For twelve days we traveled the "Hallowed Ground" corridor and beyond. We started our tour in Gettysburg, PA. So many monuments! The battlefield was an awesome sight to behold. We were a bit discouraged at finding multiple ghost tours at every corner near the battlefield. There are so many reclaimed areas of the battlefield that have been brought back to its original state; finding a ghost tour offer at each block took away from the incredible sacrifice that had occurred over 150 years ago. Our second stop was Leesburg, VA. We were able to take in the most unbelievable early 18th century buildings, and marveled at standing in the very spot our first president had stood to enjoy time with the Marquis de Lafayette. We decided to find smaller, remote areas to discover such as the site of the Battle of Ball's Bluff which occurred in October of 1861, we took a quick gander to The Oatland Plantation, we also found out terrific information about the multiple cavalry action in 1863 near Aldie Mill and Middleburg. We spent an entire day from sun up to sun down examining the battle ground of 1st and 2nd Manassas also known as 1st and 2nd Bull Run. From there we headed to Fredricksburg to see the battlefield and Chatham Manor; we also toured the home of Mary Washington, mother of George Washington. We tooled around Culpeper where we saw the Cedar Mountain Battlefield, and Warrenton...where we learned all about John Mosby. Our final stops included Winchester the site of many significant battles including The Battle of Cedar Creek. On the Cedar Creek battlefield we toured the Belle Grove Plantation which was originally the home of Major Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Conway Madison, sister of President James Madison. This home was occupied by Union forces at the start of the battle. We obviously took in the Battle of Antietam, or also known as Sharpsburg. This battlefield causes the most somber mood when one considers the incredible loss of life in such a short span of time. There are so many more things we could talk about regarding our travels. Feel free to give us an email if you want to learn more about what we learned on our trip!
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