The less than 3-hour drive from Delaware to Fredericksburg, VA was uneventful and we had time to walk around the town a bit before lunch. Four civil war battles (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and the Wilderness) were fought within 17 miles of Fredericksburg so the people of Fredericksburg probably suffered more than any other area throughout the war. We determined very quickly that there was no way we could see even a small percentage of the sites in the limited time we had so decided to return to Fredericksburg on our return trip. So we headed for the NPS Park Hdqrs., which is housed in the Chatham Mansion on the heights across the river. The Mansion was used by the Union army as a command post before the Battle of Fredericksburg and as a hospital thereafter. Both Clara Barton and Walt Whitman helped with the wounded. Another 3 hour drive and we were in Durham, N.C. for the night.
Although many of our friends were questioning our judgment when we announced that we intended to leave in the middle of the day on Wednesday, February 5th when Boston and environs was in the middle of a snowstorm we had the assistance of Lexington’s weather guru, J.J. Krawczyk who studied the weather maps and suggested a 2pm departure. We brushed a considerable amount of snow off the car and ever so gingerly edged down the driveway and headed toward 95 south. It was indeed slow going on the Mass Pike but the further we travelled the less snow we encountered so by Hartford the precipitation had turned to light rain and midday through New Jersey the skies cleared. After crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge we bedded down for the night in Newark, Delaware happy to be on our way. Our winter trip this year is somewhat shortened because of commitments back home. Here is a map of where we are going on this trip:
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Harry Forsdick &
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