Summer Fever

I have heard of cabin fever and winter fever.....where, because of being cooped up in a house due to the inclement weather outside, a person just itches to get outside. But Summer Fever....that is new to me. Especially since I grew up in the Phoenix valley and you do everything in your power to not have to go outside past noon. I remember being little and being on summer break but mom waking us up early so that we could get the "Spring Cleaning" or chores or errands done in the relative cool (which when it is already 95 degrees at 7am...it is a VERY relative cool) of the morning. The afternoon was spent hibernating....dipping in the pool and then staying in the swimsuit while laying under the fan in the family room, eating Popsicles and watching "Mary Poppins" or doing some other hobby, like reading....anything that didn't involve exertion. Afternoon hibernation was the name of the game.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010. Dave's parents have visited us and Virginia has entered the hottest time of their year and being outside is pretty miserable. But is there any talk of hibernation in the Pedersen household?! NO! Dave has come down with a severe case of Summer Fever (aka The Wiggles) and is itching to get out every weekend and explore. I am all for exploring our beautiful and historic state....but would prefer these explorations not take place during the Hell that is late July and August.

In the span of the past 2 months...I have seen more battlefields than in the last 4 years combined. They are all starting to blur together. :-) A week after Dave's parents had been to visit us, we took a trip up to Northern Virginia and toured the Battle of Bull Run (as the North would call it) or Manassas (as the South would call it). This is where the first real fighting of the Civil War took place. But both sides didn't actually expect real fighting but more skirmishes than anything else. Civilians expected the same....to the extent that they positioned themselves on the hills overlooking the battle area with picnics...thinking that they would see the first and last battle of the Civil War. Unfortunately, this battle was a rude wake up call to both sides and the reality of what they were both undertaking began to finally sink in.

An amazing battlefield....stunning countryside....but I had a hard time really enjoying the experience. If you look at the picture below...you can almost see the moisture/humidity just hanging in the air. That day....it was a comfortable 115 degrees (109 degrees real temp + 46% humidity = 115 heat index). Sounds delightful, doesn't it?! :-(

And as if the heat and the oppressive humidity weren't enough to make me just miserably uncomfortable, then mother nature decided to help things along. Our Park Ranger had JUST (and I'm not kidding) told us to stay clear of the tall grasses because of chiggers and ticks when I had an instant and searing pain in my thigh on my right leg and start hopping around and hitting my leg and acting like a court jester or fool....in front of a group of about 10 other complete strangers. LOVELY! After some first aid treatment (thanks to Dave's genius outfitting of the car), I am pretty sure it was Fire Ant that bit me. The discomfort and stinging sensation lasted for a couple days after that. Grrr to Fire Ants.

The Battle of Manassas is where Stonewall Jackson earned his nickname, "Stonewall". Even the park ranger commented on how overly exaggerated the ......ummm.....physique of both Stonewall and his horse in the statue seen below are. It was rather humorous actually! I think he could have competed with Superman -- complete with a cape!

Two weeks later, Dave was itching for more battlefields. So we decided that we would do Fredericksburg (which we visited our first year here but could use a re-visit), Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. There are maps and books and rangers who will tell you that you can do all 4 in one day. Let me tell you -- you can't!!!! I'm not sure what hyperdrive system these people have but it is truly impossible! So...we contented ourselves with Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The picture below is an original section of the famous "stone wall" at the Sunken Road near Marye's Heights. The Confederate forces hunkered down below this wall and just mowed down the Union forces advancing towards them.

After leaving the battlefield and before we traveled on to Chancellorsville, we stopped by the historic home of Chatam. Built in 1768, it was a huge working plantation overlooking Fredericksburg. Washington, Jefferson, Lee, and Lincoln all visited this majestic home. In fact, the Fitzhugh's (the original owners) were the grandparents of Lee's wife. During the war, it was used as a Union hospital. The battle of Fredericksburg was a catastrophic loss for the Union and most of the 12,600 wounded soldiers were treated in this house. The poet Walt Whitman came to visit an injured family member here and commented that the pile of amputated legs and arms out by a tree was 4 feet high.

And now it is a beautiful place to visit. And that is the supreme irony of all of these battlefields. Most of these battlefields...in Virginia at least....are in the most serene and breathtakingly beautiful countryside Virginia has to offer. I stand in the fields and breathe deeply and just feel at peace. And I can hear the wind moving through the tall grass. And yet....I am standing on ground where thousands upon thousands of men ....boys....breathed their final breath. Where the sounds of guns and canons and cries and horses and death would have been just deafening. I am always so struck by this irony at every battlefield.

We journeyed on that day to Chancellorsville which probably has to be my favorite so far. So much to see, the visitor's center was fantastic, and the countryside was probably the prettiest in my opinion. This is also the battle where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded....by a small group of terrified and trigger happy Confederates who thought Jackson and his crew were Union forces. Things for Lee and the Confederate army were never quite the same after his loss.

The next week, Dave was ready to don his Explorer's hat again. So...we decided to give the Civil War a rest for a while and focus on the Revolutionary War instead. We had never actually been to the Yorktown Battlefield and decided that this was an important place to visit. After going....I think that EVERYONE should visit! It was so beautiful...even though it was hot and terribly humid the day we went...and the importance to American History is staggering.

For those of you who may have forgotten your early American history, Yorktown is practically where the Revolutionary War ended. The war -- with little skirmishes here and there -- continued for another couple years but this was the final large battle of the war....and the decisive one! The coolest part of the whole day was standing on the field in the picture below. The lane you see between the wood fences....that is the exact area where in 1781, the mighty English army....the mightiest force in the World at the time....rode to Surrender field (to the left of the fence) and laid down their arms and military flags and surrendered to the American and French forces.

With as impressive as this field, in particular, was and how cool the other battlefields were....I noticed that I just wasn't as engaged as I had been at the Civil War battlefields. These just seemed to be more....detached....more foreign to the senses. Dave suggested that maybe this was because it was not as recent as the Civil War but I knew that wasn't the reason. And then I realized what it was....it seemed more detached because all of the pictures of the battles were works of art...sketches....or drawings and not the actual photographs that are so essential to understanding the Civil War. At Chancellorsville, there is a VERY long wall that wraps around the whole display at the visitor's center that is floor to ceiling pictures of people who fought in the battle. If the picture was on a green board, they lived....if it was on a black board, they died. And below each picture was the person's story. It was an immediate connection....a wrenching of the gut to see the black boards and think of the families they left behind....and a sigh of relief to see the green boards. Those photographs make the Civil War that much more terrible....and that much more accessible than any war that had happened before...at least for me.

Two weeks later....Labor Day Weekend....the Pedersens were back on the Civil War trail. The battles of The Wilderness and Spotsylvania were on the agenda. Both of these battles happened within a 3 week time span in May of 1864 and between those 3 weeks, over 85,000 men were killed, injured, or missing. The loss of life, the stories of the absolute hell that was The Wilderness, and the loss of brilliant military minds on both sides leaves a person speechless.

Dave is still suffering from a severe case of the Wiggles....so he is currently on his way to the Eastern Shore of Virginia (which to get to, he will cross the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) for a night of camping and then a day of bird watching tomorrow. Have fun, say I! :-) Give me one more week of cooler temps and then I too will be gung-ho to explore this fantastic state of ours!!!

Oh -- and Uncle Dave (and Aunt Mary)....we have mapped out your next visit to us!!! :-) You will be so battlefield worn by the end...you won't know up from down! :-)