Friday, June 11, 2010

What a day, from Indians to battlefields, WHEW!!!

Wow, what a day, started out in a small town called Occoquan,Va., just try spittin' that name out correctly whiles talkin' to the locals, finally had some one tell me it was pronounced "OW~CO~Kwan" meaning "at the end of the water"in the Dogue Indian language.  Walked all through the town, saw the cutes little goslings, and  even saw a dead fish, now doesn't that sound exciting,stopped at a little coffee shop housed in a 150year old house, if I could show you pictures I would show you the HUGE old coffee maker, the fireplace that can still be used and a picture of the Lady of the house when it was a Drs. house, but oh well, sorry will keep trying,I promise!
     From there we went back to Whody, ate lunch, pottied the Sassy and headed out to the Manassas National park, tired of fighting Indians we headed for a little North, South scrimmage.....We went to Manassas,Va, July, 1861, you are on Henry hill, 2 opposing infrantys , one was "Stone Wall Jackson" the other, "Gen. Barnard Bee", great name, facing off for what each side felt was right, oops back to today, sorry, did you know that the nickname "Stone Wall" came from Gen. Bee?....yep, back to the battle, Gen Bee said, when he saw Jackson on his stallion, ready to lead the charge "there is Jackson sitting there like a Stone Wall, let's move men" ,  well, coulda said a little more than that I suppose.  There were so many soldiers  on both sides, and it was not a pretty sight, cannons firing, bayonets slashing, people bleeding and dying, imagine you are in the house on the hill, in the middle of it all, you  are 85 years old, not able to get out of bed, and have no place to go.That was the dilemma facing Judith Carter Henry.  She had been asked to move, with help of course, but said no, she would be fine, and was later hit by a stray bullet and killed, lying in her own bed. She is now buried out front of the house, and was the only civilian killed here.   Our journey then took us to the "Stone House", this house was written in many of the soldiers diaries,it was used as a hospital, during 2 battles, and because it was such a beautiful house, they felt a little comfort thinking about home and when times were better. Such an incredible place, battle after battle, Union keeping the upper hand most of the time, but the Confederates kept on coming,  when we got to the Church on Sudley road, we were told that folks were inside the church or in the yard when they heard troops marching down the road, and with in minutes the men were running back to the church, wounded and dying, the church became a hospital and the alter table was used as an operating table..... As we approached the Unfinished Railroad it got worse, walking back in the woods we could see the hand dug trench ready for a railroad that never was finished due to lack of funds, but could almost see the hundreds of dead soldiers   on the banks, the one place that was really sad, was where the New York regiments were, they felt safe, being back in the trees, but didn't hear confederate soldiers  coming until it was to late, it turned out to be a slaughter, 123men killed, the greatest loss of life in any single infantry regiment in any battle of the Civil War!  There were actually 2 battles fought here, one in July 1861, and one in August 1862. The second was fought at the unfinished railroad I spoke of earlier.  As we walked the paths where these battles were fought, we tried to put ourselves there, but let me tell you folks we could not even imagine it, having never been in a battle ourselves, but we felt a sadness, to think these men fought and died for what they believed was right, and we need to do the same today!  These were proud men, willing to die for what they believed, as our men today!  Bill & I salute all of our men in uniform and say to everyone who reads this blog,"God Bless America" we are proud to be Americans!  How about you??
     Well folks, I know this was not like most of my blogs, but it is hard to joke about what went on here.  I have spoken what was in my heart!  See ya tomorrow, not sure where our path leads just yet! Prayers, Hugs & Love to all, Arlette & Bill too, and the Sassy!!
    

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