Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield, 1st Regiment Artillery Monument, Chatham Manor

It was a cool day with no rain during the trip Mike and I took, today, to see three sites: the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield (yes: Court House, not Courthouse), the 1st Regiment Artillery Massachusetts Volunteers Monument (literally in a property's front yard), and Chatham Manor (read about it here; it hosted some famous people throughout history, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight D. Eisenhower). I've got a lot of images to show, but many of them are photos of signs and plaques and displays with mostly self-explanatory text, so I won't bother to caption those, and I'll leave it up to you to enlarge the images and read for yourself. In the case of landscape-style images, just click once to enlarge. For portrait-style images, click once, then right click, then select "open image in new tab" to see the image at full size. (This works for landscape images as well if the print is still too small.) Mike and I probably walked, total, close to 6.5 miles today (10.5 km), maybe more. Not much on the scale of trans-Korea walking, but not nothing, either.

Any photos of me were emailed to me by Mike. I didn't take any selfies.

Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield

about 20-25 minutes away by car from Mike's house

the Sedgwick monument

Union (blue, called "Federal") and Confederate (red) lines

According to Mike, the question of who won the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House—the Union or the Confederates—is a matter of interpretation. General Robert E. Lee (of the South, the Confederates) apparently did hold his position, but by other measures, the Union under General Ulysses S. Grant could be said to have won.

It didn't rain, but the previous day's rain had left the ground everywhere damp.

This entire area was a battleground, soaked in tragedy.

Mike emailed me this pic, plus two others.

Some of these markers and monuments are recent.

I think the original plan had been to walk the paths in the recommended order, but as time went on, we ended up walking the paths out of sequence. Mike gamely kept the narrative coherent.

The battle had been fought with a species of trench warfare. A lot of the "earthworks" remain.

a morbid passage

the battle at "the Bloody Angle" ranks up there with Antietam.

a tree that had been felled by a hail of bullets

New Jersey volunteers (for the North, of course)

Monuments to both sides can be found at the battlefield.

I'd thought this was scrap or pollution at first; it turned out to be a descendant's tribute.

walking over to the remains of the Landram House now

I joked that this was grimmer than the phrase from farm to table.

the site of the former house

one of two hearths—all that remains of the Landram House

Mike leads the way. I often lagged as I took pictures. Mike has walked these grounds dozen of times.

The area called "the Salient" got its name for sticking out as far as it did.

walking toward the McCoull House

Little remains of the McCoull House.

more redbuds

a reconstructed example of "earthwork" and barrier

A couple pictures ago, it was the "last" line.

back at the Sedgwick memorial (the Sedgwicks, as a family, are still around)

The 1st Regiment Artillery Massachusetts Volunteers monument

This monument is literally in someone's front yard. It's a big, lovely property, though.

the back of the monument

This is relevant to the battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

nice landscaping

the house across the way (nothing to do with the monument, I think)

Chatham Manor

Pronounce Chatham as "CHAT-um" or "chattim."

The house itself is currently closed to the public, but you can walk to it.

approaching the front entrance

a statue of Diana (huntress goddess), currently under maintenance

tulips abound

opening its maw like a sandworm

tantalizing

in we go

We have a lot of this sort of colonial architecture on the east coast, especially the mid-Atlantic, where I'm from.

pergola

front door

hyacinths, taking a rest

They all seem to be sleeping on the job.

laundry and another outbuilding (a modern swimming pool?)

the "witness trees" of Chatham manor (catalpas that "witnessed" the Civil War)

like gnarled, ugly Ents

moving out to the river view (the Rappahannock)

wrought-iron musical notes

The rich loved their pineapples.

what pontoons looked like in the 1800s—a section of a pontoon bridge

the final "me" pic from Mike

Unknown bodies kept being found on the property, apparently.

many a tribute to Greek mythology

Pan and his famous flute

circling back around to where we'd parked

possibly Persephone

steps with their original stone

original stone, but repaired

dogwood blossoms

azaleas

a greenhouse, greenhousing

the greenhouse's front

possibly lilacs

And that concludes today's tour. Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll be doing final prep to go back to South Korea, my second home, but slowly becoming something like my first home. It's been great to be back to see what has changed and what hasn't in the States, but I'm still not entirely sold on moving back. I'll probably write some sort of postmortem about the trip once I'm back in Seoul. I did accomplish my "mission" of acquiring a new PNC Bank debit card (and assigning it "my" US residence—Mike's place—as the billing address) and renewing my Virginia driver's license while also acquiring a REAL ID, which will be required of all US citizens travelling domestically starting in May of this year. I'm also re-registered to vote, now with a new US address.

I also got to do a lot while here: hiking along Skyline Drive; eating good food both alone and with Mike and his family, both at home and in good restos; seeing my friend and his family again; and walking some local trails. This was a productive visit. Less positively, I'm behind on a lot of my personal activities and projects (partly because I'd distracted myself by watching "The Expanse," which is flawed but engrossing), and I didn't do nearly as much strength training as I would've liked, despite bringing along elastic resistance bands. Guess I'll have to work all the harder over the coming months. Bring on the pain. I did keep my blood pressure and heart rate at a reasonable level; I have no idea how my weight is, but I suspect I gained a few pounds; as for my blood sugar, well, it's pretty fucked, so I'm going to have to survive on a combination of salads, keto food, and nothing for the next little while (ideally, for the rest of my truncated life).

Tomorrow's flight departs Dulles Airport at 7:46 p.m. I'll arrive at Dulles around 4:45 p.m. or earlier, then fly to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International, arriving at 9:50 p.m. local time, and I'll board the flight for Seoul, which will take off at 11:25 p.m. (cutting it a bit close, there!). I hope my bags will be checked all the way to Seoul, and I won't have to claim them until I reach Incheon. Re-checking them and going through passport control plus security will mean a delay (Google AI suggests all of this is likely). Well, whatever. I'll figure everything out as I go. Flying is always a bit stressful at the transfer points. Being on the plane isn't stressful unless my legs end up in an awkward position again. I'll be sure to stow my carry-on in an overhead bin this time so I can be more comfortable and sleep instead of being awakened by randomly firing nerves.

Not sure how much I'll write tomorrow; there may be something, or you may just have to enjoy my scheduled posts.