Virginia, Part 1

Round two for this state.... We're returning to Virginia after having last year's trip cut short due to car problems. Here's hoping this try goes more smoothly.

My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year (September 3rd), and chose to return to parts of Virginia, where they had their honeymoon. We're currently in Winchester.

Today's sights included the Belle Grove Plantation and the Cedar Creek Battlefield. Belle Grove belonged to Isaac Hite and Nelly Madison Hite (President James Madison's sister). The house was built between 1794 and 1797. Nelly died in 1802, and Hayes remarried, eventually becoming the father to no fewer than 12 children (two by Nelly, the other ten by his second wife, Ann.)

Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed inside the home, so I can't show you any interior rooms. I can, however, show the "cannonball 'ding'" one of the tour guides pointed out on the outside of the building. Belle Grove served as the headquarters for General Phil Sheridan and the Union Army during part of the battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. At least two cannonballs and a number of bullets struck the house. One of the cannon strikes is quite noticeable (in person -- it doesn't show up well on this photo, just a dark spot on the left side of the pic).

We also had a bonus event. The finals for the National Sheepdog Trials was being held today, so we had an opportunity to watch. I managed to get a couple of videos. I'm posting the one that has the whistled signals and no background noise.




Cedar Creek Battlefield consists of twelve (plus) stops along a section of Route 11. We started at the visitors' center and watched a 40-minute movie outlining the events before, during and after the battle, then picked up a guide to a driving tour and started out. The picture at right is a sign outside the Visitors' Center describing the Union Army's movements during part of the battle.

We managed to get to four of the sites listed before 1) Mom got frustrated with trying to find things, and 2) everyone decided they were hungry and wanted dinner. We were driving around a lot of back roads to find two of the sites. At left is a bridge across the creek. These areas really were on little barely-paved roads in the hills. Nice scenery, though.


We had three stops in Winchester the next day: George Washington's Office, Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters, and Abram's Delight, which is the oldest house in Winchester.

Below is Washington's Office, which he used in 1755-1756 while overseeing the construction of Fort Loudoun. The Office was originally a one-room cabin; later owners added onto the room on either side.

The fort, and the soldiers it housed, were intended to protect the people of the then-frontier from Indian raids and attacks by the French.

Winchester was where Washington got his start in surveying, politics, and military experience. He started out as an apprentice surveyor, and eventually ended up running for a seat in the House of Burgesses. He later returned to the area to build Fort Loudoun and the frontier towns.

At right is one of the cannon monuments outside the Office.

At left is Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters. The home was originally a dentist's house and office; it was later purchased by Lewis T. Moore, a friend and colleague of Jackson's, who offered the house to the general for use during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

Again, pictures are not permitted, but our tour guide left no artifact unturned during the walk through the house. She talked about each piece of furniture, the pictures, and the personal items. One room is devoted entirely to Jackson's army staff members; another to the Moore family children. She informed us that people think the children's ghosts haunt the house, causing some mischief but no real harm. She also talked about the fact that the Taylor Hotel, which served as Jackson's headquarters until Moore offered him the house, is expected to be torn down "for another parking lot."


At right is the oldest house in Winchester, known as "Abram's Delight", built in 1754 which, our tour guide pointed out, "was before we were even a country." Abraham Hollingsworth, a Quaker, came to the area, claimed the land, and built a log cabin and a mill. Years later his son Isaac built the house you see here.

Our tour guide on this was an 88-year-old woman who climbed stairs unassisted, left her cane in the Visitors' Center because she decided she didn't feel like carrying it, and was happy to learn from Mom what some of the old implements in the house were used for. (Not to mention the fact that my father's parents also had a decoration made out of human hair, like one of the pictures in an upstairs bedroom in the house.) She handed each of us a buckeye from a tree on the lawn, telling us to keep them for good luck.