on the civil war trail

yesterday we took a little road trip to fredericksburg, a town that lies between washington and richmond, along the rappahannock river.

fredericksburg, in the county of spotsylvania, became part of the white man's map when it was established in 1728 as a riverport for the shipment of tobbaco. george washington lived there from the age of 6 to 19. it was in fredericksburg that our first president chopped down the mythical yet infamous cherry tree and didn't lie about it. thomas jefferson hung out there too and drafted the "bill for establishing religious freedom" which became the basis for the first ammendment to the constitution. fredericksburg was devastated during the civil war where four huge battles resulted in the loss of over 100,000 lives. clara barton and walt whitman nursed wounded federal soldiers in a mansion across the river. and there is a huge cemetary full of dead men to attest to the glories of war. apparently the city changed hands ten times during this period and was under military rule until 1871, when it slowly started to rebuild itself.

we thought fredericksburg had a pretty cool historic district, well preserved and full of stores, eateries, and beautiful houses. there are antique shops at every turn, historic mansions, museums, taverns and an old apothecary full of horror stories. someday we might even embark on the historic tour, but yesterday we just walked around and browsed.

we ended our afternoon with a pretty bad dinner at a place called sammy t's. everything i read about it was positive, and they offered vegetarian and vegan fare. but we give it two thumbs and one big toe down. twice i had to watch dan spit out inedible portions of his pulled pork barbecue sandwich. that's what he gets for ordering pulled pork, but really, it should have been edible.

we drove home on a curvy country road in the pitch black night past historic battlefield sights under a thick rainstorm. was that mist between the trees? or the ghost of a dead civil war soldier?

(painting of a fredericksburg scene from http://www.erinmcgeeferrell.com. she seems pretty cool.)