Civil War Battlefields

One of my goals for the year was to go and see some of the Civil War battlefields around Richmond, and as Diana was in Toronto this weekend, I went and saw. Drewry's Bluff, where a Confederate fort turned back an attack by Union ironclads including Monitor; Tredegar Ironworks, which made ordnance; and Cold Harbor, where Lee turned back an attack by Grant with what was described as the "highest casualties for that short a period".

I enjoyed Drewry's Bluff. You go down a side road to a little parking lot with space for perhaps ten cars, then walk about a mile through woods to the site of the fort. The earthworks are a little eroded, and some trees have grown up, but you can still see the gun emplacements and see the part of the river to the southeast, where the Federal vessels were. The bombroof and well and shot oven have collapsed with age, but you can tell where they were. There's an 8" gun sited on one of the platforms.

Tredegar felt more to me like a general ACW museum than one specifically for ordance. They did show some small arms, a few guns (i.e. cannon), and about two dozen different types of shot and shell--the flat-nosed cylinder for 6.4" Baker shot, for instance; on the other hand, I didn't see anything showing how the guns were produced. A second floor had displays showing the progress of Union forces over time, as they occupied Southern seaports, pushed up from New Orleans and down from Ohio to control the Mississippi, and then marched through Atlanta to South Carolina. I hadn't seen that sort of "area controlled over time" series of maps, and it was quite helpful.

I was a bit disappointed in Cold Harbor, but I think that's because the tour path is a loop, and I went counterclockwise. If I'd gone the other way, I'd have first seen well-defined trenches with fairly good lines of sight, and had a better feel for what was going on.  As it happened, my first view was of eroded trenches overgrown by woods, with no feel for the terrain. If I were doing it again, I'd want a map of the original battlefield, showing slopes and woods as they were at the time. The welcome center did have a good operational-level presentation, showing how Grant come down from the north, Less blocked his approach, and both lines jokeyed for position.