Views of Virginia!

I had a very nice trip out to Alexandria, Virginia! 

Visiting Aubrey was just great!!  I took this photo of the whole NICU setup where Aubrey lives right now.

All that stuff is to take care of her.

I enjoyed seeing the apartment where John and Sara live right now.  I had not seen it before.  They live on the 2nd floor, right hand side of this building.  Members live above them and below them.

We had to stop at this yummy place!  Sort of like In and Out but only better!

A special treat for me was to visit Fredericksburg!  In the previous week I had watched a genealogy show online where a man learned that his ancestor had fought in the battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War.  They took the man there and showed him around the battle site.  Then a few days later I was wondering what was on PBS one evening and when I saw that it was Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, I decided to watch it for a few minutes.  They were telling about the battle of Fredericksburg!  So when John and Sara told me they thought we would have time for an outing on Saturday, I was very pleased when John said: We have been wanting to go to Fredericksburg.  What do you think?   I was ready to go and was not disappointed!

We stopped first at Chatham house on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg.  This was the Union headquarters and hospital during the war, but I was also interested to learn that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln had also visited the house.

It was from the back of the house that in December of 1862 the Union army launched an 8-hour bombardment which ravaged the city.

It was also from this area that they built the pontoons to aid the troops in crossing the river.

The people fled the city and the Confederate troops regrouped behind a stone wall at the bottom of Marye's Heights along the Sunken Road.  Waves of Union soldiers were killed as they approached shoulder to shoulder with their bayonets poised.  Some of the original wall still exists.  This whole area is known as the "bloodiest landscape in America."  (85,000 wounded and 15,000 killed)

It is a peaceful, beautiful spot today.

The sign by this tree says it was alive at the time of the Civil War.

Then we drove down Lee Drive through the rest of the battlefield where General Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, General George Meade and others continued the battle in which victory ultimately went to the Confederates.

I wondered why there was such a significant battle at this particular spot.  I learned that Fredericksburg was midway between the two capitals: Washington for the Union and Richmond for the Confederacy and being along an important waterway, both sides needed control to protect their capitals.  

We walked through a cemetery and my thoughts turned to the mothers and wives back at home who wished for the safe return of their sons and husbands.  Seeing a new little family just beginning back in Alexandria and the tragedy at this site for so many families made for a thoughtful afternoon.