felled mature trees. It was in this area that Lee, attempting to direct a column of Mississippi troops, got too close to the front lines, and was spotted by Union gunners. As shot and shell boomed around them, his horse, Traveler, got spooked and reared. As Traveler boxed the air with his hoofs, a solid cannon shot passed directly beneath his belly. If he had not reared, Lee would have certainly been killed. The soldiers, aghast, began to chant “Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!” Lee’s blood was up, and he did not want to retire, he wanted to charge into battle. Finally, he said “If you will promise me to drive those people from our works, I will go back”. They promised, Lee retired, and the Mississippian fulfilled their promise. A veteran said later “I would have charged Hell itself for that old man”.
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These trenches were shoulder-deep during the battle. |
The field of fire. |
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New Jersey monument, just outside the trenches. |
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It was getting dark by the time we finished touring Spotsylvania, so we rode to Fredericksburg and took a Comfort Inn right off of I95 with a Mexican place next door.
Stats: 99 miles, maximum speed 71